“I Said A Prayer For You Today”

I found this poem/prayer last week, displayed on a candle in the St. Patrick Cathedral gift shop in New York City. It brought me to tears so, of course, I had to buy it! Why would this sweet little prayer make me cry? Where to begin?

33 years ago I was a newly married Army wife. I had no knowledge of what that life was like and had some trepidation about the future with my young Soldier, but I loved him and trusted that God had given us to one another, so He would see us through.

That has definitely been the case. 33 years ago, we were in Ft. Knox, Kentucky for a 6 month course Sean had to attend before moving on to his next assignment. It was called the “Advance Course” back then and is now known as the Captain’s Career Course (Triple C). Sean very much wanted to go to a specific Cavalry unit in Germany and he did get word that we were headed to that country for our next posting. But there was some uncertainty about the unit to which he would be sent.

He REALLY wanted a specific one that he’d been part of for several weeks when he was a Cadet, but we just didn’t know for a while. It was during that time, those weeks in between knowing you’re leaving, but not knowing for sure where you’re going next, that we first started giving our Army life to God to send us where He wanted us to go. I thank God for that inspiration to pray and trust so early in our married life. We would need that many times under much more trying conditions in the future.

While I was praying about Sean’s next location where he would serve, I found a small card with the “I Said a Prayer For You Today” poem on it. It was in a small drugstore, I believe, and I bought it and gave it to Sean when he came home that night.

So, here we are 3 decades plus later, at the very end of his Army career and our Army life (which as a couple we were only 6 months into when I gave him that card!), and I find this same prayer/poem again on a candle in New York City. I have not seen that little card in years. Although we did have it for a long time, years in fact, after that. I just don’t know where it’s gone to at this point.

But I have it again. And as we start out on our new life living as civilians – retired Army, to be sure – but still more as civilians, I am grateful to be reminded by that same verse that God’s ‘got this.’ We will continue to trust that He is sending us exactly where He wants us to be. And we will continue to glorify Him and try to reflect His Light in that part of the world where He sends us.

Here’s a clear version of the rhyming prayer that started us off then and that starts us off again in this next phase of our married life. I’m sorry to say I found it attributed to at least 4 different poets and even 3 different variations on the poem itself by a couple of more people. So, while I try to always give proper credit to the writer of anything I share, this one will have to be “anonymous’ unless someone out there can definitively tell me who the author is! God bless us all!

            I said a prayer for you today
            And know God must have heard.
            I felt the answer in my heart
            Although he spoke no word!

            I didn’t ask for wealth or fame
            (I knew you wouldn’t mind).
            I asked him to send treasures
            Of a far more lasting kind!

            I asked that he be near you
            At the start of each new day;
            To grant you health and blessings
            And friends to share your way!

            I asked for happiness for you
            In all things great and small.
            But it was for his loving care
            I prayed the most of all!