We thank you, God our Father, for creating and establishing the human family. We thank you for creating men and women, and assigning them unique roles and responsibilities within the family. We thank you for marriage, the lifelong, covenant union of one man and one woman. We thank you for the blessing of children, and the blessings that children enjoy, within the context of a family.

We thank you that through family we have so many insights into who you are and what you are like. We thank you for godly husbands and fathers, who give us glimpses of you as the perfect, eternal Father. We thank you for God-fearing wives and mothers who reflect for us the beauty of the relationship between Jesus and His church. We thank you for children, for brothers and sisters, who picture for us the joy of life and the loving care that Jesus, our elder brother, has for us.

We confess today, on behalf of our nation, on behalf of Georgia, on behalf of our city, that we have neglected and forgotten the importance of the family as part of your design for human flourishing. And so we humbly ask for your forgiveness, and for a renewed understanding of what you intend for our families — of what it means to be a man, what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a husband and a wife. We ask for an end to the epidemic of fatherlessness in our communities. We ask for a newfound love for children, for them to be seen as a blessing and a gift, and not as a burden. We pray for an end to abortion. We pray for an increase in adoption.

As you grant us these requests, we know that we will see a renewed flourishing in our society. We know that we ourselves will benefit. And we trust that you will receive glory as families point attention to you, our Creator and our perfect Father.

We pray these things in the name of Jesus, your Son, our brother. Amen.