Heavenly Father I praise You for the mother-in-law You gave me when I married my wife. Today would have been her birthday but now she is with You. I praise You for the time I had to get to know her and the impact she made on my children. I praise You for parents who make impact on grandchildren and great grandchildren. I praise You for my grandparents who prayed for me even before I was born.
Holy Spirit help me to not run my race aimlessly as Paul warned in 1 Corinthians 9:26, but rather run my race to complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me. (Acts 20:24) Help me to use my training to accomplish Your will for my life. Help me to draw on all my past experience and use it as wisdom to pace myself and run with purpose and with success. Help me to listen to Your Voice as I run and ignore those who would distract me. Help me to demonstrate love as I make this journey. Teach me to run a race where I speak what You want me to speak, breathing in Your Spirit and exhaling Your Spirit onto all those I encounter on my path. Help me to discern the correct path and to be willing to endure the pain and aches that I will receive as I run to win.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Holy Spirit help us to bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances we may have against one another. Teach us to forgive as the Lord forgave us. And over all these virtues help us to put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, since as members of one body we are called to peace. Let us be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly as we teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in our hearts to God. And whatever we do, whether in word or deed, help us to do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Amen. Colossians 3:12-17