Now Is The Time
[Hafiz]

Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.

Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child's training wheels
To be laid aside
When you finally live
With veracity
And love.

Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.
This is the time for you to compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.

Now is the season to know
That everything you do
Is sacred.

Hafiz was a Persian mystic and poet.
He was born sometime between the years
1310 and 1337 in Shiraz, at the foot
of the Zagros Mountains
in southwest Iran.

The Touch Of The Master's Hand
Myra Brooks Welch

It was battered and scarred,
And the auctioneer thought it
Hardly worth his while
To waste his time on the old violin,
But he held it up with a smile.
"What am I bid, good people", he cried,
"Who starts the bidding for me?"
"One dollar, one dollar, Do I hear two?"
"Two dollars, who makes it three?"
"Three dollars once, three dollars twice,
Going for three". . . but no!

From the room far back a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening up the strings,
He played a melody, pure and sweet,
As sweet as an angel sings.
The music ceased and the auctioneer
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said "What now am I bid for this old violin?"
As he held it aloft with its bow.
"One thousand, one thousand, Do I hear two?"
"Two thousand, Who makes it three?"
"Three thousand once, three thousand twice,
Going and gone", said he.

The people cheered, but some of them cried,
"We do not quite understand.
What changed its worth?"
Swift came the reply: "The touch of the Master's hand."
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd
Much like the old violin.
A "mess of pottage," a glass of wine,
A game and he travels on,
He's going once, and going twice -He's going - and almost gone!
But the MASTER comes, and the foolish crowd,
Never can quite understand,
The worth of a soul, and the change that's wrought
By the touch of the MASTER'S hand.

Quotations

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."
[John Quincy Adams ]

"Great works are performed not by strength
but by perseverance."
[Samuel Johnson]

"Most people give up just
when they're about to achieve success.
They quit on the one yard line.
They give up at the last minute of the game,
one foot from a winning touchdown."
[H. Ross Perot]

"The difference between perseverance and obstinacy
is that one often comes from a strong will,
and the other from a strong won't."
[Henry Ward Beecher]

"If you wish success in life,
make perseverance your bosom friend,
experience your wise counselor,
caution your elder brother
and hope your guardian genius."
[Joseph Addison]

"A jug fills drop by drop."
[Buddha]

"How do you do get some many visitors to the site?,
I am asked. I reply, by persevering, by not giving up,
by sticking to it!"
[Catherine Pulsifer]

"Life is not easy for any of us.
We must have perseverance
and above all confidence in ourselves.
We must believe that we are gifted
for something and that this thing must be attained."
[Marie Curie]

"{Perseverance is not a long race;
it is many short races one after another."
[Walter Elliott]

Perseverance

When all the world is looming dark
And things seem not so clear,
When shadows seem to hover 'round Lord,
may I persevere.

When it seems everything's been tried
And there's no way to go,
Just let me keep remembering
Sometimes the journey's slow.

I may just need to stop and rest
Along the path I trod,
A time to try to understand
And have my talk with God.

As I gain new strength to carry on
Without a doubt or fear,
Somehow I know things will be right,
And so, I persevere.

[Anne Stortz]

GOING TOO FAST
Live your life like the wind.
Speed up when necessary,
And know when to slow down.
Slow down when life pushes so hard and fast,
You cannot consume anymore air.
Slow down when you can't see
Where you're going
Or where you're coming from.

Take time to stop and realize
What you have right in front of you
When you cannot find what you're looking for.
When you cannot find what you want in someone else,
Look inside of yourself.

Don't sweat the small things,
And make the best of the big things.
Cherish the experiences you've had,
And use the lessons you've learned.
Our lives are rubber bands,
Bending and stretching to fit
Even the most awkward situations.
You can adapt to anything,
Regardless of its size or shape.
You just have to realize and use
What you have in your own hands.

[ Author Unknown]



START OVER

If you've started out in pursuit of your goal
And you've really tried with your heart and your soul,
but somehow things got out of control
---START OVER.

When you've tried your best to do what you should
And you thought this time that you surely would,
But once again, you didn't do good
---START OVER.

When you've worked so hard to follow a dieters way
And you fought to win a victory each day.
But one more time you went astray
---START OVER.

When you've tried so hard to yourself to be true
And do the things that you know you should do,
But once again you failed to come through
---START OVER.

When the road to success seemed much too long
And each temptation was oh so strong
And once again you gave in to wrong
---START OVER.

When you've told your friends what you planned to do
And trusted them to help you through
But soon discovered it's up to you
---START OVER.

When you know you must be physically fit,
But your hope seems gone and you're stuck in a pit
That's not the time for you to quit
---START OVER.

When the week seems long and successes few
And at weigh-in time you're feeling blue,
Remember tomorrow is just for you
---START OVER.

To start again means a victory's been won
And starting over again means a race well run
And starting over again proves it can be done
So don't just sit there
---START OVER

[ Author Unknown]

TROUBLES

Lord, sometimes you have to:
--- break, so You can rebuild
--- wound, so You can heal
--- let me walk in darkness,
so that I can see Your light
--- let me be confused,
so I seek Your truth
--- let me feel emptiness
so You can fill me
--- let me feel lonely, so I can
see what a friend You are
--- let me learn the hard things,
so I can be a gentle teacher
--- let me be void of feelings,
so I must walk by faith
--- take away my future plans,
to teach me to live one day at a time
--- show me the futility of life,
so I will see that everything is loss
compared to the surpassing value
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
[Sue Knepp]

In his book The Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon
discussed five reasons for the fall
of that empire:

1. The rapid increase of divorce;
the undermining of the dignity
and sanctity of the home, which
is the basis of human society.

2. Higher and higher taxes and
the spending of public monies
for free bread and circuses
for the people

3. The mad craze for pleasure,
sports becoming every year
more exciting and more brutal.

4. The building of gigantic armaments,
when the real enemy was within -
the decadence of people.

5. The decay of religion - faith fading
into mere formalism; losing touch
with life and becoming impotent to
guide the people.