leadinginworship

Maternal God Prayer

Maternal God
you conceive us
give birth to us
nurse us
smile at us every day
protect us
feed us
give us words to say
show us how to walk
cheer for us in our successes
wipe our tears when we fail
encourage us
dream big for us
and love us for who we are.

Thank you that you
do not give up on us
when we
don’t call home
forget to visit
disappoint you
neglect what you’ve done for us
and think we did it by ourselves.
 
Open our eyes
to see those
who need the embrace
of your mothering love
who need
someone to be their champion,
someone to always give
the cup of cold water
and a second mile.
Help us this week
to take your love to heart
and embody it
like Jesus
deeply and tenderly.
Amen

Mothering God Prayer

Mothering God,

thank you for giving us life and breath on this most beautiful of days!

The sun beams out praise!

The leaves unfurl their green hallelujahs!

The nesting birds join the spring song of praise!

Buried in the soil, seeds leap upward at your command!

The glory of your goodness bursts out all around us,

our hearts overflow with your presence!

Today we say thank you for all who are nurturing life.

For those who give birth or adopt,

for those who cook and clean,

for those who change diapers and do laundry,

for those who listen and encourage,

for those who give undivided attention,

for those who provide the necessities of life

willingly, lovingly, consistently.

Be with those who face challenges,

give patience where there is frustration,

stamina where there is weariness,

and wisdom where there are dilemmas.

You walk beside us on long caregiving journeys,

and you won’t leave us.

We think especially today of those in our own community living in poverty

who have trouble putting food on the table and paying the rent;

guide our politicians as they make decisions that affect children.

We pray for places where life is threatened...

for Israel and Gaza where bombs are raining death,

and for Venezuela where political instability keeps continuing--

we long for your intervention in these aching places of the world.

In the news this week, we heard of the thousands

of species that face extinction because of the human footprint.

All of life on earth is your creation;

we repent that we have disregarded and ignored the treasure of diversity.

Help us find the will to change our ways and truly value all you made.

You hovered over the face of the deep in the dark with only your imagination;

you dreamed a world of life and beauty.

We want to dream together with you!

Send your Spirit on this community so that we can be your people of peace 

living life to the fullest on earth as it is in heaven.

In the name of Jesus we pray, 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.

Prayer to the Mother of Us All

We all have one.
She goes by different names:
mom, mama, mummy,
my mother, my birth mother,
the woman who bore me.
We may know her intimately,
or she may be just a name.
But it was she who carried us|
nurtured us with her body,
gave birth to us
and launched us into this wide world.

Some of us have experienced her love and care.
The deep gaze of tenderness and
the long slow work of constant love
evident in thousands of meals
and clean clothes and a ready ear
and picking up and dropping off
and watching and helping
and being tucked in and
a hand on the forehead when we are sick.
A mother’s love.

Others have felt other things;
putdowns, ridicule, judgement,
cruelty and abuse,
neglect and abandonment,
made all the more bitter since it comes
from one whose love we so crave.

And then there are the bereft,
torn from their mother’s embrace too soon,
when war or sickness or death
blighted a life-giving relationship.

Together we come to you for a blessing,
Mother of us all.
Bless the loved and the unloved,
the cherished and the orphaned.
Surround us with your tender care,
that forms us, kindness by kindness
into your family of peace.

A prayer for when I am self-destructive

Lord, I am an instrument of your peace.

Where there is self-hatred, let me sow love;

where there is negative self-talk, kindness;

where there is loathing of my body, acceptance;

where there is nursing of old injuries, release;

where there is envy of others, gratefulness;

where there is perfectionism, humanness.

 

O Divine Mother, grant that I may not so much seek

to be self-hurting, as self-healing;

to be self-denying, as self-cherishing,

to be numb, as to feel.

For it is in being loved by you, that I know I am lovable;

through your confidence in me, I confidently face each day,

it is in being yours now and eternally, that I live in peace.

 

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.

Sixteen Prayers

God, hear these sixteen prayers

that I am praying for sixteen good reasons.

I’ve loved her sixteen years,

protected and nurtured her each and every day.

Sixteen birthdays she’s made wishes

on cakes baked by my hands.

Sixteen years of trying to give good advice

and about a million “Be carefuls.”

And now, at this age of sixteen

when all the world is coming up roses,

my prayer for her is “Be yourself.”

And if she cannot see the dangers I see

and if all roads seem good,

and if all friends seem trustworthy,

give her a keen sense of the laws of nature;

that gravity applies to her,

and acceleration and velocity;

that all her sixteen years

cannot protect her from the words she speaks

and the fact that what is hastily given

cannot be easily retrieved.

Sixteen spells innocent and

sixteen spells accountable.

God our Mother protect this dear one

as I have longed to protect her

from the day you gave her into my arms

sixteen years ago.