5 Honest Prayers for Overwhelmed ParentsSample

We don’t have to have it all together to pray.

We don’t need the perfect location or perfect circumstances or perfect words to pray. If we wait for that, we never will.

Prayer isn’t about selecting the most lyrical prose or saying a perfectly selected string of words. It’s about entering into the ongoing dialogue the Creator of all things is already having with us every day.  

• When we weep over the grief circling our families, we pray.  
• When we lament the unjust headlines, we pray.  
• When we celebrate the joy, beauty, and love around us, we pray.  
• When we seek our rootedness in Christ alone, we pray.

God requires no sonnets or soliloquies—He just desires our presence. My four-year-old asked me recently if we can see God, and I told him we see God in the way a rainbow appears after a storm, we feel God in the way his sister cups her hand on my cheek, we hear God in the giggles of his brothers as they leap on the trampoline.

In our exhaustion, we often need to reorient ourselves to the living God all around us.

Take a minute right now to ask yourself:

● Where have I seen God this week?

● Where have I felt God this week?

● Where have I heard God this week?

Keep Going

How are you really doing? How is your mind? Your body? Your soul? In Matthew 11:28, Jesus welcomes the weary and the burdened, offering to give rest. Give yourself a minute (or as long as you need) to stop to let your breath become a prayer, accepting Jesus’ offer for divine soul rest.

Breath Prayer

INHALE: I’m weary.


EXHALE: You give me rest.