Read by M and C at todays Mothering Sunday parade service at FMC. I've looked around the web and found various versions of this floating about, so I think it must be ok to share this here.
We pray for children
Who put chocolate fingers everywhere
Who like to be tickled
Who jump in puddles, forgetting the consequences
Who have no sense of time or routine
Whose shoes are missing at school time
Who speak on the phone like experts
And we pray for those
Who stare at photographers as if from another planet
Who have never had a new pair of shoes
Who have never made daisy chains or teased the dog
Who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead
Who have never had the chance to be children
Who only know a world of abuse
We pray for children
Who give us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions
Who hug us in a hurry and forget their dinner money
Who sing their hearts out to there own tune
Who squeeze toothpaste all round the sink
Who ask questions and don’t listen to the answers
Who have imaginary friends and conversations
And we pray for those
Who don’t have a room to call their own
Who can’t find any bread to steal
Who watch their parents watch them die
Whose minds are full of violent memories
Who don’t feel important to anyone else
We pray for children
Who spend their pocket money before its actually in their pocket
Who throw tantrums in the supermarket and pick at their food
Who hide possessions under their bed and leave a ring round the bath
Who get visits from the tooth fairy
Who set the video like second nature
Whose tears we sometime laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry
And we pray for those
Who will eat everything they can
Who have never had a medical or a visit to the dentist
Who know nobody to spoil them
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep
Who do not know the meaning of the word security, of being safe.
We pray for children
Who long to be loved and hugged and given a name and a family
And for those who fill our lives and make us feel special
Amen.
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