Family is the most incredible place to reside, yet it is also the most difficult place to navigate. Living in close fellowship with others always requires us to become more real, more forgiving, more giving and more mature as individuals. There is much to be gained in terms of intimacy, security and nurture, yet also much at risk in terms of conflict, resentment and loss. It is as sons and daughters of the living God that we find the craving for this union, the search for oneness and the need for exclusivity. For we read in the bible that we are made after the image of our maker (Gen 1:27). Our very desires to be one in marriage echo the oneness that is central to the Trinity. And our longings to create a family and have children mirror the creative nature of the Holy Family (Gen 1:26).

Yet family is more than flesh and blood. It is those whom we walk with daily, the ones that get to know the real “us”, those with whom we feel bonded to and devoted to. The following prayer is one that covers and encircles those whom we call family. It is a blessing prayer, it rolls forever like a beautiful ocean wave over our dear ones. The extraordinary thing is that when we invite Jesus into our lives, he inhabits our daily family life by the power of his Holy Spirit, and his father becomes father over our families. May I encourage you to speak out this prayer of belonging, blessing and keeping over your loved ones now:-

Prayer for my family

Lord be beside us, every day
Guiding and leading us gently always.
Lord be above us, help us to see
The hope of the future, of all we could be.

Lord be beneath us, carry us when
We’re too shattered or tired to really have strength.
Lord be ahead of us, smoothing our paths
Protecting and blessing the places we pass.

Lord be behind us, healing our wounds,
Forgiving our mistakes and making us new.
Jesus, be within us, this family is yours
Now and forever, you are our Lord.