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From: To Light Their Way by Kayla Craig
O God of protection and peace,
We come to You weary,
Heartbroken, and afraid.
How do we explain to our child
What it means to practice an active
shooter drill at school
When we ourselves don't have the words?
When we ourselves barely understand?
How has it gotten this dangerous
To be a child
In a desk
In a classroom?
We grieve for innocence lost by way
of violence.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We ache for teachers who must prepare
for the unthinkable.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We pray for every mother and father
Who is forever changed by the
unimaginable—
The death of a child
At the hands of gun violence.
We rub our eyes and will our minds to
stop the imagery,
For it is too much to hold.
And yet, some must hold it.
O Lord who said let the little children
come to Me,
We have sent our teachers to first-aid
seminars
But have not cried out to You to stop
the bleeding.
Give us the imagination
Without violence.
Give us a Kingdom imagination
a better future
For our children and their children.
We are scared, Lord.
We even wonder how You can allow
Mass shootings of children to happen.
When we walk our children to their
classrooms,
We lament that we quietly assess
How close their tiny cubbies are to the
front door.
But we know this is not Your way,
O Lord.
Help us beat our swords into plowshares.
Help us put down our swords,
Collectively and individually.
Speak peace into our into our children's hearts
As their little minds try to comprehend
The possibilities of what they're
practicing for.
Our job as parents is to keep our children
safe—
How do we do so?
Give us eyes to see.
Give us new vocabularies
And courageous hearts to champion
Our children.
Lord, heal our collective wounds.
Lord, heal our individual hearts.
That crack into pieces
Every time our kids step onto the school
bus.
Lord, may we see into Your upside-down
Kingdom.
Give us courage and boldness
To plead the case of our children.
Deliver us from the evil one,
And may our action for a more peaceable
world
For our children
Be a prayer of its own.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Mark 10:13-16; Micah 4:3; John 14:27, Romans 12:21; Matthew 5:9
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