OK I’m cheating a bit this week. I’m putting up a really long quote. Some might even call this a poem.
I choose a quote of the week to have pinned up in our kitchen to impart little words of wisdom. We discuss it at family night, and then I share it on this blog. We take a re-look at all the quotes of the year in December.
The whole “Quote of the week” has worked amazingly well. I find we are ALL on the look out for good quotes. Often Rob or one of the kids will tell me they found a good one, or text me it. I love that we are all tuned in to finding words to inspire!
Occasionally I find a really great poem that I just need to share. The kids all look at the board in the kitchen and say “That’s the quote??” Ok – so it’s not a quote, but it’s meaningful nonetheless.
As a Mom/Smom of 4 boys, I read this poem and knew it was for us. Great words of wisdom for my boys.
If
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Somehow I’ve never read this before, but I absolutely LOVE IT, Leah!! So glad you “cheated” a little this week and posted this long “quotation”. That was just beautiful!! –Lisa