Designation of this week as the Week of Prayer for Children is sponsored by
the Children's Defense Fund and supported by congregations of all faiths.

October 22:

Holy One, Healer of all wounds, be with us as we search for faith to be your people. Help us see the wounds around us, especially those inflicted on children. Guide us to bring a healing touch of love and care, not given at a distance or hidden from view, but person to person. We pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ, whose gaze avoided no one and whose touch healed the sick. Amen.

October 21:

Dear God, I thank You for the gift of this child to raise, this life to share, this mind to help mold, this body to nurture, and this spirit to enrich.

Let me never betray this child’s trust, dampen this child’s hope, or discourage this child’s dreams.

Help me, dear God, to help this precious child become all You meant him to be.

Let Your grace and love fall on him like gentle breezes and give him inner strength and peace and patience for the journey ahead.

From Guide My Feet: Prayers and Meditations on Loving and Working for Children

by Marian Wright Edelman, Beacon Press, 1995

October 20:

God, Creator and Sustainer of all life, we come to you in prayer knowing that our individual prayers are heard, believing that by your grace our corporate prayers have power.  God, be with us this day.  Comfort us as a mother comforts her child.  Protect us from harm.  Nourish us with word and with bread.  Open our hearts.  Guide our steps.  We remember that prayer is a time to be encouraged and renewed as we seek the directing voice of our God.

            Hear us now, O God, and lead us in the ways of justice so that as we pray for your protection and strength we might also seek this good news for others.  We know that there are many for whom comfort seems a distant and abstract thing.  God, you have created life and you bid us to protect and develop it.

            In our midst and in our world, we hear the cries of those who suffer and those who have not enough.  Teach us to respond as you would have us, with compassion, with grace, and with hands that heed your vision of shalom.

            God, we recognize you as the author of life, hating nothing which you have made.  Teach us to see your love in those for whom life is not a joy.  We pray for the innocent, the lonely, and pained.  We pray for justice with all of its implications for those who suffer and for those who can change this suffering.

            God, hear our prayers.  Amen.

From Welcome The Child: A Child Advocacy Guide for Churches                   

The Rev. Duane Grady
Northview Church of the Brethren
Indianapolis, IN