A Prayer for the Tired

God of the quiet hours, I come to you tired.

The day asked much of me. Some of it I did well. Some of it I left undone. I set both before you now, the finished and the unfinished, and I ask you to hold them while I rest.

Thank you for the small mercies I almost missed. A kind word. A warm meal. A task that ended. I was moving too fast to notice them at the time. I notice them now.

Where I was short with someone, soften what I broke. Where someone was kind to me, let me carry it forward tomorrow.

Teach me that I do not have to finish everything to be loved by you. You have already done the finishing that matters.

Keep me through the night. Wake me gently. And when the morning comes, let me begin again, unhurried and unafraid.

Amen.