A Native American Prayer. O' Great Spirit Whose voice I hear in the winds And whose breath gives life To all the world Hear me! I am small and weak, I need your strength and wisdom, Let me walk in beauty And make my eyes ever behold The red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect The things you have made And my ears sharp To hear your voice Make me wise So I may see ever so clearly The ways you have to teach me Let me learn The lessons you have hidden in every leaf and cloud I seek your strength, Not to be greater then my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy... Myself Make me always ready to come to you With clean hands And straight eyes So when life fades, as the fading sunset, My spirit may come to you Without shame.

Dear God, let me know within my heart When I am right; Let it be the balm to soothe my deepest pain; Let me know the truth and speak it, When to hold would bring me gain; Dear God, let me truly know myself And have the inside strength To stand alone.

My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.

You may look through the streets of heaven, asking each how they came to b there, and you will look in vain everywhere for a person who is morally and spiritually strong, whose strength did not come to him in struggle. There is no exception anywhere. Every true strength is gained in struggle.

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.... I asked for health, that I might do greater things I was given infirmity, that I might do better things... I asked for riches, that I might be happy. I was given poverty, that I might be wise... I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.... I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life I was given life that I might enjoy all things.... I got nothing I asked for - but everything I hoped for. Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among men, most richly blessed!

It is easy to be a slave to the letter, and difficult to enter into the spirit; easy to obey a number of outward rules, difficult to enter intelligently and self-sacrificingly into the will of God; easy to entangle the soul in a network of petty observances, difficult to yield the obedience of an enlightened heart; easy to be haughtily exclusive, difficult to be humbly spiritual; easy to be an ascetic or a formalist, difficult to be pure, and loving, and wise, and free; easy to be a Pharisee, difficult to be a disciple; very easy to embrace a self-satisfying and sanctimonious system of rabbinical observances, very difficult to love God with all the heart, and all the might, and all the soul, and all the strength.

Security represents your sense of worth, your identity, your emotional anchorage, your self-esteem, your basic personal strength or lack of it.