A Parents' Prayer
Recently at church the sermons have been family/parenting themed, and they handed out this prayer for parents to say. I found it touching and I've been meaning to post on it for a while. I hope this will stick in parents' minds and help them do a better job, even if they're already doing great. I hope that those who aren't religious will strip out that language and keep the essence of the message in their mind. So, for all of you who have parents, are parents, or will be parents someday, this one's for you:
Dear Lord,
Help me to understand my children, to listen patiently to what they have to say, and to answer all their questions kindly. Make me as courteous to them as I would have them be to me. Give me the courage to confess my sins against my children and to ask them for forgiveness when I know that I have done them wrong.
May I not hurt the feelings of my children. Forbid that I should laugh at their mistakes or resort to shame and ridicule as punishment. Let me not tempt a child to lie or steal.
Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me. May I cease to nag, and when I am out of sorts may I hold my tongue.
Blind me to the little errors of my children and help me to see the good things they do.
Help me to treat my children as those of their own age, but let me not exact of them the judgments and conventions of adults. Allow me not to rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves, to think, to choose, and to make decisions.
Forbid that I should punish them for my selfish satisfaction. May I grant them their wishes that are reasonable and have the courage to withhold a privilege which I know will do them harm.
Make me so fair and just, so considerate and companionable to my children, that they will have a genuine esteem for me. Fit me to be loved and imitated by my children.
With all these gifts, O God, do give me calm and poise and self-control.
Amen.
Jack