Help me Lord, I pray, that I would long for righteousness in the same way that I long for food and water when the dry wind saps my strength on a day of long labor.

Help me, Lord, that I may show mercy with the same eagerness in which I receive it when the consequence of my own choices has driven me into agony and despair. 

Help me Lord, that I may delight in forgiving others even as I rejoice in being forgiven when guilt and shame have mired my spirit in the soil beneath my feet.

Help me, I pray, to bestow compassion without considering the worth or merit of the wounded one who stands before me or walks beside me.

Help me, Lord, that I might shun violence and controversy and strive for peace with greater effort than that which pulls me toward achievement or recognition.

 Help me, Lord, to embrace insult and humiliation, reproach and criticism, in a spirit of humility, remembering the way you responded to those who mocked you and delighted in your pain. Help me to exchange blessing for cursing, good for evil, love for hostility.

As the drowning soul aches for air, let me gasp for your presence, crave your very nature, and yield without reservation to the shaping of your hand and the leading of your Spirit. 

Help me, Lord, to be a child of God rather than a man of the world.