Book of Virtues

I found this book and a couple others for a dollar at our local second-hand store. I was very excited to find it, especially after I discovered it costs around thirty dollars new. Anyway, I have been reading through, and it has a lot of great literature in it. Here is a poem by Nixon Waterman on the virtue of work:

We shall do much in the years to come,

But what have we done today?
We shall give out gold in a princely sum,
But what did we give today?
We shall lift the heart and dry the tear,
We shall plant a hope in the place of fear,
We shall speak the words of love and cheer,
But what did we speak today ?

We shall be so kind in the after while,
But what have we done today?
We shall bring to each lonely life a smile,
But what have we brought today?
We shall give to truth a grander birth,
And to steadfast faith a deeper worth,
We shall feed the hungering souls of earth,
But whom have we fed today?

We shall reap such joys in the by and by,
But what have we sown today?
We shall build us mansions in the sky,
But what have we built today?
`Tis sweet in the idle dreams to bask;
But here and now, do we our task?
Yet, this is the thing our souls must ask,
What have we done today ?

That's what I've been trying to focus on lately... it's easy to get caught up in what I want to do eventually, and totally miss what God wants to do in my life today.

Ethan and I will be holding a youth rally in Cordova next month, and I've been praying into it a lot, because I want to make sure that everything that is sung, spoken, and shared is right from the heart of God. I want these young people to encounter God in a way that will change their lives! One day I thought to myself, I'll bet this is the way I'm supposed to live every day - relying on God to direct my every step. After all, dependence on God is one of the greatest signs of relationship. Only a self-reliant person would feel they have the right to live a life independent from God. And isn't that the very essence of sin?

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. Joshua 24:15

Well, hopefully I'll remember these things when the rally is over. We'll see.