Last weekend’s prayer

Last weekend we closed our worship services with a congregational prayer of confession and commitment. Through emails, tweets and Facebook messages, many of you asked for copies of that prayer, so here it is. I would encourage you to keep this as your prayer throughout the week.

Creator God, we acknowledge You as the One who formed each of us in our mother’s womb.
Every human being has been fearfully and wonderfully made, created in Your image.
O Lord, we have no excuse for treating with contempt those You have created.
Please forgive us for the times we have shown disrespect to others, especially those in our own families.
Forgive us for trying to undermine them, for accusations and demeaning words.
We have seen the damage this has done.
We have not often enough praised our spouses, our children, our parents, our grandparents and our friends.
Please lead us to the intimacy that follows honor, the kind of closeness that follows respect and courtesy.
We pray for all of our relationships to be built upon the foundation of respect.
We humble ourselves before You and ask You make us more like Jesus.
Amen.

Photo credit: Lay It All Down For The Lord by Will Foster Photography licensed under Creative Commons.

Update: I updated the prayer with the final version which was used in the service. Sorry for any confusion.