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"Lord, you know better than I know myself that now I have grown old, it is so easy to become tiresome Please keep me from getting talkative and particularly from the fatal habit of thinking that I must have something to say on every subject and on every occasion. Release me from the craving to straighten out everybody's affairs. Keep me from droning on of endless details - give me the wings to come to the point. I ask grace enough to listen to the recitals of other people's aches and pains - Help me endure them with patience, but to seal my lips to my own complaints. They are bound to increase and my love of rehearsing them is becoming more compelling as the years go by. Teach me the salutary lesson that there are occasions when it is possible that I may be mistaken or even wrong - Keep me reasonably sweet-tempered and not too soured by disappointments or failures. Let me be able to accept offers of help and not to be ungrateful for other people's concern over me. Make me thoughtful, but not moody, helpful but not bossy, not craving attention and expecting too much of others - Help me to see that there are other ways of doing things and different points of view from those held by me. You know, Lord, that I want to keep some friends at least, at the end." from the Additional Curates Society magazine. |
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