Parent's Prayer...author unknown
O Heavenly Father, make me a better parent...
Teach me to understand my children, to listen patiently to what they have to say and to answer all their questions kindly.
Keep me from interrupting them or contradicting them. Make me as courteous to them as I would have them be to me.
Forbid that I should ever laugh at their mistakes or resort to shame or ridicule when they displease me.
May I never punish them for my own selfish satisfaction or to show my power.
Let me not tempt my child to lie or steal.
And guide me hour by hour that I might role model...
With all I say and do, that which produces honesty and happiness.
Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me.
And when I'm out of sorts, help me Lord to hold my tongue.
May I ever be mindful that my children are children...
And I should not expect of them the judgement of adults.
And when I'm out of sorts, help me Lord to hold my tongue.
May I ever be mindful that my children are children...
And I should not expect of them the judgement of adults.
Let me not rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves and to make decisions.
Help me teach them that every decision has a consequence.
Grant me wisdom so I will not do for them...
What they can do for themselves.
Bless me with the bigness to grant them all their reasonable requests and the courage to deny them privileges I know will do them harm.
Make me fair and just and kind.
And patient..it is so hard to be patient Lord.
And fit me as a role model O, Lord to be loved and respected and imitated by my children.
Amen and Amen.
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Make me fair and just and kind.
And patient..it is so hard to be patient Lord.
And fit me as a role model O, Lord to be loved and respected and imitated by my children.
Amen and Amen.
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Reflection Story Note: Gary and I had a version of this "Parents' Prayer" hanging in the hallway between our two sons bedrooms where we could see, read and practice the stated themes and goals of Christian parenting.
And...without ceasing we prayed..."O Heavenly Father, make me a better parent!"
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Proverbs 22: 6 (NIV) - "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."
