Parenting Prayer

Dear God, I thank You for the gift of this child to raise, this life to share, this mind to help mold, this body to
nurture, and this spirit to enrich.

Let me never betray this child's trust, dampen this child's hope, or discourage this child's dreams.

Help me, dear God, to help this child become all You mean him to be.

Let Your grace and love fall on him like gentle breezesand give him inner strength and peace and patience for the journey ahead.

-Marian Wright Edelman

The Spirituality
of Parenting

Whether our children are young or grown, it is hard not to worry about them.
Their safety.
Their development.
Their values.
Their actions.
Their health.
Their happiness.

Marian Wright Edelman talks about how this can overwhelm us unless we remember both how good God is and how dependent they and we are on God. And so she commits each of her children daily to God's care. A prayer from the Hebridean Altars is one she uses inserting her children's names and those of other special people in her life in place of "me":

God be with [me] in this, Thy day, every day, and every way, with [me] and for [me] in this, Thy day.