It’s About Grace . . .
It’s about Grace . . .
No, not a person named Grace. What is Grace? One of the online dictionaries says: 1) elegance; 2) politeness; 3) generosity of spirit; 4) prayer at mealtimes; 5) pleasing quality; 6) gift of God to humankind. The synonyms that come up are: 1) elegance; 2) kindness; 3) blessing; 3) adorn; 4) dignity.
But what is it really – can you define it? Personally, I like all of the definitions and synonyms. And you may wonder, why am I talking about grace today? Well, as I was reading one of my morning readings today and the author talks about beginning her day with a small prayer that I think many of us could benefit from repeating to help us get through today. Remember, in reality all we know we have in this world is today – NOW – nothing else is guaranteed.
Here’s the prayer –
“Oh God, give me grace for this day.
Not for a lifetime, nor for next week, nor
for tomorrow, just for this day.
Direct my thoughts and bless them,
Direct my work and bless it.
Direct the things I say and give them blessing too.
Direct and bless everything that I think and speak,
and do. So that for this one day, just this one day,
I have the gift of grace that comes from your presence . . .”
Just for Today by Marjorie Holmes
Isn’t that beautiful? To me it is a perfect way to start my day. You can certainly change the beginning to suit your spiritual beliefs – whether it’s God / Spirit / Universe / Allah / whatever fits for you. It’s a centering prayer to get us grounded before we begin our day and only takes a few moments to pause and read or say it quietly.
As I re-read it, I read it more as a blessing to get me through the day as best I can and with all the help I can get. Think for a moment, if you just spent even 5 minutes while having your morning beverage and repeated this request each day, what a great way to start your day and who knows how much better it might go.
Then we could in the evening change the wording to say,
“Oh Spirit, thank you for giving me grace for this day.
Not for my lifetime, nor for next week, or for tomorrow,
Just for today. You directed and blessed my thoughts and my work.
You directed and blessed the things I said. You directed
And blessed everything I thought, spoke and did.
Today I was given the gift of grace of your presence and for that
I am grateful. Thank you!”
Evening Prayer by Margaret Martin
Give this morning and evening blessing a try and I bet you will see that focusing on just having grace throughout your day will bring positive changes happening in your life if you just pay attention. And oh yes, after you read or say the evening prayer, be sure to write down 3 to 5 things about this day for which you are grateful.
These are the things give us hope – and we all need HOPE.
Namaste’
always remember . . . Your Chatter Matters!
One of my friends gave me this beautiful painted shell – it is from an Apple Snail found on the Hillsborough River here in the Tampa area – it is call Grace. The artist Afsaneh Norri blesses them with name or angel she is inspired for each one. And this just happens to be one of my favorite colors too!
