A Prayer for When Your Child is Suffering
God of goodness,
How could you let this happen to my beloved child?
Watching them in pain
Brings the deepest pain I have ever known.
I wish I could step in and take their place
So I could suffer instead of them.
But I know that you know
Human suffering from the inside out.
That when you came to walk among us,
You came to embrace and transform
Everything about our existence:
Even suffering. Even death.
So I trust that you are with me now,
In the anguish of watching my child go through the worst.
Help me believe that you can take away their pain
And transform their suffering
Into hope and healing
By the touch of your hand.
Crack open the door into the mystery
Of how you still suffer with us
Through the compassion of your heart
Which is Mercy Incarnate.
Help me trust that you draw near in our hour of need
And you stay close to the ones who need your love.
This beloved child has my whole heart, God.
You know that. You gave this gift to me,
And your heart holds each of us
In even greater love.
So when I fear the worst,
I will press closer to your side,
Knowing your love is fierce as a father and mighty as a mother
And will never abandon any of us,
Even in our hardest hours.
Amen.
Copyright © 2023 Laura Kelly Fanucci.
For more support when your child is suffering, read this essay by Shauna’h Fuegen on her son’s unexpected hospitalization: God’s Fingerprints on the Hardest Days.
“What I most remember was the pressing realization that I needed to be strong for my child. I needed to break the news to him that he wasn’t going home that night. He was going to the hospital, he was going to need surgery, and I didn’t know when life would be back to normal. I didn’t feel strong enough to do this myself, so my heart cried out to the Holy Spirit…I was humbled to be so utterly out of control, to be so dependent on my faith to hold me up and show me the path forward. There was no choice but to surrender to God’s will.”