A Prayer/Pledge of Responsibility for Children

We pray [accept responsibility] for children
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.

And we pray [accept responsibility] for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who can’t bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who never “counted potatoes,”
who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an x-rated world.

We pray [accept responsibility] for children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.

And we pray [accept responsibility] for those
who never get dessert,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can’t find any bread to steal,
who don’t have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser,
whose monsters are real.

We pray [accept responsibility] for children
who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed, and never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don’t like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray [accept responsibility] for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who aren’t spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.

We pray [accept responsibility] for children who want to be carried
and for those who must,
for those we never give up on and for those
who don’t get a second chance.

For those we smother….and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

Adapted from Ina J. Hughs

Back in the early 90’s it was my responsibility to organize the programs for the Wednesday night meetings at our church. Dinner and program for all ages, the evening was called “Omnibus.” One evening I asked another member of the church, Dr. Larry Freeman, CSAC, to speak to us on stress. He gave a wonderful lesson on a variety of ideas for responding to stress which I kept and drew from my stack of devotionals to write about this morning. However, paper clipped to Larry’s list was a handout he also gave us that night. The poem I printed above. Tomorrow I’ll touch on ways to reduce stress but today I’ll take time to thank God for the abundance in my life and the lives of my children and grandchildren. I will pledge to never take for granted the people in my life and pray that my eyes are not closed when I see a time where I can make a difference in the life of a child who does not have what I have.