a prayer for praise
God, I often suspect that if we could spend more of our energy in true gratitude and praise, the “things of earth would grow strangely dim”… or at least, our challenges, frustrations, and fears might be calmed by the reminders of your grace, your goodness, your abiding love.
It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed by all the bad. Our world plays on it–seems, sometimes, to thrive on it. Help us to live to a higher calling; the Bread of Life on which we are to thrive is far removed from the slinging of mud and the mongering of fear. Even when we don’t buy into the hype, O Lord, we can be influenced by its attitudes and its anger.
Help us to be people of praise. Teach us to speak first in thanksgiving, so that then all our words may glorify you. Bathe our problems in gratitude, so that we may not be overwhelmed by our griefs. Give hands and feet to our vocabulary of praise; let our praise be an action, not just another empty word.
A Moving Yarn 