Thank you - to people doing nursing care.

 

Thank you - to people doing nursing care.

(Number two in a series of eight prayers.)

Lord, God, I  thank you for nurses and the gifts they bring to all of us, combining the knowledge of science with the skills of empathy and care. They show us the face of love and patience. 

You are a gracious God, kind and understanding, showing your personal touch through the miracle of healing in our bodies, and for this, I praise you.

Thank you that nurses value life enough to give of themselves beyond what most of us would give. Often in messy situations, treating us is not what we imagine as our life's work, but they face these circumstances every day, usually with a smile.

But in your wisdom and gracious providence, you gave certain women and men an extra touch of
understanding. Thank you for the years of training under the most rigorous circumstances. Thank you for the teachers and professors who insist that nurses learn professional etiquette. Thank you for the hospitals and clinics where they spend endless hours, walking from one patient to another, often so tired they can hardly carry on. Thank you that they are willing to change from day shifts to evening and then the long night shifts, leaving aside their personal choices as they come back to extremely ill persons. 

Thank you, Lord, of Hosts, for the skills they learn, giving injections, giving enough time to listen to patients' personal lives, and then giving hope when often there seems to be no hope. Thank you for mid-wives who specialize in bringing a new life into the world. Thank you for the professional relationship between nurses and doctors, nurses and employers, nurses, and their family members. 

Lord, I ask for your favor on nurses at this time of Covid-19. This is such a difficult time, always having to be aware of the danger of an unseen virus. Give them the words to encourage patients who have been previously diagnosed with an illness and have their surgery on hold. May nurses "always give (themselves) fully to the work of the Lord, because (they) know that (their) labor in the Lord is not in vain." I Corinthians 15:56. And for nurses who do not yet have a personal, living relationship with you, may they be led to the One who cares for them far more than any other earthly one. Amen