I heard this yesterday in a CNN news report and it struck me so deeply, I couldn't get it out of my mind and had to find it today. . . and no matter who we are, no matter what our religion, I think this has to resonate with all of us:

"We Pray for Children" by Ina Hughes

We pray for children
Who put chocolate fingers everywhere,
Who like to be tickled,
Who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants,
Who sneak Popsicles before supper,
Who erase holes in math workbooks,
Who can never find their shoes.


And we pray for those
Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
Who can't bound down the street in new sneakers,
Who never "counted potatoes,"
Who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead in,
Who never go to the circus,
Who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
Who sleep with the cat and bury goldfish,
Who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money,
Who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink,
Who slurp their soup.

And we pray for those
Who never get dessert,
Who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
Who can't find any bread to steal,
Who don't have any rooms to clean up,
Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
Whose monsters are real.

We pray for children
Who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
Who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
Who like ghost stories,
Who shove dirty clothes under the bed,
Who get visits from the tooth fairy,
Who don't like to be kissed in front of the car pool,
Who squirm in church and scream on the phone,
Whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those
Whose nightmares come in the daytime,
Who will eat anything,
Who have never seen a dentist,
Who are never spoiled by anyone,
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
Who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children
Who want to be carried
And for those who must,
For those we never give up on
And for those who never get a second chance,
For those we smother.
And for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind
enough to offer it.

We pray for children. Amen.

We pray for our children, what do liberals do, instead of taking their kids to Church they take them to abortion death camps before they are born.

Funny, coming from someone like talli-tubby, that's for sure...

That's right derogators, just wipe your feet on anything good to suit your sorry, self-serving purposes.

I'm a good decent person and the mother of 4 children so there would be no reason for it being "funny" coming from "someone" like me.

Funny, I think a person's response to something as beautiful as this non-politcal, non-partisan, non-denominational prayer for the hope and well-being of children, shows so much more about them than about the poem or author or the one who cared enough to post it.

Never have so many done so much to assault the children of this country, They have given them a future filled with debt, they have given them a very poor educational system, they bombarded them with violent video games and pornography, their teachers and Preachers have sexually molested them,  but most of all their President has brainwashed them into believing his brand of politics, where is the conscience of this country.

Human life discarded in a trash can from a woman's womb by a doctor's instruments will be looked at as barbaric as were the Romans who practiced infanticide.  They will just be more intelligent in the future than we are today.  Ignorance does repeat itself from time to time as humans grow, intellectually.

Thank you, talli.

Glad to know there are other good souls out there who appreciate the meaning and beauty of it, bhsgrad.  (http://www.aesopsretreat.com/forum/Smileys/classic/smiley.gif)(http://www.aesopsretreat.com/forum/Smileys/classic/angel.gif)

I'm a mom.

I'm a good decent person and the mother of 4 children so there would be no reason for it being "funny" coming from "someone" like me.

LOL