Lord Make Me A Blessing

As I prepare for a new year, I like to spend some time in prayer and mediation. I often take several days to be in prayer over the new year. I like to have a sense of goals and hopes for the future. These goals and hopes have to be revisited often and prayed over throughout the year. But it is nice to have some direction in the journey of the year. Some of my goals are personal, involving education, hobbies and health, others are relational, involving family and friends and still others are professional.

As I was going through prayers for the New Year, I came across one by St. Francis of Assisi. He states:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, let me sow pardon and forgiveness;
Where there is doubt, let me sow faith;
Where there is despair, let me sow hope;
Where there is darkness, let me sow light;
Where there is sadness, let me sow joy.

As I read through this prayer and read it over again, I joined in the desire to be such an instrument in all my goals and hopes. No matter who I am with, or where I am, I desire to be a person who lives and brings peace, love, forgiveness, faith, hope, light and joy. I also thought that in order to give these blessings to others, I must first be filled with them. My prayer became:

Lord fill me with your peace, that I may share peace with others,
Fill me with your love so that I may express love to others,
Fill me with mercy, so that forgiveness and grace be given to others,
Fill me with faith, so that I may encourage those who have fear,
Fill me with light, as I support those who are living in darkness and
Fill me with joy, so I may encourage those who are sad.

I as I go over this prayer for myself, I pray this over each one of us. As we travel, if by ourselves or with others, as we work, as we spend time with our families, may we each be filled with this blessing and be a blessing to others. This will be a continuous hope and goal throughout the whole year.