Bless all our homes, and help us grow, In wisdom, Lord, each day; May peace, and love and harmony Abide with us, we pray. May each of us, at home or school, In office, shop, or store, There witness to our trust in Thee And strive to serve Thee more. Teach me to live my faith each day That others seeing me May know from whom my help has come And turn their thoughts to Thee. For peace on earth I dare not pray Until my heart is free From selfishness and greed, dear Lord; Let peace begin with me. CROSS-BEARING God gave a cross to me that I must bear, But first with care He measured me for it Knowing the weight of one His Son had borne, He made my cross, my weaker strength to fit. He laid it on with tender hands, and spoke Words charged with courage, precious promises Of strength that He would send; nor did He fail He never will in anything He does. God bade me bear His cross and give Him praise; It does not honor Him to weep or frown. He said that when I reach His gate at last. He would exchange my cross for a victor's crown. If sometime I forget the worth of it And feel its weight almost too great to bear, He reaches out His hand to steady me, And by that touch I know that He is there.
HOW MUCH MORE? Man spends his strength on granite and on steel, He builds his structures reaching for the sky. Above their puny pretense, quite alone, The timeless mountains stand aloof and high. Man writes his name in symphony and song, Along the path where weary mortals plod He seeks articulation. There remains More music in the silences of God. Man flings his feeble flutters into space And prides himself on progress and on change. And silent stars, eternities away, Maintain their secret orbs remote and strange. Man breaks the alabaster of his heart, But all of the precious ointment, sacrificed To voice his human love, is lost beside God's love, unspeakable, In Jesus Christ. — Helen Frazee-Bower A PRAYER FOR BLESSING Lord, bless our church and keep it free From bitterness and strife; Teach us to lift our eyes to Thee, The way, the truth, the life. The way is not an easy path, Its challenge is the cross, But we must follow all the way And count it gain, not loss. Our church is not a building, Lord, That's made of brick or stone, Its fellowship goes 'round the world. We do not work alone. The gifts we give to heal the sick, To help the blind to see, To feed the hungry, clothe the poor, We give them all to thee.
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