Prayer & Encouragement

Praying psalms over your kids to find an oasis

March 26, 2021 • 2 min
Lisa Tyson
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I love praying Scripture over my children, and I have done it for a long time. 

The Lord has given me a specific psalm for each of my children, and their name is written next to it in my Bible. I did not plan it—I just realized as I prayed for them a particular psalm was a “go-to” for each of them. 

All of the psalms are so rich. But as I read the ones God assigned for my children, I think about their lives and personalities and strengths and areas to grow. Each of their psalms focuses on the journey of finding God, wherever you are in whatever you are doing, and following him all the days of your life until you meet him in heaven. 

Specific prayers

For my oldest, it is Psalm 23: “The Lord is Clay’s Shepherd. Clay shall not want.” For Chase, it is Psalm 121: “Chase will lift up his eyes to the hills. Where will his help come from? His help comes from the Lord.” 

Corinne did not have a particular psalm until two weeks ago. I was praying for her, and I actually heard the Lord say Psalm 84: “How lovely is your dwelling place, Oh Lord. Corinne longs, yes, faints with longing to enter the courts of the Lord.” 

The valley and the spring

She and I were sitting together, and we read her psalm in several different translations. The Bible app makes reading multiple translations so easy, and one we read was the New Living Translation. 

When we finished, she said, “I really like the verse about the valley and the springs.” 

“When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs” (Psalm 84:6 NLT). That place of “refreshing springs” is an oasis! 

I do not know about your kids, but my daughter has walked through the Valley of Weeping over the past year and needs an oasis. The “unprecedented” has taken so much from her and forced her to regroup and adjust her expectations and her activities. 

The Lord has opened new doors for her. He has also left her “standing in the hallway” where she had to wait for him to show her which door he would open next. She has been refreshed. But getting to her refreshing spring, her oasis, was a journey that is not for the faint of heart. 

The joy of the Lord

Psalm 84 ends with this verse: “O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, what a joy for those who trust in you.” 

There is joy when you reach the oasis. 

And when the joy of the Lord is your strength, there is no room for weakness on the journey—even if you pass through the Valley of Weeping. It will become a place of springs, an oasis. What a wonderful promise. 

Lisa Tyson is a Sky Ranch Camper Mom (SkyMoms) if you’d like more information about Sky Ranch Summer Camps please visit https://skyranch.org/pages/christian-parenting

About the Author:

Lisa Tyson

My name is Lisa Tyson. I am a Baylor graduate, have been married to the only man I have ever loved for the past 24 years, and we have 3 perfectly imperfect children — 20 (rising Jr. at Texas Tech), 17 (rising Senior), and 12 (rising 7th grader). Our oldest two are boys and the youngest is a sweet and spicy girl. I run my own practice as an Educational Diagnostician working with school districts to identify and serve their bilingual students while my husband works in the Operations Department for our church. I speak Spanish fluency and I love to read and scrapbook. One of my many life verses is, “She is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs without fear of the future” (Proverbs 31:25). I am far from an Insta-mazing wife and mom — we eat the same leftovers over and over, I forget every picture day, and I had to buy my middle child new socks and underwear when I packed all of his and sent them to college with his brother (in an effort to not forget anything). But one thing I do well is this: I remember that the Lord has lavished us with His grace and nothing that touches our family is by accident. So we press on and push through knowing that He has always been faithful — no matter what.

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