O Father in heaven... [I beseech] Thee to drown my transgressions
in the sea of Thine own infinite love:
My failure to be true even to my own accepted standards;
My self-deception in the face of temptation;
My choosing of the worse when I know the better:
O Lord, forgive.
My failure to apply to myself the standards of conduct I demand of others:
My blindness to the sufferings of others and my slowness to be taught by my own:
My complacence towards wrongs that do not touch my own case
and my over-sensitiveness to those that do:
My slowness to see the good in my fellows and to see the evil in myself;
My hardness of heart towards my neighbors' faults
and my readiness to make allowance for my own;
My unwillingness to believe that Thou hast called me to a small work
and my brother to a great one:
O Lord, forgive.
- John Baillie, from his Diary of Private Prayer