This morning prayer below is the start to building good habits. What does your prayer life consist of? How long does it take? The prayer below is short, but if you pray it and then expound on it, you could easily be praying for an hour. How many of us can say we pray for an hour or more each day? That is the beginning to building good habits. Morning prayer is a great place to start and think about your day. Start small and build it up.
Lord, teach me to be generous, teach me to serve you as you deserve, to give and not count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward.
–Missionaries of Charity in Yemen.
Let’s Get Started
Let’s talk about those habits in the prayer:
- Generosity- being generous in everything in life. Are you? Do you give generously? Do you go above and beyond what others expect or deserve? We have so much that our homes are full, our bellies stuffed and there are many who have nothing or are getting by on very little. How can you be more generous to those around you? Ask the Lord to help you and show you about being generous.
- Serving- do you give of your time? Helping others is a great habit for you and for them. Everyone benefits when we serve others. Ask the Lord to help you serve others. Think on these things.
- Giving- what resources or gifts do you have plenty of? Hats, shoes, money, ties. Can you give someone help in the form of advice and education? Can you help someone have a great day by giving them your smile and an hour of your time? Ask the Lord to show you areas of your life where you can give more.
- Fighting- How good are you at fighting? Not starting arguments but having a determination not to give in or give up? Do you have things in your life you need to fight? Temptations? Don’t we all? Ask the Lord to give you strengths to defeat these.
- Toiling- Many of us don’t know the meaning of this word. Is this even in the dictionary anymore? Many things in life are just convenient and easy. Not too much sweating of the brow in physical work, or we can pay others to do it for us. Ask the Lord to give us work that is meaningful, that gives us a sense of purpose. Allow us to work extremely hard and feel good about it.
- Laboring- Do you give a good day’s work for your pay? Do you give it all you’ve got and feel accomplished at the end of the day?
Taking the First Step
Start small. Building good habits takes time. Add a little more prayer to each day even if it’s just 5 minutes at a time. You can put the habits that you want to incorporate into your day in your calendar or planner. Schedule them. Keep track of how you are doing. You will be amazed at your progress in 3-6 months if you stick with it. Prayer is about asking the Lord to help you with becoming the best version of yourself. Living life to the fullest is really never about us, but about being better for others. We learn that through discipline and prayer.
Praying for all of you and better habits ahead! God bless.–Barb
Thanks Barb this is so good!