In Memory of a Hurtful Parent by Rabbi Robert Saks
O God: You know my heart. Indeed, You know me better than I know myself.
My emotions swirl as I say this prayer. The parent I remember was not kind to me. His/her death left me with a legacy of unhealed wounds, of anger, and of dismay that a parent could hurt a child as I was hurt.
Help me, O God, to subdue bitter emotions that do me no good, and to find that place in myself where happier memories may lie hidden and where grief for all that could have been, all that should have been, may be calmed by forgiveness, or at least soothed by the passage of time.
I pray that You, who raise up slaves to freedom, will liberate me from the oppression of my hurt and anger, and that You will lead me from this desert to Your holy place.
From: Beside Still Waters, available for download and purchase.
