Beautify it a little

A plain pebble sitting in a shallow dish of water, slowly being polished smooth by the gentle movement of the water around it, showing a life being made beautiful not by force but by patient grace.

Blessed Lord, please pour such grace on us that it doesn’t only make this life of ours clean, but, if it’s your will, makes it a little beautiful before we leave this world and are seen no more. Help us to love you with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love others as we love ourselves. And help us to keep going to the end. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

Mark 12:30–31 (BSB)

Adapted from James Skinner, via A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages (1913), in plain words. The verse is from the Berean Standard Bible (public domain). Drawing: Mutter.