A prayer for God's children

Many have asked me for this... here is the prayer I prayed before my sermon on Sunday:

We pray for children
Who sneak Popsicles before supper,
Who erase holes in workbooks,
Who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those
Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
Who can’t bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
Who were born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead,
Who never go to the circus,
Who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
Who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.

And we pray for those
Who never get dessert,
Who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
Who watch their parents watch them die,
Who don’t have any rooms to clean up,
Whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser,
And whose monsters in their closets are real.

We pray for children
Who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
Who like ghost stories,
Who shove dirty clothes in their closets,
Who get visits from the tooth fairy,
Who don’t like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
Who squirm in church,
Whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those
Whose nightmares come in the daytime,
Who will eat anything,
Who have never seen a dentist
Who aren’t spoiled by anybody,
Who got to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,

We pray for children
Who want to be carried and for those who must,
For those we never give up on and for those
Who don’t get a second chance,
For those we smother and for those who will grab the hand of anyone kind enough to offer it.

God we lift up your children today and always.

Amen