A Christmas Prayer

Stephanie sent me this and said it was ok for me to post here:

Let me share a prayer that’s on my heart today.

Lord,

Help us to see you clearly in the midst of the flurry of activity associated with the remembrance of your son’s birth. Help us to make you seen in all we do and say during this season.

Use us–this Christmas–as instruments of love, joy, and peace.

Speaking of peace….Lord, please protect the men and women who are putting themselves in harm’s way to provide peace all around the world. May they know–this Christmas–that they are loved, valued, supported, appreciated, and remembered. May their families at home be blessed with fond memories of years gone by and dreams of blessed years to come once their loved ones return home.

And speaking of home…Lord, please bless our homes this Christmas season with countless joys, peaceful rest, and love upon love.

We thank you for our families. Our kids, our spouses, our parents, our grand parents, our aunts, our uncles, our nieces and nephews and the opportunity we have during this time invest in each other. May we not take a single moment for granted. May each moment with our loved ones be but an earlier Heaven.

Thank you for the gift of great friends. Doing life with people of like minds, hearts, and souls is a blessing beyond words.

Lord, this Christmas, may we be grateful for each gift received and always remember that every gift pales in comparison to the gift of eternal life found only in Christ our Lord.

Thank you for the wonderful food we will enjoy over the next week. Thanks also for giving us taste buds so we can enjoy eating even more!

Humbly we ask you to use us to deliver the following gifts this season:

Heal the hurting.

Befriend the lonely.

Mend the broken.

Comfort the grieving.

Feed the hungry.

Clothe the naked.

Good news to the poor.

Release the captive.

Sight for the blind

Proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Lord, we pray for peace on earth and good will between all humans. We pray for your will to be done in our lives, in our homes, in our government, and in this world. Lord, we pray that you will go before us into the next year and that we will not fall too far behind you or take off too far beyond your will.

Lord, thank you for coming to this world and for providing a way for us to go with you to that land where there will be no more tears, divorce, cancer, taxes, AIDS, single moms, ulcers, debt, bankruptcy, foreclosures, heart-attacks, IRS, arthritis, lies, abuse, cats, tele-marketing, email spam, canned spam, migraines, flat tires, bald spots, sin, unsweet tea, MS, home-owners’ associations, anger, Snuggie commercials, stimulus packages, illness, calories, cholesterol, government bureaucracies, security systems, red lights, fear, rape, hopelessness, Alzheimer’s, night, death, and faith.

Yes Lord, we thank you for coming the first time and we long for you to come again.


In Jesus’ name,

Amen, Amen, and Amen.

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.