Sunday, June 16, 2013

A Father's Prayer




            Dear Lord, as I sit beside the bed of my child and watch their sleep, I am overcome by the blessing you have given to me.  How can something this precious be placed in my care?  How can this beautiful creation look at me with eyes so full of admiration and wonder?  How can I live up to the task of not losing that innocent beauty to a world that seeks to destroy it?
            Lord, the time I have is so limited and cluttered with demands and deadlines.  Yet when the deadlines pass I can't remember why they were so critical.  While at my feet a child looks up and asks me to play ball or be their horsy, look at their latest crayon masterpiece or just hold them in my lap.  Their Daddy is the most important thing in the world to them.  When will I realize that they must be the most important thing in all the world to me?
            Lord, I know that someday they will walk away, no longer a child but a young man, a young woman.  I understand I must release them either to You or to this world.  Will I have been the father you wanted me to be?  Will that child see in me the loving hand, the words of wisdom, the inexhaustible love of you, their Heavenly Father?  Help me to make the time to show my children your love for them through me.  Oh, my God if only one task I accomplish before my life is over, please let it be that my children will know You through me.
                        I ask this in the name of your own Son. Amen
-DKM '93

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