I was not born in a Christian family. In fact, I don’t know anyone from my extended family that is a Christian… and today, the only ones that follow Jesus are me, my mum and my sister. How did everything turn around?

Since I was 6 months old I had a baby sitter, Fátima. She was (and is) a Christian… a very strong Christian! She was a bit shy and didn’t really talked about Jesus with my mum or dad, but there was one thing she did: she prayed for us! She prayed for us in her bedroom, in her church, and while taking me and my sister for a walk… and she gave birth to me, my mum and my sister. We were born again! Because she prayed for us, today our lives are changed, and not only our lives, but the lives of everyone else me, my sister or my mum impacted and will still impact one day. Only God can count how many people this woman, my spiritual mother, blessed because of a simple and powerful thing: prayer.

How simple is that… to bring our children (real or spiritual) before God… to stand in the gap for them when maybe no one else will… to profecy blessing over their lives! Sometimes we strive to make things happen in our kids’ lives, strive to change things by our own strength, strive to make them sit down and pay attention to whatever we are saying, and forget about praying for them… but there is nothing more powerful than just shutting up, calming down, and bringing their lives before God.

I had (and still have) problems remembering kids names… Sometimes I know a child for months, they all know my name, but I don’t know their names… it is terrible, yes. But since Hillsong Conference this year I decided to change: I started to write down the names of the kids I know, and the names of the kids I meet every weekend. After the service, I go through the list and check who was there and who wasn’t, how much time I spent with each kid and so on. Before the service I have a look and think about who I expect to be there. But the most powerful thing is what happens to this list during my week… sometimes when I am praying, I just go through the list, and pray for each child in that list… I think about them, remember the good and not so good things that are happening in their lives, and I just bring all that before God, and I know that if I care, God cares much much more! They are His children, and He actually wants them to be blessed, succeed, be empowered, be happy and transformed by Him.

As Fátima’s prayers changed my life, I know that my prayers are changing the lives of the kids I pray for. Most of the time, I have no idea what is happening because of my prayers, but I KNOW that God is moving, turning situations around and changing their lives forever! Only God can do this kind of stuff! I can’t change their lives… I can’t be with them while they are crying at night because of whatever problem they might have. But I can pray! And God will do everything to be with them, love them and impact their lives forever!

How about you? How often do you pray for your children?