Praying That God Would Protect My Kids From Me

Is there anything that would have prepared you for the amount of worrying you can do as a mom?! Like most parents, there is a point when you hold your newborn and a overwhelming sense of fear, dread, and worry comes over you. I distinctly remember saying to myself, “This child and her wellbeing is going to be on my mind for the rest of my life”.

Not only do we want our kids to be happy and enjoy life, we have an intense desire to protect our children from harm. Of course, there are many terrible things that can happen to our kids but I remember this one time when I realized that because I am one of the biggest figures in their life, I could be the one to cause them the most harm. I spent the most time with them and was in charge with teaching them about life, so I would have the most influence, whether good or bad.

So, one day, I was at the park with my kids and my little 3 year old son wanted to go down the big kid twisty slide. It was a pretty tall and advanced slide and I did not want him to get hurt or pushed around by the bigger kids, so I climbed the slide steps with him, put him on my lap and went down the slide. 

It wasn’t until we got to the bottom and stood up that I realized my son was crying.

His foot had gotten twisted and with his rubber soled sneakers, had stayed twisted up between my leg and the wall of the slide the whole ride down. I did not know. 

I remember him crying and saying, “Mommy, you hurt me.”

Of course I was horrified, felt terrible, and apologized. 

But it was then that I realized that I had hurt my child and yet had never prayed that God would protect my children from me.

How else would I hurt my children? With my words? With my behaviors? With my pride?

And would I even know?

I had just gone down a whole twisty slide twisting my son’s foot and didn’t even know it!

It was a very humbling experience for me. I was proud of my son for being able to express himself like that but it was also the first time he accused someone of hurting him and it was me.

And I began to pray that God would protect my children from me. From whatever harm that I, as their mom, could inflict. Whether physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual.

Praying this way does not make you a bad or weak parent. It makes you a realistic one. Because I can guarantee you that you will hurt your kids.

This also points your children to the only parent that they should worship.

God is their only perfect parent. Not me.