As we enter a new year and remember the uncertintiy it brings, let us remember our blessings. Henry Sloane Coffin suggests we reflect upon the stages of our lives and the providential “navigation” we all need.

`The Lord bless and keep you’ is a petition for youth. As we look upon our unbridled years, we ask for help to keep us from temptation, crushing sorrow, loss of ideals, and fading vision.

“The Lord give you grace,” holds the brightness and vibrance of our middle years. Life may become a fog, where getting on and making money blur the principles by which we live. We can come to see the second-choice situations in middle age as enlarged opportunities.

“The Lord give you success,” holds the promise of a legacy, for with age comes both failure and achievement. It is here we gain both perspective and richness: when the drama of live is understood not as a race, but a passage to be savored one day at a time.

This day and this year, let us all consider on another. Let us rise above our petty differences and see the good in our fellow man. Do that, and we’ll enjoy the blessings of a great 2011.

The Staff of the Salty Southeast Cruiser’s Net.