Prayers for a child

Prayers for the birth of a child and for the years of raising one.

The birth of a child has been marked with prayer in every Christian tradition since the New Testament. The prayers gathered here cover the full arc: the prayer at the birth of a newborn, the prayers said over a child at baptism, the daily prayers parents say at meals and bedtime, and the prayers for the protection and growth of a child through the years. They include the great ancient blessings used over the child by parents and grandparents, the children's prayers Luther wrote for German households, and the bedtime prayer that has been said in English-speaking Protestant homes for nearly three hundred years.