For Fathers Coping with a Teenager
Now what, Jesus? Once again I have been dismissed by my own child who looks at me as if I am a stranger and an idiot besides. You know how deeply in my heart I carry this child, a child I have loved for so long. Always such a dear and loving child, compassionate and caring. Polite and respectful.
What in the world happened to my dear child? Some days he/she is mouthy and flip. Some days insolent and sullen. Where is that loving child Jesus? You had a wonderful earthly father in St. Joseph. He probably did it much better than I can seem to manage.
Now yelling seems to be our mutual common language. Am I teaching my children to separate anger from discipline or am I just exploding in frustration? Teach me to be faithful to my role of setting boundaries that will help my child grow, but with a greater love and patience.
Give me wisdom to remember that this is a normal part of maturity and the development of independence. I ask for patience, an open heart and an ability to remember that the eyeroll or scoff that comes my way is really my own dear child's fumbling attempt to grow up.
Open my heart to this new stage of fatherhood. It's a hard one, Jesus. Help me to love my child at this most unloveable part of her/his life just as you love me when I am my most flawed self. Give me patience and your loving heart. Thank you.
In gratitude for my Father
Dear God, the Father of us all, I thank you for my father. Along with my mother, through the marvel of your creation, my father gave me the gift of life itself. He was such a good teacher and mentor, such a wonderful example of how to live a life of faith. Please take care of him now and be generous with him as you prepare him for the rewards of eternal life you have prepared for him.
For a father who has died
Father of Life, I thank you for my father. He
was such a blessing to me while he was still with us. I still miss him so much. I thank you for what he left me as gifts of love and faith. I pray that he has enjoyed your embrace and that the relationship he and I have now might someday be renewed with you in heaven. Until then, I entrust him to your love and ask you to let him look out for me and to assist me to stay on the path to you.
For a father who was difficult
God of Love, I come before you to pray for my father. You know how much he suffered and you alone fully know how much was wounded and broken in him. I feel so sad, and at times I feel so angry, so cheated, because I couldn't have a good relationship with him. I don't want to spend the rest of my life resenting my father, so I turn to you to hold him up to you. I know you are a God of mercy. Forgive him and heal him. Please let that forgivenss touch my heart as well. I want to forgive him and know the peace of letting go of those hurts - or at least the peace of not letting them continue to hurt me. I pray for him because I want what is best for him. I want him to know you and to know your love for him. One day, in your loving embrace, may all the wounds in his heart be healed.
For My Father, As I Prepare for My Wedding
Loving God, these days are wonderful and filled with excitement as we prepare for my wedding. But in the rare quiet moments I sometimes see in my father's wonderful, familiar face, an uncertainty, a loss. He is such a good man and it is his role modeling that helped me choose a husband.
My father held my hand as I took my first steps. He will have my arm as we walk down the aisle on my wedding day. Bless him now as we each take steps toward new roles in life.
Help me to develop a newer, more adult relationship with my father, but one based on a lifetime of love and memories. Bless him and my mother and may they discover a greater freedom and depth to their love.
For a Father who is carrying lots of burdens
Most loving, God and Father, I turn to you today to thank you for my father and to ask you to be with him.
He is such a wonderful man and I love him with all my heart. Thank you for the gift he has been in my life.
Right now, he is struggling so much and has so many burdens to carry. I simply ask that you protect him from the pressures he's facing. If it is possible, relieve some of those pressures so that he can live with more peace and with so much less stress. Above all, I ask you to give him courage and hope. Let him keep it all in perspective and not lose his priorities. Let him have some fun and help him to stay close to those who love him and want to support him in all of this. Strengthen his faith in you so that he can be a living example of service, dedication, commitment and love to all the people with whom and for whom he works.
And, help me, Lord, know how to support him and love him, with your own love for him.
For a Father who is separated or divorced from my mother
Most loving Father, today I ask you for your mercy and healing in my relationship with my father who is separated/divorced from my mother. There has been so much wounding and so little reconciliation. I know it may never be possible. I also know I can't possibly understand all of the circumstances which led to this break-up. It has had deep effects on my mother and upon my family. I ask you to help my heart with its healing and reconciliation. I ask you to care for my father, in any way you are able. Some day, may we all be together again, at the banquet you have prepared for us all. Thank you.
For a Father who is an alcoholic
God of love, I turn to you today in prayer for my father. His addiction has done so much damage in his life, and in lives of so many. I feel the effects in me. I know it is a terrible disease and that he is powerless before it. I ask only that you shower your blessing upon him, that one day he may be free. May he be given the grace of turning to you and the blessing of a healing in his spirit. As I pray for his ongoing recovery, I ask for your mercy in my heart and the hearts of my family members. Allow us to turn to you and ask for freedom in our hearts. Only with your love and grace will we all be whole again.
For a Father looking for a job
God of us all, I turn to you for my father and for our family. We are afraid for the future. Since my dad lost his job, nothing has been the same at home. We need your help. If there is work out there that he can do, please help him find it.
And, during these difficult days, give us all a full measure of your patience and your care for each one of us. Let us support each other and think of each other's needs at this frightening time. We may be poorer, but let us recognize and rejoice in the riches we have in each other.
Prayer After the Death of a Child
My life is upside down, loving God. The order of the world is out of place and I can’t do anything to right it again. Oh, Lord, you know the pain in my heart at all times and you know why: my child has died. How can it be that my beloved child is gone? The child I cared for with such concern in every illness, the one I held close to my heart and promised to take care of for a lifetime, is not here for me to care for anymore. It hurts deeply that I wasn’t able to protect this child I love with my whole being from a death that seems so unfair.
Let me feel calm. Let me breathe deeply. Be with me in this kind of deep and transformative pain. I now carry this darkness with me on my back and in my heart, always. It is my burden and my companion.
Lord, there is not a single minute of my life when this loss is not etched so keenly into my brain and heart, whether it is in the middle of a busy day or in those choking moments of grief in the solitary dark of night. Let me be grateful for every minute we had together. Let me treasure those memories and find joy in them.
Help me to deal with people better. They don’t know what to say. They stumble and look away when they see me. They pretend nothing has happened. I know they “don’t want to remind me” but they don’t understand it is with me always, always.
Teach me, Lord. Tell me what you want me to do with this. What am I supposed to learn from this kind of pain? What are you calling me to do?
Open my battered heart and lead me to comfort and peace. Only you can give me the peace I need. Let me feel your presence in my life. |
In gratitude for my Husband
Dear God, I thank you for my husband. I thank you for letting this man come into and complete my life. I delight in making him happy and caring for him. I am so grateful for how he loves me and cares for me. You know that there are days that we get on each other's nerves, but today, I'm so grateful that this man completes my life and that you have given him to me to love and cherish all the days of my life.
As Our Children Leave Home
My Father in heaven, I ask you to look down on my husband of so many decades and to bless him on this day. Our marriage has been greatly enriched by our children and watching him grow as a father has only deepened my love for him. You gave him the grace and wisdom to nurture our children, challenge them and love them. Now bless they are gone. Help him to discover new joys in life and new ways to love and grow. Bless me with the grace to be his partner in this continued increase in our love for each other and for you.
For a loving husband
Lord, you know my husband and you have blessed him. I thank you for his gifts and for his love for me and for our children. I love him so much. And, I worry about him so much. Keep him in your care and help us to stay close. Help us face the difficulties we must face together. Help us live a long life together, if that is your will. I ask you this, in Jesus' name.
For a husband who is difficult to live with
Oh, Lord, I am weary. Just weary. And, fairly angry, too. There are days I simply have no hope, and some days I have no desire at all to continue in this marriage. So, I turn to you and beg your help. First of all, I beg you to help me. Don't let me give up. I am the only one I can change, so please help me change me. Protect my spirit. Take away my anger. It's just cancer on my spirit. Give me courage and enough love to try again. Help me try to heal what is broken in my husband. Help me to love him so he isn't so insecure and afraid. When he barks, let me only hear his inner fears protecting himself. Now I pray for him, Lord. Please love him and do what you can to heal him. Allow this struggle he's in to open his heart to being loved, to being softened. Protect him from sin, from the temptations of the Evil One. Let him know and respond to the love I will, with your grace, show him. I ask you this, trusting you can still bless this marriage gave to us.
For a husband who is being stretched
God of love, you know what my husband is going through. The pressure he is under really scares me. I can see the toll it takes on him. I try to comfort him, to be patient with him, to help him enjoy a different world at home. Please watch out for him and protect him. Don't let him face more than he can bear. I don't know what I'd do without him. Thank you, Lord, for listening to my prayer. Hold him in your most loving heart, I pray.
For a husband who is ill or declining in health
Most loving God, my husband is struggling these days. I can see the changes in him and it breaks my heart. I promised to love him, "in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health." I promised to "love and honor him, all the days of my life." Help me live those promises now, Lord. I'm embarrassed that I'm sometimes impatient and I'm not always caring and kind. I'm even guilty of thinking of my needs first. But, I turn to you now, dear Lord, and ask you to help my dear husband in this time of trial for him and for us. Restore him to health, if you can. Give him courage, strength and faith to deal with his ill health. Let him know the comfort of my love and your promises. I ask you this out of love for him. Make my love stronger.
For a husband who is an alcoholic
Oh, Lord, you know what a mess this is. I want to scream, but I think I stopped screaming years ago. My husband is addicted. I know it's an "illness", but I'm so angry.
I feel like his "illness" is killing me. And, he doesn't seem to care. He doesn't seem to really care about anything anymore.
The truth doesn't matter. He'll lie about anything. I think that's what hurts the most. I'm not stupid or blind.
Oh, Lord, can I believe you can rescue us in this mess?
Can I believe there is hope?
Please, Lord, let my husband be healed. Please save us.
Please, somehow, let this pattern be broken before something much worse happens to him, to us. Please let me love him with your own love. Tough love, but faithful love, faith-filled love.
For a husband who uses pornography
God of love, my heart is so fragile I can barely find words to pray to you.
I have given myself to this marriage as best I could. I have not been perfect,
and sometimes I've been really, really bad.
But, now my heart is broken. My husband is obsessed with sexual fantasies.
First it was stuff he wanted us to do; then it was stuff in his mind. Now it's pornography. He's addicted, Lord. He doesn't see it. He's obsessed with it. He can't stop it. At first, he said it would help our love making.
But, it has only made him more self-centered, less generous, less loving.
Oh, Lord, please send your spirit to drive this Evil Spirit out. Please heal my husband. Heal my heart so I can have the strength and courage to help him.
Together, and with your grace, Lord, we can break this habit and learn to abstain from escapes from reality. With your help, Lord, we can learn simple love affection, simple tenderness and generous care for each other.
Dear Lord, I place my husband in your most loving hands. |
