The Best Parenting Advice I Ever Received: Praying for My Children’s Future Spouses

When I was pregnant with our oldest son, Michael, I received some of the best advice I have ever been given.

Prayer has always been a huge part of my testimony, and during that season, a wise woman encouraged me to begin praying for my son’s future spouse long before we knew who she would be.

She told me to pray for the little girl who would one day become part of our family. Pray for her parents as they raised her. Pray that God would place the right people in her life to pour into her, guide her, and love her well.

I wholeheartedly took that advice.

Fast-forward 26½ years.

My son has now been married for four years to our dear Abby, a gift from God whom I adore.

There is often such a stigma surrounding relationships with daughters-in-law, but it does not have to be that way.

Prayer changes things.

Prayer teaches us to release control, trust God with our children, and prepare our hearts to love the people He brings into our lives.

I prayed for my girls in the same way.

And God, in His kindness, has already added another precious soul to love like our own through Michael D. and Mackenzie’s marriage. I fully believe He already knows the perfect man for our Michelle too. Through the years, he has been prayed over, loved from afar, and covered in prayers he never even knew existed.

Because that is what prayer does.

Let prayer create bonds rooted in love, honor, and respect.

Because one day, if God wills it, that little boy you love may grow into a man who finds a woman to become his wife. That little girl you raise may find someone who cherishes her heart.

You were never raising children only for yourself.

You were helping shape future husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, friends, and disciples.

And when those seasons come, may love, prayer, and faith guide the way.

Marriage was always meant to create a new family unit. Scripture reminds us that, “a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Releasing our children into the families God is building is not losing them. It is trusting Him.

I am simply thankful for God’s faithfulness.

“Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay.” Ruth 1:16