A Prayer for Our Families

by Nancy Bowes

Dear Father and Mother God,

Thank you for the blessing of family: for the warmth, the reassurance, the guidance, the love we receive from them, especially in our early days, but truly, throughout our days. They are the foundation on which our daily lives are built: their needs, their expectations keep us steady, keep us oriented to a world outside ourselves. Help us to be the kind of children and siblings and parents you would have us be: giving, forgiving, accepting, loving unconditionally.

God who sees and knows all that we are and all that we do,

Forgive us for the many times we put ourselves before our families: for the times we treat our nearest and dearest as means instead of as ends in themselves. Forgive us too for our harsh judgments upon the families who act differently than we suppose we would in their circumstances. Help us to hold them up, so they can be loving families. Help us to notice, and dare to offer to help, when we suppose they must need support – whether that is in the grocery store at 5:00 p.m., when a child is crying wildly or in our backyards, when a single young mother is struggling to feed and care for a child.

As we have prayed for the people of Haiti and the rescue teams, armed forces personnel and aid workers, so let us also add to our prayers the families in Canada and around the world who this week are opening their arms and their homes to Haitian orphans: may they find strength in you to be loving parents to their new children and may those children find food, safety and love in their new homes.

Lord of all the earth,

Thank you for the brilliant blue skies of winter, for the sun to warm us and the moon to light our way through the longest, darkest nights. Keep prompting us, please, to preserve your fragile earth, to treat it as a legacy for our grandchildren, instead of as a resource to be mined.

Lord,

Our families are scattered all over your earth. This week and always, keep them safe, keep us in touch, keep us in your care.

In the name of your Son Jesus,

Amen.