The Blessing

One of the things I have learned in life if you profess any kind of faith is that at one time or another you are going to be asked to give a prayer of thanks for some event. These situations are awkward for most of us and for the few of you who who are reading if you can rip one off the top of your head, you can consider your self blessed.

So I don't consider myself a religious representative of any kind. Most of my friends would call me a great example of a bad example. I did a little research several years ago, during some down time, to fill this hole in my learning. Hoping to spare my wonderful spouse and family any future embarasment. I decided to find myself a "good prayer" something better than "bless the bread bless the meat". I found there are prayers for everything, simple children's prayers to the complex, beatific works of John Donne and Sir Thomas Moore. During this project I discovered the prayers of Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Master of Ballantrae, he wrote many wonderful prayers and blessings. I found them heartfelt, complex in thought, but simple in prose. Very easy for me to remember the gist of his writing, though I don't do the words justice. Here is on of my favorites called a PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank Thee for this place in which we dwell;
for the love that unites us;
for the peace accorded us this day;
for the hope with which we expect the morrow;
for the health, the work, the food, and the bright skies,
that make our lives delightful;
and for our friends in all parts of the earth.
Let peace abound in our small company.

Purge out of every heart the lurking grudge.
Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere.
Give us the grace to accept and to forgive offenders.
Forgetful ourselves, help us to bear cheerfully
the forgetfulness of others.
Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind.
Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.

Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors.
If it may not, give us the strength to encounter
that which is to come,
that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation,
temperate in wrath,
and in all changes of fortune, and, down to the gates of death,
loyal and loving one to another.

Robert Louis Stevenson

I use some of Stevenson's prayers and adapt them for the situation as needed. Some might I say mangle his work, but after reading more about him as a person I don't believe he would mind.

So being a few day before Thanksgiving and Christmas time fast approaching look up Robert Louis Stevenson's prayers for some ideas in case you are asked for the blessing.

Have a wonderful holiday and I wish all good things for your family.