Christ Has Been There Before

“The road is too rough,” I said. "My Lord,
there are stones that hurt me so.”
He softly answered, “Dear child, I understand;
I walked it long ago”.

“But there’s a cool green path,” I said;
“Let me walk there for a time.”
“No child,” He gently answered me,
“The green road does not climb.”

“My burden,” I said, “Is far too great;
how can I bear it so?”
“My child,” said He, “I know its weight –
I carried my cross you know.”

“But,” I said, “If there were friends
who would make my way their own.”
“Aw yes,” He said, “Gethsemane
was hard to face alone!”

And so I climbed the stony path,
Content at least to know
That where my Master had not gone
I would not need to go.

And strangely then I found new friends.
The burdens grew less sore.
As I remembered, long ago –
He went that way before.

Leone Bays Gates

I Believe in Christ

I believe in Christ; he is my King!
With all my heart to him I’ll sing;
I’ll raise my voice in praise and joy,
In grand amens my tongue employ.
I believe in Christ; he is God’s Son.
On earth to dwell his soul did come.
He healed the sick; the dead he raised.
Good works were his; his name be praised.

I believe in Christ; oh blessed name!
As Mary’s Son he came to reign
’Mid mortal men, his earthly kin,
To save them from the woes of sin.
I believe in Christ, who marked the path,
Who did gain all his Father hath,
Who said to men: “Come, follow me,
That ye, my friends, with God may be.”

I believe in Christ—my Lord, my God!
My feet he plants on gospel sod.
I’ll worship him with all my might;
He is the source of truth and light.
I believe in Christ; he ransoms me.
From Satan’s grasp he sets me free,
And I shall live with joy and love
In his eternal courts above.

I believe in Christ; he stands supreme!
From him I’ll gain my fondest dream;
And while I strive through grief and pain,
His voice is heard: “Ye shall obtain.”
I believe in Christ; so come what may,
With him I’ll stand in that great day
When on this earth he comes again
To rule among the sons of men.

Bruce R. McConkie, 1915–1985

Good Timber

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.

Douglas Malloch

Pray

I got up early one morning

And rushed into the day

I had so much to accomplish

That I didn’t have time to pray.

Problems came tumbling about me

And heaver came each task

Why doesn’t God help me, I wondered

He answered “You didn’t ask.”

I wanted to see Hoy and beauty

But the day dragged on gray and bleak

I wondered why God didn’t show me

He said, “You didn’t seek.”

I tried to come into God’s presence

I used all my keys at the lock

God gently and loving chided

“My child you didn’t knock.”

So I awoke early this morning

And paused before entering the day

I had so much to accomplish

That I had to take time to pray.

The Champion

The courageous runner runs until
the breath in him is gone,
But the champion has the iron will
that makes him carry on.

For rest the average runner begs
when limp his mussels grow,
But when the champion runs on laden legs
his courage makes him go.

The average man’s complacent when
He’s done his best to score,
But the champion does his best and then
He does a little more.

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Yesterday is already a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today well lived makes every yesterday beautiful,
And every tomorrow a joy.

Prayer

We ask for strength and God sends us to difficulties which make us strong.

We pray for wisdom and God sends us problems, the solutions of which develop wisdom.

We plea for prosperity and God gives us brain and brawn to work.

We pray for courage and God gives us dangers to overcome.

We ask for favors and God gives us opportunities.

Candle Dipping

A candle's but a little thing
It starts with just a bit of string
Yet dipped and dipped with patient hand
It gathers wax upon the stand
Until, complete and snowy white
It gives at last a lovely light.

Life seems so like that bit of string
Each deed we do, a simple thing
Yet day by day if on life's strand
We work with patient heart and hand
It gathers joy, makes dark days bright
And gives at last a lovely light.

Author Unknown

Outwitted

He drew a circle that shut me out-

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But love and I had the wit to win,

We drew a circle that took him in!

Edwin Markham

The Monument

God, before he sent his children into the world, gave each of them a carefully selected package of problems.
"These, He promised smiling, are yours alone.
"Only you have the special talents and abilities that will make these problems your servants, and no one else may have the blessing these problems will bring you.

"So, go down to your birth, and to your forgetting.

"Know that I love you beyond measure.
"The problems I give you are a token of my love.
"The monument you make of your life, with the help of your problems, will be a token of your love for me."

Your Father

Blaine M. Yorgason

Myself

I have to live with myself and so
I want to be fit for myself to know.
I want to be able as days go by
always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don't want to stand with the setting sun
and hate myself for the things I have done .
I don't want to keep on a closet shelf
a lot of secrets about myself
and fool myself as I come and go
into thinking no one else will ever know
The kind of person I really am,
I don't want to dress up myself in sham.
I want to go out with my head erect
I want to deserve all men's respect;
but here in the struggle for fame and wealth
I want to be able to like myself.
I don't want to look at myself and know that
I am bluster and bluff and empty show .
I never can hide myself from me;
I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself and so,
whatever happens I want to be
self respecting and conscience free.

Edgar A. Guest

Friendship

Don’t walk in front of me
I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me
I may not lead
Walk beside me
And just be my friend

Albert Camus

The Builder

I built a house so strong and fair

Men marveled at it everywhere

And soon I found that just my name

In building circles brought me fame.

I have a son so strong and fair

I never thought he’d need my care.
One day he fell, through my neglect,

I came too late, his life was wrecked.

To build a house or build a man

The master builder works a plan

With skill and care, and nothing shirked,

For the structure reflects how the builder worked.

Author Unknown

The Bridge Builder

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man,"said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide -
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?"
The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."

Will Allen Drongoole