Rise and Shine 20: DO IT ANYWAY

DO IT ANYWAY

By Mother Theresa 

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 true enemies;

SUCCEED ANYWAY.

If you are honest and sincere, people may cheat you;

BE HONEST AND SINCERE 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 HAVE ANYWAY.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;

IT WAS NEVER BETWEEN YOU AND THEM ANYWAY.

I found this poem at a time I was in great pain, and nothing in my life made sense to me.  I didn’t think I was a bad person, but one horrible thing after another happened to me anyway.  I was thinking about crawling into a cave and becoming a hermit because that made as much sense as any of the other options I had.   Then this poem appeared on my computer screen.  Reading it put everything in perspective for me, and light returned to my world. 

God put me here to be the best that I can be.  How people respond to that is about them, not me. I’ll do my best, and God will take care of the rest.   Who would you be and how would your life be if you believed that?          

(originally published 3/10/2020)