Summer is upon us. Don’t let the season go without savoring it. After all, you’ll have to wait another 12 months for June to come again…and July…and August. Here are some prayers to help you make the most of your summer.
1) Embrace the bathing suit
Dear Lord, let any worries I might have about how I look in a bathing suit never prevent me from putting one on and throwing myself into the ocean waves or a placid lake or a pool shimmering in the sunshine. Nobody else cares how I look, why should I?
2) Ice cream!
When the ice cream truck comes by playing that dopey song, Lord, let me greet it with the enthusiasm of a five-year-old who can’t wait for his first drumstick or popsicle of the season. Not for nothing did Jesus ask that the children come to Him. Summer deserves childish innocence and enthusiasm.
3) Appreciate the heat
God, I promise I won’t complain about the weather. Got that? I promise. When the heat blisters up from the sidewalks and when not the slightest breeze offers solace on a sizzling day, remind me how I felt about the weather in the frigid temperatures of February. The seasons are Your gift. Is there not something glorious about summer heat?
Read More: 12 More Prayers for Summer
4) Go light on headlines
I will make summer my Sabbath season, Lord. Of course the news can’t be avoided–good news and bad news–but for this season I’ll save the newspaper and those scary-making online stories for a quick perusal late in the day. A few facts are good enough for me.
5) Follow nature’s lead
Dear God, I will mimic the way natures praises you in this season, shining like the stars, beaming like the sun, laughing like the fireflies, splashing with a waterfall, singing with the birds, rolling with the surf, floating on your eternal love.
6) Go with the flow
I will not get impatient with any traffic, dear Lord, when I discover that the quick trip to a cooling place was exactly what hundreds–thousands–of other people had in mind. I will greet any summer crowds as though we were all brothers and sisters in Christ. Who’s to say we aren’t?
7) Listen for flip flops and the crack of bats
I give thanks for the noises of summer: the flap of flip-flops on a boardwalk, the slap of a baseball slamming into a glove, the crack of a bat leading to a homerun, the songs of someone else’s music coming from their car with the windows rolled down, the drip-drip-drip of an ice-cream sandwich, the rumble of an air conditioner.
8) Evade email
One more promise, Lord, when I’m on vacation, I promise to really be on vacation. I will not keep checking email, I will not gaze vacantly at my iPhone, I will not reflect on all the work that needs to get done back at the office. I will read a good book and praise the days because all the days deserve praise. You made them.
Thank You for summer.
