A prayer for those who feel weary and burdened this Christmas, written by Debbie McDaniel,

read by Alissa Forsberg.

Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 1128.

We rub shoulders every day with people who are hurting, lonely, or desperate.

Sometimes we notice, but many times we don't.

Maybe we're often too busy, preoccupied, or overwhelmed ourselves.

And to be honest, many days we are those people, the hurting, the lonely, the desperate,

just needing someone to notice, to slow down, to take time.

Sometimes in the rush of the holiday season, it seems that more people appear stressed

on edge, weary and worn, tempers are short.

What's supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year can often feel more like madness,

in the traffic, in the crowds, in the shopping frenzy.

We're busy, we're pressed for time, running full sprints straight through the holidays.

For many of us, being busy comes naturally, active moving, going, it's what we're all

about.

We're rewarded for how much we accomplish, especially in short amounts of time.

We live in a culture that places value on the busy.

We tend to get impatient with those who are too slow about anything.

And nothing wrong with being on the go, or being active, except this one thing.

We often never stop.

We're too busy to stop.

...