From Abba to His Sons and Daughters

7/23/2011

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust Me when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster or praise and hatred

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your “successes”

And trusting in Me, throw “all in” for winnings’ dross,

And fail, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except My Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can turn you;

If all men count with you, but none a crutch;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—

In love’s velvet and Faith’s steel—is My Son’s Life and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—In HIM you’ll be a Man my son!

(Kipling adapted)

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