Blessing Our Children

Many of us pray with our kids before bed. But what does it mean to bless our children? Enjoy this excerpt from The Beauty of Motherhood along with a practice, prayer, and ritual you can use to pray for your children (and others) at night.

While my kids sleep, I say a prayer for their peace, their safety, and for God’s love to envelop them. Our nighttime routine includes blessing one another as a family, but I believe you can never have enough blessings, so most nights I pray for and bless my children.

When I say a blessing over my children, I don’t say the words believing that they’ll be protected for all time. I don’t offer blessings to insulate them from harm. Rather, when we bless someone we offer tangible words to remind them they are not alone.

A blessing is one way we can let others know that God is with them through whatever life holds. We bless because we know the world is messy, broken, and in need of hope and healing. We bless because God first called us beloved children. We offer blessings so that we can share light and grace in the world.

Every time I bless my children, I entrust them to God knowing that when hardship overcomes them, or when they’ve hit a wall with nowhere to turn, the words of blessings can come back to them and give them the courage to keep going. 

(From The Beauty of Motherhood: Grace-Filled Devotions for the Early Years by Kimberly Knowle-Zeller & Erin Strybis)

Practice

Write a blessing for yourself and your children. What words of hope and comfort do you want them to know, and what words do you need to hear for yourself? Read your blessing over and over and remember that God is with you. 

Prayer

God, be with my children. May they feel love from the top of their heads to the tip of their toes and everywhere between. May they be surrounded by love in friends and neighbors. May they know what it means to be a friend, to forgive and be forgiven. Be with them in their sleeping and their waking for all their days. Amen. 

Ritual

Next time you’re awake in the middle of the night, take time to intentionally pray for others. Use your sleeplessness to connect to God by lifting up the names of people who need the reminder they are not alone. As you pray, remember the moon shines for all of you. 

For more reflections on bedtime blessings from Mothering Spirit:

See What You Have Done, Know That It Is Good
Meditation, Preschool-Style
A Prayer for the Sleep-Deprived