"Dear Lord! Kind Lord!
Gracious Lord! I pray
thou wilt look on all I love,
tenderly today!
Weed their hearts of weariness;
scatter every care,
down a wake of angel wings
winnowing the air.
Bring unto the sorrowing
all release from pain;
let the lips of laughter
overflow again;
and with all the needy
O divine, I pray,
this vast treasure of content
that is mine today!
~James Whitcomb Riley
"The most essential factor is persistence - the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come." ~James Whitcomb Riley