New Beginnings - Opa's January Hope Prayer

God of new beginnings, we stand before this new year gazing into the unknown future with great expectations and anticipation.  We thank you for another completed trip around the sun and for the blessings which you have provided for each of us even when things seemed to be so disheveled in our lives, our neighborhood, our community, and our world.

We thank you for our family, close and extended.  We recognize how different we are and how much the same we seem to be.  In this new year allow us to appreciate our differences and to encourage one another to develop good family traits and experience healthy traditions.  Teach us kindness beyond measure and to measure our words with tender -hearted forgiveness.  Let our talents be visible everywhere we travel and to all whom we meet.  

May we each resolve to look to You for guidance each day of our life and for direction for our feet each step we take.  Allow us to see all whom we meet with the same eyes as you see them and to treat them with the same degree of patience as you have for each of us.

In your holy name we pray. Amen 

Written by Colonel, Chaplain Corps US Army (Ret.) Chaplain Rich Cooper, aka “Opa”.   Rich Cooper also serves as a Board Member of the Hope Packed Project

If you need additional support or prayers of any sort, please email opa@hopepackedproject.org. As a retired Army Chaplain and Presbyterian Minister, "Opa" himself is eager to offer any hand holding needed, and so is the rest of the HPP team.