When the kids were quite young, the church we attended had a remarkable woman, Mother Turk, as the associate rector. One Sunday, she called one of the parishioners and her son up to the altar. Together, they shared a lovely ritual that we, too, adopted in our home: the Evening Blessing.

Each night, before bedtime, I would go to each of my children, mark a little sign of the cross on their foreheads (or you could just give them a hug) and tell them 

The Lord bless you and keep you. May the light of His face shine upon  you and give you Peace.

The blessing is a simpler version of Numbers 6:24.

The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.

Although the original is truly beautiful (this is from the New American Standard Bible),  the language is a bit advanced for a young child and challenging to recite at the end of a long day. Mother Turk’s revision made it easier to really embrace the meaning.

Even as the children grew older (and I sometimes was in bed before they were), they would come in for Blessing. Every night. Even if we’d had a fight. Evening Blessing was always welcomed and never withheld. 

I will never know how many nightmares it prevented. But I do know the comfort and feelings of closeness it brought to my children and me.