It is a blessed and right thing to bring your daughter and your son before the throne of grace as you have done, and to leave everything in the Lord's hands. He hears the cry of a parent, for like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. We are His children still, and because we are His own offspring He is patient with us and will not chide us for every mistake, but teaches us to walk even as a mother teaches her little ones to go, taking them by the arms.
Your prayer that He would hold their hand every step of the way is according to His own promise. There is a way of childlike trust in providential guidance which is happy indeed, when we wait upon God to know what we shall do and dare not lean upon our own understanding. And there is a principle infused in those who take God for their Guide, to avoid everything that is evil and to bow with submission to the will of God, and by that very fact we are furnished with unerring guidance. Pray that your children may be led in that way, that they may see the light and walk down the right path, not hastily nor in their own wisdom, but as those who are taught of the Lord.
You ask that they may be covered with the blood of Jesus from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet. This is the true protection of the soul. As the blood of the paschal lamb was sprinkled upon the lintel and the two doorposts, so the blood of sprinkling speaks for us before God. Yet remember that this blood first speaks for the forgiveness of sins. Little children, your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake, and little children know the Father. Your children need above all else the Spirit of God to give them new hearts and right spirits, or else they will go astray as others do. Therefore pray most of all for their salvation, that they may know Christ and trust in Him alone, for there is no other name by which we are saved. Good health and success in school are mercies to be sought, but a new heart is the greatest mercy.
For your daughter, you ask that any resentment, rebellion, hurt, anger or madness may be removed. For your son, that his behavior may get better. The Lord can gently deal with such things, for He does not sanctify children into men and women before He sanctifies them, but He sanctifies children in their own childlike way and is capable of working deep piety in them while they are yet young. Bring to Him their tempers and their sorrows and ask Him to give them wisdom, faith, patience and understanding. Teach them plainly the doctrine of the Cross, for children need the Gospel, the whole Gospel, the unadulterated Gospel, not merely to be told to be good boys and girls. Expect fruit in your children while they are children, and believe that God will save them as children.
And concerning protection from influences that would lead them astray, remember the promise that He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. This protection is personal and perpetual, but it is afforded to us in appointed ways, in the path of obedience and childlike trust. Pray therefore with the apostle's words for them, little children, let no man deceive you, and little children, keep yourselves from idols, whether they be the idols of evil company, vain show, or the toys and pictures of this world that so easily please young hearts.
Continue to pray as you have prayed, thanking Him that He hears and loves you. Leave your daughter and your son with Him who says, Behold, I and the children which God hath given me, for He acknowledges His children without shame and delights in them, and is well able to keep them.
We join our prayer with yours, that the Holy Spirit will always be with them, that He will grant them salvation, wisdom, faith, patience, understanding and health, that He will remove all bitterness and rebellion and cause them to walk in the right way, that He will keep them from evil influences and cause them to do well, and that above all the Lord Himself will always be with them, for He knows what is best for them. May you have grace to keep committing them to His keeping, and to teach them to sit at the feet of Jesus with the modesty of children ready to be instructed. Amen.
