In honor of all moms on Mother’s Day, and the fathers that perform the single parent role to their children, and the grandparents that help raise their grandchildren, I give you this Parent’s Prayer.
May we all pray this and live this daily, even hourly.
Remember – we were all children once, so we know how much an adult can influence us for either good or bad.

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 to steal.
And guide me hour by hour that I may demonstrate by all I say and do that honesty produces happiness.
Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me.
And when I am out of sorts, help me, O Lord, to hold my tongue.
May I ever be mindful that my children are children and I should not expect of them the judgments of adults.
Let me not rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves and to make decisions.
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 fit me, O Lord, to be loved and respected and imitated by my children.
Amen.

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”
Proverbs 22:6

“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.”
1 Peter 5:2-3

Food for thought: Don’t be a “chicken” to parent the way you ought to! Protect your children as a mother hen does her own! Be strong, yet gentle. Be tough, but loving. Put yourself in your child’s shoes. I know – that takes some imagination, but you can do it! Think back to when you were their age. What type of parenting did you respond to? How can we parent as God does for us?

Fun facts: ABIGAIL ADAMS – As the wife of President John Adams, Abigail Adams (1744 —1818) was the second First Lady of the United States. Because her husband was often away from home for work, she often single-handedly ran their farm, wrote letters supporting equal rights for women and the abolition of slavery, and educated their five kids who survived into childhood—including future president John Quincy Adams. Quincy Adams wrote: “My mother was an angel upon earth. She was a minister of blessing to all human beings within her sphere of action. Her heart was the abode of heavenly purity… She was the real personification of female virtue, of piety, of charity, of ever active and never intermitting benevolence.”

Photo by: Kari Wiseman – Mother hen and her chick