Pathway Of Pain

(or The Way To God)

If my days were untroubled and my heart always light,

Would I seek that fair land where there is no night?

If I never grew weary with the weight of my load,

Would I search for God’s Peace at the end of the road?

If I never knew sickness and never felt pain,

Would I reach for a hand to help and sustain?

If I walked not with sorrow and lived without loss,

Would my soul seek sweet solace at the foot of the cross?

If all I desired was mine day by day,

Would I kneel before God and earnestly pray?

If God sent no “winter” to freeze me with fear,

Would I yearn for the warmth of “spring” every year?

I ask myself this and the answer is plain -

If my life were all pleasure and I never knew pain

I’d seek God less often and need Him much less,

For God's sought more often in times of distress.

And no one knows God or sees Him as plain

As those who have met Him on “The Pathway of Pain.”

by Helen Steiner Rice.

Strength and Courage- Poem

This is one of my favorites as it represents so much, I hope you like it.

Strength and Courage

It takes strength to be firm,
It takes courage to be gentle.

It takes strength to stand guard,
It takes courage to let down your guard.

It takes strength to conquer,
It takes courage to surrender.

It takes strength to be certain,
It takes courage to have doubt.

It takes strength to fit in,
It takes courage to stand out.

It takes strength to feel a friend's pain,
It takes courage to feel your own pain.

It takes strength to hide your own pains,
It takes courage to show them.

It takes strength to endure abuse,
It takes courage to stop it.

It takes strength to stand alone,
It takes courage to lean on another.

It takes strength to love,
It takes courage to be loved.

It takes strength to survive,
It takes courage to live

~Unknown