Praying for Teen Boys: Partnering With God for the Heart of Your SonSample

Lord, Place a Guard Over His Mouth

I sat at the breakfast table with my son and read over twenty verses from the Bible out loud, one right after the other, on the power of our words. There are hundreds of verses across both the Old and New Testaments that either speak directly about or allude to the idea that our words have power. That morning, when I had finished reading, as he quietly ate his bagel with cream cheese, my son looked at me and said, “I get it, Mom. It’s important.

Yes, son, it is.

Having the ability to speak is a good thing—a God-given thing. After all, communication is how we share the gospel, sing, pray, and praise God. Words are good, and God gave them to us to point to Him and give life to others. But at the same time, words can be some of the most hurtful things we ever experience. I’ve quoted Luke 6:45 to my boys so often over the years that they may or may not groan when they hear it. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” It’s one of those really true truths that proves itself over and over again as we react to what’s happening around us. When life comes along and knocks us down, what’s in our hearts will come out.

Many teenage boys consider staying quiet, humble, and kind to be uncool and unmanly. Boys today often feel that to be meek as Jesus was meek—to love those who curse them or simply not to retaliate or defend themselves—is a sign of weakness. It makes them feel small when they want to feel big. The ability to lay down their own glory for the sake of the glory of God is something many men (and women) struggle with, but the world needs more men who have won a hard-fought victory over sin, so let’s not take that battle from them. Instead, let’s help them to be accountable for what comes out of their hearts and respect the power of their words.

A prayer based on Matthew 15:11:

Father, help _________ to pay attention to what’s in his heart. When he sees bitterness, anger, jealousy, or other things that don’t please You, give him the desire to make it right so that he might not be defiled. In Jesus’s Name, amen.

A prayer based on Psalm 141:3:

Father, when __________ is unable to close his mouth or choose wise, life-giving words, please do it for him. Make him unable to speak when his words don’t please You. In Jesus’s Name, amen.