Welcome to the Preers of Rest podcast. I'm your host, Asrieta Chuchu, and today I invite you to pray with me

for parents who have heard us. And if you're thinking, well, that's not something I have to pray for,

then let me encourage you to consider praying

for a friend who maybe is hurting in this way, and they really could use your prayers. Simply

adapt this time of prayer to intercede for them because it might be exactly what they need

today.

As we begin, take a deep breath,

as we become aware of God's loving presence around us and within us. Today's passage comes from Isaiah chapter 49, verses 15 and 16.

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast

and have no compassion on the child that she has

born. Though she may forget, I will not forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palms

of my hands. Let's begin by reciting God's goodness, praising him for who he is and for what he has done in our lives.

Oh, Lord God, you are our good shepherd.

You are our father and mother.

You are the one who meets us in our place of need. You know us and you see us and

you hear the cry of our hearts and the place where we have been hurt most. So take a moment now to reflect on the ways that God has loved you in your place where you

needed a parent's love the most.

Feel free to pause this episode if you need more time to recite his goodness. I'm Let's continue now by expressing our neediness, confessing to God our sins and our needs, those areas in our lives where we cling to him.

God, we confess that it is so much easier to ignore the pain, to numb it with other distractions or pursuits,

to run away from the hard and the heavy, especially when it's in our family of origin.

But to pretend like that's the past and this is the future and the two we're not connected at all.

But God, you know us. You know what's going on in our hearts. You know the pain that we carry

...