New Year's eve tonight, Lord:
definitely time to think and pray
about some resolutions...
Now, no one knows better than you, Lord,
my track record on resolutions:
the ones I've made at New Year’s,
on Ash Wednesdays,
on my birthday
and at so many other times
when I've promised, pledged and resolved
to do this or that,
or to stop doing such and such
- but then just a few days later…
… Well, you know how that goes, Lord!
So let me begin
by placing the whole New Year ahead of me
entirely in your hands...
I put my heart in your hands and pray you'll
soften what's grown coarse,
warm what's chilled and frostbit,
smooth my roughened edges
and mend my broken parts
-and not so much for my sake, Lord,
but more for those who count on me
to be there - with and for them…
In the New Year, Lord,
give me a heart for others
and help me resolve
to love my neighbor as myself...
I place my mind and my will in your hands, Lord,
and all my thoughts, too,
and pray you'll help me sort through
my doubts and questions,
my fuzzy, lazy thinking,
my confusion and my foolishness…
Give me the gift and strength of wisdom
in the year ahead, Lord,
and help me resolve to seek and rely
upon your Spirit for guidance and counsel...
Sharpen my mind with your truth,
and expand my thinking when it narrows:
open me to study what I need to study,
to learn what I need to learn...
In the New Year, Lord,
help me discern and know the truth
and give me the grace to resolve
to be faithful to it...
I offer you my body
in the year just ahead, Lord:
help me respect and care for the frame that gives my soul
a solid form and presence:
get me out of bed and off the couch:
move, shake and stretch me;
walk with me and and strengthen me
for all 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 every step I take...
In 2022, give me the gift of your grace, Lord,
and help me resolve
to trust in your abiding presence
above all else...
In the new year, Lord,
show me how to organize and use my time
and I pray you teach me not to waste this precious gift:
fill my days with energy,
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 place my imagination in your hands, Lord:
make my thoughts pure, my dreams sweet,
my intentions just, my ideas honest, my plans firm,
my goals true and my hopes ever faithful to your will …
Give me the gift of a pure heart in the New Year, Lord,
and help me resolve to live in your light...
As a new year begins, 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...
In 2022, Lord,
give me the gift of a generous spirit
and help me resolve to do for others
as I would have them do for me...
I offer you the challenges of the year ahead:
give me the wisdom and strength I'll need
to face, accept and work my way
through all that I encounter
- always with your help...
And gently, Lord, I entrust to your care
the burdens and sorrows
the New Year will certainly bring:
give me grace to accept your help
to carry and bear my problems with a hearty soul
and a peaceful spirit...
And I offer you the joys of the New Year, Lord:
let me not miss a single one
but rather, delight in each
- and share them with my neighbors...
Into your hands, Lord,
I entrust the New Year, 2022
and I pray that through your grace,
I come to its end in your peace, held close
in your abiding and everlasting arms…
Amen.
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