It’s a day for Prayers. I’m praying. It is both fair and correct to say, just about everyone I know is praying today. Also, I would put money on each of us having specific desired outcomes of our prayers, because people are stupid that way, me most of all.

Some, of course, are praying for things in diametrical opposition to my desired prayer-outcomes. Like armies throughout time, we each assume God is on our side.

God is on God’s side. This is absolutely for the best.

Loving God of All, hear my prayer:

Forgive us our unruliness, forgive us our petty wants and desires, for we are children who want ice cream when spinach and broccoli are what we need.

Lord, hear my prayer.

Open our fickle hearts to experiencing gratitude much more often for all the myriad, almost invisible yet powerful blessings You sprinkle about us like jimmies, and which like the children we are, we scarcely notice. For the Gift of Your Abundance which we consistently take for granted, we thank You.

Lord, hear my prayer.

You who are omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient: ignore our childish prayers and instead see into the purest, best part of our hearts. That part unsullied by the world, the part of us that is You. If ever we needed a Mighty Tweaking, today in America would be a good time to sort of…. remind us of that part, a sort of wee Cosmic Ping, O God. And if I can be really specific, send that Ping prior to the casting of a ballot, and certainly before the utterance of unkind words, of “fightin’ words”. God of All, cover us in Peace today (and always).

Lord, hear my prayer.

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Bring us into your Will of Love, Caring, and Forgiving. Guide us into healing. Cover this stubborn, argumentative people and this brave, willful, wildly experimental Country with your loving Grace, that Your will be done, as Your Son told us the night before he died: that we Love One Another, as He loved us, and love our Neighbors as ourselves.

In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.