A New Year Prayer
I sit quietly with my daughter sound asleep in my arms and stare out into the late afternoon. It is peaceful and quiet. Everyone, including me, is sick with the flu.
Hours until the New Year, I silently think of the many New Year resolutions being made. There is something about the start of a New Year that gives us the feeling of a fresh start and a new beginning. I wonder to myself what kind of resolutions are being made right now? Stop smoking? Eat healthier? Better money management? Loose weight?
As my daughter squirms comfortably in my arms, I think of all the resolutions I’ve never kept. Oh, I’ve meant to keep them, but, usually by February, the “zest” subsides into the “starting tomorrow” thing.
This year I decide to make none; I have none to make — I know myself too well. However, I do think of a prayer and quietly recite it to myself before I quietly welcome in 2016 this evening:
Holy Father, God of our yesterdays, our today, and our tomorrows. We praise You for Your unequaled greatness.
Thank You for the year behind us and for the year ahead. Help us in Your new year, Father, to fret less and laugh more.
To teach our children to laugh by laughing with them.
To teach others to love by loving them.
Knowing, when Love came to the stable in Bethlehem, He came for us.
So that Love could be with us, and we could know You.
That we could share Love with others.
Help us, Father, to hear Your love song in every sunrise, in the chirping of sparrows in our backyards, in the stories of our old folks, and the fantasies of our children.
Help us to stop and listen to Your love songs, so that we may know You better and better.
We rejoice in the world You loved into being.
Thank You for another new year and for new chances every day.
We pray for peace, for light, and for hope, that we might spread them to others.
Forgive us for falling short this past year.
We leave the irreparable past in your hands, and step out into the unknown new year knowing You will go with us.
We accept Your gift of a new year and we rejoice in what’s ahead, depending on You to help us do exactly what You want…
I say it again, we rejoice! In Jesus name, Amen. A very Happy and Blessed New Year to All!
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