Morning Prayer by Paul Richardson

READING IN TODAY’S NEWS, One of the 29 people trapped in a New Zealand coal mine is a teenage boy who’d only been on the job for an hour when an explosion rocked the mine.

Joseph Dunbar had celebrated his 17th birthday last Thursday, according to news reports from New Zealand.

His mother, Philippa Timms, told the New Zealand Harold that she and her son had recently moved to the area on New Zealand’s southern island to get a fresh start in life.

"We moved here for Joseph, to give him a different life, a better life," the Herald quoted her as saying. Her son’s top goal soon became getting a job at the mine, she said.

Can you imagine? The boy moves to a new place to get a fresh start, and after ONE HOUR on the job, he gets trapped in a mine?

Over the last year, while speaking to various audiences, I have often shared a prayer God has given me to say over my family every morning. Although it is very simple, something about this prayer has resonated in many people’s hearts. It is inevitable that someone will ask me to repeat it after almost every time I mention it.

PRAYER FOR MY FAMILY

Lord, we don’t know what’s going to happen to us today.

Today might be a beautiful, restful day.

Or today might hold some challenges.

Someone might criticize us today. Someone may gossip about us. We may face an accident or an unexpected loss.

Yet, regardless of what happens today, we commit ourselves to trusting you in all circumstances.

And we simply ask for your help, that you would:

Give us your eyes to see the world around us as you see it.

Strengthen our hands to serve others.

Infuse our hearts with your passionate love.

And open our souls to listen to your voice,

So that we might speak your words.

My friend, Pastor Gary Bowman in Chula Vista, sent me this beautiful prayer from Thomas Merton:

THE DESIRE TO PLEASE GOD

I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself.

And the fact that I think I am following Your will

does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you

does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire,

the desire to please you.

And I know that if I do this,

you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore I will trust you all-ways.

Though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death,

I will not fear.

For you are forever with me.

And you will never leave me to face my perils alone.