Dear God, let me be at home here, in the present moment. I spend so much time away from here, in the future, worrying over and planning for tomorrow, or in the past, fretting about and reliving yesterday.

Too rarely am I here. Lord, let me be here.

If I see this present moment rightly, I am safe and secure no matter what tomorrow may bring nor what yesterday may have delivered. Indeed: nothing can happen now, for the consequences will always be in a following moment.

So let me breathe today, dear Lord. Let my breath be prayer.

(Letter #1351)

Dear God, judgment of others weighs me down. My thoughts can be so bitter and wrathful. I smile and laugh with others, yet too often I scorn inwardly.

Lord, take control of my thinking, set my inner life into order. Correct the thoughts that reel around inside me, that block me from experiencing and giving love. Let me do your will today, in action, word, and thought.

(Letter #1350)

Dear God, I have so far to go to improve, yet you love me as I am. This amount of grace is staggering. I am so flawed, how could I be loved so?

Lord, let me try to deserve the grace you show me. Take away my selfishness, my judgmental nature, my arrogance. Make me more giving, kind, and humble.

Let me be more willing to improve. Thy will be done.

(Letter #1349)

Dear God, so much keeps me from living close to you. Chains that imprison me: pride, sloth, envy, lust, wrath, greed, gluttony. They bind me ever more tightly to a life of continual self-regard. I see everything through this lens of self.

Lord, free me of this bondage. Let me see through new lenses. Take away these chains, let them drop away. Let me see all the ways I myself am holding onto them. These shackles are not welded to my frame. I grasp them willingly.

I need but let go. Let me do so – let the self, wrapped in its fear, drift away.

(Letter #1348)