Prayer Point: Lord, Make Me Different

Another bit of the mission trip prayer journal from this summer.

Read through the prayer of St. Francis, below. In fact, don't just read it, pray it.
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master,grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Every line of this prayer is asking "Lord, make me different." That's a hard thing to ask, because the world doesn't usually react well to people who are different. But as Christians, we are called to believe differently, to live differently, to look at people differently, to have different attitudes.That's hard work. We won't always be accepted and loved and complimented for it while we're here on earth. God is sometimes the only one who realizes it's a good thing for us to be different from the rest of the world. And he's given us each other to help us. My prayer for all of you this week is that God will give you the strength to be different.