A Passion for Prayer

“O my son, O son of my womb, O son of my vows,” - Prov. 31:2

Proverb 31:2 reveals a mother’s anxious care for her child’s good. He is the son of her vows, meaning a son she asked God for in prayer and dedicated to God (like Samuel in 1 Samuel 1) “Son of my vows” also suggests that her child was the object of her daily vows and prayers, “a child of many prayers”

“Motherly training and dedication provide…the first imparting of religious instruction, the solemn dedication of her child to the service of God, and repeated and earnest prayer on his behalf. Her child is not only her offspring; he is “ the son of her vows,” the one on whom she has expended her most fervent piety.”
- H.D.M. Spence and Joseph Exell

This mother’s passion for God and for training her son in His ways doesn’t stop with mere verbal instruction to the child; she also speaks to God on behalf of the child. The desires of her mother-heart go deeper and higher than basic teaching and training. She is a mother who prays, who expends her greatest efforts to nurture a righteous walk with her God, so that she may effectively pray for her child. As a woman after God’s own heart she is vigilant about her own walk with God, dealing with any and all sin in her own life in preparation for entering God’s holy presence and interceding for her beloved child.

~Elizabeth George