A poem Mother loved. . .to thy own self be true. . .



Beautiful, precious Mother with Daddy. . .what a blessing they were to me.



I was reading a magazine, "Reminisce" given to us by Sis. Jean Jones the other

day and found a very special memory of my own.

When I was a young girl and even through my teens Mother recite a poem to me. . .

It was usually when she was standing behind me, facing a mirror while fixing my hair.

I never remembered the entire poem, just a few lines. . .but when I saw this

in the magazine I knew I'd found a treasure.

So here is the whole poem Mother would recite to me. . .planting values in my mind.

I remember most the first stanza.

"Myself"



I have to live with myself, and so

I want to be fit for myself to know.

I want to be able as days go by,

Always to look myself straight in the eye.

I don't want to stand with the setting sun

And hate myself for the things I've done.

I don't want to keep on a closet shelf

A lot of secrets about myself.

And fool myself, as I come and go,

Into thinking that nobody else will know

The kind of person I really am;

I don't want to dress up myself in sham.

I want to go out with my head erect,

I want to deserve all men's respect;

But here in the struggle for fame and pelf

I want to be able to like myself.

I don't want to look at myself and know

That I'm bluster and bluff and empty show.

I never can hide myself from me;

I see what others may never see.

I know what others may never know,

I never can fool myself, and so,

Whatever happens, I want to be

Self-respecting and conscience free.

-Edgar A. Guest-

Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.

Proverbs 31:30