Streams of Mercy

The PC(USA) encourages congregation to take note of “Children’s Sabbath” on the third Sunday of October each year. Sponsored by the Children’s Defense Fund, the national observance of Children’s Sabbath unites faith communities of every religious tradition across the nation to raise awareness of problems facing children and families in our nation (such as poverty, gun violence, and lack of health care), and challenges churches to explored ways to nurture, protect and seek justice for children.

We shared “We Pray for Children,” by Ina Hughes, in our worship service at Jackson Springs Presbyterian. This thoughtful prayer was prayed responsively, and reminded us of the different experiences our children face.

“We Pray for Children”

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 new sneakers,

who never counted potatoes,

who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead in,

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 cat and bury goldfish,

who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money,

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 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 at their food,

who like ghost stories,

who shove dirty clothes under the bed,

who get visits from the tooth fairy,

who don’t like to be kissed in front of the car pool,

who squirm in church and scream on the phone,

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 are never spoiled by anyone,

who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,

who live and move, but 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 never get a second chance,

for those we smother,

and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

We pray for children. Amen.

Children’s Sabbath is only a day, and there’s a lifetime of work to be done on their behalf. Let us pray for children, and let us find ways to work together to nurture, protect and seek justice for children everywhere.

Elizabeth