Praying for Boys with Brooke McGlothlin

Today my friend Brooke McGlothlin releases her new book Praying for Boys. Brooke is Co-founder of Raising Boys Media, where moms and dads come to discover delight in the chaos of raising boys. You can find her writing about fighting for the hearts of her sons at the MOB Society blog, or living a life in pursuit of Jesus at her personal blog www.brookemcglothlin.com. A normal day finds Brooke homeschooling her two boys, wrangling two large Labs, Toby and Siri, writing to bring hope to the messes of life (in the midst of her own messy life), and falling more and more in love with the man she’s had a crush on since the third grade (who just happens to be her husband).

Below is a short Q & A with Brooke about her fabulous book. I got a sneak peek at the manuscript and even the honor of endorsing the book! Here is what I had to say, “While our sons grow tall, wearing out the knees on their jeans from tumble and play, we mothers too find our fabric worn thin from kneeling in prayer for our soon-to-be men. Brooke’s practical book, full of vulnerable sharing and deeply rooted in God’s word, will become a useful tool as you seek to make prayer a priority and model for your boys just how to run hard after Jesus.”

Be sure to leave a comment on today’s post telling us about any boys you pray for. They can be sons, nephews or the rambunctious boys you teach in a class at school. One person will be chosen at random to receive a copy of Praying for Boys.

Brooke, what do you feel is the greatest obstacle moms must overcome in order to be women who make prayer for their boys a priority?

We give priority to the things we find most in important in life. For example, I’m pretty partial to eating. I get sick and grumpy very fast if I don’t eat when I’m hungry, so because of that, I tend to place a high priority on meal time. I make time for it. Some of my friends are dedicated to exercising, so they find time for it and let others things on their to-do list slide to a lesser priority status. So it is with prayer. When we know how powerful a praying life can be—not just because it allows us to join with God in shaping the hearts of our sons, but also because it keeps us connected to His heart, shaping us into the kind of parents HE wants us to be—we make time for it. So really, the greatest obstacle to overcome is how important, or unimportant, we believe prayer really is.

What has been the biggest answer to your own “mama prayers”?

I actually touched on this in Praying for Boys, although I didn’t refer to it as my big answer to prayer. We went through a very hard season with our boys during the first part of 2012. We homeschool, and my youngest son, then in Kindergarten, grew bored with his curriculum within about a month. What should have been a sweet, playful first year of school for him quickly turned into a nightmare. He would tantrum every single time I mentioned that it was time to start school. Every day was a battle, and in early November, after another horrible day, I sat down in my family room chair and told God I was giving up. I’m not sure I prayed anything more specific than, “God, what do I do? Will he EVER learn to obey? Will he EVER stop tantruming all the time?”

As I sat there, weeping and telling God, “I quit!” He dropped the memory of a Bible story into my heart. I opened my Bible, re-read the story, and God met me in a powerful way. I essentially felt like He was telling me that my boys needed someone to fight for them, and that He had chosen that person to be me. I heard Him whispering to my heart, “don’t give up on him. He needs you not to give up.” It wasn’t like God gave me a specific answer to a specific prayer. Nothing really changed about our situation. But my heart had changed. I was encouraged to keep going, and felt less like a failure and more like a fighter. That 30 minute prayer session has done more to energize me as a mom and child of God than anything else that’s happened to me since.

Praying for boys not only changes them, it changes moms too. How has it changed you?

Do you remember from grade school math that any time you change one part of an equation, it changes the answer? So for example, if you’re adding 2 + 3 and get 5, and then read the word problem again and realize you should’ve been adding 3 + 3, you can’t expect the answer to still be 5. Something changed. And when even just one thing changes, it affects everything else…changes everything else, even if just a little. Praying keeps me in the right place with God. Keeping my mind focused on the fact that He is God and I am not helps me put all of life in perspective, and it changes the way I live my days. Ultimately, spending time talking to God brings me closer to Him, and helps me know Him better. There’s no better way to be a better mom than to get to know God better, and listen to Him as He directs our paths. As we change, our families will change too.

Thanks Brooke for visiting with us today!

Now, to be entered in the giveaway, tell us about the boys you pray for.