TEACH ME TO LOVE

 

There was a time when in my daily prayer

I asked for all the things I deemed most fair,

And necessary to my life – success,

Riches, of course, and ease, and happiness;

A host of friends, a home without alloy;

A primrose path of luxury and joy,

Social distinction, and enough of fame

To leave behind a well-remembered name.

 

Ambition ruled my life.  I longed to do

Great things, that all my little world might view

And whisper, “Wonderful!”

                                                Ah, patient God,

How blind we are, until Thy shepherd’s  rod

Of tender chastening gently leads us on

To better things! …

 

Today I have but one

Petition, Lord – Teach me to love.  

Indeed It is my greatest and my only need –

Teach me to love,

not those who first love me,

But all the world, with that rare purity

Of broad outreaching thought which

Bears no trace

Of earthly taint, but holds in its embrace

Humanity, and only seems to see

The good in all, reflected Lord from  Thee.

 

And teach me, Father, how to love the most

Those who most stand in need of love-

That host  of people who are sick and poor and bad,

Whose tired faces show their lives are sad,

Who toil along the road with footsteps slow,

And hearts more heavy than the world can know-

People whom others pass discreetly by,

Or fail to hear the pleading of that cry

For help, amid the tumult of the crowd;

Whose very anguish makes them cold and proud,

Resentful, bitter in their grief-

I want to bring them comfort and relief,

To put my hand in theirs, and at their side

Walk softly on, a faithful, fearless guide.

 

O Saviour, thou the Christ, Truth, ever near,

Help me to feel these sad ones doubly dear

Because they need so much!  Help me to seek

And find that which they thought was lost;   to speak

Such words of cheer that as we pass along

The wilderness shall blossom into song.

 

Ah, Love divine, how empty was that prayer

Of other days!  That which was once so fair-

Those flimsy baubles that the world calls joys

Are nothing to me now but broken toys.

Outlived, outgrown.  I thank Thee that I know

Those much desired dreams of long ago,

Like butterflies, have had their summer’s day

Of brief enchantment and have gone.   I

Pray for better things

Thou knowest, God above,

My one desire now - Teach me to love.

 

 

 

(Reprinted from the Christian Science Journal of October 1908)

Still pertinent I think!!!!

 

I am not always necessarily right... but I know one thing... Everyone else is wrong!!!

(Tongue in cheek!!!)

 

Especially... politicians that make a career in political office and will do anything to stay in office;  Hollywood actors that "act" like they know what is going on in the world of politics, international relations, religion etc. when mostly their lives have been imitating someone else's life; politicians that don't see the fallacy of allowing illegal immigration to flourish and also those that think we don't have sufficient talent in this country to do the work and we must bring immigrants in to do low level, AND, high level jobs; white people that discriminate against black, brown, red and yellow people and anyone who isn't white; black people that use the "RACE" argument every time they face problems the rest of the world faces every day; all people who want a continual handout, like many of the Katrina victims, that would rather sit in a hotel room getting a government  handout while they could be out getting a job and working like everyone else.

 

But, I don't hate the people mentioned above, not by a long shot!!!    I am just hopeful that justice eventually prevails in the world and that all  of us who are being cheated in life because of  our failing to love one another and our reluctance to act rightly; our seeming inability to "do unto others as we would have them do unto us", and to act fairly and reasonably, will someday, however slowly, improve our standards, ethics and morals and love the world and each other enough to  bring needed change.