“His compassions never fail. They are new every morning.”—Lamentations 3:22-23
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
This was the little prayer that I taught my son Chris when he was four. He always said it before my goodnight kiss.
One morning I woke up to a sunshine-filled bedroom and I couldn’t help but wonder, Why isn’t there a prayer for waking up? Then and there I composed this one:
As I waken from my sleep,
This brand-new day of Yours I greet.
Safe You’ve kept me through the night
I’ll serve You now with all my might.
I taught Chris this new prayer of mine, and when our next son came along, I taught it to him, too. It became a family tradition, a way for all of us to greet the day in the same prayerful way that we end it.
