we pray for the children

for those of you who know me well, you know i am very passionate about my work as a fundraiser. after a couple of years of feeling lost and unmotivated in a position, i found a new home at the YMCA. the Y is an incredible organization, doing so much for so many and changing people's lives on a daily basis.

i was at a board meeting this morning and one of the program staff shared a "mission moment" about a family at one of our branches. the family is really struggling. there are four children, the oldest is 11 and acts as the caregiver for her younger siblings. the mother is very sick with depression and battling a substance abuse problem. because of our scholarship program, the Y has been able to help these kids out with a full scholarship for sports, day camp and childcare and give them a safe place to go and be kids.

after the story was shared, she read this poem. not a single dry eye in the room.

We pray for the children who sneak Popsicles before supper, who erase holes in math workbooks, who can never find their shoes. And we pray for those who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire, who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers, who never "counted potatoes," who never go to the circus, who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions, who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money. And we pray for those who never get dessert, who have no safe blanket to drag behind them, who watch their parents watch them die, who can't find any bread to steal, who don't have any rooms to clean up, whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser, whose monsters are real.

We pray for children who spend all their allowance before Tuesday, who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food, who like ghost stories, who shove dirty clothes under the bed, who never rinse out the tub, who get visits from the tooth fairy, who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool, who squirm in church and scream in the phone, whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those whose nightmares come in the daytime, who will eat anything, who have never seen a dentist, who aren't spoiled by anybody, who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep, who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried and for those who must, who we never give up on and for those who don't get a second chance. For those we smother and...for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

thank you, God for giving me the skills to do what i do.