An elderly minister, age 80, read the prayer I am sharing. The gentleman’s copy of the prayer, written by Orlin L. Crain, was published on Easter Sunday, 1957. This prayer calms the spirit.

I came home and found the prayer online. Apparently it is also attributed to Wilferd Arlan Peterson and is also similar to a Hittite Prayer that is well known in Turkey.

Slow Me Down, Lord

“Slow me down, Lord! Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. Steady my harried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time.

Give me, amidst the confusion of my day, the calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tensions of my nerves with the soothing music of the singing streams that live in my memory. Help me to know the magical restoring power of sleep.

Teach me the art of taking minute vacations of slowing down to look at a flower; to chat with an old friend or make a new one; to pat a stray dog; to watch a spider build a web; to smile at a child; or to read a few lines from a good book.

Remind me each day that the race is not always to the swift; that there is more to life than increasing its speed. Let me look upward into the branches of the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong
because it grew slowly and well.

Slow me down, Lord, and inspire me to send my roots deep into the soil of life’s enduring values that I may grow toward the stars of my greater destiny.”

Why the Prayer Helps Us

We need to relax more, refresh in our inner self, breathe deeply of the fresh air. “He leads me beside still waters.” Rejuvenation comes in the quiet places, not in the harried places. We are renewed as rest regenerates our spirit with peace and is strengthened with goodness.