Dear God,

Please forgive me this indulgence. But I am praying that by sharing this prayer more will pray and maybe, just maybe, the pain will be lessened for those that need relief and comfort the most.

Dear God,

I am so thankful for the gifts you have given me through the people that have come and gone throughout my life. And of course there are those that stick around and put up with me for years on end, including my family. Sometimes I wonder how you decided what family you would give me. How did you know I would need the mom I have and the dad I have? When did you decide that I was for them? What about my siblings? I am still learning from them how to live and love. We don't get to see each other often, but I am connected to them and they know and love me no matter what. Sometimes I am afraid for our family God. What will we do when our dad isn't around? How will we care for my mom? What will she need, and how will we show her the love and devotion that she showed us throughout our life? I know we are gifts to each other. Even if they seem like gag gifts sometimes.

Tonight I ask you Lord to protect some boys that I work with. They are brothers, and they are probably scared and confused. I know you gave them to each other, just as you gave me my family. You designed them to be together. Though each has a different set of biological parents, they are made brothers through a mother who surely loves them and desires more than anything to care for them and show them the love they are so worthy of. But as you already know and are already grieving about, they are struggling. I don't know the reality of the situation, but I know they are hurting. So Lord, please, in this very moment, I ask for you to protect this family from the harshness and the pain. I ask you Lord to hold them in your arms and ease their fears. I ask that you provide a loving hand to touch them and an understanding heart to provide for their needs. Please be with their mom. Love her and give her guidance and direction. Where there needs to be discipline, give it gently and allow her to learn from the model you are as a parent. Please teach those of us who are witness to the life of these boys to be compassionate and forgiving. Allow us to see with your eyes and love with your heart.

I know you can provide the love and protection when our humanness prohibits us from seeing all that is. For the brokenness that lies in the heart of each family, Lord, please mend and heal. I don't know what that looks like. I can't even begin to comprehend how you can bring peace to the hearts of the grieving. But I know you can. So please, for those who suffer in silence or in the agony of tears and sobbing, comfort and heal. Please show this world how to support and love the lost and grieving. Where pain must linger, please show yourself. Where brokenness is all that is real, please bring comfort in proportion to the pain. Where there is disbelief or resentment, please open your arms and allow the lost to feel your presence in a real and tangible way.

Tonight Lord, please be with the children whose parents are not able to love and comfort them. Whether it be next door to me, or in Africa. You are in our midst and you know each situation. You know the hearts of the children whose dad just died. You know the hearts of the parents who are struggling to breathe because they hurt so badly and are so alone. It is too much to understand and comprehend. But, you Lord, you do understand. You know just is needed to get them through. So for my own unbelief, anger, and sadness I ask for your forgiveness. For the parents are alive, but who can't feel the hearts of their own children, I pray you give them strength and clarity. I pray for the parents who are feeling the hearts of their children. Lord, please give them strength and steadfastness of heart. May they feel your energy and guidance in a real and present way. For the needs of both parents and children, I trust Lord you will provide.

In your unique and mysterious ways I pray you work a miracle in the family of my dear sister in Christ. I trust that you will know how to handle the difficulties. I rejoice that you have strengthened her heart and taught her to rely on you. In the same way, I ask you to do the same in the lives of those she loves. May their spirits be sensitive to the cries of her heart. Where there is bitterness and scrutiny, condemnation and criticism, I ask you to replace it with sensitivity and appreciation. I know you can take all things and make them new again. You have the power to take the pain of years of misunderstanding, frustration, and anger and turn it into a relationship of beauty and grace. I thank you Lord that you have reconciled many relationships in my life, and I ask for your intervention and power to reconcile all the relationships that suffer from our human inabilities.

I pray especially for those of us who don't understand. May we not sit in judgement of what we don't see, don't believe, and don't know. Give us hearts of compassion and acceptance. In each situation, whether pain filled or joy filled, may we trust that you have divine awareness and clarity. So as I try to comprehend, I ask that you to help me trust and not understand, but just love. Teach me to love like you do. You know my heart is heavy tonight and this is just the surface of all that my heart is feeling. But as I give this to you, I trust you will lighten my load and give me peace in which to rest. I pray the same peace and ease of sleep for those that struggle with burdens that only you can carry.