Make us mindful of the needs of others
When I was about the age my son is now, starting my middle school journey of transformation, my dad printed out a table blessing for me to memorize. We had a glass top on our dining table so he slipped it under the glass, and I got to read it each night at dinner until I could say it by heart: "Give us grateful hearts, our Father, for all thy mercies, and make us mindful of the needs of others; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." It's a simple prayer that is packed with pithy wisdom that I return to again and again. Through adolescence, of the things we might become mindful of, others' needs can fall off the radar. It is a time when our ego comes into it's own: We discover we are separate from our parents with our own ideas and desires. Our sexuality awakens and we find attraction to people we may have been repulsed by just months before. It is a time of discovering peer pressure and peer competition. Through those delightful years and into earl...