A Prayer for a Child With Special Needs

Father, I am bone tired tonight in a way that goes deeper than sleep, the kind that comes from advocating, lifting, translating my child to a world that keeps misunderstanding them. And I would not trade them for anything.

I confess the secret griefs I rarely speak, the comparisons that sneak up on me, the loneliness of a road most people will never walk. I confess the days I have quietly wondered if I am enough for this.

So I bring my child and my weariness to You, who made them exactly as they are, on purpose, with delight. You do not see a problem to be fixed. You see a person You treasure.

Give me strength for the long haul and eyes to see the wonder in my child that others miss. Send us patient helpers. Open the world a little wider to make room for the beautiful way they move through it.

Your word says Your power is made perfect in weakness. Then let it be perfected here, in my limits, in their struggles, in the holy ordinary of our days.

I lay down the comparison and the exhaustion. Help me see my child the way You do, fearfully and wonderfully made, lacking nothing in Your eyes. Sustain us both, today and all the days ahead. Amen.