A Prayer for My Children

And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
— Isaiah 54:13

A parent never stops praying for their children — not when they're small and sleeping, not when they're grown and gone, not even when they're standing right there perfectly fine and something in us still says please, Lord, keep them. It doesn't let up. If anything it gets louder the older they get, because the older they get, the less we can do about any of it. We can't follow them everywhere. But he can.

Lord, I bring you my children — every one of them, by name, the way I've been doing since before they could walk.
You know what they're carrying today. You know what they haven't told me.
Teach them what I couldn't. Protect them where I can't reach.
Give them peace — real peace, the kind that comes from knowing you, not from everything going right.
And wherever they are tonight, let them know, even if they've forgotten, that they are loved beyond what they can imagine — by me, and by you.
Amen.

The verse promises that our children will be taught of the Lord, and that great shall be their peace. I hold onto that promise the way a person holds onto a rope in deep water — not because I can see the shore, but because the rope is there and it holds. I cannot make my children believe. I cannot make them kind, or wise, or safe. But I can hand them, every single morning, to the One who can. And that has to be enough, because most days it's all I've got.

Say it every morning if you need to — there's no limit on this one. Ruby writes a short devotional every day in the same spirit: a verse, and something honest for the day ahead. You can subscribe — it's free, or stay a while and read more of her writing.