Prayer of a Child Advocate
George Stonikinis
Lord,
We gather
today, as we do every Sunday, in
celebration of the gifts that you
bestow upon us. On this Sunday we
celebrate one of your greatest
gifts, the gift of children. But as
we receive your gifts we are also
given awesome responsibilities. So
we ask that you grace us with the
tools that will allow us to be good
stewards to your gifts.
Grant us wisdom,
that we may show our children moral
wholesomeness and purity of thought.
Show us how to be
just in our actions and mindful of
our children’s needs.
Open our hearts
so that we show unlimited
lovingkindness towards them.
Keep us diligent
in our actions and help us teach
them a decisive work ethic and
steadfastness in their belief.
Grant us patience
and forbearance so that we may
create a sense of peaceful
stability.
Make us
compassionate to their failures as
well as their triumphs so they may
have a positive outlook and are kind
to others.
And remind us of
our humility so that we may be
exemplars of modesty, selflessness,
and respect.
The courage of
the heart is necessary to undertake
these tasks, which are difficult,
tedious, and unglamorous and we ask
your grace in helping us accept the
sacrifices involved.
Amen
Prayer of a Parent
Jeannette Denton
Dear God,
Thank you
for your continual presence with us
as children, as parents, as adults.
Thank you for your assurances that
we are safe in you, but help us to
remember them, that we need not
worry, that we only need to trust in
you because you are bigger than
anything we might imagine, and that
love will always win. Help us open
ourselves to that love so that it
may flow freely through us and
between us and our children and to
our neighbors. Push us to step out a
bit in that love, modeling to our
children how to share it with those
around us who need it. Show us dark
places and walls within our own
hearts and minds and help us to
break them down so that we might be
models of your love in this world to
our kids and to others’ kids.
Teach us how to
always choose the path with heart,
the path of love and intention, so
that our children might learn from
us how to discern what is good,
using your eyes. When our children
are troubled, we ask for your loving
vision. Help us to see their hurt
and their fear, rather than the
external manifestations of those
things that can so put us off
balance. Guide us in attending to
them with loving kindness and
infinite patience.
We ask that you
would open us to learning how to
live a life where joy replaces fear
and the abundance of life in you
fills everything. Open us to the
wonders of your Creation so that we
might share those wonders with our
little ones who wonder and marvel so
naturally. Rouse us to create a
fertile environment for our kids to
grow, where our children become so
accustomed to your abundance that
they will never want to settle for
anything less.
We thank you for
the opportunity and the privilege to
love unconditionally as you have
loved us and we pray that we might
ever see new ways to grow into our
likeness of you.
Amen
Prayer of a Child
Jonathan Pendleton
Dear God,
Thank you
for all the blessings in my life.
For home and my family, for this
church, for my school and all my
teachers, for friends, for dogs and
cats and horses. Please help me to
learn.
Open my eyes
and ears to your world around me:
To the stars
and the moon and the sun. To
numbers and letters and words. To
people and places all over the
world.
And fish.
Please help
me to listen and the patience to
make mistakes and still keep
trying. Help me to ask good
questions and really listen to the
answers.
Help me to
pray, and to listen to you, always.
In Jesus’
name,
Amen
