Dear God, how is it that one day, I can awaken in a negative frame of mind, and on the next, awaken rejoicing? Nothing has changed and yet I have optimism. I am brimming with it.

Lord, let me take from this the proper lesson: That conditions around me are irrelevant. That my mood is not in my control. That all will change. That faith in you is ultimately what will sustain me.

Lord, let me learn to have equanimity in the face of the lows as well as the highs. If I focus on the simple task of being useful and responsible to those around me, then a simple joy will come my way. Not a twitching ecstasy – but peace.

The peace you promise and deliver is available to me at all times and under all conditions!

God, let me greet this day as the gift it is. Let me have enthusiasm for my labors. Let me have the proper intent: to seek and do your will.

Thank you, o my Lord.

#821

Dear God, on an extended trip, away from family and from my accustomed routines, I get lonely and resentful. I pare down my activities to a minimum, enduring the time apart. Getting through.

This is how I approach everything that seems to be a trial, or is even disagreeable: I endure.

Lord, how can I better see trials, the large as well as the small, as gifts and opportunities from you? Why must my feeling of joy be dependent on the outside world and what is happening around me? How easy it is to have a joyful and grateful attitude when conditions are pleasant.

Let me find joy even amidst difficult or burdensome circumstances. You are there with me, Lord, in good times and in bad. Why should I not rejoice, then, even in the midst of crisis?

Indeed, in times of calamity I can often see your hand. My greatest difficulty in having a proper attitude comes amidst the minor vexations of life. The minor, irksome things often pose the greatest barrier to seeking you.

Lord, let me find a joyful, correct attitude today. I know this will come by pouring energies into serving others, for they are manifestations of you. All of us your children.

Let me not endure, but instead revel in the minor obligations you place upon me. Let me seek and do your will today, joyously.

#820

Dear God, I fell asleep, and have awakened, reflecting on my shortcomings. I am a selfish being, deep in my core. One way this presents itself is that I too often take pleasure in being the center of attention. Nothing pleases me so, as to be noticed and praised.

Lord, this pleasure is fleeting, without substance. It eventually turns to ash in my mouth. The attention I seek is a spiritual defect: it works directly against the humility you would see in your children.

I am one among many. Indeed, there are seven billion on this globe and you love each equally. You love me no less than any other. But nor do you love me greater than my fellows.

Today, Lord, let me place myself to the side. Let me quietly labor in service to others. Let this be a discipline, let it subvert the pride and self-regard I too easily demonstrate.

Let me seek humility. Let it open the space for a right,-sized view of my place in the world, and my place in relation to you.

Lord, guide me today into a deeper faith. Let me look upward, to you, and not inward to self.

Let me act as one among many, all equally protected and loved by you.

#819

Dear God, when I anticipate difficult situations, it is easy for me to hold fast to your guidance. I can seek your will under such slow-moving conditions. Indeed, it is seeking guidance during the difficult time of anticipation that gets me through it.

But what of the trial itself? When embroiled in crisis, when events are fast-moving – Lord, at such times, let me be able to summon my faith in you. For you are not simply a balm to soothe me when anxious. You literally provide answers and you direct events.

When events unfold, let me have a faith so deep that, right there at that point of trial, I have the presence of mind to ask, “What will you have me do right now, O Lord?”

God, you expect little of me, when I think about it rightly. Even when engaged in large endeavors, you require of me only that I seek you. Every day, if I persist in seeking you, I come just a little closer to you. This is not the dictate of a taskmaster, but the promise of a friend.

Let me be your friend.

#818