If there is one thing we all need now, it is compassion. Compassion for ourselves. Compassion for others. Compassion from others. Unfortunately, when stress is high, compassion can be hard to come by. We may find ourselves being short with our loved ones or tough on ourselves. Let us choose the path of love, with the reminder that “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).

Our Heavenly Parent,

Forgive me for being critical,

For judging when I do not have all the facts,

For judging when I am not perfect.

For judging when the thing I judge is my problem too.

Remove from me the evil that makes me critical:

My own desires to be like the person I criticize,

The wrong in me which I condemn in others,

The feeling of inferiority that keeps me from accepting myself,

The blindness that keeps me from seeing myself as You see me,

The smallness that permits other people to irritate me.

Give me enough love

To love those who are not like me,

To love those who are not sure of themselves,

To love those who are misunderstood,

To love those whom I cannot understand,

To love those who cannot control their tongues.

Help me grow

In patience– to wait while You work,

In grace– to know that a thing does not have to be perfect before it can be used.

In forgiveness– to forgive myself so that I can forgive others.

May I so love that there will be no need for me to be critical.

Make me realize that criticism rarely accomplishes anything except to set up barriers.

In the name of Christ, who came not to condemn the world, but to save humanity. Amen.

from Let Us Pray by Paul D. Lowder