A Morning Offering

 

My God, I offer You today…

My life and all its care…

Keep me from sin till evening comes…

Help me my cross to bear…

My day is long, my work is hard…

My life seems all a-wry…

I have no time to think or pray…

And the years pass swiftly by…

O God, accept my work today…

I do it all for You…

‘Tis badly done --- complainingly…

But the best that I can do...

And You are kind and gentle, Lord…

And the faults You will not see…

Such as it is, my life anew…

I dedicate to Thee.

~ Rev. Thomas Foy

Needless Worry

 

Some of your hurts you have cured,

And the sharpest you still have survived,

But what torments of grief your endured

From evils which have never arrived!

 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Yesterday's Cross

 

 The cross that pressed so heavy

Is light and sweet today;

It lost its weight this morning

When Jesus came my way.

 

The cross that looked so dreary

A day or two ago,

Has, with His presence, brightened,

He helped me lift it so.

 

It now, is light, a feather,

I laugh amid my tears,

And raise, with Him, my burden ---

All flown my anxious fears.

 

The cross that weighed so heavy,

The tears that fell so fast;

are changed to glorious rainbow

In skies, all blue at last!
 

Open My Eyes

 

God open my eyes so I may see

And feel Your presence close to me...

Give me strength for my stumbling feet

As I battle the crowd

On life's busy street.

And widen the vision of my unseeing eyes

So in passing faces I'll recognize

Not just a stranger, unloved and unknown

But a friend with a heart

that is much like my own...

Give me perception to make me aware

That scattered profusely

on life's thoroughfare

And the best gifts of God
that we daily pass by
As we look at the world
with an unseeing eye.

~ Helen Steiner Rice

Autograph

 

God wrote His autograph

Upon the sky last night

In the stars I never saw

A signature so bright!

 

With the dawn again

For watchers to behold ---

He wrote His name in sunlight ---

An autograph of gold!

 

~ Marion Schoeberlein

Rest Thou My Mind

 

Rest Thou my mind in Thee, Dear Lord;
Give to me sweet repose;
Take weary flesh and troubled mind,
In peace, my eyelids close.

I've labored in Thy fields today,
the harvest fields to reap,
And now in quiet evening's hour,
Give to Thy servant sleep.

I rest in Thee, complete, secure,
For in my soul is peace,
For Thou didst wash me clean today,
and gave my soul release.

Dear God, I thank Thee here alone,
As on my bed I pray,
That Thou didst walk beside me,
throughout the heat of day.

And now, I rest in Thee alone,
Nor darkest night would fear,
For in the closing of my eyes,
I know that Thou art near.

~ Charles G. Ramsey

The Loving Thing

 

The child in me that often wished

to wipe His brow and help Him up

each time He fell,

now knows that wish is granted us

each time we do for any man

the loving thing.

 

~ Edward A. Gloeggler

Thankfuness

 

My God, I thank Thee who hast made
        The earth so bright;
So full of splendour and of joy,
        Beauty and light;
So many glorious things are here,
        Noble and right!

I thank Thee, too, that Thou hast made
        Joy to abound;
So many gentle thoughts and deeds
        Circling us round,
That in the darkest spot of Earth
        Some love is found.

I thank Thee more that all our joy
        Is touched with pain;
That shadows fall on brightest hours;
        That thorns remain;
So that earth's bliss may be our guide,
        And not our chain.

I thank Thee, Lord, that Thou hast kept
        The best in store;
We have enough, yet not too much
        To long for more;
A yearning for a deeper peace,
        Not known before.

I thank Thee, Lord, that here our souls,
        Though amply blest,
Can never find, although they seek,
        A perfect rest, ---
Nor ever shall, until they lean
        On Jesus' breast!

~ Adelaide Anne Procter

Teach Us, Lord

 

Teach us, Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest:

to give and not to count the cost;

to fight and not to heed the wounds;

to toil and not to seek for rest;

to labor and not to ask for any reward

save that of knowing that we do thy will.

 

~ St. Ignatius of Loyola

Lead Thou The Way

 

Each time I speak let what I say
Be of Thy Word,
That those who listen shall be blessed
For having heard.

Of what I do let every move
Be first a prayer,
That in my touch of other hearts
I shall not err.

And when I walk my feet shall take
Thy Chosen Way,
That those who hold my hand shall not
Be led astray!

 

~ Esther Nilsson

The Artist

 

I love to watch

God paint the dawn

In scarlet flush and gold;

 

I love to watch

Him touch the sky

In colors bright and bold.

 

I love to watch

God paint the dusk

In purple-shadowed gray.

 

Then leave His name

upon it all ---

Artist of  night and day!

 

~ Marion Schoeberlein

Prayer For A Day's Walk

 

God let me find the lonely ones
Among the throng today
And let me say the word to take
The loneliness away:
So many walk with aching hearts
Along the old highway.

 

So many walk with breaking hearts,
And no one understands;
They find the roadway rough and steep
Across the barren lands;
God help me lighten weary eyes
And strengthen nerveless hands.

 

God help me brighten dreary eyes,
And let my own grief be
A sure reminder of the grief
Of those who walk with me.
When words fail --- hands fail --- let me go
In silent sympathy.

 

~ Grace N. Crowell

Loneliness

 

Loneliness may visit,

but it never can possess,

a heart where God's love lingers

and where his spirit rests.

 

~ Dianne W. Brown

The Dreaded Task

 

I found the task

that I had dreaded so
Was not so difficult

when once begun;
It was the dread itself

that was the foe,
And dread once conquered

means a victory won.

 

~ Margaret E. Bruner

The Hardest Thing

 

The hardest thing on the road of life
Is not the length of the way,
For some it's long,
For some it's short,
The shadows at close of day.

The hardest thing and the saddest thing
That weighs upon the breast,
That brings despair,
That brings deep care,
To the one that seeks for rest,

Ah yes, dear friend, the hardest thing
Is lonesomeness we feel:
The suffering soul,
The long lost goal,
For the friends that weren't so real.

But the hardest and the saddest thing,
The lonesomeness of soul,
Is somehow gone,
Is fled from one
Who maketh Christ his goal.

He's gone before on the lonesome road;
He knows each curve and snare,
He is the way,
Eternal day;
He seeks to lead you there.

Believe in Him, reach out in faith;
Trust in His loving care.
The Christ Who died,
The Christ Who lives,
He seeks to lead you there.

~ Charles G. Ramsey