Present Wisdom for Future Hope

Sharon lives in Ireland. She writes: “In school we usually finished the year by taking a class photo and duplicating it for everyone. The children got their mates to sign theirs and I laminated the lot. Being a teacher I usually incorporated some words of common wisdom, proverbs or quotations onto the back, hoping that someday it might give them comfort or encouragement! This is a poem I wrote for them based on the beatitude “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth!” 

IF..

If you can realise the value of having been a little child
hold fast to all that awe and wonder, not let that birthright be defiled…
If you can wake each morning eager to seize the day for all the joy it’s worth,
and make each trembling dew-dropped moment to a great rainbow of life give birth…
If you can recognise your talents and use them, without pride, along the way, 
to lift a load, pass on a kindness and grow your soul a little more each day…
If you can make a note of all your failings and present them on the altar of regret
and turn and walk away, each day forgiven, no crippling guilt! no crushing debt!…
If you can treat the ups and downs of fortune as just that, hills with valleys in between,
but take each personal encounter as a field from which much goodness may be gleaned…
If you can turn a disappointing friendship into the means by which forgiveness may be learned and make that way into an art-form, which judges not, nor is by others turned…
If you can look at history and learn from it not to repeat the mistakes of yesterday,
but bravely step into the footprints of One who went before and leads the way…
If you can give though the gift may be resented and graciously accept though you know you can’t pay back…
If you can love, find it’s not requited, but still love, regardless of the fact…
If you can run the race without the need to win it, pleased to carry the torch for a while,
and hold it high to spread its light among the nations, as you travel forward mile on mile…
If you can know the freedoms offered you, but choose to serve the cause of a greater One…
Then
Yours is the earth and all of Heaven that’s in it.
And what is more you’ll earn the words, “Well done!”
These my wishes for all of you as you head off into the future! 

© Sharon Hosford, 2020