A Prayer of Benediction for My Baby

My Little Love

A Prayer of Benediction for My Firstborn

My Little Love,

You are coming. Your father and I are awaiting your arrival with anticipatory joy;

 we are preparing for you.

When you are here, I will kiss your nose and your toes and the soles of your feet.

I know I will be particularly mesmerized by your eyelashes,

their length and thickness.

Your eyelids and cheeks and hair and tummy I will kiss repeatedly,

my heart swelling with love.

I will sing to you more songs than you or I will ever be able to count,

And I will smell the crook of your neck

and the top of your head

and the roundness of your belly an equal amount of times.

I will protect you with loving ferocity.

I will model the way you should go and teach you how to follow me,

            so that when you are grown,

you will not turn from it.

I will watch you grow with amazement and hope for the future,

and I will celebrate the many people you will love and impact with your life.

I will help you learn to explore this world with curiosity, kindness, and an adventurous heart.

I will comfort and care for you when you are hurt,

and when you are old enough,

I will teach you how to deal with the pain you will inevitably feel

in ways that grow you in health and love for yourself and others.

I pray you will have an inner strength and confidence that takes you to the far reaches

 where God will lead you,

And I pray you will have the depth of loving relationships that will ground you

and always return you to your loving home

when you are done.

I pray you would have an endless love for the God who loves you endlessly,

and a compassionate love for yourself and your fellow, broken humans

who will always have need of it.

I pray that you would

think deeply,

love fully,

hope passionately,

pray fervently,

feel ardently,

and live abundantly.

I pray you will be

discerning and not fearful,

adventurous and not reckless,

perceptive and not judgmental,

gracious and not acquiescent,

always giving and continually refilling.

And when you fail at all of these things,

not reaching the potential you have,

and sometimes disregarding the innate value and purpose you have in this life

 – I will love you.

When you judge, and mock, and condemn, and neglect, and reject, and fake, and hate

 – I will love you.

I am your mother, and I will hold you when you let me, and pray for you always.

I will pray these things for you in every moment of clarity in my mothering.

I will pray that in my moments of exhaustion, or brokenness, or selfishness, or sickness

that God will hear my unspoken benediction for you

and bring me back to a place where I can pray those words from my lips again.

I pray these things from my deepest soul,

and I will pray them until my heart stops beating.

My Little Love, you are in my heart forever.

Love,

Your Mama