Morning Prayer
Thank You, God, for morning — for the plain mercy of waking, for breath we did not have to ask for, for a day that has not yet been spent. Before anything else happens, before the first message is read or the first task begun, we want to say simply that we are glad to be here, and gladder still that You are here with us. The day ahead is mostly unknown to us. We can guess at parts of it, but we cannot see around its corners, and we have lived long enough to stop pretending otherwise. So we begin where it is wise to begin: not with a plan for everything, but with You.
Be light for every step we take today. Not a floodlight thrown across the whole road — we have learned not to ask for that — but enough to see the next thing clearly and to take it without fear. Show us the person standing in front of us. Show us the word that will help, and the word better left unsaid. Where we must choose and cannot tell which way is right, steady us; let us move forward without panic, trusting that You have walked this road long before we arrived at it and know exactly where it leads. Keep our hearts soft toward the people we will meet, especially the ones who will be difficult to love.
And when the light seems dim, remind us that it has not gone out. We would often rather have certainty than company, but You have offered us Your presence, and that has always been the better gift. Keep us grateful for small things. Keep us kind when it costs something. Let us come to the end of this day able to say honestly that we walked it with You. Amen.
A Word of Reflection
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path (Psalm 119:105). A lamp in the ancient world was a small clay dish holding a little oil — enough to light a step or two ahead, never the whole horizon. That detail is the comfort of the verse rather than its limitation. God gives light sufficient for the step we are actually taking, which keeps us walking close beside Him instead of striking out ahead on our own. We rarely receive the entire map, but we are never left in the dark about the next faithful thing. And a step at a time, taken in that light, still gets us all the way home.
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