God Grant You Many More Years, Gabriel!

My son is TEN today! At 830am on 30 June 2002, my wonderful boy who has taught me so much came into the world. He was gifted to me by God through the heartbreak of another woman (Memory eternal!) and I am so grateful. As my mother said, he did not grow under my heart but he definitely has grown in my heart and he is such a blessing to me. Thank you, Father, for this gift. Please, please, please help me protect him, raise him in You, and in the Church.

The Lord promised me that He would always care for my boy. He reassured me years ago that my child shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the prosperity of my child. I have held onto that promise since 2007 and I will continue to hold onto it. So far He has not let me down and I know He never will.

O God, Maker of all creation, You have made me worthy to be a mother, and through Your goodness have bestowed a son upon me; and so I dare to say: this child is Yours, for You have given him being, have infused him with an immortal soul, and have raised him to life through baptism. 

And in accordance with Your will You have adopted him and received him into the bosom of Your Church. Send down to me Your gracious help in raising my son, for the glory of Your name. Bestow on me patience and strength to do Your will. 

Teach me to plant in his heart the root of true wisdom-the fear of the Lord-that all his life he may tremble at Your words. Open to him the understanding of Your law. Until the end of his days let him act with the sense that You are everywhere present.

Plant in his heart loathing for every transgression, that he may be pure, O Righteous Judge, who punishes children for the sins, but sprinkle him with the dew of Your grace.

O Heavenly Father, order the fate of my son according to Your blessings, do not deprive him in this life of his daily bread, send down to him in due time all that is necessary for the acquisition of blessings in eternity.

Be merciful to him, when he sins before You; look not upon the sins of his youth and ignorance; chastise him and have mercy on him, but turn not Your face away from him. Turn not Your face from him in the day of his tribulation, that he may not fall into temptations beyond his strength.

Cover him with Your mercy, that Your Angel may walk with him and preserve him. Abandon not my son, O Lord, and give him that which is profitable for salvation.

Amen.

Holy Mary, true Theotokos and Mother of God, who has borne the Saviour of our souls, pray for my son and for me! Lord have mercy on me, a sinner

Relevant Reading

Akathist to the Theotokos Nurturer of Children (as read by Khouria Frederica Mathewes Green)

Isaiah 54