"The House of Christmas" by G.K. Chesterton

The House of Christmas

A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where he was homeless
Are you and I at home:
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost--how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.

G.K. Chesterton

Making Each Day a Success

Once again, there's lots more to enjoy by clicking on the link below, but here's an appetizer:

Beware of undertaking too much at the start.  Be content with quite a little. Allow for accidents.  Allow for human nature, especially your own.
A failure or so, in itself, would not matter, if it did not incur a loss of self-esteem and of self-confidence.  But just as nothing succeeds like success, so nothing fails like failure.  Most people who are ruined are ruined by attempting too much.  Therefore, in setting out on the immense enterprise of living fully and comfortably within the narrow limits of twenty-four hours a day, let us avoid at any cost the risk of an early failure.  I will not agree that, in this business at any rate, a glorious failure is better than a petty success.  I am all for the petty success.

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day 
Arnold Bennett as quoted by the Deputy Headmistress at the Common Room

The Elixer by George Herbert

Teach me, my God and King,

In all things Thee to see,

And what I do in any thing,

To do it as for Thee.

Not rudely, as a beast,

To runne into an action;

But still to make Thee prepossest,

And give it his perfection.

A man that looks on glass, 

On it may stay his eye;

Or if he pleaseth, through it pass,

And then the heav'n espy.

All may of Thee partake:

Nothing can be so mean,

Which with his tincture--"for Thy sake"--

Will not grow bright and clean.

A servant with this clause

Makes drudgery divine:

Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws,

Makes that and th' action fine.

This is the famous stone

That turneth all to gold:

For that which God doth touch and own

Cannot for lesse be told.

Work (by Henry Van Dyke)

Another favorite selection on the topic of work from the Abeka World Lit book, this one from an American Presbyterian minister in the early 1900's:

Let me but do my work from day to day,

In field or forest, at the desk or loom,

In roaring market-place or tranquil room;

Let me but find it in my heart to say,

When vagrant wishes beckon me astray,

"This is my work; my blessing, not my doom;

Of all who live, I am the one by whom

This work can best be done in the right way."

Then shall I see it not too great, nor small,

To suit my spirit and to prove my powers;

Then shall I cheerful greet the laboring hours,

And cheerful turn, when the long shadows fall

At eventide, to play and love and rest,

Because I know for me my work is best.

Deserve It! (Author Unknown)

This gem came from the Abeka World Lit book, and while one could argue from a theological angle about what we all actually deserve, the exhortation to a strong character and diligent work ethic is excellent.

Ne'er droop your head upon your hand,

And wail the bitter times;

The self-same bell 

That tolls a knell

Can ring out merry chimes.

And we have still the elements

That made up fame of old,

The wealth to prize

Within us lies,

And not in senseless gold.

Yes; there exists a certain plan,

If you will but observe it,

That opes success to any man;

The secret is--deserve it!

What use to stand by Fortune's hill

And idly sigh and mope?

Its sides are rough, 

And steep enough,

'Tis true; but if you hope

To battle 'gainst impediments

That rudely stop your way,

Go boldly to't;

Strike at the root:

You'll surely gain the day.

 Prate not about new-fangled plans,--

Mine's best, if you'll observe it:

I say success is any man's

If he will but deserve it!

Homer and Milton reign supreme

With Shakespeare--worthy band;

And Howard's name,

And Harvey's claim,

Are sung throughout the land;

And Marlborough and Wellington

Illustrious stand in fight;

And Newton gleams 

Amid the beams

Of an undying light!

What did they do to gain a name?

What did they to preserve it

With an untarnished, deathless fame?

They simply did--deserve it!

And thus may you--and you--and YOU--

From depths the most profound,

Your wishes teach

Success to reach

Up to the topmost round.

But if, from some unreckoned cause,

(Say market overstocked,)

Your hoped-for spoil

Pay others' toil,

Think not your efforts mocked:

If Fortune's smile so faintly beam

That you can scarce preserve it,

Remember, there is One above,

Who knows that you deserve it!

Moments

Moments come as wrapped gifts, and we simply have to trust the giver.

~Ann Voskamp

Trust and Obey

Obedience is the mother of success and is wedded to safety.
~Aeschylus

God of the Living

Let us then mark this as the principal part of the covenant, that he who is the God of the living, not of the dead, promises to be a God to the children of Abraham.

--John Calvin

Heritage

Recovering our Presbyterian inheritance and inscribing the doctrine of covenant succession upon the heart of family and church must have a wonderfully solemnizing and galvanizing effect.  It will set Christian parents seriously to work on the spiritual nurture of their children, equipping them and requiring them to live the life of covenant faith and duty to which their God and Savior called them at the headwaters of life, . . . lest the Lord on the Great Day should say to them: "You took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them to idols."

--Robert Rayburn

Westminster on Kids

Wherever thou goest thou wilt hear men crying out of bad children--whereas indeed the source must be sought a little higher, 'tis bad parents--that make bad children--and we cannot blame so much their untowardness as our own negligence in their education. . . . The Devil hath a great spite at the Kingdom of Christ, and he knoweth no such compendious way to crush it in the egg as by the perversion of youth and supplanting family duties.  Religion was first hatched in families, and there the Devil seeketh to crush it.

--Preface to the Westminster Confession of Faith, 1658

Faith Connection

[There is] an intimate and divinely established connection between the faith of parents and the salvation of their children; [it] authorizes them to plead God's promises and to expect with confidence that through his blessing on their faithful efforts, their children will grow up children of God.

--Charles Hodge

More Than Words

I strongly suspect that more is done in the age previous to language, to affect the character of children than in all the instruction and discipline of the minority afterwards; for, in this first age . . . there goes out in the whole manner of the parent--the look, the voice, the handling--an expression of feeling, and that feeling expressed streams directly into the soul.  
--Charles Hodge

A Gift

It is inhuman and godless to have a loathing for offspring.  The saintly fathers acknowledged a fruitful wife as a special blessing of God and, on the other hand, regarded sterility as a curse.  This judgment flowed from the Word of God in Genesis 1:28, where He said, "Be fruitful and multiply."  From this, they understood that children are a gift of God.

--Martin Luther

Numbers and Names

God determines the numbers and names of every man's children.

--Thomas Boston

Divine Visitation

In the propagation of the human race, [God's] special benediction is conspicuous; and, therefore, the birth of every child is rightly deemed the effect of divine visitation.

--Martin Luther

Eternal Powers

The powers folded up in the little ones that you hushed to sleep . . . last night are powers that shall exist forever.  You are preparing them for their immortal destiny and influence.  Be faithful.

--J.R. Miller

Who's Training Who?

We talk about training our children, but they train us first.

--J.R. Miller

Human Parenting Teaches Things Divine

God has so constituted us that in loving and caring for our own children the richest and best things in our natures are drawn out.  We best understand the feelings and affections of God toward us when we bend over our own child and see in our human parenthood a faint image of the divine Fatherhood.

--J.R. Miller

Love Sight

Love's not blind; love's the holy vision.

--Ann Voskamp

Trust

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson