You will never be sorry…

• for thinking before acting.
• for hearing before judging.
• for forgiving your enemies.
• for being candid and frank.
• for helping a fallen brother.
• for being honest in business.
• for thinking before speaking.
• for being loyal to your church.
• for standing by your principles.
• for closing your ears to gossip.
• for bridling a slanderous tongue.
• for harboring only pure thoughts.
• for sympathizing with the afflicted.
• for being courteous and kind to all.

In my earthly temple there’s a crowd.
There is one of us that’s humble, one that’s proud.
There’s one who’s brokenhearted for his sins.
There’s one who unrepentant sits and grins.
There’s one who loves his neighbor as himself.
And one who cares for naught but fame and self.
From such perplexing care I would be free,
If I could once determine which is me.

I have in my hands two boxes
Which God gave me to hold.
He said, “Put all your sorrows in the black,
And all your joys in the gold.”

I heeded His words, and in the two boxes
Both my joys and sorrows I store.
But though the gold became heavier each day
The black was as light as before.

With curiosity, I opened the black
I wanted to find out why,
And I saw, in the base of the box,
a hole which my sorrows had fallen out by.

I showed the hole to God, and mused aloud,
“I wonder where my sorrows could be.”
He smiled a gentle smile at me.
“My child, they’re all here with me.”

I asked, “God, why give me the boxes,
Why the gold, and the black with the hole?”
“My child, the gold is for you to count your blessings,
the black is for you to let go.”

— Author Unknown