Prayer for Children
Prayer presented by Non Mead on Celebration of Children Sunday, May 20

Dear God, we look around and are aware of your Goodness. We know the freedom of your Grace and Love. We look to the future with grand expectations and Hope, and feel the wonder of a world so much bigger than we are. Help us, Lord, to find a way to help the children you have placed in our care, children of all ages, to live in a world where goodness abounds, where they have the freedom to grow, where they can expect to be safe and warm and loved. Help us to find a way to bring peace into the Now as well as the future and help us to pass on a world full of beauty.

Loving God, you have placed in our midst young people who are symbols of both hope and vulnerability. Hear our prayers for all your children: to sustain their hope and joy, to be comforted and to console their vulnerability.

We pray for children
Who like to be tickled,
Who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants.
Who sneak popsicles before supper,
Who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those
Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
Who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,
Who have never been on a vacation
Who live in an X-rated world

We pray for those
Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
Who sleep with the dog and bury goldfish,
Who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money,
Who cover themselves with Band-Aids and sing off-key,

And we pray for those
Who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
Who don't have any rooms to clean up,
Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
Whose monsters are real

We pray for youth
Who spend too much time playing video games
Who go to proms
Who can't decide on which college to attend
Who would rather "die" than be caught looking less than perfect
Who are embarrassed by their parents

And we pray for those
Who don't own anything
Who are told they are worthless
Who are not encouraged to go to school
Who just want something clean to wear

We pray for children and youth
Who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
Who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food
Who shove dirty clothes under the bed
Who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool
Whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can 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
And for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer.

In each child let us behold anew your promise of creation. Sustain these little and not so little ones. By your grace may they live the lives for which they were created. With renewed dedication and childlike wonder we pray the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray saying: Our Father...


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