If you can keep your head………..

“If you can keep your head, when all about you….

are losing there’s and blaming it on you.

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

but make allowance for their doubting, too.”

This poem, IF, by Rudyard Kipling, of which I have just quoted a little tiny bit, is one that I made all of my children memorize–and we reviewed it over and over and over again.

Right is always right even if no one is doing it, wrong is always wrong even if everyone is doing it…..a clarkson favorite mama saying.

We are called to have a different character, a constant one, one that reflects the very image of Jesus, and yet,

In this crazy world, and especially in this crazy Christian world,

there are many irrational, unloving, critical,

exhausted, weary, discouraged,

immature, mean-spirited, untrained people wandering around.

I have seen lately, in the lives of my children and friends, them being overcome by some very difficult situations and people who unwillingly become a tool in the hand of Satan to discourage and destroy–faith, heart, well-being of others..

And yet, for those of us who have lived long enough, we know that this is the common “tribulation” and stress that Jesus was referring to when he said, “In this world, you will have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world.”

And so, if we can keep our heads, know that love covers a multitude of sin, live in grace and know that we and everyone else we will ever know make mistakes on a regular basis,

and live in the liberating grace of the freedom and blessing we find in the abiding love of Jesus,

then we will always, always have peace and always have the ability to keep giving life as he did.

Overcoming evil with good, loving beyond measure, forgiving and being a peacemaker, living with practiced faith, again and again and again,

this is where we become more like Him, our very dear savior,

and it is where we become true warriors who redeem.

And so, I highly commend this poem, the entire poem, to put in your brain and that of your children, so that you may have grace in your soul to go to, for facing this world and conquering the challenges that come your way.

Words have such power to bring life and inspiration and power–I just love words.

Thank you, Rudyard, for penning this poem for my own well-being and for that of my children……

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