Thoughts and Prayers for Kids

Our 24-hour news cycle is particularly anxiety-inducing for us parents, as we are constantly assailed by things that cause us to fret about the present and future well-being of our children.  When you read about school shootings, the opioid crisis, and cyber-bullying, you can easily end up in the fetal position, paralyzed by worry as we realize how vulnerable our kids are and how dangerous our world is. 

I believe in God and in prayer, which means that my prayers, however feeble or desperate, go to a real Supreme Being, and not only that but one who has held my kids in His heart since He first knit them together in their birthmothers' womb.  And, given the circuitous path each of them took to arrive into our family, the fact that God has had His hand on their lives since the beginning of their existence is truly a sacred and special thought.  

So prayers move the hand that moves the world.  And thus they are worth praying, all by themselves.

But they also move my own hands and heart and mind.  God is their God.  But He has made me and Amy their parents, and entrusted us with a great and grave responsibility.  So we need to pray in order for God to act.  But we also need to act too.  And, while we rely on the greater village beyond us - O how we rely on so many who are wonderful to us and to our children!- their involvement in our kids' lives is through and by us.  

I know there is some controversy about "thoughts and prayers."  I'm here to tell you that when it comes to my kids, they matter, on their own, and also for the action they produce.  So I will keep praying. Our kids need it.