Let's declare a break in playing and replaying what's behind us--or ruminating on what may be coming next.
Let's focus instead on the little woman the whole world seemed to love during her lifetime and even now: Mother Teresa.
No need to go into all the ins and outs of her life, except to say she spent her days serving the poorest of the poor, mostly in Calcutta, before she died September 5, 1997.
Mother Teresa lives on through her timeless words, the deep truths she spoke in simple words. I'm not Catholic, but I admire the unselfish way she lived.
She is said to have had the following lines posted on the wall of her office. They're worth a careful reading, because these truths have value for us all, no matter our age or life situation.
To me, they seem especially fitting for right now. See if you agree:
- People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
- If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
- If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some enemies. Succeed anyway.
- If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you. Be honest and frank anyway.
- What you spent years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway.
- If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
- The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway.
- Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you've got anyway.
- You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God. It never was between you and them anyway.
- May love touch your heart, may peace lift your spirit and may you find happiness in all your endeavors.
Mother Teresa's words are enough to keep us thinking for quite awhile
Obviously, she was a woman of faith and she lived a life of service. Some people wonder what motivated her to spend her life caring for those the rest of society walked right by. I think the answer can be found in Bible verses like these, from 1 John 4:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God ...
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him ...
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another ... We love because he first loved us.
Mother Teresa wasted no time proclaiming who was right or who was wrong. She simply loved and gave of herself
Here are three of her quotes that also speak to us today:
"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."
"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."
You and I can help make our world a better place if we follow her example and live out what the Bible teaches us right in the place where we live. Where God has planted us.
As she said, We have only today. Let us begin.
May God bless you,
Lenore
