Dear God, you give me substance and gravity. In the face of trials, you anchor me. Let me hold fast to you, that I may not act in panic, blown about by winds.

I am so fearful of the judgments of those around me, I so easily react without consideration. If I listen for your voice, if I am earnest in seeking your will, I might begin to act more deliberately.

Weigh me down, O Lord, stop me from flying away in ill-considered reactions. Let me move, speak, and act slowly and with purpose.

Let me quietly act as your agent. Thy will be done.

(Letter #1035)

Dear God, let me show my weakness today. Let me gladly depend on you to guide me and protect me. Let me have knowledge of your will for me, and the willingness and power to carry it out.

I feel so inadequate to the tasks I know are before me. Let me not try to hide my fear, but allow it to be visible to my fellows. If I am seen to be supported by your grace, then others may develop faith in you, too.

Lord, let my failings and shortcomings be the material from which you create a beacon. Save me, that others may see me saved. Improve me, that others may see me improved. Guide me, that others may see your guidance.

Thy will be done.

(Letter #1034)

Dear God, let me reflect your light into every corner today. Let me bring gladness.

Lord, today I will walk along the path you have set. What I encounter will be determined by you. My role is to try my best to discern your will, to find each opportunity to be helpful.

Let my faith shine so brightly that those around me wonder at your power. Let me have ease today, knowledge of the next right action. Let this ease beckon others to seek you.

Let me efface myself. Let me erase my own feeling of accomplishment. Let me not strive for selfish ends, but instead seek to demonstrate your power – the power you have to create ease and serenity.

Let me glide quietly through the day, held erect by you. Let the light you shine from me call others to follow the path of self-forgetting. Lord, let me be useful to my fellows today.

(Letter #1033)

Dear God, My life is filled in all corners with evidence of your grace. These gifts are undeserved. I have love, security, a sense of usefulness, and faith well beyond my due.

Even at such a calm, ordinary time such as this one — my life overflows.

Lord, let me recognize this in each moment. Let me have wonder for the serenity I feel. Who could have anticipated such a gift? Who could say they deserve it?

Let me embody thanks today.

(Letter #1032)

Dear God, there is enough. Plenty to go around. Abundance. You shine on every creature, every human being. You shine on me no less than my neighbor.

Lord, let me not grasp and strive. Let me calmly walk through this land that you have made, doing your will. Let me turn my gaze toward others I can help. Let me glide from act to act, delivering your help at each meeting.

Let me glow.

(Letter #1031)

Dear God, I am thinking of myself. My own will, my status, my comfort. Self.

Such a dead end this is. Such a narrow view of life.

God, let me please turn my gaze to the world. Let me look around me, at all the opportunities to do your will. they are strewn all about me.

Let me not concern myself with my self. Lord, enter my thoughts and force them away from my inwardness.

(Letter #1030)

Dear God, let me live here, now, in the present. Today I have plenty to do. Let me focus on the tasks and events that are right here before me.

My thoughts drift forward into the future and I find myself no longer inhabiting this day. I can barely recollect what happened mere moments ago, for I am not even here.

Lord, draw me back to this day. Let me bring all my energies to bear on the present tasks.

(Letter #1029)

Dear God, let me not shrink from effort today. I have the choice to act on all the opportunities you present to be of service, to be helpful, to be useful, to be responsible. They each beckon, a gift. Yet more often, I will sit idly, watching each of these opportunities pass by like branches in a slow river. They float by, in easy reach, but soon they are gone, disappeared around the bend.

Lord, let me live today with urgency to fulfill your will. You created me for a reason, not to take up space and be idle. Let me be filled with energy to do your will today. Let me stand, walk toward challenge and effort, and in this be a beacon to those around me. Let me call them to follow me, as I follow your will.

Let me be your creation today.

(Letter #1028)

Dear God, I stand in my own way. I am the one who blocks me from being useful to others, from being responsible, from loving all. My shortcomings and failings – my selfishness and judgment. My pride.

Lord, let me accept my own negative role. I create the very conditions I seek to cure, I am my own source of chaos and negativity.

Lord, let me recognize my shortcomings. Let me act in contrary ways. Let me have the presence of mind and self awareness to see you when I am being prideful, selfish, judgmental, arrogant, irresponsible, and envious.

Let me instead act as if I had the virtues I seek: humility, compassion, responsibility, love. Let me, indeed, love all those around me – not just in theory but in practice. Show me how to be better today. Let me be willing to do those things you show.

(Letter #1027)

Dear God, let me not have an idle mind today. Let me fill it with thoughts of faith, with positive ideas.

I feel beset with negative viewpoints all around, and I myself contribute to this through the thoughts I pursue, the conversations in which I take part, the inner dialogue I maintain.

Lord, I cannot wait passively to be struck faithful. You have granted me, your servant and creature, a mind. I can direct my thinking towards love, or towards those complaints and battles that lead, ultimately, to hate. I know well whither those roads go.

Lord, let me consciously choose to be a being of love today. Let me turn away from frustration, judgment, and complaint – mindful of how poisonous those things are to me. Let me acknowledge my own role in my inner life, and root out the things that make me misshapen in outlook.

Let me spread love.

(Letter #1026)