January 31

"Our loving Lord, we ask your forgiveness for our many complaints and our discontent. May we learn to accept all your gifts with gratitude and joy, never worrying about past errors nor apprehending future experiences. May we gain a quiet, happy spirit, that our lives may reflect your own joy. Amen."

For Sundays in January

"Dear Lord, this day is yours by sacred appointment and right. May we fully understand to-day that sin and death are conquered by you, and may we accept and appropriate this fact. May this glorious holy day of yours be a day of many divine victories in human life, as sin meets defeat at your hand. And yours be the glory. Amen."

Prefatory

Prefatory

These prayers were originally printed in "The Sunday School Times," in connection with the Family Worship Department. So many requests have been made for special prayers, that I have felt it wise to print a selection of these prayers for each day of the year. They go out with the wish that they may be of special blessing to many in starting the day aright, in earnest gratitude and simple petition.

John Timothy Stone

Fourth Church Study,
Chigago

Personal Introduction

In 1997 I was poking through a lovely, dusty used bookstore in Arkansas. I found a faded little hardcover book with mostly rubbed-off gilt engraving on the cover. Being a sucker for both books and antiques, I had to pay it closer attention. The cover read, A Prayer to Begin the Day by John Timothy Stone. It was published in Philadelphia by The Westminster Press in 1914, and is copywrited by F.M. Braselmann. This little book has much enriched my life with the beautiful, succint prayers. Prayers that I read and wonder to myself, "This is exactly what I want to say, but couldn't quite express." Like when I sit down to write my friend a letter, and can hardly think of a thing to share, I often come to prayer with a mind that was working, but turns nearly blank. I hope these prayers are as enriching to you as they are to me.

Based on my husband's advice, I will be editing the language to modernize it a bit. So where Stone writes "thou" or "thee" etc, I will replace with "you", etc.