Wise Words For A New Year

Doing Good to All

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load.
Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Galatians 6:1-10

I have not always lived the wisdom of these words, and as the Robert Frost poem says, "I have miles to go", but I do know now, more than ever that all those years of swimming against the current when raising our children, plowing in a field that was not easy, has paid off. We are reaping such joy from what was sown so many years ago. Do not grow weary.

The pictures are of an 1802 edition of a large family Bible that belonged to a friend of my mothers. It was given to me as a child. It comes from the town of Keene NH, where this Bible survived two major fires.