Margaret Bird Steinmetz

Daily Prayer Guide

And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works.

~  Heb 10:24

A cold wind stirs the blackthorn  
To burgeon and to blow,  
Besprinkling half-green hedges  
With flakes and sprays of snow.  
  
Through coldness and through keenness,  
Dear hearts take comfort so:  
Somewhere or other doubtless  
These make the blackthorn blow.
~ Christina G. Rossetti

There are some men and women in whose company we are always at our best. All the best stops in our nature are drawn out by their intercourse, and we find a music in our souls never there before.
~ Henry Drummond

Prayer

My Father, I thank thee for life. Make me sensitive to the unseen influences that bring thy messages. May I be led where great riches may be found through small kindnesses, and where I may learn from the meek the beauty of earth. Amen.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Daily Prayer Guide

In all thy ways acknowledge him, And he will direct thy paths.

~ Prov 3:6

Keep me, I pray, in wisdom’s way,  
That I may truths eternal seek;  
I need protecting care to-days
My purse is light, my flesh is weak.
~ Eugene Field

No one could tell me where my Soul might be,  
I searched for God, but God eluded me.  
I sought my brother out, and found all three.
~ Ernest H. Crosby

My Father, may I not face the going down of the sun to-day, looking at life, in a mirror that reflects my own privileges and prejudices, but may I see it as it is, known to those who are living to make it better. May the days to come prove my sincerity in wanting the truth that I might live by it, and help to do good with it. Amen.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Daily Prayer Guide

Yet Jehovah will command his loving-kindness in the day-time, And in the night his song shall be with me.

~ Ps 42:8

Overmastering pain—the most deadly and tragical element in life—alas! pain has its own way with all of us; it breaks in, a rude visitant, upon the fairy garden where the child wanders in a dream, no less surely than it rules upon the field of battle, or sends the immortal war-god whimpering to his father; and innocence, no more than philosophy, can protect us from this sting.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

My hopes retire; my wishes as before  
Struggle to find their resting place in vain;  
The ebbing sea thus beats against the shore;  
The shore repels it; it returns again.
~ W.S. Landor

Loving Father, I bless thee for thy goodness and tender mercy which is over all. May I trust thy provision and love through all circumstances, and as I trust myself to thee may I have faith to believe that thou wilt give me strength for what I may have to endure, and believe that thou wilt care for me, as thou dost care for all. Amen.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Daily Prayer Guide

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee.

~ Ps 32:8

Yet I argue not against heaven’s hand or will, nor bate a jot of heart of hope;, but still bear up and steer right onward.
– John Milton

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly until he knows that every day is doomsday.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

He mourns that day so soon has glided by:  
E’en like the passage of an angel’s tear  
That falls through the clear ether silently.
– John Keats

My Father, if I may be living in bad habits, help me to get out of them. If I may be neglectful of good deeds, help me to get at them. May I reach for the highest purposes as I search for the realities, and may I not delay, but start to-day. Amen.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Daily Prayer Guide

And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?

~ Matt 5:47

As ships meet at sea—a moment together, when words of greeting must be spoken, and then away upon the deep—so men meet in this world; and I think we should cross no man’s path without hailing him, and if he needs, giving him supplies.
~ Henry Ward Beecher

Nothing is more unaccountable than the spell that often lurks in a spoken word. A thought may be present to the mind, and two minds conscious of the same thought, but as long as it remains unspoken their familiar talk flows quietly over the hidden idea.
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Heavenly Father, I pray that thou wilt give me a generous heart. May I not lose sight of the truth, that thou hast made others to have the same needs and wants that I may have. May I not through pride or egoism fail to help, and neglecting to speak, miss an opportunity to assist. May I be self-forgetful in friendly service. Amen.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Daily Prayer Guide

The heart which boldly faces death  
Upon the battlefield, and dares  
Cannon and bayonet, faints beneath  
The needle-points of frets and cares.  
The stoutest spirits they dismay—  
The tiny stings of every day.  
  
Ah! more than martyr’s aureole  
And more than hero’s heart of fire,  
We need the humble strength of soul  
Which daily toils and ills require.  
Sweet patience, grant us, if you may  
An added grace for every day.
– Adelaide A. Procter

Sunset and evening star,  
And one clear call for me!  
And may there be no moaning of the bar,  
When I put out to sea.
– Alfred Tennyson

Prayer

My Father, I pray that I may not be dismayed over life, and its trifles. Help me to master difficulties great and small, and give me patience through all until I reach the untroubled way. Amen.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Daily Prayer Guide

Trust in Jehovah, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on his faithfulness.
~ Ps 37:3

’Tis weary watching wave by wave,  
And yet the tide heaves onward;  
We climb, like corals, grave by grave,  
That pave a pathway sunward.  
We’re driven back, for our next fray  
A newer strength to borrow;  
And where the vanguard camps to-day,  
The rear shall rest to-morrow.
~ Gerald Massey

Be like the bird, that, pausing in her flight  
A while on boughs too slight,  
Feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings,  
Knowing that she hath wings.
~ Victor Hugo

Prayer

Eternal God, help me to realize that life is not only endless but, whether I live in love and obedience, or wait in neglect and indifference, that I can never separate myself from thee. May I be diligent in worthy endeavors to do my best for thee. Amen.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Daily Prayer Guide

Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God; Thy judgments are a great deep: O Jehovah, thou preservest man and beast.
~ Ps 36:6

Since it is Providence that determines the fates of men, their inner nature is thus brought into unison. There is such harmony, as in all things of nature, that one might explain the whole without referring to a higher Providence. But this only proves the more clearly and certainly this higher Providence, which has given existence to this harmony.
~ Wilhelm von Humboldt

The good mariner, when he draws near the port, furls his sails and enters it softly; so ought we to lower the sails of our worldly operations, and turn to God with all heart and understanding.
~ Dante

My Father in heaven, may I hear thy voice to-day! May I be quiet as I listen to thee. Above the clamor of the crowd may I hear thee calling me. May I hear thee in my joys and in my sorrows; in my work and in my leisure. May I listen to thee oftener, that I may be familiar with thy ways. Amen.
0 CommentsLeave a comment

Daily Prayer Guide

Boast not thyself of to-morrow; For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
~ Prov 27:1

The busy world shoves angrily aside  
The man who stands with arms akimbo set  
Until occasion tells him what to do;  
And he who waits to have his task marked out  
Shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled.
~ James Russell Lowell

Awake, arise! the hour is late!  
Angels are knocking at thy door!  
They are in haste and cannot wait,  
And once departed come no more.
~ Henry W. Longfellow

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Daily Prayer Guide

He is like a man building a house, who digged and went deep, and laid a foundation upon the rock: and when a flood arose, the stream brake against that house, and could not shake it: because it had been well builded. 
~ Luke 6:48

Each reaching and aspiration is an instinct with which all nature consists and cooperates, and therefore it is not in vain. If a man believes and expects great things of himself it makes no odds where you put him, he will be surrounded by grandeur.

~ Henry David Thoreau

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost—that is where they should be: now put foundations under them.

~ Henry David Thoreau

Prayer

Lord of strength, I pray that while I may lay a strong foundation for my life, I may remember that I should not delay the building by neglecting to complete the plans. May I look to-day and see if I am making my words stronger than my life. With thy wisdom help me to realize that the test of life is made with the soul. Amen.

0 CommentsLeave a comment