A mother's prayer

There's a well-established tradition in the Orthodox church of praying scripture, such as when we sing Psalm 141 during evening prayers:

"Let my prayer arise in Your sight as incense, and let the lifting up of my hands be as an evening sacrifice."

But in spite of this rich tradition, I have found that my own private prayers (outside of other prescribed prayers that are taken from scripture) are seldom composed of holy writ.

There has been one notable exception to this of late. I quite spontaneously started to pray Luke 2:52 for Ian, asking that, like the child Christ, he would "increase in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." After all, we have no greater role model, and what mother would not hope these things would be true of her son, especially since so much is rolled up in the phrase "in favor with God."

There's just no improving on God's word, or on the eternal Word of God!