PRAYING HANDS

There are hands that help and comfort,
Hands that plan and teach,
Hands that rest and hands that strive
For a goal just out of reach,
Hands that grasp and hands that give,
Hands that work and play,
Friendly hands and loving hands
That soothes life's cares away.
But praying hands are dearest
In the sight of God above
For in their sweet and earnest clasp
Are reverence and love.
No hands can do an unkind act
Nor cause another care
Nor sin against Our Father's love
When they are clasped in prayer.
Author Unknown

A happy heart makes the face cheerful.
Proverbs 15:13

Love cannot be forced, love cannot be coaxed and teased. It comes out of Heaven, unasked and unsought.
Pearl Buck

O Lord, Guide me to hear your whispers and to live each day a new one for you. Help me to remember that if I get the little things right, the big things will take care of themselves. Open the door of my heart. Make me a stone in your temple of love. Amen

I see your hand, Lord, in everything around me, and in every aspect of my life. I seek your will. I see your plan, Lord, in all the years behind me, and in the days and years to come – I’ll trust you still.
Jeremiah 29:11

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Abraham Lincoln

Instead of allowing yourself to be so unhappy, just let your love grow as God wants it to grow; seek goodness in others, love more persons more; love them more impersonally, more unselfishly, without thoughts of return. The return, never fear, will take care of itself.
Henry Drummond

Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure; where your treasure, there your heart; where your heart, there your happiness.
Saint Augustine

Mary Smith went to church one Sunday morning and winced when she heard the organist miss a note during the processional. She noted a teenager talking while everybody was supposed to be in prayer. She also couldn’t help but notice that several blooms in the altar bouquets were wilted. She felt the usher was scrutinizing what every person was putting into the offering plate, which made her angry. She counted at least five grammatical errors made by the preacher in his sermon. As she left the church through the side door after the closing hymn, she thought, ‘What a careless group of people.’
Amy Jones went to church one Sunday morning and was thrilled at the arrangement she heard of ‘A Mighty Fortress.” Her heart was touched at hearing a teenager read the morning Scripture lesson. She was encouraged to see the church take up an offering to help hungry children in Nigeria. The preacher’s sermon answered a question that had bothered her for some time. She felt radiant joy from the choir members during the recessional. She left the church thinking, ‘What a wonderful place to worship God!’
Mary and Amy went to the same church, on the same Sunday morning.
Author Unknown

The strength and happiness of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going, and going in that way too.
Henry Ward Beecher

Each new day is an opportunity to start all over again…to cleanse our minds and hearts anew and to clarify our vision. And let us not clutter up today with the leavings of other days.
Author Unknown

Today is for itself enough.
Shelley

Write in your heart that every day is the best day of the year.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

God broke the years to hours and days,
That hour by hour
And day by day,
Just going on a little way,
We might be able all along
To keep quite strong.
George Klingle

If we fill our hours with regrets over the failures of yesterday, and with worries over the problems of tomorrow, we have no today in which to be thankful.
Author Unknown

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Light tomorrow with today.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Unknown, but not uncharted, tomorrow waits for our arrival - a day designed, a place prepared with tender care by the One who goes before us … Let us walk with faith behind him in the footprints of his love.
Psalm 37:23

My message has been very simple. To live well we must have a faith fit to live with, and a work fit to live for – something to which we can give ourselves and thus get ourselves off our hands. We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens in us – how we can take it, what we do with it – and that is what really counts in the end. How to take the raw stuff of life and make it a thing of worth and beauty – that is the test of living. Life is an adventure of faith, if we are to be victors over it, not victims of it. Faith in the God above us, faith in the little infinite soul within us, faith in life and in our fellow souls – without faith, the plus quality, we cannot really live.
Joseph Fort Newton

Blessed is the man who digs a well from which another may draw faith.
Author Unknown

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

Thank you for the confidence you have given, Lord, that I can tell you what’s in my heart and know you will listen – that I can listen with an open heart and know you will speak.
1 Samuel 3:10

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to here’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matthew 17:20

The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all he has made.
Psalm 145:9

Heavenly Father, grant me the faith to place myself completely in Your hands. Let me feel Your presence and guidance. As I extend my hand, let me feel Your reassuring grasp and abundant love. Amen

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
Mark Twain

A partially deaf boy trudged into his home one day after school. In his hand, he carried a note. It was a note from school officials, suggesting that his parents remove him from school. According to those wise officials, this boy was ‘too stupid to learn.’
Upon reading the note, the boy’s mother vowed, “My son Tom isn’t too stupid to learn. I’ll teach him myself.” And that is exactly what she did.
Many years later when Tom died, many Americans paid tribute to him by turning off their lights for one full minute. This was a fitting tribute, for Tom Edison invented the light bulb – along with motion pictures and the phonograph. In all, he was credited with more than a thousand patents
No one is beyond discovering new ways to express talent, enthusiasm, creativity, and love. No one is beyond receiving affection and encouragement. Stand up for others and never give up on yourself.
Author Unknown

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13

In Thee, O Lord, I have put my trust. Let me feel Your hand on my shoulder and awaken me to what I am. Help me become the most I can be for You. Open my heart so that Your love can be extended through me to others. Amen

The Lord is my pacesetter. . . I shall not rush
He makes me stop for quiet intervals
He provides me with images of stillness, which restore my serenity
He leads me in the way of efficiency through calmness of mind and His guidance is peace
Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day,
I will not fret, for His presence is here
His timelessness, His all-importance will keep me in balance
He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity
by anointing my mind with the oils of tranquility
My cup of joyous energy overflows
Truly harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours
For I shall walk in the Pace of my Lord and dwell in His house for ever.
Japanese version of the 23rd Psalm

O Lord, in this New Year with new resolutions, help me to make a fresh new year living one day at a time, not worrying about the yesterdays or the tomorrows. Help me to see what I can accomplish, if I only put my trust in you. Help me to take time for myself, to take time for others, and most of all, to take time for you before I begin my day. Please use me to lift up others even as You have sent others to lift me in my times of need. Amen

Remind me Lord, that your gifts to me are meant to be shared in love, with others.
1 Samuel 16:23

A single grateful thought toward heaven is the most complete prayer.
Gotthold Lessing

For in Christ you have been enriched in every way – in all your speaking and in all your knowledge.
1 Corinthians 1:5

I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble," says the Lord.
Proverbs 4:11–12

Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.
E. B. White

The story is told of a man who found an eagle’s egg and put it into the nest of a barnyard chicken. The eaglet hatched with the broad of chicks and grew up with them. All his life, the eagle did what the chickens did. It scratched the dirt for seeds and insects to eat. It clucked and cackled, and it flew no more than a few feet off the ground in a chicken-like thrashing of wings and flurry of feathers.
One day the eagle saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky. He watched as the bird soared gracefully on the wind, gliding through the air with scarcely a beat of its powerful wings.
“What a beautiful bird,” the young eaglet said, “What is it called?”
The chicken next to him said, “Why, that’s an eagle – the king of all birds. But don’t give him any mind. You could never be him.”
So the young eagle returned to pecking the dirt for seeds, and it died thinking it was a chicken.
What you think of your own potential not only defines who you are today, but what you will be tomorrow.
Author Unknown

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.
Anne Frank

Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never for any reason, turn one’s back on life. The future belongs to those who believe in their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning, and yearning.
Christopher Morely

May the road rise up to meet you:
May the wind be always at your back,
The sun shine warm upon your face,
The rain fall soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
Author Unknown

Those who trust in the Lord for help
will find their strength renewed.
They will rise on wings like eagles;
they will run and not get weary;
they will walk and not grow weak
Isaiah 40:31

Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands.
Protect them as they protect us.
Bless them and their families for the selfless acts
they perform for us in our time of need.
I ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen

You go no where by accident.
Wherever you go, God is sending you.
Wherever you are, God has put you there.
He has a purpose in your being there.
Christ who dwells in you has something
He wants to do through you where you are.
Believe this and go in His grace and love and power.
Richard C. Halverson, Chaplain of the United States Senate

O God, help me to touch someone today with my eyes, my words,
my smile, my voice, my laughter, Your word.
Change my life, so I can make a difference.
Let my actions bring someone closer to you.
Help me to make Christmas last all year.
Help me to use my gifts for Jesus.

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