Dear Father, grateful for another new-born day, myself new-born, I greet Thee! Yesterday and all other yesterdays are in Thy keeping. _This day is mine!_ For the failures of the past I care not, nor do I mourn the losses of the days gone by. _Today I am new-born!_ Indeed, aspiring to Thy comprehensive wisdom, I may see my past and my present as one, and out of that past I may select--even from failures and losses--such experiences and lessons as will help me live the present--at least this one day which is mine!--more nobly, more fully, more usefully, more beautifully. May I, knowing myself to be Thy Child, respect myself as a creative spirit able to look upon its own work and to say: "Behold, it is good!" And above all, I pray: that, to-day and always, I may grow in grace and loving-kindness,--hating no one, but feeling, thinking, speaking, acting with good will towards all Thy creatures! _This day is mine!_ The future I leave to Thee, All-Seeing Father! but feel myself Thy open-eyed and confident child. Amen.
_'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home; A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, Which sought through the world is ne'er met with elsewhere._
_An exile from home splendor dazzles in vain, Oh give me my lowly thatched cottage again; The birds singing gaily, that came at my call, Give me them, and that peace of mind dearer than all._
O God, our Heavenly Father, we thank thee for the blessings of home; for the shelter, safety, and hallowed associations of our domestic habitation; for the sympathy and helpfulness of family relationship. Help us we pray thee to make ours an ideal household, bright with cheerfulness, an exemplification of Christian faith and hope. May the happiness of all be the object of each. To that end help us to be patient toward one another, kind and forgiving. May we realize by many beatific experiences that it is better to give than to receive, better to serve than to be served. May we be disposed, as occasion may arise, to share, for a season, the comfort and inspiration of our home with those who are homeless. We thank Thee for the bright assurance that beyond the fading scenes and transitory experiences of this life, there is, awaiting us, an eternal abiding place in "a continuing city" whose maker and builder is God, where there shall be no more parting, and where the shadows of our present life shall forever flee away. Amen.