Parents Prayer

Oh, God, make me a better parent.

Help me to understand my children,

to listen patiently to what they have to say

and to answer all their questions kindly.

 

Keep me from interrupting them,

talking back to them and contradicting them.

Make me as courteous to them

as I would have them be to me.

 

Give me the courage to confess my sins

against my children and to ask of them forgiveness,

when I know that I have done them wrong.

 

May I not vainly hurt the feeling of my children.

Forbid that I should laugh at their mistakes or

resort to shame and ridicule as punishment.

 

Let me not tempt a child to lie and steal.

So guide me hour by hour that I may demonstrate

by all I say and do that honestly produces happiness.

Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me.

 

May I cease to nag and when I am out of sorts,

help me, O Lord, to hold my tongue.

Blind me to the little errors of my children

and help me to see the good things that they do.

Give me a ready word for honest praise.

 

Help to treat my children as those of their own age,

but let me not exact of them the judgments

and conventions of adults.

Allow me not to rob them of the opportunity

to wait upon themselves,

to think, to choose and to make decisions.

 

Forbid that I should ever punish them

for my self satisfaction.

May I grant them all of their wishes

that are reasonable

and have the courage always to withhold a privilage

that I know will do them harm.

Author: Unknown