A Prayer for Children

The smallest, biggest blessings

I am in a season of life right now where a lot of my friends and family members are having kids.

Holidays and summer barbecues and weekend outings are now speckled with children all growing up right before our eyes. They are delighting in first time discoveries we might have forgotten the wonder of, giggling and jumping and running, and then diving headfirst into the safety of a hug, or a high five, or even behind the legs of someone they know when faced with someone they don't.

Children are some of the smallest, biggest wonders of our world, bringing levity to situations that seem unmanageable, and occasional chaos to situations that seem determinedly peaceful.

A giggle from a toddler, a smile from an infant, a sudden ceasing of crying from a newborn can make you feel bright—like you matter, like you are special, like you were destined to be there in that moment. Children can be true gifts, both to their parents and families, and to strangers in passing. They are little bursts of light that can bring color into the days of many.

So today I just want to pray for the children.

For the little ones newly wandering around this big wide world, trying to figure it all out. For the tiny humans running on pure emotion even if they don't quite understand what emotions are yet. For the ones trying so hard to be grown up, even as we tell them to please slow down. For the ones that, in time, will face the more complex challenges of life, identity, and love.

I pray that our children would find the company of safe adults. Parents and guardians and teachers and coaches; aunts and uncles and grandparents and family friends that feel blood related—people that make them feel seen and safe, and who nurture their growing minds with love, compassion, and patience.

I pray that the cycles of abuse, of abandonment, of selfishness and chaos that lead generation after generation down hard, harmful paths would come to an end, and new dawns of development would take shape. That no child will feel set up for failure, or left behind or unworthy of the love, success, and acceptance they deserve.

I pray that wonder would keep hold of them, opening their eyes to the goodness to be found even in times of struggle, and that allies can be found, even in times of loneliness.

I pray that we would be given the words they need to hear, the answers they need to find, and the patience they need to be offered over and over and over. And I pray that they would always see our doors open, our ears willing, our shoulders ready to cry on. That we might offer children both the love we were given and the love we wish we had—the homes we were brought up in and those we wish we’d found.

And I pray we might all reap the benefits of a healthy, happy child, be it in the form of a passing smile we didn’t know we needed, a belly laugh we forgot we were capable of, or a hug that we know is genuine.

May we protect your children God, but also remember that we never age out of being called the same. May we all know that you love us, all the days of our lives.

Amen.