Philippians 4:8
“.. I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.” [Philippians 4:8 (The Message Translation)]
April 9, 2010 (Friday)
Edward Everett Hale was a Unitarian minister, Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, and successful author of nineteenth century America. He is quoted as having said, “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
I looked up this quotation because of something I read yesterday. It was an article about a famous celebrity couple visiting suffering people in another country. The article filled a page, but the comments, many of them negative, about the couple and their deeds filled page after page. I was shocked and appalled by the negativity of so much of what I read. The people out there doing something good were severely criticized for various reasons, the most common being that they were doing only one thing while there are obviously many other needs in today’s world. What? What did they say? “Don’t help the people across town, because the people next door need help too.” Seems to me we can say, “If they are helping the people across town, I will help the people next door.”
You may as well know it now. If you got out of bed this morning, there’s somebody in this old world that can and will criticize you for it. That’s a fact of modern life. So you must either ignore all the comments made about you, or choose to evaluate them by the truth. Hold your head up high and keep on doing whatever good you may feel led to do.
Please go back to the first paragraph and read the “I am only one” quotation again. Hale also wrote, “Look up and not down, look forward and not back, look out and not in, and lend a hand.” I pray for strength and integrity to do as he suggested.
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If you like inspirational quotations, you might enjoy this web site.
(Reference to site does not imply complete endorsement because I have not read it all)