Purity

I use a prayer calendar created by Bob Hostetler to pray for my children. Each day has a different matter of the heart for which to pray for my children (salvation, growth in grace, love, honesty, etc.). For the 31st, I added my own topic, which is to pray for my children's spouses. On the 25th of each month, I pray for my children's purity. How just like God that He would give me the time I've been looking for to write about purity on the day that I regularly pray this? I pray from Psalm 51:10 that God would create in them pure hearts, and that He would let their purity of heart be shown in their actions. When friends have baby girls, this is what I most often find myself praying for them.

"Good girls" have a tendency to see purity in the list of all the things older women are to teach the younger and think, "Check. I've got that one handled." I've been guilty of it:

• waited until I was married to have sex - check!
• put no addictive chemicals into my body through the use of cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs - check!
• not a potty mouth - check!
• don't watch soap operas -check!

Praise God that He kept me from some nasty consequences of sin, but sometimes getting these life issues right can lead to another heart issue, pride. And if I'm not careful, sometimes doing those things that I know are pleasing to the Lord will lead me to being quite Pharisaical. Yuck! So, as I pray for my girls and my boy to have pure hearts and that their actions will reflect those pure hearts, I need to pray the same for myself. God, make my heart pure and only let my actions come from that purity!