Monday Morning Offering: 12/29

Image: George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

It's almost New Year's, Lord
and time to think and pray about
making some resolutions...

No one knows better than you, Lord,
my track record on resolutions
made at New Year’s, on Ash Wednesdays
and all those other times
when I promised, pledged and resolved
to do this or that,
or to stop doing such and such
- but then just a few days later…

… and you know how that usually goes, Lord,
so let me begin my offering,
by placing the New Year ahead
entirely in your hands...

I offer you my heart for the year ahead
and pray you'll soften it where it's grown hard,
warm it where it has cooled,
smooth its rough edges
and mend its broken parts
-not for my sake-
but for those who count on me
to be there for them…

In the New Year, Lord,
give me a heart for others
and help me resolve
to love my neighbor as myself...

I offer you my mind and will
in this New Year
and pray you help me sort through
all my doubts and questions,
my fuzzy, lazy thinking,
my confusion and my foolishness…

Give me the gift and strength of wisdom
in the New Year, Lord,
and help me resolve
to rely on your Spirit's guidance...

Sharpen my mind with your truth,
and expand my thinking where it narrows,
opening me to learn what I need to learn
and what I need to know...

In the New Year, Lord,
give me the gift of truth
and help me resolve
to be faithful to it...

I offer you my body
in this New Year just ahead, Lord:
help me respect and care for flesh and bone
that give my soul a solid form and presence:
get me out of bed and off the couch:
move, shake, walk and strengthen
me for the work that’s mine to do…

And I offer you my spirit, Lord, my soul:
give me the courage and the strength I need
to walk each day with you, my hand in yours,
your arm around my shoulder,
guiding me on my way...

Give me the gift of your grace
in the New Year, Lord,
and help me resolve
to trust in your presence...

I offer you my time in 2015, Lord,
teach me not to waste this precious gift:
fill my days with energy
and with resolve to do your will;
fill my nights with deep and restful sleep
and strengthen me
for how you hope I’ll spend
the next 12 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…

Give me the gift of a pure heart
in the New Year, Lord,
and help me resolve
to live in your light...

In the New Year, Lord,
I lift up 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...

Give me the gift of a generous spirit
in the New Year, Lord,
and help me resolve
to do for others as I'd have them do for me...

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 certainly bring:
give me grace to carry them
and to accept the help you offer
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 New Year, Lord,
and pray that I come to its end
through your grace, in your peace,
and held in your loving arms…

Amen.

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