Hard Work Wins

Hard work wins.  You get out of life what you put into it.  You cannot control the outcome, but you are one hundred percent in control of the effort.  And before you complain about what somebody did to you or said to you, go to the nearest mirror, look at it and say, what could I have done to change the outcome?  And no matter how good you are, how hard you work, sooner or later, bad things are gonna happen to you.  How you deal with those bad things will tell your mother and me if we raised a man.  –Randolph Elder in Dear Father, Dear Son by Larry Elder

Build Me a Son

“Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

“Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds; a son who will know Thee - and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.

“Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

“Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

“And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, and the weakness of true strength.

“Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, ‘I have not lived in vain.’” —General Douglas MacArthur, a prayer for his son