Friday, June 29, 2012

Love Needs You


Love will befriend a stranger, love will go the extra mile,
Love will look after others -- and when hurting, will still smile.
Love will forgive and forget, love will turn the other cheek,
Love happily goes last, and another’s well-being will seek.
Love will deliver flowers, love will send a special gift,
Love calls in on others -- when someone’s down, it’ll pause, uplift.
Love will display affection, love greets and leaves with a hug,
Love also fetches a blanket, thoughtfully puts on the jug.
Love will vacuum and tidy, love will do the dishes too,
Love will put out the rubbish, do things some are loath to do.
Love is quick to say sorry, and love will shoulder the blame,
Love will take time to listen -- and love, its love will proclaim.
Love will share all it has left, love’s prepared to go without,
Love’s generous to a fault, sows confidence where there’s doubt.
Love is good to its neighbours, love is kind to creatures too,
Love will seek out the hurting, love is faithful, love is true.
Love will honour a promise, love will also keep its word,
Love goes out in all weathers, love endures, is undeterred.
Love makes time when it’s busy, and love will wait up all night,
Love will exercise patience -- when upset, is still polite.
Love is tender and gentle, love gives others a fresh start,
Love believes when others don’t, brings joy to another’s heart.
Love will open up its home, love a helping hand will lend,
Love’s always there when needed, cheery messages will send.
Love has an eye for beauty, love joins children in their play,
Love lets others shine instead, love lets others have their say.
Love has a sense of humour, love delights in fun-times too,
Love gives cuddles and kisses, love gives praise where praise is due.
Yes, there’s so much love will do, but to succeed, LOVE NEEDS YOU!

By Lance Landall

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

The worthiest discipline we can put ourselves to


Addison writes of Lord Somers as follows—'One of the greatest souls now in the world is the most subject by nature to anger—and yet so famous for a conquest of himself this way that he is the known example when you talk of temper and command of a man's self.’ To contain the spirit of anger is the worthiest discipline we can put ourselves to. When a man has made any progress this way, a frivolous fellow in a passion is to him as contemptible as a froward child. It ought to be the study of every man for his own quiet and peace. When he stands combustible and ready to flame upon everything that touches him, life is as unpleasant to himself as it is to all about him.

- ATreatise on Temper—its Use and Abuse

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Keep Thy Heart With All Diligence

*
Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. - Proverbs 4:23


My Friend, the choices that you make
The many things you do...
Decisions, though they may seem small,
End up defining you.
The books you read, the things you buy,
The places that you go...
You face decisions every day;
You answer "yes" or "no."

Each choice you make is like a seed;
That seed will surely grow;
For what you plant within your heart
Takes root within your soul.

That angry word when caught off guard--
An accident? -- Oh no!
It just exposed the heart's true state,
Laid out for all to know.

"But, that's really not me," you say,
Oh no? Then may I ask,
Where did it come from - truly, friend--
If not behind the mask?

Can words or thoughts or actions come
From where they've never been?
For what goes in comes surely out;
This is a proven thing.

The secret pleasures you delight in,
On which your spirit feeds,
Those things which occupy your thoughts
Will soon show forth in deeds.

What you will do when no one sees 
Is who you really are;
And like a mirror actions will 
Reflect the state of the heart.
You make a choice-- that choice makes you--
A law of life that stands.
So think about each choice, my friend,
When you are making plans.
And so that heart of yours, beware,
And diligently keep.
For issues that pertain to life
Will flow from out of it!

~Sarah Raber

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Let the angry person have the quarrel to himself


The Rev. Clark, of Frome, was a man of a remarkably cool and peaceful temper. He was one day asked by a friend—how he kept himself from being involved in quarrels? He answered, "by letting the angry person always have the quarrel to himself."


Friday, June 8, 2012

Fidelis


You have taken back the promise
That you spoke so long ago;
Taken back the heart you gave me--
I must even let it go.
Where Love once has breathed, Pride dieth:
So I struggled, but in vain,
First to keep the links together,
Then to piece the broken chain.

But it might not be--so freely
All your friendship I restore,
And the heart that I had taken
As my own for evermore.
No shade of reproach shall touch you,
Dread no more a claim from me--
But I will not have you fancy
That I count myself as free.

I am bound by the old promise;
What can break that golden chain?
Not even the words that you have spoken,
Or the sharpness of my pain:
Do you think, because you fail me
And draw back your hand to-day,
That from out the heart I gave you
My strong love can fade away?

It will live. No eyes may see it;
In my soul it will lie deep,
Hidden from all; but I shall feel it
Often stirring in its sleep.
So remember, that the friendship
Which you now think poor and vain,
Will endure in hope and patience,
Till you ask for it again.

Perhaps in some long twilight hour,
Like those we have known of old,
When past shadows gather round you,
And your present friends grow cold,
You may stretch your hands out towards me,--
Ah! you will--I know not when--
I shall nurse my love and keep it
Faithfully, for you, till then.

- Adelaide Anne Procter

Thursday, June 7, 2012

The Dangers of Impulse

All very impulsive persons live perpetually among thorns. They do and say things almost daily that cause themselves, or somebody else, most sore disquietude. When they are so stupid as not to see the improprieties of their own course, they may be causing frequent and deep wounds in the hearts of all who love them best. How often an impulsive person wounds the feelings of his truest friends! His thoughtless words, poisoned, it may be, with the gall-drops of a fit of anger or jealousy, envy or pride or a momentary flash of displeasure, may cut like two-edged swords to the heart's core. Or, wanting that sweet refinement given by self-control, their very roughness and harshness may "grate horrible discord" in the ears of those that love him, and would gladly be charmed by his sweet words of wisdom and goodness. How much, oh, how much unhappiness is thus caused by the uncontrolled waywardness of impulsive natures!

Hopes and Helps for the Young of Both Sexes by G. S. Weaver

Monday, June 4, 2012

GOLDEN WORDS

Some words are played on golden strings,
Which I so highly rate,
I cannot bear for meaner things
Their sound to desecrate.
For every day they are not meet,
Or for a careless tone;
They are for rarest, and most sweet,
And noblest use alone.

One word is POET: which is flung
So carelessly away,
When such as you and I have sung,
We hear it, day by day.
Men pay it for a tender phrase
Set in a cadenced rhyme:
I keep it as a crown of praise
To crown the kings of time.

And LOVE: the slightest feelings, stirred
By trivial fancy, seek
Expression in that golden word
They tarnish while they speak.
Nay, let the heart's slow, rare decree,
That word in reverence keep
Silence herself should only be
More sacred and more deep.

FOREVER: men have grown at length
To use that word, to raise
Some feeble protest into strength,
Or turn some tender phrase.
It should be said in awe and fear
By true heart and strong will,
And burn more brightly year by year,
A starry witness still.

HONOUR: all trifling hearts are fond
Of that divine appeal,
And men, upon the slightest bond,
Set it as slighter seal.
That word should meet a noble foe
Upon a noble field,
And echo--like a deadly blow
Turned by a silver shield.

Trust me, the worth of words is such
They guard all noble things,
And that this rash irreverent touch
Has jarred some golden strings.
For what the lips have lightly said
The heart will lightly hold,
And things on which we daily tread
Are lightly bought and sold.

The sun of every day will bleach
The costliest purple hue.
And so our common daily speech
Discolours what was true.
But as you keep some thoughts apart
In sacred honoured care,
If in the silence of your heart,
Their utterance too be rare;

Then, while a thousand words repeat
Unmeaning clamours all,
Melodious golden echoes sweet
Shall answer when you call.


- Adelaide Anne Procter