Posts Tagged ‘blessing a child’

 

Toldot 5775: Bless Me

Posted on: November 20th, 2014 by Alden

preistly blessingsIn this week’s Torah portion, Jacob receives Isaac’s blessing, usurping his brother Esau with subterfuge. Afterward, Esau says: “Bless me, even me also, O my father.” Then Esau weeps. (Gen. 27:38) This is a prayer for the blessings of our parents. It includes an optional stanza in [brackets] for those who, like me, also yearn for the blessings of our children.

Bless Me
Bless me,
Dear father,
With wisdom and wonder,
So that I enter my life
With poise and with pride.

Bless me,
Dear mother,
With insight and industry,
So that I enter my years
With confidence and competence.

[Bless me,
Dear children,
With laughter and joy
So that I enter my days
With kindness and grace.]

For your blessings are without match,
Your consecration without equal,
A rejoicing of your heart,
Resounding with love,
Echoing from generations past,
Echoing from the hopes and dreams of our ancestors.

Bless me,
And I will be blessed.
Bless me,
And I will bless others
With my heart and my faith,
My hope and my love.

Let blessings from you,
Pass through me,
To heal the world.

Bless me,
And let us all be blessed.

© 2014 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Here are more blessings for people in our lives: “Blessing for a Spouse / Partner” and “Shabbat Blessing for Children Who Have Left Home.” Here are related prayers called “Receiving Blessings,” “Umbrella of Blessings” and “Garden of Blessings.”

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Photo Source: Jerusalem Pottery

Noach: Always this Wonder

Posted on: October 23rd, 2014 by Alden

Three_children_play_in_a_lagoon_formed_from_high_tide_on_Morro_Strand_State_Beach_at_sunsetThis is a prayer that our children remember pure joy of laughter and play. It’s a prayer that we remember our own innocence and love. After Noah saw the sea consume the world, he appears to have fallen into a major depression that he attempted to cure with alcohol, a post-traumatic response. The sea became a weapon. He lost sight of the ocean of beauty within. This is a prayer to hold onto enthusiasm for life. Here’s another Noach prayer called “The Flood.”

Always this Wonder
Dear children,
Go outside to play –
In the sunshine and the breeze –
And we will bless your hearts,
Your precious laughter,
Your smiles and your freedom.

Run wild…
Skip…
Twirl…
And we will pray that you remember
Always this wonder.
Then, we’ll remember our own
Care free days,
Our own discovery,
Our own amazement,
Our own joyous hearts.
And you will bless us
With the secret and the power
To discover sacred wisdom
And the sea of happiness,
The sea of joy,
The sea of love,
Waiting within.

© 2014 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Here’s a link to a prayer for Parashat Breisheit, “About the Rainbow,” which could easily be used for Noach.

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons / Michael “Mike” L. Baird

Shabbat Blessing for Children Who Have Left Home

Posted on: November 30th, 2012 by tobendlight

Shabbat-Candles-640x425One of my great joys of parenthood is putting my hands on my daughters’ heads and blessing them. As they went off to college and to see the world, those opportunities diminished. Now we are an ocean apart. And still, every Shabbat, when I light my candles, I remember them in prayer, in blessing. Optional lines appear in [brackets].

Shabbat Blessing for Children Who Have Left Home
My children,
Dear ones,
You are light before my eyes.
I miss your laugh, your smile, your hug,
Your hand in mine.

Bless you on your journey.
Bless you in your home and on your travels.
May you be surrounded with
Joy and beauty,
Adventure and wonder,
Hope and love.
Let Torah and mitzvot guide your steps.
[Bless your family.]
[Heal your body and spirit.]
Let G-d’s goodness rain down upon you
From this Shabbat until the next,
And all the days of your life.

© 2017 CCAR Press from This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers For a New Day

Postscript: My other prayers for children include: “On the Birth of a Child,” “Father’s Meditation,” “Meditation for a Child’s First Torah Reading,” “For My Child’s Surgery,” “For a Critically-Ill Child,” “My Child Leaves Home,” “On the Birth of Grandchildren” and “For Bereaved Children.”

Please check out my Meet the Author video and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Credit: The Shiksa in the Kitchen

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