We pray for children who put chocolate fingers everywhere, who like to be tickled, who
stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants, who sneak popsicles before supper, who erase
holes in math 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 never "counted potatoes", who are
born in places in which 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 sleep with
the dog and bury goldfish, who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money, who
cover themselves with Band-aids and sing off key, who squeeze toothpaste all over the
sink, who slurp their soup.
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 can't find any bread to steal, who
don't have any rooms to clean up, whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser, whose
monsters are real...
We pray for children who spend all their allowance before Tuesday, who throw tantrums
in the grocery store and pick their food, who like ghost stories, who shove dirty clothes
under the bed and never rinse out the tub, who love visits from the tooth fairy, who don't
like to be kissed in front of the school bus, who squirm in church or temple and scream in
the phone...
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 go to bed hungry and cry
themselves to sleep, who live and move and have no being.
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 will grab the hand of anyone kind enough to offer it.
Hear our cries, Adonai, and listen to our prayers. Amen.
Reprinted with permission by the author, Ina J. Hughs
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