[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 20 (Thursday, February 7, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H625]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page H625]]

House of Representatives

  The House met at 10 a.m.
  Pastor Wes Davis, Riverton Friends Church, Riverton, Kansas, offered 
the following prayer:
  Father God, maker of heaven and Earth, You are Lord of all things 
created and sovereign over this great Nation. We humbly bow before You 
this day to thank You for Your mercies being new every morning.
  It is because of Your great mercy that we would again ask for Your 
blessing and Your favor over these women and men who gather here as 
representatives of our Congress. Please extend to them Your mercy and 
Your grace and remind them that You love them.
  Your scriptures tell us, ``As iron sharpens iron, so one person 
sharpens another.'' May these, Your people, sharpen one another today 
as their ideologies clash together, as one philosophy grates against 
another philosophy different than their own. Help them to see this 
diversity, not as tearing, for these are not people of sheer fabric. 
For they have been forged stronger by the rigors of politics and public 
scrutiny. But help them see this clashing and grating as an opportunity 
to sharpen thought, to cut through rhetoric and to pierce conscience 
for the benefit of humanity.
  May their actions and decisions of today not become future apologies, 
but may they be a statement of this Congress' character, their firm 
resolve, and a hope for a better America.
  Amen.

                          ____________________