Adding an Aunt’s Blessing into the Mix

Blessings from our mothers and fathers affect us both consciously and unconsciously. The blessings, whether formal or informal, create head and heart knowledge that we are loved, appreciated, and a part of the community that is our family.

After going to Christian Healing Ministries in Jacksonville, Florida, I learned the power of a “Spirit-filled” Mother’s Blessing. Here is an example of their generic Mother’s Blessing for those who would like to see a sample. During the ““Journey to Healing” retreat, a woman with the tenderest and most comforting southern accent prayed to the Lord to stand in for my mother so she could bless me in a way that my mother never did and could not.

The experience was so personal, authentic, and done with such a love and compassion that I felt a special connection to this woman and to my own healing. I felt so restored in both spirit and mind. I didn’t even know this was possible or that a Mother’s Blessing would be such healing water to the barren part of my self!

What if there were more blessings given to people besides mother and father blessings? Great adventures happen and great discoveries are made when we ask, “What if…,” don’t they!

I am not a mother, nor am I a trained minister, pastor, or even a psychiatric professional. But maybe someone can take the Aunt’s Blessing that I have written below and use it to help others. What I have created is meant to be read to my nieces and nephew. So this blessing is a verbal hug with words of affirmation that I believe the Lord would inspire me to speak to them. For the nieces and or nephews (or other listeners) in your life, may this touch them and edify their lives in some way. My goal is for this to heal, build up, and to protect nieces and nephews of all ages.

I recommend that when you pray this over your loved ones you ask the Holy Spirit in Jesus name to lead you in personalizing the prayer to do the most good. I asked the Holy Spirit to bless this blessed prayer so that it will be exactly what the listeners need and that it also positively affect and deeply move the blesser as well. Yes that is a made up word but it’s time we start blessing people so the term sticks! Remember as you read below that not everything has to apply to you. The idea is for this blessing to work for every aunt out there.

An Aunt’s Blessing

An aunt’s role entails a friendship with and mediation between nieces and nephews. This means holding special conversations and healthy secrets in confidence because you love and appreciate “your kids.” Little hearts should be guarded, guided, and shepherded. Little bodies should be protected and nurtured spiritually, physically, and mentally. Parents’ missions and their actions should be expounded upon to the children to enhance the children’s understanding of what is happening. Aunts provide context so children draw closer to the aunt and parents. Kids, everyone makes mistakes though, don’t they? If any of your aunts (including me) have ever neglected you, abused you, ignored you, or hurt you in any way, I am deeply sorry.

If you have an aunt who ever harmed herself or those around you and that affected you, that was not OK for her to do. There were times I made you fill in the role for my own lack of friend, partners, and parents making you responsible to take care of me and to be my own friend instead of allowing you to act your own age. You were not free to be a kid. Maybe I didn’t love you enough to properly discipline you so you could grow in a healthy way. That wasn’t alright.

If I ever put too many responsibilities and pressures on you because I have my own hang-ups, I am sorry. If I harm the relationship you had with your parents in any way, I am truly sorry. You deserve to have healthy relationships with your siblings, your parents, and family and friends.

Accusing you, punishing you, and blaming you for words and deeds that were not your fault is my fault and not yours. Any times when you felt unimportant or important for the wrong reasons (like maybe you had to play a grown-up role when you should not have had to) were not your fault but mine and I am sorry. For times when you felt overwhelmed and when you needed guidance, an aunt should have been there and should always be there. I ask you to hear these words and let them touch your heart.

I am your aunt [or I am standing in for your aunt with God’s blessing] and saying and admitting these things to you so you will hear them and heal completely.

I ask for your forgiveness, you sweet and precious child of God. You were and are an absolute gift that was placed in your mother’s womb. This means that you were to deliberately planned and that your life is sacred! I’m so grateful for you!

For many reasons, too many to name, I ask the Lord to bless you abundantly. I asked the Holy Spirit in Jesus name who was sent by the Father to allow you to hear these words and the intentions behind them. I bless you in your walk with the Lord and in your relationship with Scripture. I bless you in becoming who you were meant to be in Christ and realizing what it means to be fully human the way Jesus was.

I ask that Jesus the Christ, as Lord of my life, set you free from any of the actions above and any words or attitudes that play in your mind and that don’t bring you closer to the Lord. I ask God to give you many healthy and intimate relationships that help you to grow straight and strong.

For any pain that I caused directly or indirectly, I ask that God heal your heart, body, mind, spirit, and soul. If there is any hurt whether coming into your life in any form like depression, self-anger, anxiety, guilt, and fear, I ask the Holy Spirit to free you from these burdens. I am honored to have you as a niece and/or nephew and I am so sorry for infractions against you ranging from small to large.

I am so sorry for pain in life that I did not prevent and from ignorance on my part. You should have been helped when you needed it. When I’ve made you feel worthless, I am deeply sorry and I ask you to forgive me so you may be free from bitterness. I asked that the Lord set you free from feeling toxic and for thinking toxic thoughts.

I release you from having to work hard to please me because you never had to please me – you were good enough and more than good enough. However, I want to tell you now that you were never too much! I ask that Jesus set you free from trying to earn my love or trying to fill a love deficit that I caused in you. You are not a failure and you never will be. You are free to grow and to be that creative spirit that God intends you to be. I pray that God removes any limitations in your life that I or anyone else has put there intentionally or unintentionally.

As a way to accelerate and enhance your healing, I ask the Lord to show you ways that I was hurt by aunts and uncles and ways that I was hurt so that you will understand that the pain I put on you had been put on me and I was simply recycling bad habits that were not things that you deserved to experience. I ask the Lord to bless this insight and wisdom so that our relationship will grow closer. Being in relationship with you is what I truly desire. Being in relationship at any level with you restores my spirit. With a renewed and blessed relationship, I pray that the Lord be in relationship with us!

I bless you my sweet child[ren] and ask the Lord to remove any feelings of unworthiness and rejection. I pray to the Lord above that you know who you are and who you were supposed to be which is how God sees you. Forgive me for not being more loving and tender. I ask the Lord to release you from any frustrations between the two of us and that He enhance our communication so that we may grow closer. I release you from feeling the pain that comes from any of the actions listed above. I love your goodness and look forward to growing closer with you as time goes by. You are so precious to me and I love you!

I love you like crazy and I always have. Any moments when you felt unloved I am sorry! You are priceless, I am so proud of you. And I thank you for bringing life to me with your birth. I ask God to plant in you motivation and inspiration to be the person that I know you can be and that God has created you to be. I thank you for sharing your life with me!