Over the years, I have made it a practice of pausing before writing and mailing a letter. I say a brief prayer for the person receiving it and ask that my message will contribute to the person's well-being. On receiving a letter myself, I often pause before opening it and ask that I will be open to the one sending it and to any message God might be addressing to me.

I think we would do well to do this with all our correspondence, including that of work and business. That may sound a little strange at first. . . . Stop and think for a minute about the effect that work and business correspondence have on the world and on people's lives.

Indeed, such seemingly "secular" correspondence results in profound spiritual effects. Each day, countless pieces of business mail affect what we do with food, water, clothing, shelter, medical care, all the gifts and resources God gives us. If we handled this correspondence with more care — and a prayer now and then — we would not confine sending Valentines to one day a year. We would send them every day.

Jose Hobday in Stories of Awe and Abundance