Free Weekly Pray for the President Guide

I know most of my readers are likely disappointed in just who is being inaugurated next Tuesday (he wasn't my first choice either). However, I want to offer a free printable resource to all of you to help remind you and your children to pray for President Obama as he leads our country these next four years. This prayer guide is based on something we have done, as a family, for past presidents as well, and which I decided to put into writing to share.

The job of the president comes with an enviable title but a serious and often thankless responsibility. No matter what our new president (or any of our former presidents and future presidents) does, someone is going to get their feathers ruffled, and completely bent out of shape. This man, whether we agree with him or not, needs prayer far more than he needs criticism, and praying for him is far more pleasing to our God anyway. In fact it is commanded:

"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
(1 Timothy 2:1-2)

The Apostle Paul points out that this is in our best interest, "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all goodness and honesty". This is what I have been teaching my children, and I hope I am encouraging you to share it with yours!

Our president is going to have many people, from across our country and around the world, seeking his favor for their pet views and projects (some, no doubt, good things), and he is going to have teams of advisers, as well as legislators and judges looking for backing and favors. This man needs discernment and godly wisdom, which we need to pray for him to have.

This morning, I shared with my children that we could attend protests, we could write emails to congressmen, and we could sign petitions about many things that need to be spoken out against (it is our duty as citizens of a representative government to let our voices be heard), however nothing brings about change quite like taking our grievances to the One in whose hand the President's heart can be bent (Proverbs 21:1). Our first duty, as Christian citizens, is to diligently pray for our leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-2).



You will find a Weekly Prayer Guide for our president attached here. I encourage you to pass it around, share it on your blog (with a link back!), print it out, give it to others, etc. Please! :-) Distribute away!

In this Weekly Prayer Guide for the President, you will find some printable cards (formatted for business card stock) that you can print out for each of your children, and which you can use each day of the week to remind you to pray for the president. For each day, there are some prayer guidelines for our President, based on the Word of God, and my own prayer time for our other presidents we've had. I figure having them on business card stock helps them to be carried around easily.

I put them in a small, clear, magnetic picture frame on my fridge, changing them out each day. My kids all have laminated copies, with a hole punched in the corner, so that we can put a ring through them to bind them together. Now that my older ones are getting older, they keep this list as a bookmark in their Bibles. I've included the bookmark format too. Use whatever works for you and your family!

Since getting a PDA, I have my phone programmed to remind me to pray for the president at a certain time each day, and what to pray for each day of the week. That also works well.

In addition to these Printable Prayer Cards for our President, there is a brief devotional as you introduce this to your children, which you can use to help them understand the principle behind the different prayer guidelines I've listed. I feel sometimes it helps to see the big picture, and why we are praying what we are praying.

Again, PLEASE, feel free to pass this prayer guide around and share on your blogs, with your friends, and so forth.