With the celebration of Mothers’ Day coming this weekend, we recognize the blessing of family. This week our “Wednesday Prayer Together” will focus on family. God has given us families whom we love and who love us.
This is a priceless gift. As I have been talking with people, during this time since all the changes that the Covid pandemic has brought about, I have been hearing over and over how families have been there for each other. I have heard of family members getting groceries for those who need to stay at home. Families have been delivering home cooked meals to ensure that senior family members are getting good nutrition. Extra phone calls to stay in touch with family who live alone have been appreciated and a source of support.
Probably all of us have phoned or messaged family that we haven’t talked with in a while. We want to make sure family are doing okay. There have been families where there had been tension and not talking to each other that has eased and a healing of broken relationships has begun. Just today, I talked with a woman who had not spoken with her sister in several years. She decided to phone her and they were able to have a caring conversation. God has arranged for us to be in families. We need to be family for each other. When we are praying for our own families to be safe and well, we can add prayers for other families and some of their unique needs. This is not a time for us to be only thinking of ourselves and those like us. We can pray that God will widen our view to pray for families that are different and face different challenges. God loves all of us and is available to all of us as we pray together.
We will pray for God to bless and guide all families to discover Him and His persistent love, as we move through this time in our lives.
Praying God’s Grace for us all, Pastor Lola Here is today’s prayer:
Our Father God who loves us and shows us Your love over and over, we thank you for the gift of family. We find it hard now not to be able to be with some of our family and to be able to hug them. Ongoing caution means that plans for family gatherings are limited and restricted. This makes us sad and we miss being together. We pray that You will take care of all our families while we wait for when we can sit close again and share a meal around the table near to each other. We do pray for families of health care workers who have to exercise extreme measures to stay safe and well. We pray for those who have made the difficult decision to be apart to keep safe. We ask that this separation can soon end. We pray for families of those who carry heavy responsibilities trying to manage the way through this crisis. They are not having much time together and we ask You to help them. We pray for all families trying to carry on with schoolwork and learning while schools are closed. We ask for patience that is needed both for parents and for the children and teens. We think of families with children who live with various disabilities that challenge day to day life. We pray for them in trying to cope with the lack of routine and predictability and the usual support system they have. We pray for families where financial stress is causing a huge strain. We pray for those finding it hard to sleep at night because they do not know how they will provide for their families. We pray with concern for families and homes where there is substance abuse and the anxiety of this present situation heightens this issue. We pray for safety in homes where abuse and violence is a threat. We pray for marriages that are under strain because of all that is happening. We know God that You can restore broken relationships and we pray for this healing to begin. We ask you to help families in listening and communicating well with each other. For all of us in our families, we pray that we will take time to understand how others in our family are feeling and what may be bothering them. We pray that we will appreciate the good things about family time that are possible while we need to stay home. We pray for You to bless and guide all of our families. We pray that we will be alert to notice another family or individual who needs love and care that we can share with them. We pray that each of us will have courage to ask for help when we need it. Thank You for our family heritage of faith that reminds us now that we can turn to You. We thank You that we are part of the family of God. We think of our mothers who loved and cared for us and in many cases taught us the faith to depend on You. We thank You for them. Father God, You carried our families through what was hard in the past and we look to You for what families need now. We may be different as families, but what makes us the same is our need for You. We openly admit our need for You as we bring this prayer to You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.