The Power of Praying Scripture as a Special Needs Parent
My younger son has a speech delay, my older son a neurological-based speech disorder called apraxia that requires frequent and intensive speech therapy to learn to speak. He didn’t say his first words until he was almost four. Devastated by the lack of conversations I had with my children, one day I turned to scripture. Surely there was a passage or verse about speech that would encourage me, right?
Before long, I found two scriptures relating to words and speech that jumped out at me.
“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Psalm 119:10
“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” Proverbs 25:11
When my children finally said their first word and then slowly added to their vocabularies, I viewed each of those words as something sweet, something special to treasure, like an apple of gold in settings of silver.
I then combined the words I loved from both of these verses to form my new prayer for my children. I prayed for new “sweet apples of gold” every morning and on the way to speech therapy and I thanked God for the new “sweet apples of gold” after my children said a new word or phrase. I honestly love this phrase to refer to my childrens’ speech and love how it has become a part of my prayers, praying God’s own words to thank Him for the new ones my children could now say.
After that, I became passionate about praying scripture and looking for scriptures to pray relating to topics that mattered to me and I wanted to see God move in.
Praying Scripture For Your Special Needs Children
As a special needs parent we learn to advocate for our children–with insurance companies, with doctors and specialists, with schools, with churches, and within the community. But one of the best ways to advocate for your child is on your knees before the throne of God.
But it’s also easy to pray for the things we want. We might pray for God to move mightily for our children in ways that are not in His will or timing, and then we grow discouraged by prayer, and begin to question God’s love and care for us and our children. I have found that praying scripture is one of the best ways to combat this discouragement, because we are aligning our prayers and desires with God’s own Word and His desires.
Here is a list of 15 scriptures to pray for your child with special needs. Feel free to print this list out and go through each verse one at a time. Consider praying one a day, or journaling your thoughts and prayers about each one. Make them personal to your child and your family’s situation.
Praying Scripture For Your Own Special Needs Parenting Journey
The special needs parenting journey can be lonely. It can be overwhelming. It can lead to a deep grief, depression, and/or an overwhelming anxiety you’ve never experienced before. You may be struggling in your faith and believing that God is good and cares for you and your child(ren).
I desperately prayed for relief and God felt so silent and so far away until I began turning to scripture and praying scripture for my own spiritual and physical wellbeing. By turning to and praying scripture, I was able to begin processing my thoughts and emotions in a godly, rather than worldly way and could hear the love He had for me and my children in His Word.
Here are 20 scriptures to pray as a special needs parent. These scriptures really helped me to let go of my own expectations and desires and trust God’s plan and purpose for me and my children. They restored hope and peace in my life and I pray they do the same in yours. Feel free to print them out and make them personal to your own journey, your own struggles and experiences.
There is power in God’s word, and there’s also power in our prayers. When you combine those two powers together, get ready to see God move in mighty ways in your life, your heart, your faith, and your children.
Written by Jenn Soehnlin
