Monday Morning Offering - 220

Image: George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

New Year's Eve tonight, Lord

and it's time to make some resolutions...

No one knows better than you my track record

on resolutions I’ve made in the past,

at New Year’s and on Ash Wednesdays

and all those other times

when I resolved to do this or that,

or to stop doing such and such

- and then just a few days later…

You know how that usually goes, Lord,

so this morning I offer, I place the new year

all in your hands...

I offer this, Lord,

trusting that you plan on adding

another year to my life…

I offer you my heart for the year ahead

and pray you'll soften my heart where it's stony,

smooth its rough edges

and heal its brokenness –

not so much for my sake –

but for those who will count on my heart,

who'll be touched by my heart

in 2013...

I offer you my mind and my will in this new year, Lord,

and pray that you help me sort through

my doubts and my questions, 

my fuzzy, lazy thinking,

my confusion and lack of conviction...

I ask you to hone my mind with your truth,

and expand my thinking where it narrows,

opening me to learn what I need to learn and know...

I offer you my body in this year ahead, Lord:

help me respect and care for the flesh and bone

that give my soul a form in this world:

get me out of bed, off the couch and up from the chair

and move, shake, walk and strengthen

me and my mortal frame

for the work you give me to do…

And I offer you my spirit, Lord, my soul:

give me the courage and perseverance I need

to walk each day with you, my hand in yours,

your arm 'round my shoulder, guiding my way...

I offer you my time in 2013, Lord:

teach me not to waste this precious gift:

fill my days with energy

and the will to live by your word

and work for your glory;

fill my nights with deep and restful sleep

and strengthen me for what you would make of my life

in the next twelve months...

I offer you my imagination in the new year, Lord:

make my thoughts pure, my dreams sweet,

my intentions just, my ideas honest, my plans firm,

my goals true, my hopes rooted in your promises…

In the new year, Lord,

I lift up to you all those you’ve entrusted 

to my heart and to my care:

all who look to me and lean on me

for support and care and hope...

Make me faithful to those who depend on me, Lord,

but not so strong

that I fail to depend and lean on others

who offer me support and strength…

I offer you my bounty in the year ahead, Lord:

help me know the difference

between what I desire and what I truly need;

teach me to share what I have,

especially when I have more than I need;

teach me to see others’ needs before my own

and to care for them before I care for myself…

I offer you, Lord, the challenges of the year ahead:

give me the wisdom and strength I'll need

to face and work through them...

And I offer you the burdens and sorrows

the new year will bring:

give me grace to carry them and your consolation 

as I bear with them...

I offer you the joys of the new year, Lord:

let me miss not one of them,

let me delight in each of them

and let me share them with others...

I offer you the year ahead, Lord,

with its months as 12 new chapters

in the book of my life:

help me see the story of your love

in the days of each week;

show me the clues that resolve the mysteries

that confuse and baffle me;

let me see how these new chapters

follow from what has been

and lead to what is yet to come...

Be the Author of the chapters of my life, Lord,

and let your words and your story

shape the person you created me to be…

I offer you the new year, Lord,

and pray that I will come to its end

in your peace

and in the embrace of your arms…

Amen.

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