Saturday, January 4, 2014

A Poem to Usher in 2014

Happy New Year!

Back in 2010, I write a post on this blog of 'Two Poems to Usher in 2010'. I heard the two I then quoted poems put together as complementarity poems by during a church meeting. Mormons (of which I am a Mormon), have average church members (not the bishop/minister/pastor) give talks to the local congregation in weekly sacrament meetings (worship service). I have had the opportunity to speak in such services. Those two 2010 poems came from such a meeting.

Late last year, I heard a poem quoted by Thomas S. Monson (President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; 'Mormon' is a popular nick-mane name for the church and it's members). The poem he quoted, and I have quoted below, explains how difficulties can mold us into stronger people.

Good Timber
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.
-Douglas Malloch

President Monson said in him talk, "Whenever we are inclined to feel burdened down with the blows of life, let us remember that others have passed the same way, have endured, and then have overcome."

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