Prayers and Thoughts

for Reflection

Lenton Devotional

2007

March 18

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.  He has a work, a life purpose; he has found it and will follow it.

Thomas Carlyle

Success will never be a big step in the future, success is a small step taken just now. 

Jonatan Martensson

The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest, for he has not earned it. 

John Lubbock

Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.
Proverbs 10:4

Thank God every morning when you get up, that you have something to do that day which must be done, whether you like it or not.  Being forced to work and forced to do your best will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle never know. 

Charles Kingsley

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Lao-Tse

Keep doing some kind of work, so that the devil may always find you employed. 

St. Jerome

Courage is the power of being mastered by and possessed with an idea.

Phillips Brooks

Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.
Ecclesiastes 11:6

Nobody can think straight who does not work.  Idleness warps the mind. 

Henry Ford

My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.
Ecclesiastes 2:10b

The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working.  Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day to his figures.  They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration. 

Ernest Newman

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are going.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

The beauty of work depends upon the way we meet it, whether we are ourselves each morning to attack it as an enemy that must be vanquished before night comes – or whether we open our eyes with the sunrise to welcome it as an approaching friend who will keep us delightful company and who will make us feel at evening that the day was well worth its fatigue.

Lucy Larcom

We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once. 

Calvin Coolidge

God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
Hebrews 6:10

To labor is to pray. 

Motto of the Benedictines

For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord.
Exodus 35:2

O God, You have called each of us to special tasks. Please equip me with the energy and skills to perform mine each week.  Help me to hear the call from You, so You may work through me.  Motivate me and keep me strong, so that You will achieve all that you desire.  What a blessing it is to slow down and renew in Your word and to sing Your praises today.  Thank you for the opportunity of refreshment, so that I may work with all my heart the rest of the week.  Thank you for this day of rest.  Amen.