Some mornings, before my feet even hit the floor, I'd already lost the fight in my head. This prayer is what got me back up.

I want to give you something small and specific today, instead of a framework. Just the actual words. During the hardest year of my life, before the kids woke up, before the day could hand me anything else to carry, I would sit with my coffee — often still in the dark — and pray the same handful of lines. I still do it now, years later, on the mornings that need it.

The Prayer

It went something like this, and it still does:

God, I don't know what today is going to ask of me, but I know You already know. I don't have the strength I need for it yet — I'm asking You for it now, before I need it. Help me be steady for my kids even when I don't feel steady inside. Help me make one good decision today, even if I can't make all of them. And when it gets hard — and it will — remind me that You already got me through yesterday, and yesterday felt impossible too.

That's it. No elaborate structure, no perfect theology. Just an honest ask, made specific enough that I could actually feel it land somewhere in my chest before I stood up and started the day.

"I wasn't praying for the storm to stop. I was praying for enough steadiness to walk through it without dropping what I was carrying."

Why the Specificity Mattered

I noticed something over time: vague prayers left me feeling like I was shouting into a void. Specific ones — help me with this exact meeting, this exact conversation with my daughter, this exact bill I don't know how I'm going to cover — gave me something to actually track. I could look back at the end of the day and see: that got answered. That steadiness showed up right when I needed it. The specificity built my faith one small, provable moment at a time, instead of asking me to believe in the abstract.

A Tool That Helped Me

I kept a simple guided prayer journal by my coffee maker that whole year. Stormie Omartian's Prayer Journal is a beautiful, similar option if you want somewhere to record your own version of this practice. Get Stormie Omartian's Prayer Journal on Amazon →

Borrow Mine Until You Find Your Own

You don't need to write your own prayer from scratch this morning if you don't have the words yet. Borrow mine. Say it exactly as it's written above, or change the details to fit your actual day. The words matter less than the practice — showing up, every morning, and asking for exactly what you need before the day demands it of you anyway.

Related reading: Praying When You're Furious at God and Does God Hate Divorce? What That Verse Means.

Always forward, never backward. Step lively, Sis. 💚

— Jennifer