I believe that because Scripture teaches us that God is the Sovereign Lord of the Universe. I believe praying for others is paramount because the Bible gives us example after example of people interceding on behalf of others–and of God responding. Time after time the Lord listens when His people cry out and call on His name. Jesus answers the cries of those seeking Him in the gospels. Prayer matters because the God of the Bible is real, almighty, and able.
That’s why it’s important to pray for girls. All of them. Not just your girls. Pray for the girl next door and the one at your church making poor choices too.
I love praying Scripture over my kids. After all, praying for them is one of the most important ways I can love them, and I want the things I pray for them to be Scriptural and intentional.
How to Pray for Girls
I’d like to thank Bethany House and Cross Focused Reviews for providing me with a copy of Praying for Girls in return for my honest opinion.
Teri Lynne Underwood, author of the online community Prayers for Girls, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and worship leader’s wife. She’s also the mother of a daughter. Her book Praying for Girls: Asking God for the Things They Need Most (Bethany House, 2017) is a structured approach to praying for your daughter.
I’m going to be really honest. I always hold my breath when I first open a new book on prayer. I really want to recommend books on prayer here on the site, and I’m always excited when a new one comes out. But books on prayer that aren’t written by trusted old dead guys don’t always pan out for me. Here’s why: modern books on prayer often talk about releasing God to act, speaking reality into being, positive confession, or claiming God’s promises. I can’t recommend those books.
We’re to take our concerns and requests humbly to the God of the Universe and lay them at His feet. We have an open audience before the King–how cool is that?–and we can trust that if we’re praying for His will, He will give us the desires of our hearts. We can also trust that if we’re outside His will in our desires and we belong to Him, He will change the desires of our hearts. All things are ordained by our Lord for our sanctification and for His glory. Normally I’d go through and give a bunch of Scriptural references and explain this further for you, but this post is about praying for your girls, so I don’t have space to do that here.
I was not only relieved but overjoyed to find that not once does Praying for Girls talk about confessing, claiming, or releasing anything. This is a book about praying to the Lord for our girls’ godly character. Hooray!
Five Prayers for Girls
So what should we pray for when praying for girls? When praying for girls, Teri Lynne Underwood suggests we focus on five different areas of life. She breaks each of those areas further down into four sub-areas.
When praying for your daughter, pray for:
- Her Identity
- Her Heart
- Her Mind
- Her Relationships
- Her Purpose
I agree with Mrs. Underwood. Those are incredibly important ways to pray for girls.
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How Praying for Girls is Structured
There are 23 chapters in this 205-page book. Each chapter is structured the same way (which I appreciate).
Mrs. Underwood has broken the ways we should pray for girls into a story and several biblical lessons related to each prayer focus.
Then she has a section with prayers. These prayers are a short sentence or two, with space left to add your daughter’s name. After each short prayer is the biblical reference. Here’s an example from the section on praying for Her Identity, with the sub-section Image-Bearer: “Lord, may _______ know her identity is found in You and rest in the knowledge that she is made in Your image. (Genesis 1:27)” (Praying for Girls, pg. 21)
Next, you’ll find a section title Just for Moms, which discusses a short discussion of the topic in our own lives and a longer prayer for moms to consider praying for ourselves.
Last, Mrs. Underwood has included a Girl Talk section which is broken into three sections: For Little Girls, For Middle Girls, and For Big Girls. Each section has a suggested object lesson or discussion to use with your girls.
Ways to Use Praying for Girls
I love Praying for Girls. It’s a great book, and I really enjoyed it. Here are some ways I suggest using Praying for Girls.
- Read it. It’s well-written, and you may find some great thoughts that hadn’t occurred to you. I love biblical mentorship, and reading Praying for Girls was like having coffee with a friend who spends time in the Word. I walked away from each chapter feel encouraged, with something new to consider.
- Write out the prayers. Use study cards on a binder ring, index cards, a prayer journal, or the cards and bookmarks from the Prayer Card Set for Moms. Just don’t leave the prayers sitting in the book. Pull them out and consider them throughout the day. Then use them as springboards to pray for your daughter.
- Tell your girls you’re praying for them. Leave little notes telling them what you’re praying. Pray for them before bed in the evening, and switch it up. Pray for a different focus each night. You don’t have to take your index cards into their bedrooms with you, but there’s no harm in looking them over before you go in.
- Add to the prayers Mrs. Underwood wrote. As you read through your Bible, write down new prayers for your girls as you come across a Scripture that inspires you to pray over your daughter. You can do this while you’re going through Bible Road Trip™ with your family!
- Work through the object lessons and discussions in the Girl Talk section with your family. There’s value in discussing these issues with your daughters, and you can use the suggestions in Praying for Girls verbatim, or just a spring board.
Purchase Praying for Girls
I think Praying for Girls is a valuable addition to a Christian family’s library. Don’t just leave it sitting on the shelf–use it as the tool that it is!
Praying for Girls: Asking God for the Things They Need Most
Or purchase at ChristianBook.com: Praying for Girls
Bible Resources for Your Kids
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60 Scriptures You Can Pray
The Bible is full of prayer that you can pray too!
How do you pray when you don’t know what to say? The Bible holds the answer.
God doesn’t expect us to pray without guidance. In fact, Scripture is full of examples of ordinary people approaching our extraordinary God in prayer.
Award-winning author Danika Cooley believes that praying God’s Word teaches us how to best communicate with our Lord:
“There are so many lessons we can learn from Scripture about how to approach God and what to expect when we do.”
Danika’s devotional 60 Scriptures You Can Pray covers eight types of prayer from the Bible, the expectations we should have when we pray, and the right heart attitude for prayer.
- Praise | We adore God for who he is.
- Thanksgiving | We thank God for all he has done.
- Confession | We admit our sin to the God who saves us.
- Supplication | We humbly ask God to provide for our needs.
- Intercession | We ask God to meet the needs of others.
- Deliverance | We cry out to God for help in times of trouble.
- Lament | We bring our sorrow to God, our comforter.
- Guidance | We ask for God’s help in determining his will for our lives.
When you read 60 Scriptures You Can Pray, you will:
- Develop a habit of praying daily over a two-month period
- Learn more about prayer in Scripture
- Understand eight different types of prayer
- Expand your understanding of how to pray biblically
- Become better acquainted with God, His Word, and why we pray
Packed with thoughtful explanations of biblical prayer and practical application in each devotion, 60 Scriptures You Can Pray is the tool you need to learn more about prayer–straight from God’s Word.
Want to equip the women in your church to pray biblically?
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