Lord, I have a boy to bring up.
Help me to perform my task with wisdom and kinness and good cheer. Help me always to see him clearly as he is. Let not my pride in him hide his faults. Let not my fear for him magnify my doubts and fears lest I make him doubting and fearful in his turn.
Quicken my judgment so that I shall know how to train him to think as a child, to be in all things pure and simple as a child.
I have a boy to bring up.
Give me great patience and a long memory. Let me remember the hard places in my own youth, so that I may help when I see him struggling as I struggled then.
Let me remember the things that made me glad, lest I, sweating in the toil and strain of life, forget a little child's laughter in the light of life.
I have a boy to bring up.
Teach me that love that understandeth all things, the love that knows no weakness, tolerates no selfishness. Keep me from weakening my son through granting him pleasures that end in pain, ease of body that must bring sickness of soul, a vision of life that must end in death. Grant that I love my son wisely and myself not at all.
I have a boy to bring up.
So guide and direct me that I may do this service to Your glory, O God, the service of my country and to my son's happiness.
(Author Unknown; Adapted)
