Image courtesy of care.org

I know not everyone who reads this will be religious, or of my tradition, but I felt that this prayer spoke to all parents; to our deepest prayers if we pray, but also to our deepest desires and fears for our parenting task, whether we pray or not. 

It’s taken from the book Guide My Feet: Prayers and Meditations on Loving and Working for Children by Marian Wright Edelman, the founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund. 

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 precious child become all You mean him to be.

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