PSALM OF PRAYER

I wonder if you find your way inside a church when you are away on holiday? It can sometimes be an extraordinary lesson in local history going back centuries. Occasionally, you will pick up something, because it just catches your eye, like a picture postcard or a prayer. It was in the Yorkshire Dales, I think, where the local church had a "parish prayer" which struck me as being the sort of prayer I could carry with me, and I did, for a while. But, because I tend to think in "psalms", I decided to re-write it in my own way.

Thank you God, that I'm sometimes strong

and help me when I am weak.

Thank you that sometimes I'm able to trust

and guard me when faith is dim.

Thank you that I'm sometimes wise

and support me when I am foolish.

Thank you that sometimes I do what is good

and forgive me when I have failed you.

Teach me to serve with love

and to know you in faith and truth.

Guide me to see my life with good humour

and to walk on with others in hope.