{"id":14311,"date":"2026-03-22T22:44:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T02:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14311"},"modified":"2026-03-22T22:44:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T02:44:02","slug":"laments-for-lent-week-5-a-prayer-for-my-daughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14311","title":{"rendered":"Laments for Lent – Week 5 – A Prayer for my Daughter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Today is the fifth Sunday of Lent, so I’m going to talk about the fifth part of a Lament – Sureness of Help.<\/p>\n

I’ve been praying example laments each week of Lent<\/a>, trying to demonstrate that we can use the form of a Lament found in Psalms to pray our own prayers and bring our own requests before God.<\/p>\n

This year, I’ve mostly been praying about current events, because I’m upset about the way things in our country are going. But this week, I finished up three months of my firstborn living with me after almost twenty years living on her own. She’s been out of work for years, pretty much since she came out as transgender, and is doing a reset, alternating time between her dad and me. I’m super hopeful that the reset time so far has been helpful and that she’s going to be able to land a job and save money to get out on her own again. I’m super hopeful, but she’s also very much on my heart.<\/p>\n

To review, the parts of a Lament are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Address to God<\/li>\n
  2. Complaint<\/li>\n
  3. Confession of Trust<\/li>\n
  4. Entreaty<\/li>\n
  5. Sureness of Help<\/li>\n
  6. Subsequent Praise<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The “Sureness of Help” section is my attempt at an “S” name for the section where the psalmist expresses confidence that God is going to answer. Here are some examples from Psalms:<\/p>\n

    Psalm 54:7\u2014<\/p>\n

    You have delivered me from all my troubles,
    \n and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \u00a0
    \nPsalm 85:12\u2014<\/p>\n

    The Lord will indeed give what is good,
    \n and our land will yield its harvest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \u00a0
    \nPsalm 59:17\u2014<\/p>\n

    But I will sing of your strength,
    \n in the morning I will sing of your love;
    \nfor you are my fortress,
    \n my refuge in times of trouble.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Psalm 3:8\u2014<\/p>\n

    From the Lord comes deliverance.
    \n May your blessing be on your people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Sometimes, I’m not sure that God will actually answer my prayer precisely the way I want God to – so I try to focus on what I am sure about – at the very least, I’m sure that God hears my prayer and God cares. When I’m talking about big justice issues, I do believe that the arc of the universe tends toward justice – eventually. When it comes to my kid – well, you’ll see.<\/p>\n

    So here’s a Prayer for My Daughter<\/p>\n

    Lord, hear my prayer;
    \nShepherd, listen to my heart.
    \nI come before you on behalf of my child,
    \nwhom you love even more than I do.<\/p>\n

    She’s been out of work for many years,
    \nand you know the obstacles she’s faced.
    \nYou know the challenges
    \nthat get bigger with every month “empty” on a resume.<\/p>\n

    You know how our society isn’t kind
    \nto anyone out of work for any length of time.
    \nYou know how we heap shame on the unemployed
    \nin a way that makes it that much harder to change anything.<\/p>\n

    But Creator and Sustainer,
    \nfrom birth she was a joy and delight.
    \nSuch a sunny spirit! A unique person
    \nwalking to the beat of her own drum,
    \nbrilliant, gifted, opinionated.<\/p>\n

    It was easy to remember how lovable
    \nand clever and kind she is.
    \nAnd how much joy to get to be around her again!
    \nAnd I know and believe that You love her even more than I do
    \nand crafted her with those unique gifts.<\/p>\n

    Now, Father and Mother of all,
    \nI ask that you would make her way smooth.
    \nShe’s got a list of places she’s going to look for work
    \nwhile staying with her dad.
    \nMy prayer is that the obstacles in her way would be softened,
    \nthat you would send your angels to lead her
    \nto a job that’s right for her at this time.
    \nI pray that you would encourage her heart
    \nand help her efforts to bear fruit.<\/p>\n

    What am I sure of, Lord?
    \nThat you love her more than I do.
    \nThat you hear my prayer.
    \nThat you created her a masterpiece.
    \nAnd that you will guide her in her next steps.<\/p>\n

    And some day, when I go to visit her in Portland,
    \nin a place she’s paying for with her own earnings.
    \nwe will rejoice together.
    \nAnd thank you for how far she’s come.<\/p>\n

    ***<\/p>\n

    Do you have someone you want to pray for? Try writing a lament. If you paste your own example into the comments, I promise to pray with you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Today is the fifth Sunday of Lent, so I’m going to talk about the fifth part of a Lament – Sureness of Help. I’ve been praying example laments each week of Lent, trying to demonstrate that we can use the form of a Lament found in Psalms to pray our own prayers and bring our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,62,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laments","category-laments-for-lent","category-praying-with-the-psalmists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14313,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14311\/revisions\/14313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}