Dear God, each day a new chance. To be a better person. To overcome selfish behavior. To think of others. To bring love.

Lord, let me use this day, this one day, responsibly. Let me not squander it through selfish actions and thoughts. Let me spend it drawing closer to you.

Lord, teach me to be whom you would have me be. My default is to exert my energies satisfying my own desires, if indeed I exert any energy at all. I struggle with sloth, selfishness, pride. Lord, let me chip away at these things in small ways, as a means of demonstrating to you and to myself that I am growing willing that they might be removed.

Let me find and do just one good thing today. Let me start there. Let this grow in my life – let my willingness increase through repeated, simple action.

Lord, let your will be done today.

(Letter #892)

Dear God, I awaken from troubled dreams. I am agitated and frightened as I begin the day. In fear, I look for ways to turn this into resentment and anger, for it is more easily endured to be angry than afraid.

Lord, let me try love. Let me meet fear, anger, frustration, despondency, with love. Let me actively direct loving thought towards those who loom as obstacles in my life. Fill me, Lord, with the ability to do this. I am so depleted, I need you. Rescue me from my own attitudes, replace them with healing love.

(Letter #891)

Dear God, so many ways my shortcomings get expressed in day-to-day life! 

I indulge my pride and ego by meddling in others’ affairs. I exhibit sloth by distracting myself from my duties. I give my selfishness free rein, in matters large and small.
Lord, let me become willing that these character defects be removed.

How can I exert effort along these lines? I can try ever harder to avoid acting on such flaws. I can act as if I had already become my better self: humble, industrious, concerned with others’ welfare. Lord, let me be that person. Let me become ready to become him.

Help me to improve. I fall so short.

(Letter #890)

Dear God, I awaken with resentment and worry. Indeed, my resentments arise out of that worry – they are reactions to things that have not even happened yet. Only things that may happen. They are fictions.

Please grant me an improved attitude. Let me focus here, now, without imagining what may happen and responding to that.

All around me are reasons to be grateful. It is my responsibility to find them and so to find you, Lord. I am promised that if I seek you, then you will draw near. Let me do that seeking. Let me catalog all the ways you support, protect, and nurture me.

Let me consciously place my daily life and actions into your care. Let me seek and do your will.

(Letter #889)

Dear God, let me seek you today. Let me honestly seek you. The tasks pile up around me, the things undone. I become anxious thinking of all I have to do. I feel alone with all these things. I fear I lack energy and willingness to do all I must.

It is now I must turn to you. Let me remember you provide all I need, in whatever form is required.

You know my need. Let me not pridefully believe I know the form your aid ought to take. Let me willingly accept your loving assistance as you deliver it, in whatever guise you choose. Maybe your gift to me is relief from care. Maybe it is energy to act. Maybe, even, your gift is the obligations I have themselves.

Lord, let me accept and thank you for all you provide. Thy will be done.

(Letter #888)

Dear God, my lack of gratitude is astounding. If I reflect on all that has come into my life directly as a gift from you, I cannot even complete the list. The gifts are too many. Yet I remain unreflective of all these gifts. I so rarely think seriously about them.

I behave as if the conditions around me are just that: conditions, arising from some unknown place. The truth is you have ordered and arranged every single thing in my life, from the largest to the smallest.

Dear Lord, let me have an awareness of the gifts all around me. Let me not be so ungrateful. Let me try to live a deserving life.

(Letter #887)

Dear God, how deep, truly, is my trust in you? I do not depend on you enough. My attitude of self-propulsion contradicts all my declarations of faith. I say, “Guide me, Lord,” yet I so rarely heed this guidance. When faced with difficulty, I say, “Help me, Lord,” and then go right ahead acting as if I must be the architect and builder of my own solutions.

Lord, what would it look like if I truly relied upon you? Can I improve my attitude in this area? Can I have greater faith, and not behave as captain of my own destiny?

Lord, let me have more faith. Fill me with greater humility. Take away my delusions of self-sufficiency. Let me rely on you not because I ought, but because I must. Thy will be done.

(Letter #886)

Dear God, I pray this morning for serenity to accept that which I cannot change, courage to change that which I am able, and wisdom to discern between the two. It is wisdom that I lack most. I believe myself to have power to control far more than I am able.

I set about manipulating or dominating others so as to control their behavior and their attitudes. This is not only a futile effort, but it is cruel to them and disloyal to you. It robs others of free will, and replaces your loving power with my own narrow and limited abilities. You have transformed my life, why do I not let you act in the lives of others?

Lord, let me see how truly limited my influence is. Let me accept the freedom this brings. If I cannot control others, then I am free to love them even when they act in ways I would not wish.

God, let me expend greater effort in discerning your will for me. I occupy myself with such meaningless activity. Let me exert myself more in the realm of the spirit, and less in the world of everyday events. Let me work harder and harder to pass along your love. To all.

(Letter #885)

Dear God, tasks have piled up. Please grant me the energy to address these without shirking. I so easily fall into idleness and distraction. Indeed, I seek out such things. Let me have and exhibit the quality of diligence. Let me regard this as its own form of prayer.

Dear Lord, let me be the person whom you would have me be. Vanquish the self in me, take it away. Remove my character flaws and let me be willing to live with virtue. Let me be changed.

May your will be done today, in all things. May it be worked upon me, that I may better reflect you.

(Letter #884)

Dear God, I feel expectant. Something positive will happen. I feel it in the air. I have no evidence, yet I have optimism.

Lord, let me hold to such attitudes. It is easy, too easy, for me to expect and plan for calamity. So often, my worries overtake me, yet the things I fear rarely come to pass.

Instead, my more typical experience is that gifts show up. Sometimes this consists of nothing more than having unexpected strength – but other times I see clear miracles all around me.

Lord, my experience is that you support me. Let me trust this will ever be so. That today will be no different than all the other days. I am a loved child. Let me live gratitude.

(Letter #883)