A Prayer for Father’s Day

I wrote this prayer a few years ago, based on prayers I’ve written or adapted for Mother’s Day. Father’s Day was often more difficult for me in church than Mother’s Day. Sometimes leaders are more sensitive about Mother’s Day because people like me are so loud about how painful the day can be. Loss fathers are sometimes less loud. Single parents sometimes don’t have the time to constantly educate. There are plenty of folks with unhealthy relationships with their fathers or their children in church, but we gloss it over. If you are feeling a little lost this Father’s Day, may this prayer bring you a bit of peace.

Loving God, you who are our father and our mother, we come to you in prayer for fathers today. For some of us, our father's love is like God's love -- too deep, too long, too wide, too strong to measure. For some of us, God's love fills in the empty spaces our fathers left behind.

Throughout scripture we see images of fathers:

fathers like Joseph who are filled with grace and love, and fathers like Jairus and so many others seeking healing and wholeness for their beloved children

we see fathers like Paul who might not have biological children but who still parent an extended family of faith

fathers who parent through grief after the loss of a child like David and Adam

fathers parenting in an uncertain world like Noah

but we also see fathers like Abraham and Jacob and Jephthah who make mistakes parenting, and how those mistakes can become horrible sins.

We see absent fathers, indulgent fathers, forgetful fathers, abusive fathers in scripture, just as we do in our own lives.

Today, we acknowledge that this can be a messy day for some of us, but we also honor and thank the many types of good fathers in our lives. We give you thanks for those who show us grace and seek healing with us and who love us. Bless them. Help us to see them and support them.

We would also like to remember and pray for those for whom this day is not as joyful:

those who have lost a child,

those who struggle with infertility,

those who are single parents and thrust into roles as both mother and father,

those who may not always have a healthy relationship with their father or children,

and those who have lost their dad, especially those who are spending their first father’s day without him here.

Remind us all, God, that your love is shown to us in many ways, through many people, and help us be messengers of that love today. Amen.