We Pray

This was in our church's newsletter in April. I thought it was appropriate.

We pray for 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 we wouldn't be caught dead
• who never go to the circus
• who live in a X-rated 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, and 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.