Monday, January 26, 2009

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.