There are nights as a parent when prayer feels almost impossible.
Oftentimes it is not because I do not believe in prayer. It is because I am exhausted. The dishes are still in the sink. The toys are scattered across the floor. Laundry is piled up somewhere, waiting for a version of me with more energy than the one lying there at the end of the day. My daughter is finally asleep, or at least quiet enough that I think she might be asleep, and for the first time in hours, the house slows down. But sometimes my heart and mind do not slow down with it.
Instead, I start replaying the day.
I think about the moment when I was short with her. About the question she asked when I was distracted by my phone. I think about the needs of her little heart that feel bigger than my wisdom, bigger than my strength, and bigger than my ability to control.
And in those moments, I often do not come to God with a carefully organized list of requests. Sometimes all I have are the words Jesus gave us:
“Our Father.”
Those two words may look small on paper, but they are not small. They are the doorway into Christian prayer.
Prayer Begins With Our Father
Before Jesus teaches us to ask for daily bread, forgiveness, protection, or deliverance, he teaches us who we are speaking to. We are coming to our Father.
For parents, this is deeply comforting because parenting has a way of exposing our limits. We want to be patient, but we get frustrated. Though we want to protect our children, we quickly realize how much is outside of our control. We want to disciple them well, but we cannot manufacture repentance, faith, joy, or love for Christ in their hearts. I can read the Bible with her, pray with her, sing with her. I can bring her to church and teach her true things. But I cannot make her see the beauty of Jesus. Only God can do that.
Parenting often reveals that we are not as strong as we thought we were. But the Lord’s Prayer does not begin with, “Our strength.” It begins with, “Our Father.”
This changes the way we parent.
Praying “Our Father” Frees Us
When I pray, “Our Father,” I am reminded that my daughter does not ultimately belong to me. She belongs to God. I am called to love her, disciple her, provide for her, correct her, comfort her, and point her to Jesus. But I am not her savior. I am not her ultimate hope. That is freeing, because parents can easily begin to carry a burden God never meant for us to carry.
I can quietly believe that if I do everything right, she will be okay. If I choose the right school, say the right words, create the right routines, read the right books, and avoid the wrong mistakes, then I can secure her future. Of course, wise parenting matters. Faithful habits matter.
But my hope cannot be in my ability to parent perfectly. My hope must be in our Father who is perfectly wise, perfectly loving, and perfectly faithful.
Praying “Our Father” Means We Do Not Parent Alone
The word “our” is also a mercy. Jesus does not teach us to pray, “My Father” only, though that is wonderfully true. He teaches us to pray, “Our Father.” Christian parents do not parent alone. We pray as part of the family of God. “Our Father” reminds us that we are part of a household much bigger than our own home. God has given us the local church: brothers and sisters, pastors and friends, older saints and younger families, people who pray with us, help us, encourage us, and remind us of what is true when we forget.
And yet the greatest comfort of “Our Father” is not that we are trying hard to see God this way. The greatest comfort is that Jesus is the one who gives us these words.
We Can Pray “Our Father” Because of the Son
By nature, we do not have the right to call God Father. Sin separates us from him. We are not born into this intimacy by our own goodness, our parenting efforts, or our religious sincerity. We can call God “Father” because Jesus, the eternal Son of God, came for us. He lived the perfect life we have not lived. He died for our sins on the cross. Then he rose from the dead. And by faith in him, we are adopted into God’s family.
That means the Father does not welcome us because we had a good parenting day. He does not turn away from us because we had a bad one. He receives us because we belong to his Son.
This is gospel hope for weary parents. When we fail, we can confess our sins to a Father who forgives. In weakness, we can come to a Father who gives strength. When we are anxious for our children, we can entrust them to a Father who loves them better than we do. And when we do not know what to pray, we can begin where Jesus taught us to begin.
Our Father.
Those words are simple enough for a child to learn and deep enough for a parent to cling to for a lifetime. They teach us that we are not parenting under the cold gaze of God, but under the fatherly care of God. And they invite us, again and again, to come as needy children to the Father who never grows weary, never loses patience, and never fails to love his own.
So tonight, or tomorrow morning, or sometime next week, when the house is quiet or loud, when the dishes are still in the sink, when you feel your weakness again, you do not need to come to God with impressive words.
Come with the words Jesus gave you.
“Our Father.”
For more encouragement in your parenting, check out our Rooted Parent Podcast.
