Morning Prayer
Good morning, God of beginnings. Before we reach for anything else, we want to say thank You — for breath, for light at the window, for a day that has not yet been spent. We did not build this morning and we did not earn it. It was simply given, the way it is given every day, and we do not want to grow so used to the gift that we forget to notice it. Thank You for meeting us here, before the noise starts and the list of things to do begins to pull at us.
We will admit that we cannot see very far ahead today. We would like the whole route — the outcome of the conversation we are dreading, the answer to the decision we keep turning over, some assurance about the part of the future we cannot control. That is not usually what You give. What You give is light for the path: enough to see the next step, and then the step after that, and Your company for both. So that is what we are asking for this morning. Not a floodlight over the whole year. Just enough to walk honestly through today.
Keep our eyes open along the way. Let us notice the person who needs a kinder word than we had planned to give, the task we have been quietly avoiding, the small beauty that would be easy to hurry past. Where we are anxious, steady us. Where we are tempted to run ahead of You, slow us down. And where the path is genuinely dark, remind us that dark ground is still ground, and that You are still walking on it beside us. We step into this day glad to be walking with You. Amen.
A Word of Reflection
“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (Psalm 119:105). It is worth noticing what kind of light the psalmist describes. Not a searchlight sweeping the horizon, but a lamp held down at foot level — the sort a traveler carries, throwing just enough glow to keep from stumbling. That can feel like less than we wanted. But a lamp is exactly what you need when you are actually walking, and it moves with you as you go. We are not promised the map this morning. We are promised the light, and the One who walks beside us holding it.
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