10 Beautiful Bedtime Blessings to Pray over Your Family During the Holidays

My mind races and my heart is not at ease, Lord. It feels that there is so much to be anxious about, so much that my mind tells me will go awry. Like Augustine, I recognize that “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You” (Confessions). My heart is not at rest. I need more of You. Show me, Father, what false hope I have set my mind on so that I can redirect it to Your unfailing love. Whatever I may face tomorrow, You have experienced before me. So I give to you my anxieties, and I offer up my thanksgiving, knowing that you care for me (Philippians 4:6-7). Thank you that you are with me, and that no matter what tomorrow may bring, I will be able to face it in the power of your Holy Spirit. “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and Earth. Indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber or sleep” (Psalm 121:1). Thank You, that You can for me even as I sleep, so I have no need to take that worry upon myself. Let me rest in that truth tonight, Lord.

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This season is fraught with memories of the past, memories that seem to haunt me in the night. Teach me, Lord, to be present where I am. Give me the grace to acknowledge what pain lies behind me with eyes that see Your perfect love in the midst of all of it. Give me a heart that rests in the hope of eternity. I cannot make sense of the past now but I can trust in Your promise, that those who mourn will be comforted (Matthew 5:4). Comfort me tonight, Father. Let my mind find solace in Your present love and the blessings that abound in this very moment. You give sleep to Your beloved (127:2). Thank you that You have chosen to love me, Lord. I ask that You give me sleep in the night, devoid of the haunting memories and filled with security in Your loving presence. 

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The time to rest is now but my heart feels the tension of family conflict, Lord. I am awakened by the anxiety of entering into it again, by the haunting reminders of previous family wounds and the expectation of future contention. I feel that my heart cannot be at rest until my family’s relationships have found peace. But You, Oh Lord, can relate better than anyone. You know what it is to feel the estrangement of family members, the emotional distance of the ones You love dearly. You know how it feels to be regarded unfairly in Your own family. So when I look to Your Word, I can find peace, knowing that what You say is true. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied…Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:6,9). My soul yearns for right relationships within my family. So I will hold onto Your promise, and will lay my head to rest knowing that one day, the righteousness I seek shall be satisfied. When I rise in the morning, and in the days that come, I will pursue peacemaking, entering into messy conflicts with the confidence that I am not doing it alone. For You are “not a God of disorder but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33), and You have gone before me. Thank you for the privilege of being called Your child. Whatever tension I feel in my family, it does not affect the closeness that I get to experience in relationship to You. Let that reality bring me peace as I lay my head to rest tonight.

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Lord, you know my restlessness. A restlessness that is rooted in hopelessness. It feels that the weight of life is only exacerbated by the twinkling lights and the projection of what I should be feeling right now. To lay in bed is to be berated by thoughts of sorrow, by my hopeless meanderings. Help me to remember the hope of the season, the reason that we celebrate. Lord, in the form of a helpless baby, you gave us unshakable hope. So tonight, as I lay down, wearied from disappointment, I will remember that You, the creator and the sustainer of the universe. You once walked this earth as the Light of the world and You are still at work today. You are my living hope (1 Peter 1:3), the source of my solace in the night. I acknowledge that not even the depression that feels as all-consuming as the blackness of the night is greater than Your power to transform my life according to Your lovingkindness. Let my heart sing Your praises as I sleep. 

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The space is new and the feeling of irregularity is distracting. It begs me to stay awake and take it all in. My senses are heightened, though it is time for them to go to rest. I thank you, Lord, that I can find rest in You. Though I am someplace new, I am never far from You, the source of my everlasting rest. “In peace I will both lay down and sleep; for you alone, Oh Lord, make me to dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8). God, I ask that you make your calming presence known that I may feel at home even when I am far away from what is familiar. I thank You, Lord, for the surface beneath me and the blankets above. I thank You for the pillow on which I rest my head. Let me find comfort in them tonight as I sleep in the light of Your presence.  

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The distance between my loved ones and me makes my heart feel as if it were in two different places, not whole like it should be during this celebratory season. The stars themselves feel closer to me than those that I long to hold. As I gaze upon them, remind me of the distance that You traveled to put my heart at ease. Through the prophet Isaiah, You foretold of the coming of Your Son. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means God with us)” (Matthew 1:23). From heaven to earth, You came to make Your lovingkindness tangible in the face of Christ, who now lives in Me (Gal. 2:20). God, You are with me, as a source of eternal company even as I feel the pain of separation from the ones that I love. Remind them, too, as they rest their heads this evening, of Your unfailing love and everlasting covenant. I know that separation will not endure forever, and that this feeling will not last. Just as You led Your people “through the deeps, as through the wilderness” (Psalm 106:9), be with me tonight, leading me through the deep waters of longing. 

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I am overwhelmed, Father, for my heart accuses me in the night. My mind is consumed with condemnation. Guilt will not let me rest. Lord, I give my guilt-laden thoughts to you, to the Savior and Redeemer of my soul, the only righteous judge, in Whose eyes I am clean because of the sacrifice of Your Son. Thank You, Lord, that nothing can separate me from Your love (Romans 8:38-39), so that, even while I feel the division from my sin in my earthly relationships, I know that with You, I am at peace. Forgive me of my trespasses and wash me clean. As David cried to You in the night that You would renew a right spirit within him, so I too, God, ask You to grant me such favor. Renew my Spirit and give me the opportunity and courage in the day to reconcile that which has been broken in my relationships with those I love. I do not come to You according to my own righteousness, but according to Yours. Your mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 1:22-23), and Your lovingkindness never ceases (Psalm 136). I will remember Your sacrifice as I lay my head to rest tonight, knowing that You will bring the good work that you started in me to completion (Philippians 1:6). Thank You for Your love. Thank You for Your mercies. Thank You for the sacrifice that brings me peace in the night. 

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There is no stopping it, Lord. My brain seems to race endlessly, trekking down paths that it has treaded many times prior. The questions come but they do not go. I do not see an escape from this never-ending cycle of confusion. I am exhausted, but restless. Remind me Lord, what is true. That You are “not a God of confusion, but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33), and that Your thoughts are incalculably higher than my thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). You see everything, and You know perfectly well what I cannot even think to ponder. Give me clarity, Lord, for that which I need to see, and the grace to lay down that which I may never understand. For only in Your hands are my memories, emotions, relationships, and future moments safe. What I know to be true is that You sent Your Son on a night when the stars, the ones that You made with Your very hands, shone like they do now. Because of Your love for Your creation and Your church, because of Your love for me, You came to bring peace. It is in that hope that I lay my head down to sleep. I pray for a “peace that surpasses understanding” (Philippians 4:7), for tonight I feel that I understand very little. Except that I know that You are good and that You are for me.

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My soul is restless for the delight that rings out around me. All that is to come begs for my attention in the night. Sleep seems to elude me as I consider the joy of this season. I want to hold onto it all, all of the music and laughter, the lights, time with family and the excitement of the season, not letting it pass me by. Remind me of the steadfastness of Your eternal promises, Lord. That the excitement which I feel is only a small glimmer of the stirring of our souls for the joy that is to come when You return and Heaven and Earth are made one. Although this season is fleeting, the reasons for it are everlasting. Eternal life has begun in me and is to come. Such excitement surpasses even what is felt in this season. So let me hold, in my heart, on to the anticipation that I feel for the moments of enjoyment that are ahead, knowing that they are a foretaste of the eternal delight that is mine in being one with You. You are so good, Oh Lord, and I thank You for all that I have to be excited about. Let my dreams reflect your goodness in the night. 

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As a child who cannot sleep, wanting once more to take in the dazzling Christmas lights shining outside of her window, I too, am kept awake by an unceasing sense of light in the darkness. There is a joy in me that I cannot express, one that is deep-seated and energizing. I am so thankful for the joy of this season. For the family whose heads rest on pillows near mine, for the abundance of love that seems ever-present, and for You, Lord, by Whose light we see light. If I could bottle up this feeling and hold onto it, I would. But I have something even better in You. You are with me in the night and when I wake in the morning. “A day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside” (Psalm 84:10). As I rest my head tonight, surrounded by the joy of Your love, I am at peace, knowing that I do not have to bottle this moment in order to keep this feeling. You satisfy my years with good things (Psalm 103:5), so I can delight in the joy of this moment with ease, knowing that the hope of Your promise never ceases, and there is no end to the reign of joy in Your Kingdom. 

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