Parents prayer

Busy day today. Visiting my aunt who will be 90 in a few months. She just got out of the hospital and isn't doing very well. She's had congestive heart failure and a pace maker for years and wasn't even supposed to live this long. Please keep her in your prayers.

I heard this prayer recited several times in our homeschool group and recently one of the members sent it out to our group. Thought it was a good one, since I need work in all these areas!

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A PARENT'S 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 feelings 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 honesty
produces happiness.

Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me. May I cease to nag; and when I am
out of sorts, help me, Oh 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 me 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 selfish satisfaction.
May I grant them all of their wishes that are reasonable and have the
courage always to withhold a privilege which I know will do them harm.

Make me so fair and just, so considerate and companionable to my
children that they will have a genuine esteem for me. Fit me to be
loved and imitated by my children.

With all thy gifts, Oh God, do give me calm and poise and self
control.

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By Garry Cleveland Myers, P.H.D.
Co-Founder Highlights for Children