Mom showed him a bag and a card and said, “What about these for the baby?”

His forehead crinkled and his words spilled out, rapidly and very matter of factly, “Mom the baby is not going to fit in there. And that card – does it have music? It has to have music you know, because a baby needs a lullaby like he needs his bottle.”

His bits of wisdom continued to flow as his mother attempted to at least clarify that “the baby’s not going in the bag, honey.” But pauses in his chatter were non-existent. And there I stayed, pretending to be looking for something but really just wanting to soak up everything he was saying. But I didn’t have to go home with him.

His mother seemed unflappable, but I wondered if she ever went to her car, put her head on the steering wheel, and muttered under her breath, “Pleeeaase, stop talking!”

Years ago, I wrote a small book entitled, “Through the Strength of Heaven,” a collection of columns written to encourage parents and others who were struggling for one reason or another.

I borrowed the title from the Lorica of St. Patrick, a prayer attributed to the well-known saint who faced kidnapping, enslavement, hunger, and brutality but never gave up his God-given mission to the Irish people. He wrote that he was able to accomplish what he did “through the strength of Heaven.”

I always thought those words were the perfect motto for parents. It speaks so deeply to how we get through so many rough patches in our parenting life.

Certainly, it was prayer and a reliance on God’s strength that got me through when my own strength was waning, and believe me, there were times when waning meant running on empty. What I began to realize is that it wasn’t just strength I found in prayer, but guidance in making decisions, insight when I needed it, wisdom in relationships and being led to the right people and right resources to lighten my load and help me for the good of my family.

And let’s not forget patience for when a child feels compelled to regale us with their profound wisdom, sometimes known as, “I may not be right, but I’m never wrong.”

A lorica is known as a prayer of protection but it is also a prayer of gratitude, recognizing that God is behind our strength. When I read the Lorica of St. Patrick, also known as the Breastplate of St. Patrick, I remember the sometimes-overwhelming experience of parenting, and hear the truth in praying, “I arise today thought the strength of Heaven.”

Mary Clifford Morrell is the author of “Things My Father Taught Me About Love” and “Let Go and Live: Reclaiming your life by releasing your emotional clutter.”