New Beginnings

It’s my friend’s birthday today.  I actually have a lot of people I love with birthdays in September.  I also feel like September is a new beginning.  Every year when school starts, there is a buzz in the air…anticipation, excitement, enthusiasm. 

I want to share a poem/prayer that I was given in a workshop.  I plan on reading this on my birthday every year or maybe every September or anytime I feel I need a new beginning. (every morning?)

I hope you enjoy!

Help Me to Believe in Beginnings

God of mystery and of my heart

So much has happened to me in these whirlwind days:

I’ve known death and birth;

I’ve been brave and scared;

I’ve hurt, I’ve helped;

I’ve been honest, I’ve lied;

I’ve destroyed, I’ve created;

I’ve been with people, I’ve been lonely;

I’ve been loyal, I’ve betrayed;

I’ve decided, I’ve waffled;

I’ve laughed and I’ve cried.

You know my frail heart and my frayed history –

And now another day begins.

O God, help me to believe in beginnings

And in my beginning again,

No matter how often I’ve failed before.

Help me to make beginnings:

To begin going out of my weary mind into fresh dreams,

Daring to make my own bold tracks in the land of now;

To begin forgiving

That I may experience mercy

To begin questioning the unquestionable

That I may know truth;

To begin disciplining

That I may create beauty;

To begin sacrificing

That I may accomplish justice;

To begin risking

That I may make peace;

To begin loving

That I may realize joy.

Help me to be a beginning for others,

To be a singer to the songless,

A storyteller to the aimless,

A befriender of the friendless;

To become a beginning of hope for the despairing,

Of assurance for the doubting,

Of reconciliation for the divided;

To become a beginning of freedom for the oppressed,

Of comfort for the sorrowing,

Of friendship for the forgotten;

To become a beginning of beauty for the forlorn,

Of sweetness for the soured,

Of gentleness for the angry,

Of wholeness for the broken,

Of peace for the frightened and violent of the earth.

Help me to believe in beginnings,

To make a beginning,

To be a beginning,

So that I may not just grow old,

But grow new

Each day of this wild, amazing life

You call me to live

With the passion of Jesus Christ.