A PRAYER FOR OLD AGE...

"Lord, Thou knowest, better than I know myself, that I am growing older. 
   Keep me from becoming talkative, and from the habit of thinking that I must say something on every occasion.
   Release me from the craving to straighten out other peoples' affairs.
   Keep my mind free from endless detail; give me wings to get to the point. 
   Give me grace to listen to the recital of others' tribulations. Help me to endure with patience.
   Seal my lips against my own aches and pains. They are increasing, and Thou knowest my love of rehearsing them is becoming pleasanter as the years go by.
   Teach me that occasionally it is possible that I may be mistaken.
   Make me thoughtful, but not moody; helpful, but not bossy. Give me an awareness of the limits to my own store of wisdom. It seems a pity not to use it all, but Thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end. Amen."

THOUGHTS ABOUT "GRACE"...

"For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God...  (Ephesians 2:8 AMP)."

Without grace my heart would be estranged;

   Wayward, rebellious, faithless and lost.

But, oh, in grace my God has arranged

   To rescue my soul at infinite cost.

Proud man, reckon that you are nothing

   Apart from the Christ of matchless grace.

Of this God-man exuberantly sing,

   While proud self-centered thought you erase.

-rdc

DON'T FORGET COMMON GRACE......

 "But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

To show that you are the children of your Father Who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the wicked and on the good, and makes the rain fall upon the upright and the wrongdoers [alike]"  (Matthew 5:44-45).
                                                                                                                                                            "The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it. For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers." (Psalms 24:1-2).

Oh, the beauties through the vicissitudes of life,

   Sublime potentialities of man, child and wife.

Magnificent and ineffable is God's earth, 

   with awe-inspiring grandeur visioned on its girth.

rdc