“A Prayer for Children”

Author unknown.

Loving God,

We pray for our children

   who put chocolate fingers everywhere,

   who like to be tickled,

   who stomp in puddles,

   who sneak popsicles before supper,

   who make mistakes in math homework,

   who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those

   who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,

   who can’t bound down their streets in a new pair of sneakers,

   who never “counted potatoes,”

   who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead,

   who never go to the circus,

   who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children

   who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,

   who sleep with the dog,

   who hug us in a hurry and forget lunch money,

   who cover themselves in Band-aids and sing off-key,

   who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink,

   who slurp their soup.

And we pray for those

   who never get dessert,

   who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,

   who can’t find any bread,

   who don’t have rooms to clean up,

   whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser,

   whose monsters are real.

We pray for children

   who spend their allowance before Tuesday,

   who pick at their food,

   who like ghost stories,

   who shove dirty clothes under the bed,

   and never rinse out the tub,

   who don’t like to be kissed in front of the carpool,

   who squirm in church,

   whose smiles make us cry.

And we pray for those

   whose nightmares come in the daytime,

   who will eat anything,

   who have never seen a dentist,

   who aren’t spoiled by anybody,

   who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,

   who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried

   and for those who must,

 for those we never give up on

   and for those who don’t get a second chance.

For those we smother with love

   and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer

it.
In your eyes, gracious God, all of us are children.

Help us to grow into a greater understanding of your love in Jesus

Christ.

Amen.