Helen Steiner Rice

The better you know God, the better you feel,

For to learn more about Him and discover He’s real

Can wholly, completely,and miraculously change,

Reshape and remake and then rearrange

Your mixed-up, miserable, and unhappy life

Adrift on the sea of sin-sickened strife.

But when you once know this Man of good will,

He will calm your life and say, “Peace, be still” …

So open your heart’s door and let Christ come in

And He’ll give you new life and free you from sin.

And there is no joy that can ever compare

With the joy of knowing you’re in God’s care.

Start Where You Stand

Berton Braley

Start where you stand and never mind the past,

The past won’t help you in beginning new,

If you have left it all behind at last

Why, that’s enough, you’re done with it, you’re through;

This is another chapter in the book,

This is another race that you have planned,

Don’t give the vanished days a backward look,

Start where you stand.

The world won’t care about your old defeats

If you can start anew and win success;

The future is your time, and time is fleet

And there is much of work and strain and stress;

Forget the buried woes and dead despairs,

Here is a brand-new trial right at hand,

The future is for him who does and dares,

Start where you stand.

Old failures will not halt, old triumphs aid,

To-day’s the thing, to-morrow soon will be;

Get in the fight and face it unafraid,

And leave the past to ancient history,

What has been, has been; yesterday is dead

And by it you are neither blessed nor banned;

Take courage, man, be brave and drive ahead,

Start where you stand.

A Brand New Start

Jill Lemming

God sometimes brings us to a place

where answers can’t be found…

Where we cannot see tomorrow,

for confusion all around.

Yet deep inside we realize

that all things work for good…

Even times when we’ve been wounded

and we feel misunderstood.

Don’t dwell on the injustice

and stay focused on God’s heart…

Find forgiveness and go on,

you can make a brand new start.

A Little Prayer

S.E. Kiser

That I may not in blindness grope,

But that I may with vision clear

Know when to speak a word of hope

Or add a little wholesome cheer.

That tempered winds may softly blow

Where little children, thinly clad,

Sit dreaming, when the flame is low,

Of comforts they have never had.

That through the year which lies ahead

No heart shall ache, no cheek be wet,

For any word that I have said

Or profit I have tried to get.

He is Always There

Anonymous

We can’t foresee the turning of the tide

When problems beset us and tears are cried.

Sometimes life deals from the bottom of the deck

Filling us with worry and leaving us a wreck.

The enemy seeks to devour and destroy,

Using deceptions to eliminate our joy.

While walking through the valley, our heads hung low,

The mountain top seems so high, our footsteps slow.

How many times have we traveled this road

To battle the frustrations of troubles bestowed?

Yet when we come to our darkest hour

God demonstrates His infinite power.

It doesn’t matter how bad things might seem,

He always comes through, our faith to redeem.

God will not fail us in our times of pain.

He’ll never forsake us, by our side He’ll remain.

So when we find ourselves at a total loss

Or when the valley seems too wide to cross,

Just remember you’re in His love and care,

Look over your shoulder, He’s always there!

Kindness

Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment

like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,

what you counted and carefully saved,

all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness.

How you ride and ride

thinking the bus will never stop,

the passengers eating maize and chicken

will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,

you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho

lies dead by the side of the road.

You must see how this could be you,

how he too was someone

who journeyed through the night with plans

and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice

catches the thread of all sorrows

and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,

only kindness that ties your shoes

and sends you out into the day to mail letters and

purchase bread,

only kindness that raises its head

from the crowd of the world to say

it is I you have been looking for,

and then goes with you every where

like a shadow or a friend.