Poem November 23, 2015 Issue

A song of gratitude

Louise Knight Wheatley Cook

Reprinted from the August 17, 1929, Sentinel

Dear Lord, I thank Thee that I did not get
An answer to my prayer of long ago.
In looking back, I see I asked amiss
In praying for the things I longed for so.
I should have prayed to trust Thy wisdom more,
To know Thy ways were better far than mine.
How blind we are, when stubborn human will
Obscures the perfect plan of Love’s design!

I thank Thee that in spite of my mistakes
Thy hand was always there to bring me through,
And keep me steady, when my wayward feet
Brought me in greater danger than I knew.
Oh, keep us from our own undoing, Lord!
So many times we might have slipped, and gone,
So many times we might have missed the way,
Had not Thy tender mercy led us on.

I thank Thee that a prayer which is not right
Love does not answer; for, if what seems best
To blind, misguided sense should have its way,
One might be ruined at his own request!
That futile, selfish prayer of long ago
Was never prayer at all, as now I see.
To-day I have but one supreme desire,
To go with joy where’er God leadeth me.