A Prayer For When Your Child Sees Something Scary On The News

A Prayer for When Your Child Sees Something Scary on the News

O God, You hold the world in Your hands,

So You know when we hurt

And when we ache.

You feel it too—

The beat of

Our heaving hearts,

Reverberating into You.

Our children are perceptive,

And their brains and hearts

Have absorbed news of

Unspeakable things.

How do we see You in these headlines?

How do we pray when we don’t have words?

Help us enter into conversations

with our child.

Let Your love be a raft

When we feel like we’re sinking.

Help us resist the urge to say

Situations are better than they are.

Help us to be honest

And gentle

As we invite our child to express their emotions—

Their sadness, their fear, their frustration.

For in naming our feelings,

We can move through them together.

As we sit with our child

And stare into the brokenness of humanity,

We pray for eyes to see You.

May we learn from our child

What it is to be moved to tears.

And will You give our family

Hearts that cling to hope

Even when life is scary

Or feels out of control?

O God, You are constant

In turbulent times.

You are unchanging,

And we can trust You

To be with us

Even when we feel

Like we’re reaching out for You in the dark.

God, give us wisdom to know

How to parent our child

As they metabolize the pain of our world.

Help us tend to their heart

And hold them with care,

Just as You do for us.

Psalm 27:1; Matthew 10:29-31