A Prayer for the Children

I downloaded this prayer years ago from the Dick Staub program. I still weep when I read it!

A PRAYER FOR THE CHILDREN

  We pray for the Children
  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 a new pair of sneakers,
  who never "counted potatoes,"
  who are born in places where we wouldn't be caught dead,
  who never go to the circus,
  who live in an Xrated world.

  We pray for children
  who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
  who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.
  And we pray for those
  who never get dessert,
  who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
  who watch their parents watch them die,
  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 never rinse out the tub,
  who get visits from the tooth fairy,
  who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
  who squirm in church or temple and scream in 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 aren't spoiled by anybody,
  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,
  who we never give up on
  and for those who don't get a second chance.
  for those we smother and . . .
  for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

  In Memory of...Natalie Brooks, student age 12   Paige Ann Herring, student
age 12   Stephanie Johnson, student age 12  Brittany R. Varner, student age 11 
Shannon Wright, Teacher age 32.  This is in memory of the children and teacher
killed in the shooting on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 in Jonesboro, Arkansas.  Paul
Pribil