A perfect prayer for moms and moms-to-be...

Someone special shared this with me. It has become my daily prayer for baby Rives...

Dear Lord,

Thank you for how you are fashioning my baby's joints, shaping her face, smoothing her skin. I marvel at the way you work, so patient in your artistry, so painstaking in your attention to detail. Swaddled within the folds of my womb lies a baby I haven't seen or heard or touched, yet I long to know her. In my longing, help me to realize that you long for her too; that you are the one who knew her first, and loved her first; that she was conceived in your mind before she was ever conceived in my body; that she was set apart not to fulfill my will but yours.

Help her go grow pliable to that will, Lord, responsive to every touch of your hand upon her life. Shape within her a spirit so sensitive to spiritual things that she will be able to feel your breath when you whisper to her conscience, sense your shadow when you move across the circumstances of her life.

Use the little girl to mold me, Lord. Use her clinging fingers to make me more gentle and her sudden smile to make me more joyful. Use her countless spills to make me more patient and her helpless cries to make me more compassionate. Use her to mold me not only into more of a mother but more of a human being.

Amen.

From "Miracle of Life - Devotions for Expectant Mothers"