You Are the Person Who-Daily Devotional June 9, 2022
Today’s Quotation:
You are the person who has to decide.
Whether you’ll do it or toss it aside,
You are the person who makes up your mind.
Whether you’ll lead or will linger behind,
Whether you’ll try for the goal that’s afar.
Or just be contented to stay where you are.-Edgar Guest
Today’s Meditation:
There are no bad choices here. Any of the options in this short poem can be the right one, depending on circumstances, feelings, emotional states, or possible consequences. Edgar’s point is well taken: we must make our own decisions about all of these things.
After all, we’re leading our lives. No one else should be leading our lives for us, and no one else should be making the important decisions for us.
Nor should we be trying to make the important decisions for anyone else (except, perhaps, small children, but only until a certain point).
I like how Edgar puts together what seem to be opposite possibilities; they’re not truly opposites, but just choices between two different paths of action. Sometimes we can lead others, and sometimes we can be led; both are perfectly acceptable choices depending on where we are at the time.
Today you can lead or follow. As Paul says in the Bible, there is a time to reap, and a time to sow; a time to laugh, a time to cry. We must be true to who we are and where we are at this moment if we’re going to be able to lead our lives with peace and love, and we must learn to accept ourselves and our actions as indicators of just where we are.
Some days it’s better to sit on the couch and read a book than it is to keep working towards a goal. Some days it’s better to go after that goal than it is to sit around and read. Respect what your body and mind and heart are telling you, and you won’t have any problems listening to them.
Questions to ponder:
1. What do you choose to do today? Does it have to be
the same that you chose to do yesterday?
2. What kinds of pressures do we face to continually lead and
accomplish? How do you respond to those pressures?
3. How do you feel after those days when you’ve chosen to follow
rather than lead (and the keyword is “chosen”)?
For further thought:
After all, it’s what we do
that makes us what we are.-Jim Croce
