Tag Archives: Gratitude

A Prayer for Kindness in All Things

A Prayer for Kindness in All Things

Dear Lord, I praise you as the essence of all things loving; You are complete in Yourself; You are unconditional in Love. In my heart I desire to be more like You, and I invite you to be with me as I move about through my day. When I begin to compare myself to others, let me remember that we are all made in your likeness, and that each of our bodies is a temple of Your Holy Spirit. When I am tempted to make judgments about the actions, behaviors, even the looks of others as a way of making myself feel better, come to my aid and bring about in me a spirit of contentment, a spirit of gratitude. Help me to treat each person I encounter as I would like to be treated, and fill me with loving kindness so that my thoughts, words, and deeds flow from Your spirit of unconditional Love. Let me remember You always; let me be ever aware of Your presence in each moment of my life, as I would surely cease to live, to move, to have my being if thought of me falls from Your mind’s embrace for the span of even one breath; for it is Your breath that gives me life.

I ask all these things through Christ who strengthens me.
Amen.

The girls run through the damp grass

“…whoever eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God…” ~ Romans 14: 6

The girls run through the damp grass
in fuchsia, orange, yellow, and red-colored swimming suits,
squealing with excitement and anxiety
over big brother’s impending splash
of water from the pistol, or the bucket.

Little brother bounds up the soft slope,
his heavy feet plunking over the drying dirt and dying plants;
he turns beneath the forsythia arch and finds me waiting for him,
hunkered down in half-squat, spoon in hand and at the ready:
sweet and sour chicken, “mmm…ah, good, ah!” he tells me.

He enjoys the pineapple, onion, green pepper, brown rice,
and through mouthfuls he wonders with me about the dog he heard yesterday,
where is it? and the cats, where are they? then he stomps his thick bare feet
and laughs at the joy of eating with me under the sky, under the forsythia archway
he turns and sneaks around the back, down to the patio, on a mission

for his cup of water.  He sucks and gulps from the spout, breathes, tips it up again;
he is satisfied and filled and content to run off through the grass without me.
I stay back, thankful for the food, the water, the fresh warm air, the time;
my heart is full, content inside this moment, inside these lines,
the inside edges of life we climb.