Parent's Prayer

There are frequently prayers which we come to love.

This one I found in the church missile when I had my two young sons living at home.

This prayer faithfully captures the essence of parenthood to me in an extremely personal way.

Not only did I pray this prayer but I attempted to live it daily.

I hope it will be as beneficial to you the reader as it has been to me.

Parent's Prayer

Most loving Father, the example of parenthood, you have entrusted our children to us to bring them up for you and prepare them for everlasting life. Assist us with your grace, that we may fulfill this sacred duty with competence and love. Teach us what to give and what to withhold. Show us when to reprove, when to praise and when to be silent. Make us gentle and considerate, yet firm and watchful. Keep us from the weakness of indulgence and the excess of severity. Give us the courage to be disliked sometimes by our children, when we must do necessary things which are displeasing in their eyes. Give us the imagination to enter their world in order to understand and guide them. Grant us all the virtues we need to lead them by word and example in the ways of wisdom and piety. One day, with them, may we enter into the joys of our true and everlasting home with you in heaven.

Amen.