A Prayer for the Unborn & the Living

Lord, you have known me from my mother’s womb. You give life, you give breath, you have counted every hair on my head. You created me and I am yours. Help me, Lord, to recognize you in every person I encounter. Help me perceive you, even in the unborn child that I cannot see. Help me, in your wisdom, to believe in the sacredness of all life that begins in the womb.

Help me, Lord, to see as you see. Do our efforts to teach others about the sanctity of life sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture, the picture that you created: that we are all connected, that we all matter, that we can both work to safeguard the unborn and support the living? Inspire us to help women in crisis pregnancies, work to provide daycare for working women, improve prenatal healthcare for women of color who face incredible odds to bring life into the world and to support the fathers. Lord, help us to remember the children in poverty who are malnourished, families who find themselves homeless, the abused and neglected, victims of human trafficking and children killed by guns in our schools.

Lord, instead of using the fight to stop abortion access as a political and moral weapon, as a culture war in our communities and churches, help us to take a step back and pray about what we are saying and doing. In these efforts, help us to build your kingdom, not ours. Help us to spread your love and mercy.

For our Church and our nation, I pray we return to God for wisdom and guidance. May we work to protect the unborn and the living, especially the most vulnerable among us. Amen