I went to my Women of Worship meeting today where I received some flyers I stuck in my bag to read later.
After our meeting I got in my van to go home and it did some funny thing it hadn't done before. I took it as a reminder that I needed new back tires and to go get them.
Sitting in the waiting room at the tire place I noticed a young man across from me was reading the Bible. I asked him what he was reading and he said 1 Peter. We had just discussed some of that at my meeting.
I told him I was reading Exodus and some of the verses from the New Testament that tied in with the chapter from Exodus.
I thought I should look at my flyers and see if I should share something with him. One of them was a quote from Mother Theresa "Do It Anyway". I had heard it before and of course thought it was great so I asked him if he wanted to read it. He read it slowly and said it was really good. He handed it back to me. I asked him if he wanted to keep it. You would have thought I
told him he just won a new Ipod. His eyes lit up and he had a big smile and said he would like to have it because it went right along with the lesson he was preparing to give at his church youth group meeting tonight.
That was a God thing.
DO IT ANYWAY
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 true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest anyway.
What you spend 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 was never between you and them anyway.
Mother Teresa
1910-1997
thanks carol, i needed that today....i am mother of jami
M.O.J.
Isn't it amazing how He gives us what we need when we need it if we just open our eyes!
I liked this story, but the poem sounded a bit too "pop" for Mother Teresa.
The original title was "Paradoxical Commandments" and was written by Kent Keith in the 60's. His website claims Mother Teresa liked the writing and hung it up in her school. Maybe so.
I liked Kent Keith's comment in an interview that "The fact that people want to share the 'commandments' is, for me, the ultimate compliment".
What a great attitude!
It really doesn't matter who wrote it, but it is a wonderful way to go through life. I have 2 books of sayings by Mother Teresa and she did use ordinary words and wove them into meaningful ways to live our lives. When you get right down to it "It's not all about me". However, we do have to nurture and care for our bodies and minds and souls so that we can actually "Do It Anyway."
Running into the young man at the tire place was no accident. It was a "God Wink".
Love,
Mom
I liked the story and the comments. I started not to respond but did it any way.
The verse was in our St. John Neumann parish bulletin this morning and they gave the credit to Mother Teresa. Guess they didn't research it.