SOME YEARS AGO, I ENCOUNTERED SOMEONE ON FACEBIIJ who was bashing Messianic and Hebrew Roots congregations for "praying for their children under a tallit.” He insisted that this custom was silly and "pagan."
The truth is, praying for our children is not and CANNOT be wrong! Anyone who suggests otherwise is of satan! Prayer with and over our children is all part of the rearing-process.
Psalm 127:3 Children too are a gift from ADONAI; the fruit of the womb is a reward. 4 The children born when one is young. are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. 5 How blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them ...(CJB)
Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, don't irritate your children and make them resentful; instead, raise them with the Lord's kind of discipline and guidance. (CJB)
Proverbs 22: 6 Train a child in the way he [should] go; and, even when old, he will not swerve from it. (CJB)
Deuteronomy 6:6 These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; 7 and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead, 9 and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates. (CJB)
Below is the prayer we all sing to those precious gifts from God - and if the counter-missionaries wish to make fun of it and accuse of of "being pagan," so be it. (This kind of thing actually serves to reveal that the Ruach leaves those who reject YHWH's Messiah....) They can expect to explain themselves to God on Judgment Day!
May the Lord protect and defend you.
May He always shield you from shame.
May you come to be
In Israel a shining name.
May you be like Ruth and like Esther.
May you be deserving of praise.
Strengthen them, Oh Lord,
And keep them from the strangers' ways.
May God bless you and grant you long lives.
(May the Lord fulfill our Sabbath prayer for you.)
May God make you good mothers and wives.
(May He send you husbands who will care for you.)
May the Lord protect and defend you.
May the Lord preserve you from pain.
Favor them, Oh Lord, with happiness and peace.
Oh, hear our Sabbath prayer. Amen.
Nothing "pagan" about that, folks!
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