A Prayer for the Tired
For the hours when the work is not finished and the strength is nearly gone.
God of the long day, we come to you unwashed of our worries and short on words. You know how little we have left. We do not pretend otherwise.
Thank you for the ordinary mercies we forgot to notice: a meal eaten, a bus that came, a message from someone who remembered us. Small things. We hold them up now, because they were yours before they were ours.
For the people we carry and cannot fix, we ask what we always ask: be near them. Where we have been short-tempered, soften us. Where we have been careless, make us careful. Where we have done good quietly, let it stand without our needing to be thanked.
Give us sleep that is real sleep, and a morning that is genuinely new. Teach us to begin again without shame, and to rest without guilt.
We ask this in trust, not in certainty, and that is enough. Amen.
More in prayer
A Prayer for the Tired
For those who come to the end of the day with little left to give.
A Prayer for the Tired Morning
A prayer for anyone who begins the day already weary, asking God for strength that is enough for this hour.
A Prayer for the Weary at the Day's End
For anyone who comes to the close of the day with little left to give.
