A poem by Mother Teresa

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 frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank 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.


By Mother Teresa

Words to live by, I especially love the last 2 lines.

A Little Poem

I got an awesome book from Yesterday's Classics , actually I got a bunch of cool books that I'll write about as we read them, but this one is called Poems Every Child should Know by Mary E. Burt. It is a great collection of nice poems and it is divided up starting with shorter and easier for younger kids and then moves into longer and harder poems for older kids. My 7 and 5 yr old, actually all the children are memorizing this one:

Little Things
Ebenezer Copham Brewer

Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land.

Thus the little minutes
Humble though they be,
Make the Mighty ages
Of Eternity

Isn't that so true? What a great way to internalize the message!