The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - How to Pray for Your Daughters

Episode Date: December 13, 2019

This week, Jeff shares a beautiful prayer he wrote for his daughters and talks about the specific ways we can pray for them. He explains how daughters are unique gifts from God, and their parents and guardians are called to pray for them sincerely and consistently. Next week, Jeff will talk about how to pray for your sons. Snippet from the Show “Our daughters are God’s eternal daughters. And we only have them for a small period of time here on earth.” Get Jeff's prayer for daughters in the shownotes! Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 or email us at [e-mail]

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 145, How to Pray for Your Daughters. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show. Hey, I'm Jeff, and it's good to be with you again right before Christmas when we're all Thinking about gifts, aren't we? Going to the mall, looking on Amazon, trying to figure out that perfect gift for all those special people in our lives. Well, I got to thinking as we're getting closer to Christmas, 2019, if you're listening to this off into the future, thinking about gifts.

And naturally, I thought about the greatest gifts in my life, which are my three daughters. Number one is my wife, Emily, and then I have three marvelous, tremendous gifts. gifts from God. And I'm very, very, very grateful for each and every one of them. Carly is, she's 30-something now. I guess it's about that time where I don't tell her age on a podcast. My two younger daughters, 22 and 21, Jackie and Tony, they're all doing very, very well. And they are gifts from the Lord. And I have been a part of so many different men's movements in men's ministries where we have talked about our kids, boys and girls, our daughters, and our sons. And the question has come up many times, well, how do we pray for them? You know,

how do we go about praying for what we would probably say is the most precious thing in our lives? I know that as I get older and my kids get older, they're having kids, which means I'm a grandfather. I'm thinking about my grandsons. I have three, two grandsons and one granddaughter, and remembering to pray for them consistently. Well, anyway, what I thought I would do this week is to give you a gift prior to Christmas in sharing with you a prayer that I wrote. This show is how to pray for your daughter, your daughters, and then I'm going to come up with another show, most likely next week, on how to pray for your sons. And they're different. They're very different because we pray for our sons differently than we pray for our daughters. And especially as a father, I have my

different concerns about my daughters than I would, my sons. I have different concerns about a son, my grandsons, than I do daughters. And so I wrote out a prayer, and I want to give that to you as a gift for Christmas this year. And so this week and next week, you're going to get that gift, and all you have to do is go to the show notes, and you can get that. If you're not getting the show notes, by the way, you can simply text me. It's my full name, Jeff Kavins, all one word, Jeff Kavans, J-E-F-F-F-F-C-A-V-I-N-S, and you can text it to 33-7-7. And you'll get the show notes in perpetuity, in other words, forever. And I'm happy to do that for you.

I do know that oftentimes people are watching or rather listening, I should say, to the show, going back to my EWTN days there, they're listening to the show while in the car, and it's not a good time to take notes, and that's why I try to provide the most extensive notes in podcasting history. And I try to give you all the scriptures that I talk about. And this week, certainly, I'm going to give you the full prayer on how do you pray for your daughters. You know, over the years, I've been working with different men's groups. And as we sit around and talk and we talk about our sons and we talk about our daughters, there's something that happens, something very special that happens when fathers talk to each other about their girls. They

obviously love and really, you know, just adore their sons, and they love their sons with all their hearts. But there's something special about a little girl. And fathers are the providers, the protectors, and the leaders in their family, and they are the providers and the protectors and leaders of their daughters. And there's a lot of a lot that goes into that. And there's a lot of emotion that is tied to that. And I don't know of any men that I have spoken to who wouldn't be willing to give their lives for their daughters. And that's a good thing. Part of it, I think, is built in. It's just the way you are as a man. It's the way you are as a mother, you know, with your daughters. You certainly give your life for them. And the question today is not whether we

will give our lives for our daughters, but whether we will die daily for our daughters, give up our lives for our daughters, and love them with all of our heart. And to give ourselves to them, not only in the natural sense of providing for them, whether it's food and shelter and clothing and protection and so forth. But I think there's another dimension that comes in here when it comes to praying for our children, whether they be daughters or sons, and that is spiritually praying for their protection because there is certainly an enemy out there that would love to destroy them, would love to take their life. And God forbid, take their eternal. life. That's what fathers are about. That's what mothers are about. We are here to nurture and teach

and protect our children. And one dimension of that that is so often neglected is prayer. How do we pray for our children? How do we pray for our daughters speaking about our children this week? So what I've done is I've written out of prayer here, and I'm going to read it once. I'm going to put my own daughter's names in there. And then I'd like you to think about your own children. and join me in praying for your daughter. Once again, this is going to be available to you. It's a PDF, and I'm going to give it to you in the show notes if you would like to use this to pray for your daughter.

So let's pray real quick. Let's go through it, and then I'm going to kind of take it apart and go over some of the things that I think are particularly important areas that we need to remember when it comes to praying for our daughters. So let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Son. spirit. Dear Jesus, thank you for giving me such a beautiful daughter. I see Carly and Jackie and Tony as a gift from you and pray that I'll be a faithful provider, protector, and model of your faithfulness to them. May I see them first as your eternal daughters and my daughters for a time

here on earth. Lord, you knew Carly, Jackie, and Tony before they were consistent. and now you have given them a unique personality and gifts that make them an unrepeatable miracle. May I be a faithful steward or this priceless daughter of ours. I pray that Jackie and Carly and Tony will grow in their relationship with you, knowing your love and faithfulness, may they experience your mercy and kindness and come to a deep understanding of their value in your eyes. May they come to know your voice so that in difficult times they will be aware

of your encouragement, correction, and direction. Hold them when they are scared and heal them when they are wounded by what people say or do. May they fall in love with your word and your church as a constant anchor for their souls, and may your mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for them and provide them with the ultimate example of what it means to be a woman. Jesus, I pray that Carly and Jackie and Tony will clearly discern your calling in their life.

May they be open to the religious life as a path to union with you, Lord. If you have called them to single life, may they find their satisfaction in your company and if you have called them to the sacrament of marriage, prepare them as a pure bride and watch over them and watch over their husband to be. Jesus, I pray that you will protect Carly, Jackie, and Tony from physical harm as you guard them with angelic strength, protect them from being taken advantage of by men who would see them as objects rather than as our daughter. May they be wise in their dealings with boys and show virtue when faced with temptation. As a father, I stand in the gap between Carly, Jackie, and Tony, and anything that would harm them.

And I ask that a hedge of protection would be set around them so that they would be preserved for your purposes. Oh, Lord, you have given Carly, Jackie, and Tony to me for a time. help me provide and protect them with eternity in mind. In the name of Jesus, amen, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's a prayer I wrote for my daughters, and I want to go through that with you, and just a few of the points in that prayer that I think are very important points, and I also want to make it available to you. Now, obviously, all the times that I mentioned, Carly, Jackie, and Tony, my daughters, it's blank in the prayer, and it's blank because it gives you an opportunity to put your daughter or daughters in the midst of the prayer. I wrote this prayer several years ago, and I have invited many men to join me around fires at night and different occasions to pray for our daughters.

And I noticed something very, very powerful. As we went around the circle and began to pray this prayer for our daughters, I noticed that many of the men broke down in the middle of it and began to weep. And it was very powerful. I'd never experienced that before where my friends who were for sometimes the first time praying for their daughters began to cry. And they would say things like, you know, oh my gosh, I've never prayed for my daughter like this, or realizing in the middle of the prayer I've got so much to be thankful for and I didn't realize how serious this was, this tremendous gift that God has given me in my daughters. Indeed, as we approach Christmas, we are talking about gifts, but I think it's fair to say that if you have a son, if you have a daughter, you would gladly exchange all the gifts under the tree for the eternal life of your daughter and the purity of your daughter, to marry a good husband, to find her vocation, whether it's marriage or the religious life or a generous single life.

Yet we would give up almost anything, wouldn't we? To know that our children are happy and fulfilled. in life. Prayer has so much to do with this. And the responsibility as parents to pray for our kids is something that is obvious. We know we should do it. But how many of us actually do it? And how many times do we forget to pray for our kids? Maybe we shoot up a quick prayer here and there, but to have some consistency in our prayers to protect the great gift that God has given us, That's something that we need to be reminded of, particularly during this season of gifts and the ultimate gift being Jesus Christ. Hey, before, I'm going to take a break now, and I want to come back.

I want to go through this prayer with you and just make some comments about some of the aspects of the prayer. But before I do, I want to remind you, big, big announcement. We've got a huge, huge trip to Israel coming up in June. And I haven't mentioned it in several shows now, but my travel agent tells me that we need to get the word out now because we're going to start closing it coming up in the next few weeks. And we've got some just incredible young adults that are going to be joining us in Israel in June of 2020. In fact, we call the trip 2020 Vision. It's really about finding direction for your life going forward.

And we have amazing young people signed up so far. and joining me on the trip is Father Mike Schmitz. He's going to be joining me as well as the Andrew Swofford, Sarah Swofford from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. Along with them, we're going to be joined by incredible musicians, Taylor Tripodi, and Ali Aaliyah, Brother Isaiah. We really have a tremendous pilgrimage in store. And if you know of any young adults or anybody for that matter that wants to go with us to Israel. You don't have to necessarily be a young adult. You can go to my website, jeffcavens.com, and look under pilgrimages and sign up. We are running out of time, running out of space. And I just wanted to give you kind of a last shout out that if you

want to go on the trip of a lifetime in June of 2020, this is the pilgrimage. I'm going to be teaching over 30 times on this pilgrimage, on location. We're going to be celebrating Mass in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Copernum, all the great locations, as well as we're going to be praying the rosary at all the appropriate locations. You don't want to miss it. So go to jeffcavens.com and get a hold of the sign-up page, and we will see you then. We're looking forward to it. We're going to be back in just a moment. 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ chose corrupt, broken, imperfect, sinful men to be the foundation

of his church. And because these broken and perfect men chose to remain in relationship with Jesus, they became saints. And they were used by Jesus to transform hearts and minds 2,000 years later. I invite you to check out my book, Broken and Blessed, where you'll find, practical tools to overcome habitual sin, to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and to walk with an imperfect church toward a perfect God, who is calling all of us to perfection over time. To order the paperback book or audiobook, broken and blessed, visit ascensionpress.com

or Amazon. All right. We are back. We are back. are we doing this week? Well, we're talking about great gifts in our life. And if you have a daughter, you have a son, that's about as good as it gets, right? Great gifts from God. But we've got a responsibility to pray for them. And I've written a prayer that I want to give to you. And absolutely free. Just go to the show notes. We're going to put it in there. But I'm going to kind of challenge you as well to pray for your daughter. This week we're talking about our daughters. Next week, we're going to be talking about our sons. And I'd like to go through the prayer here and talk about

a few things that I think are important when it comes to praying for our daughters. Now, naturally, I'm coming from a father's perspective, but I think this is the kind of prayer that you could pray whether you are a mother or a father. All right? So we start off in the prayer, and we started off with dear Lord Jesus. Thank you for giving me such a beautiful daughter. You might have more like I do. I've got three. So I could say, thank you, Lord, for giving me such beautiful daughters, plural. And that's the way I like to start off a good prayer is by thanking God. First of all, Lord, thank you.

You have given me the gift. You have given me the privilege of fatherhood. You have given me these beautiful daughters of yours, and you've given them to me for a time. So starting off a prayer with thanksgiving to God is, I think, a great way. no matter what problems you have faced with them. And haven't we all? We who have daughters, we who have sons. We know that there have been difficulties in life as they grow up. Yeah, it's a given. I was a difficulty to my parents, okay? Just kidding. No, I really was. I really was. And you probably were to your parents to a degree. And so we start off with thank you. Thank you, Lord, for this gift.

Yep, there's been difficulties. But what a gift they are. And I'm so grateful, Lord, for you giving them to me. Secondly, I see, and you can name your daughters, mine are Carly, Jackie, and Tony, I see them as a gift from you, and pray that I will be a faithful provider, protector, and model of your faithfulness to them. Now, that's an important thing to pray, is that we see our children as a gift. It's not something that we just created ourselves, even though the First Commandment in the book of Genesis is Poo-U-Ravu, be fruitful and multiply. Even the ability to be fruitful and multiply is a gift from God, isn't it? It's a gift.

And so we are thankful to him, number one, number two. We see our girls as a gift, and we pray that we fathers, and I'm speaking as a father here, you may be a mother, I pray that I would be a faithful provider, protector, and a model of your faithfulness. to them. Now, am I always faithful in my life to the Lord? No, there's times where I feel like I'm unfaithful, but my prayer is that I would be faithful when it comes to being a model for my daughters. May I see her first as your eternal daughter and my daughter for a time here on earth. And so all this is part of the prayer that we're making available to you. I see my daughters as,

number one, God's eternal daughters. They are eternal beings who have been created in the image and likeness of God, and they are eternal. Once they came into this world, once they were conceived, they became eternal beings. Isn't that awesome? To know that you have the power, the capacity, the ability to create someone who will live forever? This is part of what I think it means to be created in the image and likeness of God. My daughter's are eternal, and I have them for a time here on earth, a relatively small time. You know, my oldest daughter is in her 30s now. She's married has three kids. She's got a good job, wonderful husband, but she's not living with me anymore. She's my daughter, and I pray for her, but I only had her for about 18 years. That's all. And I

remember the day that we drove her to Stubinville, Ohio, to go to college after high school, and I remember driving away, and my wife and I couldn't even look at each other for two hours as we just had tears coming down our face, as we realized this very short period of time was over. It was over. I'll never forget that day that we left her at a cross in Stubinville. Instead of leaving her at the dorm or the cafeteria, I remember telling my daughter Carly that I want to leave you at the cross in the middle of campus up on the hill. We went up on that hill, and we went up there, and I prayed for her, and I just kind of fell apart at that point.

Wish I didn't, but I did. But I only had her for a time. And it became so clear to me when we drove away that I only had her for a time, and I wish I would have spent my time giving more of myself to her. Well, you can do that in prayer, right? It's God's eternal daughter, and it's my daughter for a time, your daughter for a time. Second paragraph, Lord, you knew that Carly, Jackie, and Tony, you knew them before they were conceived, and now you have given them a unique personality and gifts that make them unrepeatable miracles. Isn't that true? Your daughters are unrepeatable miracles. They are so unique. They're gifted with talents. They're so unique. They can never be repeated. and that makes them invaluable, created in the image and likeness of God.

The prayer goes on, may I be a faithful steward over this priceless daughter of ours? Once you realize just how priceless your daughters are and you realize that you are really working with God to raise them, then your prayer should naturally be, may I be a faithful steward over this priceless daughter of ours, not just mine, not just Emily and mine, but Emily, mine, and God's, our daughter. I pray that, and you can fill in the blank with your daughters, I pray that Carly, Jackie, and Tony will grow in their relationship with you, knowing your love and faithfulness. What a beautiful thing to pray for, isn't it, to know that your daughters would know his love? In a world where people are created for love but settle for likes,

pray that your daughter would come to know God's love and God's faithfulness in their life. And you as a father, you as a mother, you are key to them understanding that incredible faithfulness of God. Your marriage is the stage on which God's faithfulness is demonstrated. May she experience your mercy and kindness and come to a deep understanding of her value in your eyes. and that's a good thing to pray for, that your daughter would understand God's mercy and kindness and understand their incredible value. Pray that every day for your girls. May they come to know your voice so that in difficult times, they will be aware of your encouragement, correction, and direction. You see, your daughters, as well as my three daughters, they are going to come

into difficult times from now and then, and they're going to need encouragement, and they're going to need correction, and they're going to need direction for their lives. And our prayer is that, oh, my God, I pray that they'll come to know your voice in scripture, the sacraments, through mom and dad, through the saints. I pray they'll come to know your voice so that in those difficult times, there will be encouragement, there will be correction, and there will be direction. And there will be direction. them. Hold my daughters when they are scared and heal them when they are wounded by what people say or do. Isn't it true that the world can be a cruel place? Maybe you know those stories. Maybe your daughter has come home crying. Maybe she came home from the dance crying. Maybe she came

home coming crying. Maybe she didn't go to homecoming and she cried. People wound other people don't they? They say mean things. They do mean things to our daughters. And they come to us with tears, sobbing, looking for relief, looking for comfort, looking for some kind of solace. That's what a father gives his daughter. That's what a mother gives her daughter. And we can pray. We can pray, Lord, you hold her when she's scared. You heal her when she's wounded by what people say or do. May she fall in love with your word and your church as a constant anchor for her soul. And may your mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for her and provide her with the ultimate example of what it means to be a woman. Wow. What a beautiful thing to pray for your daughter.

You know, your daughter is facing all the temptations of the world and all the, all of the poll to be popular and to go along with what the world has to say, the world's worldview. In our prayers that she would fall in love with your word, O God, and that your church would be a constant anchor for her soul. And we pray also that the Blessed Virgin Mary would pray and intercede for our daughters as an ultimate example of what it means to be a woman. Moving on, I pray that Carly, Jackie, and Tony will clearly discern your calling in their life. You know, our kids are facing a lot of decisions today. It used to be that kids just had to figure out, you know, what school they're going to go to

and a few other things. But today, they seem to be facing so many decisions in life. You know as well as I do. You've got girls. Well, we want to pray that our daughters would discern clearly the call in their life. because that call is ultimately what is going to give them great joy. May she be open to the religious life as a path to union with you. That is always a part of our prayer, isn't it?

That our daughters would be open to the religious life. Maybe your daughter isn't going to become a religious, but pray that she would be open to it. I can't tell you the number of parents who have told me that their daughter who they thought would never, ever entertain being a sister. becoming a nun. At some point in college, everything changed, and suddenly they were open as they sought the Lord. I can't help but believe that that isn't the result of the cumulative prayers of parents who have been asking God to help their daughter be open. Moving on in the prayer, if you have called her to

single life, may she find satisfaction in your company. And if you have called her to the sacrament of marriage, prepare her as a pure bride and watch over her husband to be. Wow, that's really deep and personal. Because, you know, as having three daughters, I can tell you that I've had a lot of appointments at the dentist. I've had a lot of appointments at the doctors. I've had surgeries. I've had pain. I've had suffering. And I know you have as well. And one of the first things I go to when I experience either physical suffering or moral suffering is, Lord, this goes to the preparation of my girls for their vocation. And so not only do we pray concerning this, but our lives are given to it. In all the difficulties that we face, we say, Lord, for my daughters.

Next week we'll be talking about our sons, right? But this week we're talking about our daughters, girls first. Jesus, I pray that you will protect Carly, Jackie, and Tony from physical harm as you guard her, guard them with angelic strength, protect them from being taken advantage of by men who would see them as an object rather than as our daughters. You know that your daughters are beautiful. You've told everybody, you put it in the Christmas letter. you know that your parents have said that your daughters are beautiful and uncles everybody like

you've got amazing daughters don't let the world and the men of this world take advantage of them pray for them stand in the gap and pray for them that that would never happen to them put up a spiritual hedge of protection around them which is part of our prayers here in just a moment but pray that no man would ever take advantage of your daughter that they would that they would exhibit wisdom and walk in understanding, and not even put themselves in situations where they could be taken advantage of, but if they find themselves in a place where someone might pray and beg God, no, protect them, O Lord, protect them. May they be wise in their dealings with boys and show virtue when faced with temptation. May your daughters walk in that virtue in wisdom. And finally,

as a father, I stand in the gap between Carly, Jackie, and Tony, and anything that would harm them. And I ask that a hedge of protection would be set around them so that they would be preserved for your purposes, O Lord. You have given Carly, Jackie, and Tony to me for a time. Help me provide and protect them with eternity in mind. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. I think it's a beautiful way to end a prayer is to ask the Lord to help you provide, protect, and lead your daughters with eternity in mind. Eternity is a long time, and they've been given to us for only a short period of time. And so not only do we need to be on the ball as far as being mother, father, to our daughters,

but we need to be persevering in prayer, faithful, tenacious in prayer. And so this whole prayer that I have written here, I want to give it to you. You're free to change it. You know what your circumstances are. But I can't tell you how many men particularly have said, how do I pray for my daughter? That's why I wrote this prayer. It's why I'm giving it to you at this Christmas time is a gift, a gift that hopefully will have eternal fruit. Why don't you send me a note?

My email is The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. give me the names of your family members. I'd love to pray. I'll pray for them. I will lift them up in prayer with this prayer. We'll do a collective prayer and lift up everybody who sends in the names of their daughters, and I will pray for you, and we'll pray for each other. The great gift that God has given us is something that we need to take seriously and take responsibility for. And prayer, which is so powerful and effective, is one of the ways that we show God that we're appreciative. of these tremendous gifts that he has given us. Well, I want to hear from you.

Write me at the Jeffcaven show at ascensionpress.com. Next week, we're going to talk about how to pray for our sons. I got news for you. I was a son. Those prayers are a little bit different. As I think the prayers for sons and daughters are different, and we'll go over that next week. I want you to know something.

I love you. I'm praying for you. And I ask you to continue to pray for me. I hope you have a great. week. God bless you.