May is Speech and Hearing Awareness Month, which is near and dear to my heart as my older son (age 11) has both a severe hearing loss in his right ear and a diagnosis of apraxia—a neurological speech disorder that requires years of frequent and intensive speech therapy to learn to speak. My younger son (age 9) has a speech delay that accompanies his autism diagnosis.
Both of my sons had delays in many areas, but it was the lack of conversations and communication I was able to have with my children that was the most devastating to me. We used sign language to communicate and went to numerous speech therapy sessions, but I desperately longed to hear my childrens’ words, thoughts and questions.
I prayed fervently and frequently for my sons’ speech. I prayed for a miracle, like that of the deaf and mute man in Mark 7, who when Jesus encountered him touched the man’s ears and tongue and said, “Be opened!” And that man was able to not only hear clearly, but speak clearly too! No need for years of speech therapy for others to understand every word he said, like my boys were experiencing. It was a miracle I ached to see in my children, especially one I thought God could answer in my oldest son, who has both a speech disorder and a hearing loss.
Bible Verses to Pray For Your Child’s Speech
Discouraged that God wasn’t answering my desperate prayers, one day I decided to start praying Scripture over my boys’ speech. If God’s Word is powerful, and prayer is powerful, how much more so would they be combined together, right?
I looked up each and every verse from Genesis through Revelation regarding speech, words, the mouth and the lips and the tongue. There were hundreds of verses, a treasure trove of material to pray for my boys and their speech.
Photo credit: Zoe Graham on Unsplash.com.
A passage that brought me a lot of comfort was Exodus 4:10-16, in which Moses indicates he has an issue with speech, but God doesn’t limit Moses’ impact because of that. God’s response to Moses’ speech difficulty was that He was God and in control. God went on to use Moses in mighty ways, and provided him with an advocate and companion in his brother Aaron, just like we as parents advocate for our children. This passage allowed me to pray in thanksgiving and in trust, that God had a plan for my sons, that He was in control and loved my children, that He was equipping them (and me and my husband) with what our children needed to succeed.
I also found a lot of comfort in Psalm 139:4, “Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, oh Lord.” I was encouraged that though I didn’t always know what was going on in my childrens’ minds and hearts, God did. That when my sons said a word or phrase that I couldn’t understand, God did. It became a verse I would pray whenever I felt frustrated or sad regarding my children’s speech.
But two verses in particular became my favorite to pray for my sons. “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” in Psalm 119:103. This verse is about God’s Word, and His Law, but I resonated with it. Every word my boys were able to say was sweet and something to savor.
And I also loved the verse in Proverbs 25:11, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver”.
When my children said their first word and then sloooooowly added to their vocabularies, I viewed each of those words as a precious treasure. I combined the words I loved from both of these verses—‘sweet’ from Psalm 119:103 and ‘apples of gold’ from Proverbs 25:11 to form my new prayer for my children. I prayed for new ‘sweet apples of gold’ in my prayer time with God, and on the way to speech therapy, and praised God for new ‘sweet apples of gold’ after my children said or signed a new word or phrase on their own.
The Practice of Praying Scripture For Your Child’s Speech
To use God’s own words to pray for my children’s words did wonders for my faith and my prayer life. Just as my sons needed speech therapy to learn to communicate with us, I needed Scripture to help me communicate with God in a new, refreshing, and powerful way. Just as my sons slooooowly added new words and phrases to their vocabularies in both spoken words and in sign language, I kept adding new words and phrases from Scripture into my prayers for my sons.
I found joy in praying again. Sure, I’ll be honest, part of the delight was that I was witnessing God answer my heart’s desire for my kids’ speech and communication as they slowly learned and used new signs, spoken words and phrases. But a large part of what brought me joy was that the practice of praying the very words of God’s own heart and mouth, drew me so much closer to Him.
My sons are still in speech therapy, and probably will be for many more years. I keep these arsenal of Scriptures close as I persevere in praying for their speech, just as my children persevere in their speech therapy sessions. It’s not an easy journey for sure, but I’ve found this practice of praying Scripture has brought my heart into alignment with the heart of God, and His love and plan for me and my children.
If you’re looking for more verses to pray, I encourage you to check out 15 Scriptures to Pray For Your Child with Special Needs.
Do you have a favorite Bible verse regarding speech that you love to incorporate into your prayers for your child?
Jenn Soehnlin is a mother to two boys who are precious blessings and who both have special needs. She is the author of Embracing This Special Life: Learning to Flourish as a Mother of a Child with Special Needs. Jenn enjoys blogging about faith, praying Scripture, and special needs parenting at www.embracing.life. For online encouragement and support for special needs mothers, check out her Facebook group Christian Special Needs Moms Embracing This Special Life.
