Monday, February 27, 2012

Then Laugh

Build for yourself a strong box,
Fashion each part with care;
When it’s strong as your hand can make it,
Put all your troubles there;
Hide there all thought of your failures,
And each bitter cup that you quaff;
Lock all your heartaches within it,
Then sit on the lid and laugh.

Tell no one else its contents,
Never its secrets share;
When you’ve dropped in your care and worry
Keep them forever there;
Hide them from sight so completely
That the world will never dream half;
Fasten the strong box securely--
Then sit on the lid and laugh.

- Bertha Adams Backus

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Homeschooling and Sheltering

Clearly there is an appropriate kind of sheltering. When those who are opposed to homeschooling accuse me of sheltering my children, my reply is always, “What are you going to accuse me of next, feeding and clothing them?"

---R.C. Sproul Jr.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Optimism

Talk happiness. The world is sad enough
Without your woes. No path is wholly rough;
Look for the places that are smooth and clear,
And speak of those, to rest the weary ear
Of Earth, so hurt by one continuous strain
Of human discontent and grief and pain

Talk faith. The world is better off without
Your uttered ignorance and morbid doubt.
If you have faith in God, or man, or self,
Say so. If not, push back upon the shelf
Of silence all your thoughts, till faith shall come;
No one will grieve because your lips are dumb.

Talk health. The dreary, never-changing tale
Of mortal maladies is worn and stale.
You cannot charm, or interest, or please
By harping on that minor chord, disease.
Say you are well, or all is well with you,
And God shall hear your words and make them true.


- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

DYING TO SELF

When you are forgotten, or neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don't sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ.

~THAT IS DYING TO SELF~

When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient, loving silence.

~THAT IS DYING TO SELF~

When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any unpunctuality, or any annoyance; when you stand face-to-face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility-and endure it as Jesus endured.

~THAT IS DYING TO SELF~

When you are content with any food, any offering, any climate, any society, any raiment, any interruption by the will of God.

~THAT IS DYING TO SELF~

When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, or to record your own good works, or itch after commendations, when you can truly love to be unknown.

~THAT IS DYING TO SELF~

When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy, nor question God, while your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstances.

~THAT IS DYING TO SELF~

When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart.

~THAT IS DYING TO SELF~


Are you dead yet?


~Author Unknown~

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Speak no Ill

Nay, speak no ill, a kindly word
Can never leave a sting behind;
And oh, to breathe each tale we’ve heard,
Is far beneath a noble mind.
Full oft a better seed is sown
By choosing thus the kinder plan;
For, if but little good is known,
Let’s speak of all the good we can.

Give me the heart that fain would hide,
Would fain another’s faults efface:
How can it please the human pride
To prove humanity but base?
No! let us reach a higher mode,
A nobler estimate of man,
Be earnest in the search for good,
And speak of all the best we can.

Then speak no ill, but lenient be
To other’s feelings as your own;
If you’re the first a fault to see,
Be not the first to make it known.
For life is but a passing flood,
No lip can tell how brief the stay;
Be earnest in the search of good,
And speak of all the best we may.

- Selected