[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 19013]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The Chaplain, Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie, offered the following prayer:
  Gracious Father, thank You for Your blessing. It gives us 
approbation, affirmation, a feeling of value, a sense of destiny, and 
an assurance of Your power. You have chosen, cherished, and called us 
to be Your sons and daughters. In Your providential planning You have 
placed each of us where we are and given us special assignments. Each 
of us has unique orders of the work we are to do. You provide power to 
help us, for You have ordained that if we do not do the work You have 
given us to do, it will not be done. So we report for duty with the 
delight that we have been blessed to be a blessing.
  Help us to bless the people of our lives with a reminder of how much 
they mean to us. Heal our lock-jaw so we can articulate our 
appreciation of the gift each person is to us. May we be used by You to 
fill the blessing-shaped void inside of everyone needing to be filled 
by words of encouragement.
  We will live this day only once. Before it is gone, may we bless all 
the people we can, in every way we can, with all the love we can. Help 
us not to waste today in selfish neglect of the people You have given 
us. Today is a day to receive and give Your blessing. In Your generous, 
giving, and forgiving name. Amen.

                          ____________________