I read this prayer in Elisabeth Elliot’s devotional this morning and loved it so much I want to print it out and keep it in my Bible. Elisabeth shares, “A prayer written by Amy Carmichael has been my prayer as long as I have been a mother, and I pray it now for my grandchildren.”

I watched a parenting video once that featured Elisabeth and her daughter, Valerie, who is a homeschooling mother of eight children. I can safely say that God answered Elisabeth’s many years of prayer. For those of you who don’t know, Elisabeth was widowed at a young age, and was a single mother for many years.

I’m not going to italicize or block-quote it — so it will be easier on the eyes to read — but this is from today’s devotional, Early Lessons.

Father, hear us, we are praying,
Hear the words our hearts are saying,
We are praying for our children.

Keep them from the powers of evil
From the secret, hidden peril,
From the whirlpool that would suck them,
From the treacherous quicksand pluck them,
Holy Father, save our children.

From the worldling’s hollow gladness,
From the sting of faithless sadness,
Through life’s troubled waters steer them,
Through life’s bitter battle cheer them,
Father, Father, be Thou near them.

Read the language of our longing,
Read the wordless pleadings thronging,
Holy Father, for our children.

And wherever they may bide,
Lead them Home at eventide.

Copyright© 1988, by Elisabeth Elliot
All rights reserved.