A Prayer for a First Day at a New Job

Father, I am standing outside this building a few minutes early, badge in hand, watching strangers stream past who all seem to know exactly where they are going. I feel like a child on the first day of school, certain I will get lost.

I confess I am already imagining all the ways I might embarrass myself, mispronounce a name, fumble the software, freeze when someone asks me a simple question. The newness has me bracing instead of breathing.

So I pause here on the sidewalk and ask You to settle me. Quiet the inner critic. Help me to be curious instead of scared, to give myself the grace to be a beginner who does not yet know the unwritten rules.

You said Your mercies are new every morning and great is Your faithfulness, so this fresh start is no surprise to You at all. You have walked me into harder rooms than this one.

Let me end this day a little less of a stranger than I began it. Surround me with one kind face, and remind me that I was brought here on purpose. Amen.