During my prayer and devotion time on Dec 20th, 2024, a short rhyme came to mind as a tool to help me focus my mindset for the day:
May we love Your holy name
More than life and more than pain.
May my love for You extend
To my neighbor to the end.
May my life thus shout Your praise,
This day through the end of days.
But then throughout the rest of the day I kept intermittently adding to it to make it into a hymn. So this is what I ended up with:
Father, You have made this day,
And this flesh to walk Your Way.
With what strength You grant to me,
May I serve you thankfully.
Hail, Creator from of old!
Hail, the Lamb, who makes us bold!
Though You reign from heav’n above,
Here You hear us in Your love.
May we love Your holy name
More than life and more than pain.
May my love for You extend
To my neighbor to the end.
Hail, O kingdom of Your Son!
Come, O Lord! Your will be done!
May my life thus shout Your praise,
This day through the end of days.
May Your words here fill my soul;
Your desires be my goal.
May I love my brother more
Than Your wares I want to store.
Hail, O kingdom of Your Son!
Come, O Lord! Your will be done!
Bread this day thus to us send,
Then bring us our labor’s end.
May Your loving pardon be
Cause for my humility.
May I set my neighbor free,
Though this day they injure me.
Hail, O kingdom of Your Son!
Come, O Lord! Your will be done!
Judge me thus, not by my debts;
Free me in Your righteousness.
May no test of fun or gain
Pull me back to death or stain.
May my words and deeds this day
Cause no child to fall away.
Hail, O kingdom of Your Son!
Come, O Lord! Your will be done!
Lead us thus by paths You know,
Where no tempting thought may grow.
May Your grace deliver me
From our foe’s calamity.
Let the cup of suff’ring pass.
Raise us with your Christ at last.
Hail, O kingdom of Your Son!
Come, O Lord! Your will be done!
Thus deliver us from all
Lawless fruits of Adam’s fall.
May it be, for all is Thine;
None can thwart what You design.
May Your enemies become
But a footstool for Your throne.
Praise the Father, Spirit, Son!
Holy, holy, holy One!
With this life I bend my knee,
Now and through eternity.
It can be put to the tune HUMILITY (“See, Amid the Winter Snow”.)