I was making a prayer for Hunter’s baptism as required by our Church here in Illinois...

The prayer requires us to list everything we want and pray for our child.
It got me into thinking.

We wish and pray the best for our child always, but really how do we define “best” for us?

I don’t want to spoil my son. This is quite a challenge but
I realized, although it is nice to have a room, a roomful of the best toys clothes and gadgets…these are not for my little boy. At least, not just those.
It will be nice to have really beautiful things but I wish more for him.
I would rather he see the world, literally and figuratively.

I don’t want him to grow up snooty, arrogant, entitled and too sheltered.
I want him to witness the opposite poles in life. May he be empathetic and understanding yet secured and quietly confident afforded to him by his circumstances.

I pray that he grows with the privilege of seeing and living in two very different worlds, that it will mold him to be more compassionate about the struggles of other people yet competitive in the super fast world.
May he inherit his papa’s temperament and his mama’s tenacity and definitely not the other way around. :/

I want the world to be his playground. May his little toes touch the sand of his Papa and Mama’s beloved Roxas in the summer; May his little hands delight in playing with the snow in winter in the other side of his world.

And someday when he grows up, I pray that he will live up to his name in pursuing his dreams. May he chase them with passion.

I realized I don’t want to give my son the best “things”; I just want to give him the best of me and pray that he will turn out at least okay because of that.

Oh my Hunter, the places you will go. I just pray you will not make mama’s heart ache too many times.