Praying for Boys Giveaway!

There is nothing on earth that can compare to being a mom. My two boys stole my heart before they were ever born. I would fight for them and die for them without hesitation--it's what moms do. I want nothing but the best for them. 

But there is so much about life that is out of my hands. That's why I'm passionate about praying for my boys.

I first read Brooke McGlothlin's book, Warrior Prayers, several years ago. By the time I finished, there were tear stains on many of the pages. It was an amazing resource, full of Scriptures to pray over my sons. Now, Brooke has a brand new book, Praying for Boys: Asking God for the Things They Need Most, and it's even better. I'm so excited to be a part of the launch team for this fantastic book.

I started off the new year by reading Praying for Boys and adding notes to my prayer journal. Once again, the tears flowed freely as I asked God for big things for my boys.

At the end of this post, you'll find a Rafflecopter giveaway where you can enter to win a FREE copy of Brooke's new book! First, let me share a little more about why Brooke wrote Praying for Boys:

What led you to write your book Praying For Boys?
My husband and I have two boys who were born just 23 months apart. I probably don’t need to say much more than that, do I?? That’s enough to keep any mama on her knees! Actually, I’ve done a lot of hard things that I’m very proud of in my life, but raising my boys ranks up there as THE hardest thing I’ve ever done. In the book, I talk about how I asked God to give me boys, and that’s true, but the reality of the day to day mothering of what I like to refer to as “those boys,” (you know, the ones who are 250% boy?) often leaves me completely worn out. I realized early on in our parenting journey that I had no power to change their hearts. And while everything in me wanted to be able to snap my fingers and produce good, godly men, the Bible just doesn’t give us that parenting formula. So in an effort to just do something, I started praying verses from the Bible for my sons…verses based on things I wanted to see the Lord develop in their hearts. It was my way of crying out to God to change them, but it ended up changing me, too. After a year or so of doing that, and of constantly hearing from moms on the MOB Society, my blog for mothers of boys, who wanted to raise godly men, but felt like they were losing the battle, I decided to create a resource that helped them learn how to pray for their sons. It seemed a simple answer to me at the time, but the longer I encourage moms to pray the more convinced I become that prayer is the most overlooked part of raising godly men.

So you have two young boys, you homeschool them and you oversee a popular blog as well. How do you even make time for prayer?
That’s a great question, because I’ve had people ask me even recently how I do it all. The answer is that I don’t. We’ve recently hired two Virtual Assistants to help us run things at the MOB Society, and I have a team of over 35 writers who make that community strong and consistent. I have a co-owner of the site who runs the marketing and advertising, which frees me up handle the writing team, and dream of our next big thing. And most importantly, I have a husband who serves me and loves me way better than I deserve. When I was writing Praying for Boys, and again while I’ve been preparing to launch it, he has basically taken over the household duties. The only things he doesn’t do are homeschooling our boys, and cooking. But he does everything else—laundry, cleaning, paying the bills. It’s a season we’re in, and he’s definitely stepped up to the plate for me in many ways. I couldn’t make any of this work without his heart to serve me and the boys. But even more important than having people help me, is that I’ve learned that in order to function well, I HAVE to pray. I HAVE to stay connected to the heart of God, I HAVE to hear Him leading me, I HAVE to pour out my heart to Him and beg Him to help me raise my boys, and I HAVE to petition Him to fulfill His Word in their lives. If I don’t pray, I’m useless. If I didn’t meet with the Father regularly in prayer, there’s no way I could ever live out the life He’s called me to with any kind of integrity or excellence. I’m not saying prayer is a “magic lamp” so to speak, that makes my life turn out the way I want it to, but I am saying that prayer keeps me focused on HIS plans for my life, and helps keep HIS voice as the loudest, and I just have to have that, both as an entrepreneur and as a woman trying her best to follow Jesus. If I didn’t pray, I wouldn’t want to do ministry.

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.

More About Brooke:
Brooke McGlothlin 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).

The giveaway ends Friday, January 31!

a Rafflecopter giveaway