Here are some prayers for peace and patience for those crazy parenting days that no one prepared you for!
Every day is a new adventure with kids. I’ve been a mom for 11 years. I have five kids, and most days I feel like I’ve mostly got a handle on what it takes to care for my people, but then something I never considered becomes a part of our day. Take today, for example; I took my kiddos into the library to return our long overdue books and restock our library bin. They all were enjoying their book choices and the library toys while I headed over to check out our items.
Just as I started scanning the books, my oldest came over to me and explained the 2-year-old had stripped off his shorts and diaper. Not just any diaper, a poop-filled diaper! I didn’t understand what he meant until I walked over and took in the scene with my own eyes. A poopy diaper and shorts plus a sole crock were on the floor while my poop-covered toddler was running around the library. No words for how to respond to this sort of chaos. I carried him to the bathroom and did my best to clean him off, and he left the library with a bare bottom, as all the spare diapers were in the car.
No one prepares you for those kinds of parenting days. Not even years of experience can really prepare you for the chaos of pantless poop in the public library. It can be easy to let the chaos, frustration, or stress of parenthood be a joy-stealer. I can often feel overstimulation from the day it takes over my body. Those are the moments I need an extra dose of God’s peace and patience in my life. Here are some prayers for peace and patience for those crazy parenting days that no one prepared you for!
1. Prayer for Humility, Gentleness, Patience, and Love
With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. - Ephesians 4:2
Lord, I thank you for this important role you have blessed me with as a parent. My children are a gift, and I am grateful for who they are. They deserve to be loved with your kind of gracious love. Equip me with humility. Let me be humble enough to accept the help I need. To honor my limits. To say sorry when I lose my temper. Give me gentle words for the stressful moments of parenthood. Help me to be the one who offers my children a safe space when mistakes are made or when their bodies are dysregulated. Renew my patience. Let me be patient with my own shortcomings, as well as take the time to help my children throw their own emotions, limitations, or messes. Most of all, let us bear each other with love in our home. Let our home be defined by a grace-filled love that comes from you alone. Amen.
2. A Prayer to be Slow to Anger
A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention. - Proverbs 15:18
Father, when my body feels overwhelmed, help me to learn how to seek out calm. Don’t let my thinking brain disappear and give me the tools to stay in control of my anger. Let the peace that you give quiet any contention when it rises in our home. Let our default as a family be grace and not judgment. Don’t let little bursts of anger turn into reasons to live with bitterness towards each other. Let your love cover our failures. Amen.
3. A Prayer for Holiness
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. - Colossians 3:12
God, I thank you for the ways parenthood has helped me grow as a person. I know you are doing a good work in me as I strive to parent my children as your chosen one. Help me to live a holy life as a parent. May I be set apart, not following the culture but striving to follow your way. Every situation I face as a parent shows me how to have compassion as a parent. Seeing my kids as Jesus sees them. Let me treat my children in a kind manner. Reminding them that they are deserving of care and respect. Let me have a meek heart, seeking out ways to serve and not ways to glorify myself. Let me live with supernatural patience. Amen.
4. A Prayer for Renewed Strength
But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. - Isaiah 40:31
Lord, Parenting is a lifelong journey! We need strength to keep at this work and to not grow weary. Father, renew our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies, and give us strength for this work you have called us to. Lift us up and encourage our hearts on the hard days. Remind us of your calling on our lives and how important it is to invest wisely in the generation we are raising. Let us not faint but walk straight on your path. We thank you for your provision and mercy each day. Amen.
5. A Prayer for Harmony
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus. - Romans 15:5
Jesus, I thank you that you are the God of endurance and encouragement! You lift up our spirits, minds, and bodies and help us do more than we ever could on our own. When we feel we are at our end, you give us more so we can live peaceful lives. Let your spirit of harmony be in our home. Give us wise words of encouragement for each person in our home every day. Amen.
6. A Prayer for God’s Hand to Be on Us
The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. - Exodus 14:14
Jesus, I thank you that you are the one who fights our battles! When we feel tension, unrest, uncertainty, fear, anxiety, depression, division, discouragement, and more fall on our homes, remind us that we can go to you first to do what only you can do. We do not have to live in fear; we can trust that your hand is on our lives. All we are to do is to pray and wait patiently for you to work on our behalf. We thank you for your goodness and mercy! Let it increase in our lives daily. Amen.
I’m so thankful that I don’t have to make it through the tough days as a mom on my own! I have Jesus to turn to when I start feeling like I am in over my head. He is faithful to hear our prayers and to give us the wisdom and strength we need in every season.
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