Happy Birthday to my dear son! My tribute today features a well-known poem by Rudyard Kipling. “If” was published over a century ago and still offers good advice for challenges that a man often faces.
Son, after these years and the experiences that you have faced, I hope you know that I am proud of the man you have become. You’re the man! You give me hope! The poem below advises to trust yourself and hold on! I’ll add to trust God more than yourself and trust that He is the One holding you (better than you holding Him)!
IF
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself 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
And treat those two impostors 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 winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose 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 the 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 hurt you,
If all men count with you but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!
(Kipling)
“The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who sires a wise son will be glad in him.” (Proverbs 23: 24)
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose trust is the LORD.” (Jeremiah 17:7)
“Do not fear for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. For I am the LORD your God, who upholds your right hand, Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’” (Isaiah 41: 10, 13)
“Even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you, and I will deliver you.” (Isaiah 46: 4)
