Prayer

"Father,

Please don't let me be so impatient with myself.  I fret, I scold, I deplore my many shortcomings.  Why am I so messy?  Why do I get myself into so many complicated situations?  Now why did I say that? Won't I ever learn?

My mind carries on an idiot monologue of self-reproach.  Or I lie awake bewailing the day's mistakes.  I wince before them.  I call myself names I would never call other people.  I am stung and tormented by these self - lacerations.

I know all this to be useless.  The more I berate myself the worse I seem to become.  And it gets between us.  It is unworthy of the trust I should have in You who made me as I am, and who loves me despite my faults.  I know that You want me to be aware of them and to improve as best I can.  But help me to forgive myself a little more quickly, to be a little kinder to myself." 

by Marjorie Holmes, For Women Only: The Fine Art of Being a Woman