A Parent's Prayer at the Beginning of Summer

Sometimes things don't line up the way we want them.

We begin to worry.
Worry can be infectious.

It taints our conversations and burdens our relationships needlessly. If we could learn to transform our worries into prayer...our concerns into petitions...maybe we would even change our hand-wringing into open-palmed acceptance and face our lives with courage and grace in the place of worry.

Parents worry about many things, but especially the life of each child. This prayer was by written by the Very Reverend Joe Robinson when Dean of the Episcopal Cathedral in Jackson, Mississippi. It was sent to me by a dear friend when our boys were high school graduates together. It may be a timely reminder for others as school days come to an end and summer begins.

Lord give us the grace to grieve in private-
to keep our children free from our anxiety,
to worry only about the things we actually know-
to free them from our obsessions,
to give advice only when asked, or when they are in danger-
to free them for your own shaping,
to expect that they will fail and fall and scrape
and get up to do it all again-
so that we will not interrupt their process,
to delight in the moments when they win and
to refrain from loving them the better for it.

For you love us when we win and when we fail-
and you expect us to do both.
You shield us from knowing your divine mind
so that we might have one of our own.
You hide your worry and your grief from us,
so that we might live in the world freely as your people.
You never ask that we do anything beyond our best,
And always add enough of grace to make our best sufficient.

Bless us while we are apart from one another,
and fill our lives with things we cannot wait to tell,
when next we meet.
AMEN

Photo courtesy of Rachel Kabukala of www.rachelkabukala.com