Tag: Family

The Armor of God: How Women Can Apply This Verse to Their Life

Armor. Swords. Helmets. Warfare. All things not typically associated with being a young woman, wife, and/or a mother. But the fact of the matter is, spiritual warfare is happening and we need the armor of God to remain strong and righteous. So, what is the armor of God exactly?

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. – Ephesians 6:10-17 NIV

This verse is the foundation for the mission of this space: Using the Sword of the Spirit to Steward Daily Life Well.

I chose the Sword specifically because the Word of God, the Bible, is literally the basis to my household’s values, the foundation to my faith and is quite literally God-breathed. Without the Word, I would simply be standing on sifting sand. How I find joy would be dependent on the day’s circumstances.

Without God’s Word I am vulnerable to all kinds of temptation from the Enemy as Ephesians 6 clearly says, but I know for me specifically I am at risk of giving in to anger and frustration if I don’t have the Word of God on my heart to tame my tongue and actions. Whether a child is misbehaving, ‘my plan’ for the day is unexpectedly altered, or something doesn’t go right at work, I have no excuse to act on anger and frustration. Here’s an example of how I use the Sword of the Spirit to combat anger. If the Sword is the Word of God then I need a verse that is God’s Truth, the only Truth, to engrain into my heart and mind when I am tempted to act on anger.

I cling to this verse:

²⁶“In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, ²⁷and do not give the devil a foothold. “ – Ephesians 4:26-27 NIV

It’s important to note that being angry isn’t a sin. It’s acting on it: yelling, using harsh words, being impatient, lacking self-control, being aggressive instead of gentle – basically anything that contradicts the Fruits of the Spirit is a sin. We will talk about the Fruits of the Spirit in next week’s post.

Not being in the Word would leave me making decisions based on the “knowledge” of man and that is simply not knowledge at all.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10 NIV

I hope this post encourages you to study God’s Word more in order to better steward the gifts of speech, time, your household, your community, and more.

May 16, 2025
Part 2: Praying for (and with) Littles
If you’re new here, you can read the mission of this blog, Part I of this blog series on praying for littles, and the resources we use for prayer in the previous blog posts.

Let’s take a look at my average ‘Day in the (Prayer) Life’ as a mom of two.

Morning

6:00 AM – 6:30 AM: My boys typically wake up this early. My oldest especially has always been an early riser. I have learned to find joy in this. I try to get up at 5:30 AM because I do like to have some Bible reading done in quiet. But when the boys get up, we break out their Bible and read from there. Typically my oldest always likes to read about David and Goliath and then we usually go over to the Psalms and Proverbs. I have found that these books are great to start out with for younger kids because they are easier verses to memorize.

7:30 AM – Breakfast Time: We either have kids worship music on like Listener Kids, The Wonder Kids or we have Bible Stories for Kids on. Sometimes we don’t. But we do pray for each other and bless the food we are about to eat at each meal. Breakfast time is the meal time that I feel like my kids are the sharpest and most attentive so this is a good scripture memory time. One of my favorite memories was when my oldest learned Psalm 31:

“Be strong and take heart, all who hope in the Lord.” (NIV)

I loved his little flexing move he did with that verse. 💪

9:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Prayer is scattered through this chunk of the day; same between 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM. Prayer is usually done through correction as a mother. Here are a few examples of what that looks like:

“No no, please don’t hit your brother. That is not practicing self-control with our hands. Let’s pray for self-control! That is one of the fruits of the Spirit that Jesus wants us to practice.”

“Oh buddy, I know you’re upset with your brother. I know it may take some time but let’s pray for forgiveness. Your brother is a gift from God just like you!”

Afternoon

12:00 PM – Lunch Time: Lunch is a very similar prayer format to breakfast time; we pray for each other, the meal, and any parts of the day that has already happened that we are grateful for. We also will pray for whatever fruits of the Spirit we realized that we needed to work on between the hours of 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM.

12:30 PM – Nap Time: After lunch we head to bed and pray for good rest, the day we’ve had so far, and to have a good rest of the day when we wake up. We also pray a prayer of gratitude for the child that is about to get some rest and for God’s protection over them for all the days of their life.

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM: This is a chunk of the day where we are praying through correction, if there are any boo-boos, etc. I will also be praying in my head throughout the day.

Here’s what that can sound like internally:

“Lord, please give me direction in mothering these boys. Please help me steward the fruits of Spirit well to be a good wife and mom. Help me to not show anger and lack of self-control; I strive to be a witness to your sacrifice, love, grace, and mercy through all the seconds of the day. I know I can’t be perfect but help me to try with my whole heart and the power of your Holy Spirit! Amen.”

Obviously when stress is high or I am emotionally burnt out, or exhausted more than usual, prayers tend to sometimes be on the short and concise side:

“Help me Lord.”

“Strip me of the negative actions and mindset Lord,”

“Please please please make my heart posture towards my kids be that of viewing them as blessings NOT burdens.”

Evening

5:30 PM – Dinner: This prayer structure is very similar to the first two meal prayers. Thanking the Lord for each other, the meal, the things that went well in the day, the people who need our prayers, and His guidance and forgiveness for things that may not have gone well.

7:30 PM – Bedtime: All the chunks of the day and the prayers that come with it mean so much to Him. The bedtime prayer routine is one I just treasure so much because we’ve been most consistent with this prayer time the longest, since my oldest was a newborn. This prayer structure is very much thanking the Lord for the child I am putting to bed, the personality traits, the spiritual gifts, and the strengths each child possesses. We also pray for their salvation and that they surrender their lives to Jesus. This is then followed by a prayer of gratitude for what Jesus did for us on the cross and for the love, grace, and mercy He extends to us so that if we may believe in Him and we may have Eternity with Him. Basically John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (NIV)

None of this is perfect and sometimes prayers are condensed or shorter.

I have some goals on how I want to grow my prayer life with my kids, husband, and personally:
- Praying in the morning when we’re heading out the door needs to improve. We don’t do a very good job at this before the kids head out before we go to work. We could definitely improve here.
- Praying as husband and wife together out loud. It’s easy to get comfortable with praying individually in your head on behalf of your spouse and children. Therefore, praying out loud together as husband and wife is definitely not the first thing we gravitate towards in our prayer life but it is such a unifying way to lift each other up and the family up in prayer and reiterate to the Lord that you and your spouse are united as husband and wife.
- I would love to pray in a closed off space more consistently like my closet — free from distractions and technology and not worried about the time passing or keeping to a schedule. Sometimes praying can feel like it’s just on the to-do list. Having a segment of the day where you’re not bound by time or something after like eating, sleep, getting out the door, etc is really freeing! I am going to start doing this more.
- Writing down my prayers more consistently – I have a prayer journal and I have found that writing down prayers helps me recognize when God answers them.
I hope this is helpful and demonstrates how your prayer life can be a consistent thread throughout the day. Sometimes it’s done out loud and sometimes it is in your head to the Lord. Either way, no matter how it looks and sounds like, what matters is that prayer is done because the Lord does hear you!

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” – James 5:16 NIV
May 13, 2025
Part 1: Praying for Littles

Before I unpack how I pray with the littles God blessed me with, I wanted to take a step back to when I first started praying for them.

DISCLAIMER: This post will cover first-trimester miscarriage.

I started my prayer life for my littles during my first pregnancy in Summer 2020.

That first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.

I was probably the most disciplined I had ever been in reading the Word during this time. Looking back, there is no irony in those two facts: miscarrying and being the closest I have ever been to the Lord and His Word. These two facts complement each other. In fact, the Lord used me reading the Bible in chronological order as a way to give me assurance and hope that I would be vessel to birth my first earthside baby boy. But that is a story for another time…

By powering through and remaining in the Word through the trial that was a miscarriage, my prayer life was amplified even further because I knew what I was robbed of by worrying the first time around. I was not going to let the Enemy take hold of this loss. I chose by the grace of God to seek the Lord’s comfort and to surrender my womb in prayer for whatever He had planned.

I was taught right off the bat through this loss that my children are actually not ‘mine.’ They are ultimately HIS. I truly think my miscarriage taught me not to idolize the future children I was to bear. Realizing that my children are His also taught me that my first baby still exists, just not in the physical realm, but in Heaven.

A MIRACLE: A baby that the Lord assured me would be conceived despite the first loss a few months prior.

Fast forward two months after the miscarriage, I was pregnant with my son. My womb was fully surrendered to the Lord. Certain search engines were not touched at this time whereas in my first pregnancy, I couldn’t stay off of them for the short time I carried my very first baby. I didn’t stay offline to ignore my worry or because I wasn’t worried. I stayed off of it to combat it. My heart posture in going to the web the first time around wasn’t mere curiosity. It was to feed my worries and anxiety that the Enemy tried to leverage to weaken me. This is not a Biblical heart posture. In fact, it is against what Jesus commands us to do in Matthew 6:25-26:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

That being said, I am not writing this to say that the almost immediate joy of another baby erased the pain, grief, and worry I faced two months prior. In fact, when I was 27 weeks pregnant with my second baby, now my first son here on Earth, I remember feeling a wave of grief for my first knowing that I was entering the third trimester with my second despite not being able to meet my first.

The fact of the matter is, I have my first child in Heaven and 2 boys here on Earth – they are all the Lord’s, and He had their stories written since the Beginning of Time.

I wanted to lay out when the journey of praying for littles started.

In Part 2, I will delve into what prayer life looks like for and with 4 and 2 year old boys. I am excited to share!

For more content, follow me on Instagram: @itsjanessashydasblog

May 6, 2025