The Day Returns

The Day Returns The day returns And brings us the petty round Of irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man Help us to perform them With laughter and kind faces Let cheerfulness abound with industry Give us to go blithely on our business All this day. Bring us to our resting beds. Weary, and content And undishonored, And grant us in the end The gift of sleep. Amen. -Robert Louis Stevenson Prayers Written At Vailima

In the land where he would die, Robert Louis Stevenson composed this simple prayer. It is a morning prayer that, to me, glories in the ordinary day. A day in which we face those things that vex us, we face our duties, and we face both with joy. What goals he has prayed for our day: weariness, contentment, and honor. Let's not leave out that precious commodity so often lacking in those nightowl bloggers, sleep.

I would consider this a wonderful prayer for the beginning of our day. We've spent too many days trying to avoid weariness, allowing those irritating elements to make us grumpy, and rushing through our work just to get it done. I don't see how we can go to bed undishonored, as Stephenson suggests.

Many things may muddy our day. Let's let our spirit look upward as we face the trials. And if it too difficult, then let us at least begin our day with the request for God's help. If we fail, the day returns tomorrow for us to attempt to do better.

Until one day the day will not return. As it didn't for Stephenson. As it won't for us, save the coming of the Lord.

What did you really want out of today? Think about it.