leadinginworship

Child Dedication with Children's Story

Children’s Story: 

supplies:  have a large vase with enough flowers so every child in church will be able to hold one.

Good morning, children!  What does it mean to belong to a family?  What is a family?

(get kid’s responses)

Families come in all shapes and sizes, some people live in a family with grandparents and parents, some people live in a family with just one parent or caregiver, some live as an only child in a family, some live with many kids in a family.

Today I want to tell you about a different kind of family.  It’s a church family.  Stand up and look around at everyone here (they turn and look)…all these people together make up something we call a congregation.  We are a group of people who love God and are trying to follow Jesus together. Another name for a congregation is a “church family.”  We are a family because when we love Jesus, we become part of a group that takes care of each other.  We help each other. We encourage each other.

Today we are going to have something called a child dedication.  Some of you know that the _______family had/adopted a new baby!  What a gift from God.  She is a gift to their family!  But she is also a gift to our church family!  We are all happy to have a new baby in church.

In today’s service we are going to call the family up to the front and they are going to say some words. We will have a prayer where we say thank you to God for the new baby.  The parents and all of us here will also promise that we will love the baby and take care of her, and include her in our church family.  I am going to put my hand on the baby’s head and bless the baby, which means we ask God to take care of her.

As baby _____ grows up, how do you think you could show you care for her and include her in our church family?

(listen to their answers)

Thank you for those great ideas. It may be easier to include her once she is a little older and can run around with you!  But today, we want to welcome her by giving her a big bouquet of flowers.  After we say the blessing prayers, I am going to invite each one of you to take a flower and give it to the baby (her parents will have to hold it for her).  It’s a way of saying to her, “We love you, and we welcome you as part of our church family.”  So now we are going to call the family up…listen closely, and when I call you, come and get a flower and give it to the baby. [children stay in the front row for the child dedication]

Mark 10:13-16

Pastor: Babies are a gift from God! 
When a new baby comes to church,
we like to have a blessing and a dedication for the new baby and the parents.
In this prayer we thank God for the life of the new baby,
we offer the child to God and we ask for God’s blessing on their life together as a family.
We also dedicate ourselves as a congregation to help nurture and care for the baby.
Will the ___________ family come forward.
A and B, welcome to this service of blessing and dedication!
As parents, do you welcome baby _______as a gift from God?
Parents: We do.

Do you dedicate yourselves to bring up _______ in a Christian home, loving and caring for her as Jesus loves us, modelling the Christian walk in words and actions?
Parents: We do.

Recognising that an extended family nurtures and influences the life of a child, as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, will you support __________ and her parents as they grow into the full stature of Christ? If so, answer, "We will."
Extended Family:  We will.

I invite the congregation to share their words of welcome to ____________. 

CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE            

Welcome _________!
We rejoice and give thanks for your presence here,
you are a gift from God!
We promise to care for you and nurture you
as part of our church family.
We will support A and B in their efforts
to provide a loving home for you.
We will pray for you and with you.
We pray that God will bless you and make you a blessing!

Prayer of Blessing

Pastor:  Loving God, we bring __________ before you today.
Help her grow in years and wisdom, learning about the grace of Jesus.
May your Holy Spirit fill her, so that she can serve you faithfully.  [putting hand on her head]
_________, may God bless you and keep you,
may the face of God shine upon you.
May God’s presence embrace you all the days of your life,
and help you grow in peace. Amen.

As a symbol of our welcome to _________, the children want to present you with flowers
Children, can you come forward?

[Children come forward and each give a flower to the parents. Music can be playing during this time.]

Conclude with hymn: Child of Blessing, Child of Promise.

Praying Through A Divorce

What God has joined together now lies in pieces.
What began with delight and tenderness,
reeks now with bitterness and festering pain.
What began with soft words of love,
grates now with harsh words of blaming.
Jesus, we look for you in this relationship’s slow crucifixion
as each to each say, “Why have you forsaken me?”
As we stand on this barren Golgotha
we are desperate to repair this relationship,
which is not in our power to fix.
We urgently want to end this bleeding,
for which there is no quick remedy.
In the face of suffering we cannot fathom,
and stories which haven’t yet found a voice,
as a community we surround this family.
Holy Spirit, as we watch and wait,
empower us not to turn away.
As people of peace,
the deaths in this small war leave us
pleading for resurrection.
With humble hearts and empty hands we pray,
“Father, into your hands we give this family.”

Leaving Marriage: A Survivor's Prayer

For richer, for poorer, for better, for worse.
I made these vows, God, before you and witnesses.
You know I meant them.
But how worse is worse?
What does faithfulness mean when he hurls his dinner at the wall?
What does honour mean when he throws me to the ground by my hair?
What does love mean when sex is always about what he wants?
You know I’m not perfect.
My words, my thoughts, my actions have been far from loving.
But this situation is impossible.
I lie down in fear, and I wake in fear.
What will I do wrong today that will set him off?
After the explosions, he apologizes; he is sorry and charming.
I’ve forgiven more than seventy times seven,
and still there are these bruises.
I vowed to be a part of this marriage,
but his violence has broken this partnership,
and I cannot put it back together alone,
no matter how hard I try.
Our union now is more about anger and terror,
than love and tenderness.
In the despair, in the hopelessness,
in the futility and self-blame,
can I meet you even here?
You are the God who loves me, who cherishes me,
who thinks I’m worth something, who wants the best for me,
who would see good done for me, and not my destruction.
After so many years of praying for my marriage,
and praying for him to change,
today I pray something different.
Help me leave. Help me make it out of here alive.
Give me courage to think of life after marriage.
Help me trust that even if I leave him,
you will never leave him.
Even though he has destroyed the love we had,
your love for him is never ending.
Take care of him,
because I cannot do it anymore.

Psalm for a Women's Shelter

Lord, you are my rock and my redeemer,
you are my shelter, an ever present help in times of trouble.
You know that violence has been my diet, day and night.
I called to you from the depths, “Lord, save my life.”
It is not my enemy that attacks me, but it is my partner,
the one I love who assails me.
My body is black and blue,
my mind is reeling from insults thrown at me.
The love that I gave is thrown back in my teeth.
In this storm of trouble, I looked for help;
you led me to this women’s shelter.
When I needed a safe place to protect my children,
they found a space for me.
When my abuser pursued me, they locked the door against him;
they protected my identity.
They saw my wounds and got me medical care.
They heard my torment, and provided counsellors.
Even when I walked in the valley of the shadow of suicide,
they were with me, they held my hand.
They believed that goodness and mercy could come to me,
even when I was sure it wouldn’t.
For leading me to this place, where my soul can be restored,
I will be thankful all the days of my life,
till I dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
 
 

 

Family Prayer

Loving God, thank you for our families.
Thank you for the people who light up our lives,
whose tender presence is dear beyond all words,
people who have enriched our lives beyond all measure.
Give us love for our families,
accepting them as they are,
encouraging them to be all they can be,
appreciating them as we want to be appreciated.
Sometimes the people we love the most
can be the people with whom we have the most conflict,
help us persevere in our love.
You know our relationships inside out,
you know that we have people in our family we love,
but there are also people in our family we only tolerate,
and people in our family we can hardly stand.
Give us patience with our families this week.
When we would keep track of hurtful words,
call to mind the thoughtless words we have spoken.
When we would count the ways we have been neglected,
teach us to remember that we too overlook others.
Jesus, you walked a fine line of love with your own family;
help us know when to stay, and when to walk away,
when to hope, and when to draw a line.
Help us to live in peace while still respecting ourselves;
to refuse to abuse, and not to let others abuse us either.
Be our familiar guide in all we do and say this week. Amen.

Gentler Waters

It doesn’t always go as planned.
Bowled over with newborn love,
the way ahead seems clear and untroubled,
devotion deep and wide enough
to weather any storm.
So we say a prayer, Darling Mother,
for when the crying baby
will not be comforted,
and the night knows what
we want to do.
We say a prayer for when we
reach for the tantruming toddler,
knowing we barely control ourselves.
Prayers for the endless endless housework,
prayers for best things broken,
and for the children fighting,
prayers for facing down
our own anger, bitterness, fears, self-will.
Prayers for years of power struggles
and learning to let go.
And when they walk out the door,
and our great love surfaces
like a whale coming up for air,
be with us as we come to terms
with the mothering we’ve done,
and the mothering left undone.
Give us grace to apologize,
to forgive, even ourselves,
as we move into gentler waters
of parenting adults
no longer children.

Mothering Mended

It’s not easy to trace the tears,
the gaping holes where mothering
went wrong.
I can point to the withering look
that day at the dinner table
when I took my father’s attention.
Or maybe the stoney face
accusing me of losing something precious,
my protests unheard.
Or the subtle manipulations;
the distaste for what I wore,
the way I looked, laughed, talked.
I saw you coming to the front door,
and my heart panicked.
And yet, there was love,
and good times too.
You cutting up an apple for me
as we shared an evening snack,
or our walks along the beach.
The picture I have of you
trying to pick up a piece of driftwood
that you could never lift.
But I couldn’t trust you,
I never knew when you would turn.
I eventually walked out of that room
where mother was judge and jury.

Duty brought me back, not love.
When you had to come to me,
I had to let you in.
And in those final dependent years,
something shifted.
Was it power (yours? mine?)
or was it the pills they gave you,
pharmaceuticals revealing
some inner long hidden sensitivity?
No matter, for suddenly
there was a new language
of affection and appreciation,
so longed for, never before received.
You had the happy blessing of remembering
only pleasantries from our shared history.
I moved forward, trying not to look back.

At the end, you reached the shore alone
but I would have wanted to be there.
I only give thanks now for mothering
mended against all odds,
and the gift of bereavement.

A Prayer for Family Gatherings

Jesus, you grew up in a family

that did not always understand,

who questioned you and no doubt squabbled;

hear our prayer for family gatherings this year.

Thank you for families that get along,

showing unconditional love and support:

families that are flexible and adaptive,

that can stand any storm.

Bless all who are travelling to gatherings

that they can’t wait to get to.

And then there are other families,

where tension, suspicion and judgement

vie for power with love and acceptance.

Sentences begin with “You always…”

“I never…” and “Not this again….”

Bless those who are travelling to gatherings

with shields up, heads down,

not sure if they will find a home at all.

And then there are those who are not travelling:

they can’t afford the expense,

or there is no home to go to,

or home is so toxic it’s healthier to stay away.

Bless those who are working to create

new networks of caring and support.

God of hope, send angels down this year

to give good tidings of great joy

right in the midst of real-world family dynamics;

the good, the sad, and the ugly.

Let us be these messengers of hope,

improbable emissaries of a newborn king,

astounded witnesses

to family Christmas miracles.

 

Joy to the World

Joy may be like a fountain,
but it has no on/off switch.
We can’t manufacture joy
or produce it on demand.
Running after joy is
like running after the wind;
you can’t catch it.
Joy is wild and treasured,
like a rare shy bird
that suddenly appears.
It can be fleeting,
or its presence can rest with you,
like a benediction,
for days and months.
It shows up in the strangest places,
and just as quickly disappears.
The moment you try to hold it,
it flees away.
I held the hand of a dying man
all morning
and spent the afternoon
visiting a newborn baby.
Holding that little one’s hand,
my tears kept coming and coming.
Was that joy, or something like it?
In our Good Friday world,
where death is our constant companion,
God holds out a hand
with surprisingly little fingers.
God with us.

A Prayer for when Sexual Abuse is Discovered

My God, my God,
where were you?
My innocent child,
my beautiful innocent child,
a child of God, your child,
this child has been abused.
First and foremost,
protect my child, Lord.
Keep them from further harm.
Heal the hurt.
Mend the memories.
Restore what is lost.
Show me how to help
and how to get them the help they need.
Let there not be lasting, lingering effects
from this deed done.

God of all the dark places in the world,
you know what I am feeling inside.
Such a feeling of guilt:
how could I have missed this?
how could I not have known?
how could I not be there to protect?
These feelings are enough to engulf me,
but they are matched thought by thought
with rage and outrage and anger.
How dare he?
If there was a trigger to pull,
I would pull it.
With every wailing prophet,
I call down judgement and destruction,
never in my life have I longed this much
for a God of wrath.

And yet the next moment
I am filled so much with sadness
for this broken hurting world;
so many little ones abused,
so many warped people hurting others,
probably after being hurt themselves as children.
God of all of us, how can you bear it?
Jesus, thank you that you too felt the outrage,
you too spoke of millstones around necks
and people being drowned in the bottom of the sea.
Yet your actions were all of love;
even in extreme pain, you spoke the word “Forgive”.

Holy Spirit, I need your presence with us on this journey.
Lead me in good paths, not bitter ones.
Teach me how to trust again.
Be our companion as we work for justice and accountability,
accompany us as we walk step by step towards healing.
And yes, even touch the heart of the one who offended,
convict, convert and illumine their minds,
so that they can understand the wrong they’ve done,
and never do it again.

My first and last thought is for my baby, my own,
a child of God, wounded and hurting.
You who sees the littlest sparrow falling,
reach out and catch this one,
mend them inside and out,
and keep them in your loving care forever.  Amen.

Golden

The gold band stays the same,
a bit warped maybe,
the edges worn down,
some scratches.
Still hugging my ring finger
since the day
you put it there
round about an age ago.
Like your love,
still surrounding me
these many years,
still holding me
still cherishing me
still honouring me.
Thank you for being
a man of your word,
steady through all these seasons.
A partner is hard to describe,
our roots entwined so tight;
so many comings and goings
but always there’s a home
when you walk in the room.
Your voice, your laugh,
your walk are still a magnet
drawing my eyes in any crowd.
You are a good companion;
thoughtful, intelligent, funny
(you laugh at almost all my jokes).
You’ve worked hard to support us.
We’ve held our babies, raised them,
and reveled together
as we’ve watched them launch.
Sick or healthy,
through every up and down,
from east to west,
you’ve been my faithful friend.
So much behind us,
(we are rich in the Memory Bank)
who knows what’s before us.
I hope that God will gift us
with many more anniversaries
which we will ring in
with deep smiles and thankfulness
for a family, our family,
a happy golden life together.

Spring of Life Congregational Prayer

Great God,
this week we have been witnesses
to the power of resurrection;
slow motion explosions of green
soundlessly changing our landscape,
blossoms blossoming pink,
tulips tuliping their brilliant colours,
opening their mouths to the warmth of the sun.
We find ourselves opening up too in these May days,
opening our windows,
turning our faces upward,
breathing deeply.
The fragrance of spring permeates our world,
and we give you thanks for the blessing of life renewed.

We pray for our government;
for our mayor ___________and our local leaders,
as they debate issues, and make decisions
about new initiatives and new program.
Help them to make decisions that benefit all citizens,
particularly those who are marginalized and voiceless.
We pray for our Prime Minister _______________
and our MP [MLA]_____________,
especially as they make decisions
about foreign aid and foreign policy;
that they could sow seeds of peace.

We are mindful this week that even as spring comes to Canada,
in ___________ they are facing a natural disaster
which has brought heartbreak and destruction.
Comfort the bereaved, give strength to the rebuilders.
Open the hearts of the world as we contribute to relief.
Sustain the [international relief organizations you support] as they deal with this crisis,
so that they could continue to provide help in your name.

We lift up those we know with health issues, especially ___________.
We need your healing power for these dear ones.
We also pray this morning for those in the spring of life,
who are expecting new babies,
that you would give them patience and health, and safe deliveries.

Forgive us for the times this week we have been too overwhelmed to act,
too selfish to look beyond ourselves,
locked in a winter of self-preoccupation with our own business.
Bring new life to our primary relationships.
For those who are married, renew our vows of constancy,
rekindle love so that we can truly cherish one another.
Give us new strength and new patience as we
go about our work of caregiving for children.

Help our congregation to be an incubator of hope,
a blessing in our community, and in our city [region].
We want to join with you in your kingdom work,
as your hope grows,
pregnant with possibility,
ripe with promise.
In the name of the resurrected Jesus we pray,
Amen

Amazing Congregational Prayer

Thank you God for this amazing world,
that is both diverse and complex.
Thank you for a world that includes snowy tundra and desert,
that includes rocky mountains and tropical beaches,
that includes icy lakes and warm oceans,
that includes cold winds and warm breezes.
Thank you that the world is not all the same.
Thank you for its beauty and our place in it.

Thank you for our amazing families,
that are both diverse and complex
You know our relationships inside out,
you know that we have family we love,
family we tolerate, family we can hardly stand.
Give us patience with our families this week.
When we would count the ways we have been neglected,
teach us to remember that we too overlook others.
When we would keep track of hurtful words,
call to mind the thoughtless words we have spoken.
When we would itemize the imperfections of our family members,
reveal to us our own shortcomings.
We need Jesus to show us the way,
giving us a love for our families
as deep as the need for love within ourselves.

Thank you for our amazing congregation
that is both diverse and complex.
Thank you for all who work so hard to make this place tick.
Thank you for those who teach children and youth and adults,
serve meals, donate money, clean sidewalks, arrange flowers
Thank you for those who pray, who work on committees,
handle our finances, practice music and hospitality,
share stories, clean up, visit the sick, play instruments
and attend our services.
Thank you for all the gifts you`ve given
and the way they are used to build up this body of Christ.  

Thank you for the amazing way you work in our world,
in diverse and complex ways that we can hardly understand.
Thank you for the role you give our congregation and our families,
sowing seeds, being salt and light everywhere we go.
We pray especially today for those we know who are sick….
Our hearts are heavy with the story in the news this week [name story]…
you know how peace was broken and how it can be healed.
We call on your amazing power to renew, to restore, to rejuvenate.

Bless our congregational meeting this Sunday,
we want it to be a good time of community sharing and visioning.
May the words we hear(d) today from scripture
speak to us about who you want us to be this year,
in this time and this place.
We pray this in the name of Jesus our Saviour, Amen.

A Confessional Prayer

Gracious God,
we confess before you our complicity in the sins of this world,
sins which Jesus felt in his own body and soul.
Our hands are not clean.
We confess that we have desired power and status,
and have neglected our duty as your servants.
We have allowed ourselves to become preoccupied
with things we own or want to own,
freely putting on the chains of consumerism.
Open our eyes to the way our lifestyles
affect and shape the suffering of those here and far away.
We confess that we have turned away
from the hungry and the homeless in our own cities and towns,
thinking that they were someone else’s problem.
We fail even in our most intimate relationships with those we love,
showing our worst side to those who care for us most.
Forgive us for sour faces, for cold shoulders,
for clenched fists, and icy stares. 
Forgive us for the sins we know and remember,
and which weigh heavily upon us,
as well as the sins which we have forgotten,
which meant almost nothing to us,
but which have resulted in pain for others.
You called us to carry a cross,
and yet we complain as soon as the way is hard,
forgetting how much we have received,
and how little we have sacrificed.
Take away our hearts of stone,
and give us hearts of flesh,
which beat to the rhythm of love,
of faith, of hope,
and love, always love.
Amen.

Close as kin

Close can be comfortable
and close can be uncomfortable.
Knit together in our mother’s wombs,
we emerge and…
the fabric of the family holds us tight.
Loved and cherished from a young age,
we feel close-knit and strongly supported.
Or the opposite.
Abused, neglected or abandoned in childhood,
we can feel frayed at the edges,
unravelled at key points,
at loose ends in the world. 

The wider family is a similar mystery,
offering comfort and discomfort,
sometimes in equal measure.
The loving uncle who is always there for you,
the aunt with the nasty racist comments,
the happy family reunions,
the feuding cousins who never speak,
the children who visit or don’t visit,
the words that are spoken or not spoken.
Even the dead relatives refuse to rest,
haunting or blessing our memories. 

We come to God with different prayers,
some saying thank you for a good and perfect gift from above,
others looking for deliverance, and a freedom from heavy burdens.
Satisfied or swamped, the question for us all is exactly the same,
whispered every day in our ear by a God who loves us;
“What kind of relative will you be today?”

Crossroads Congregational Prayer

We come to prayer this morning
at the crossroads of summer and winter.
Summer still shines,
asters blooming with yellow and orange vividness,
warm days calling us to walk outside and enjoy the sun,
fresh fruit and vegetables still fill our tables
and delight our tastebuds.
And yet, the nights grow cold,
we see our breath in the morning,
yellow and red creep into the leaves of the trees,
the days get shorter,
the earth tilts
and there’s no stopping the coming of winter.
Thank you for the blessings and beauty of our world! 

We come together as your people,
we gather here in one place, with one heart for worship,
and yet in each of our lives we stand at different crossroads.
The _________ family has stood at the brink between life and death,
as they mourn the loss of ___________.
We pray for them and all who grieve today,
we need your comfort and your peace.
Other people stand at the crossroads of big decisions,
“Should we go this way or that way?” we wonder.
Guide us as we make important decisions about how we spend our money,
which job to take, where to live.
We pray for __________  and __________
who stood at a crossroads in life at their wedding ceremony.
Bless their marriage, and all those who are newly married,
help them forge bonds of love that last a lifetime.
Other older people are at crossroads in relationships;
should we stay together, or separate,
should we seek reconciliation, or walk away;
God of grace, be the one who guides us in all our decision-making.
You know the decisions that our congregation is making,
show us the way, when we are faced with many ways to go. 

As we read the news, we are constantly reminded
that the world stands at a crossroads
with so many refugees from so many war-torn countries.
Lives are in the balance:
open the heart of the world community, open our hearts,
to be generous for these people, to meet their needs.
We pray all this in the name of Jesus,
who walks with us down every road we take, Amen.

True home Call to Worship

Our call to worship is from Isaiah 49 (The Message, by Eugene Peterson)

"Can a mother forget the infant at her breast, walk away from the baby she bore?
But even if mothers forget,  I'd never forget you—never.
Look, I've written your names on the backs of my hands.
The walls you're rebuilding are never out of my sight."

Thank you, God, that worship is always our true home.
Thank you that it is here that we are welcomed,
here that we can show our true selves
and be truly accepted and loved for who we are.
Help us in this hour to rest in your love,
in the presence of our church family,
children of God, together.

God Our Champion: A Reading for Mother's Day/Father's Day

Everyone needs a champion,
someone who will be in your corner, always,
someone watching your back,
someone watching you, treasuring you,
keeping you in their heart.

Parents are nature’s champions,
biologically led to love and nurture,
feed and foster,
support and sustain.
They can’t keep their eyes off you.

From Adam and Eve on,
parents creating babies,
caring for their offspring,
all part of God’s plan for fruitfulness,
the multiplication of love
from generation to generation.
And this is a true story,
a story for many happy people,
dearly beloved by happy parents.
Other true stories need telling;
parents who champion themselves
at the expense of their offspring,
parents who hate themselves and
have no room in their hearts for love,
parents who abandon children,
or who are forced to abandon children,
parents who die, leaving orphans.
Who will care for the motherless,
who will cherish the fatherless,
who will champion the neglected?

God our Father, Life-giver,
you cannot forget the child you created,
God our Mother, Life-sustainer,
you cannot forget the child you nurse.
God our Parent, our Protector,
you are an ever present help in times of trouble.
You are the champion of the orphan,
you seek out the lost and the lonely,
the smallest lamb will not escape your notice.
You carry us in your arms,
you speak tenderly,
you seek justice for us,
you pronounce judgement on those who hurt us.
You provide a place for us,
people who shepherd us and take us into their own flock.
You raise up communities of nurturers,
groups of people  who will not let a single little one be lost.
Guardian of us all,
we give you thanks for mothers, fathers
and all who foster us;
gifts from your tender hands,
our Divine Champion. 

This can also be read by three readers, perhaps people of different ages, here is  a breakdown of parts:

Faithful and True: A Mother's Day Prayer

God of grace, thank you for the gift of motherhood:
for the joy of giving birth, for the delight of loving a child,
for the unfolding of a relationship over time.
From mothers cradling babies, to adults caregiving for aging parents,
the relationship of mother and child is a gift from you!

Thank you for all who mother us,
biological or adoptive mothers, caregivers, relatives and friends;
women who have been there for us, who have made us who we are.
Thank you, God, that even though mothers may fail us, you never fail us
and that you mother us through your love.
We are not perfect people, and in our intimate relationships, we are imperfect.
For all the ways we have as mothers, disappointed or failed our children, forgive us.
For all the ways we have as children, disappointed or failed our mothers, forgive us.
Give us the grace to say, “I’m sorry,” and the wisdom to make amends.

For mothers today we ask for patience, to allow our children to be children;
we ask for vision to see the long view, and the impact small parenting choices can make,
we ask for self-control,  so that we may model gracefulness in stressful situations.
Above all these we ask for love, pressed down, shaken together, running over!
We ask this in the name of Jesus, who knew the love of a mother,
faithful and true to the end, Amen.

God our Mother: Mother's Day Prayer

Loving God, we give thanks today for mothers!
Thank you for mothers who gave birth to us,
and women who have treated us as their own children.
You teach us how to be good mothers,
cherishing and protecting the children among us.
Help us mother lovingly, fairly, wisely and with great joy.
Help us raise our children to be the people they are born to be.

We need your comfort here today, God,
because some are missing mothers, some are missing children,
some are parted by distance or death.
Comfort those who have given up their child for adoption,
or who chose not to give birth, and had an abortion.
Comfort those who longed to be biological mothers, and could not.
We pray for those here whose mothers have disappointed them;
we ask for grace in relationships where there is pain and bitterness,
for healing in relationships where there is abuse and violence.
Help our congregation be a space where people can feel mothered,
their gifts and talents appreciated and nurtured.

Finally, we pray today for mothers around the world;
mothers who cannot feed their children,
mothers who are homeless or without a homeland;
mothers who must teach their children about the dangers of bombs and bullets.
Help us create a world where mothers can raise their children in peace and plenty.
God of mothers, who created mothers, who came as a child and had a mother,
God our Mother, loving us with a sweeter and deeper love than we have ever known,
hear our prayer this day, Amen.