[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13725]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  Reverend Roger Spradlin, Valley Baptist Church, Bakersfield, 
California, offered the following prayer:
  Father, we thank You for Your sovereignty and providence in each 
person's life who stands before me and, more importantly, before You. 
Grant them today Your guidance in their deliberations.
  We acknowledge that our country is facing serious challenges and that 
our world is in crisis. Give this body the courage that is necessary to 
lead. Rather than allowing our ideology to further divide us, may You, 
Father, unite us in our shared love for this great Nation.
  Give the Members the wisdom to help the oppressed and the weakest 
among us, as well as the courage to lead by conviction, rather than by 
mere pragmatism.
  Concerning our failures, rather than justice, we ask for Your mercy 
and grace. Give us the will to acknowledge and to repent of all wrongs.
  We thank You for the values on which this country was founded and for 
Your continued blessing through the years. But we ask today, Father, 
for our country, that our best days would not be behind us, but before 
us.
  We ask all these things in the strong name of Jesus.
  Amen.

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