The Paper Eggs and the Seven Sentences

The Paper Eggs and the Seven Sentences

by Vivian Osburn

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

Last night we were thinking and sharing on this thought of dedication and rededication. Thinking of it as a yielding or giving of our little self to the great self in a moment of decision, which becomes a consecration for a sacred or divine use by the Lord God Almighty, of our little lives. This morning I’d like to have us think about release.

Will you be thinking and holding that word in the back of your mind as you listen to some of this scripture? The first one comes from the First Kings, the 19th chapter, and it’s about the prophet Elijah. I don’t know why, but he seems to be popping into my mind so frequently this spring. And Elisha. But he went on a day’s journey unto the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree. And he requested for himself that he might die. And said, “It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life.”

And then later in the chapter, the 18th verse. The Lord does not take away his life. He does not answer this request. “Yet I have left me…” But you remember the reason Elijah was so discouraged, he thought he was all alone.

But the Lord assures him. And He says, “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” So he departed thence and found Elisha. And he was plowing, you remember. And Elijah passed by him. Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. And so, instead of his life work ending, he was given this assurance. And then it was to continue through the remainder of his lifetime and on into the lifetime of Elisha. This releasing of ourselves, even unto being willing to release ourselves unto death.

And then Job. You know, so many times something happens to us, and then we sort of run to Job for consolation. We think, “Oh, poor Job.” And we think about all his troubles. But we forget to read the last wonderful chapter. And you remember that some of these verses were leading up to it.

“The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away. But blessed be the name of the Lord.” Then this one, where we have a responsibility for the thoughts that we choose: “That which I feared hath come upon me.”

Or the critical thoughts. Or the angry thoughts. Or the jealous thoughts. Or the self-pity thoughts. Or the self-grieving thoughts. And then when he was way down at the depths, he said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

Now, here we come to that wonderful 42nd chapter. And again he declares, “I know that Thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from Thee.” Yes. The fear thoughts. But also no thought. All the good thoughts. All the positive thoughts. These too will come into manifestation for us. But we have a choice that we must make. Right up in our own minds. No one can do it for us. Sow a thought, reap a word. Sow a word, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny. Reap a destiny.

We don’t like the destiny we are in. Then change it. Where do we change it? Right back to our thought process. Then you remember he finally came to the point, which we sometimes do in meditation, where he declared, “I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear.” Now, he’d done a pretty good job just by that, hadn’t he? “But now mine eye seeth Thee.” And when we become aware of that light, what we were talking about last night, in these moments of dedication, then we lose all of our ego and self-esteem. And he says, “Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

And all these folks, when they come and be wailing to you about Job, you ask them to read the tenth verse of the last chapter. “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friend.”

Remember, Dr. Alexis Carrel tells how he saw, there at Lourdes, an instantaneous healing of cancer, when one woman looked at another patient in compassion and prayed for that patient, her own was healed. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.

Forget about his boils. Forget about the troubles of the family. Forget about all these things. And remember that, as for Job, so for you. The victory lies ahead when we maintain our faith. So Job died, being old and full of days. Sick? No. Just full of days.

And all the wonderful whatsoever verses. If you’ve forgotten some of those, you go back and read “I will lift up mine eyes,” and how he takes these promises and we take and make them our own. Remember? “And when ye pray, know that ye shall receive, and ye shall have it.” And then these in the First John. It was down at the Missouri camp two years ago that Charles King challenged us to read that chapter in John every day, I think it was, for three months. I wonder how many of you folks did. I did, and it was a most rewarding experience.

And here is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave commandment. And how much was that commandment? “As I have loved you.” Now that’s… We have all our whole lifetime to grow in learning to love like that, don’t we? And he that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in Him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us by the Spirit which He hath given us.

No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, and didn’t we have a love feast last night? I wasn’t a Methodist in the days when they had love feasts, but we had… I think it must have been something like that. We had a love feast last night. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and His love is perfected in us. It doesn’t say there that when you commit your life to the Lord that He’s going to suddenly make you absolutely 100% perfect all the time. But says… Remember? Is perfected in us.

It’s a continuing process. And that’s what I want us to be thinking about this morning. Of this continuing process of learning to release and putting all of our cares, our self, our concerns, and our problems for ourselves and for others into His hands, and for the world too.

I’d like to make just a few comparisons between what we were thinking about last night on dedication and this on release. For we use these words, don’t we, interchangeably so much. We use relinquishment, abandonment, dedication, consecration, letting go, turning things over, surrender, abandonment, until when I was trying to formulate these, I had to try to get these, a few distinctions clear in my own mind. Now they may not be yours, but, and they may not be mine next week, but right now, these are the things that were coming to me. Last night, in dedication, or in rededication, it’s a birth, becoming a new creature, or in rededication, into a new phase of living. In release, I’d like to have you thinking as it’s perfecting, as it’s continuing, growing in the life of the spirit, releasing our anxieties and the problems with a radiant acquiescence. A moment, and last night, it was a moment of decision. But now, today, and it’s every day, it’s a daily affair, every hour, by Thy power.

Last night, we were thinking of this more in terms of a personal thought. Today, more in terms of a person plus others. Almost last night, like being willing to be a slave, but being set freed from being a slave to these things which bound us, into the glorious freedom of being willing to be His slave, to be His God-possessed, to be yearning to be obedient and do His will.

So, for this thought of relinquishment, this daily relinquishment, this daily turning over of ourselves, of our concerns, our problems, to the great ego, the one God. Some of you have loved this prayer. Many people use it every day.

“Oh God, I give Thee myself today for the coming of Thy kingdom to do Thy will. Take me from myself and use me where Thou wilt, when Thou wilt, as Thou wilt, with whom Thou wilt. Amen.” You’re going to say, “Oh, that sounds very nice. How do we do it?” So I want you folks to be thinking, as you did last night, how do you do it? How do you, with radiant acquiescence and joyous expectation and praise and thanksgiving in your heart, turn these things over to the Lord? What are some of the things that you use? What are some of the things that you use in your prayer groups to do this? What do you say when someone calls you on the phone, either in your own city or long distance? What do you say when somebody says, “Oh, I’d like to go to your upper room and have a little time with you.”

Well, these are a few things. I like to hark back to Glenn Clark’s Divine Plan. If the person hasn’t had that, you can even give them these seven basic sentences and things will happen. I remember one summer I was going to go to a camp. And Lou called me up and she had, I don’t know how many problems. Health and, some of you even know her, family and financial. They were just thick. And I said, “Oh, Lou, I don’t have time even for you to come over.” I think I was packing that day or something like that. “But I will give you seven sentences, Lou. And I want you to read those and memorize them and use them every day for three months. And then you call me and tell me what’s happened.” And they were just a seventh. And she used them and passed them on to others for a long time before she even had ever seen the whole copy of the Divine Plan. But these are the ones, and you all know them. “I believe that God has a Divine Plan for me.” And, of course, you can use it for someone else when you’re praying for them by saying, “I believe that God has a Divine Plan for Ruth,” or “for thee,” as you wish.

And our prayer group even uses it for the world. “I believe that God has a Divine Plan for the world.” Well, let’s use it in the personal, the way Glenn wrote it. “I believe that God has a Divine Plan for me. I accept with a radiant acquiescence.” Now, this is the day you want to say it when you’re weeping. When you’ve gone and gotten a big bath towel, as I do on a few occasions, and trying to get it thoroughly saturated with my tears. By the time I’ve done that, usually the well has run dry. But these are sentences for the low days and the high days. For all the days. “I accept with radiant acquiescence.”

“All the events.” Did you notice that word all? “And all the individuals that are drawn to me.” When you go to church, is it easy to sit down and criticize a service? You’d like to have it more modern, or you think it is too modern. Or the preacher, maybe he reads his sermon too much. Or he doesn’t have it well organized.

Or there doesn’t seem to be a great spirit of harmony among the members, and they don’t seem to know each other very well. This condemnation. Or do you sit there, and like Glenn Clark used to say, swish love around all those pews, and all around the corners, and up around the pulpit. Do you sit there praying for your preacher, and for the hearts of those who are listening? Do you try to name three people in your prayer, while you’re waiting for that service to begin? Especially one that appeals to you the least.

And put that one in God’s keeping. “All the individuals that are drawn to you,” that have come into your mind, see. “I pray to increase my capacity, both to love and serve them.” Well, what are you supposed to do for this person, besides pray? “And for greater worthiness to be loved and served by them.” Now, that sometimes is kind of hard. It’s easier to be the gracious giver than the gracious receiver.

“I ask the Father for only that which is mine, according to His providential plan.” Oh, providential plan. Oh, I’m not afraid then. I know that God is good. I know that He loves to do exceeding abundantly above all that I could ask or think. I know that He has said, “I will do miracles, because I did them through My Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.” And you folks are the only ones that He has now for Me to perform these miracles through. So I can just lean back and really trust that providential plan. And I can trust it so much that my heart can begin to sing. “I pray to increase my capacity both to receive and to give the gifts of God.” Oh, and there are so many. Eternal life and all the gifts of the Spirit and all the fruits of the Spirit.

But we have days that are like this. “My disappointments.” What about them? “His appointments,” leading to greater opportunities. Now, “the chief essential in life for me is to be inwardly open to God and outwardly helpful to man.” Say that one with me and do it. Your left hand up and your right hand up. The chief essential in life for me… Is to be inwardly open to God… Is to be inwardly open to God… And outwardly helpful to men.

Some of the ways that we keep that inwardly open to God. Well, it’s learning to keep a quiet time. And we know this. And we… I hope there’s some great saint here who never fails. I think my husband comes as near to that as I know. Of always keeping that time.

If you like to go on… You like to use, like Marcus Bach suggests, a period of silence, a period of praying, and a praying of silence. I still think that Glenn Clark has the best little format for it, in the Song of the Souls of Men. It says that this song is made up of three stanzas. Thinking about God.

Talking to God. Listening to God. Here are two little booklets that some of you may not have found. And I didn’t have enough to bring. So I… If any of you want to, you can copy from them the names and might send for them. This is Blessings for a Total World. And it comes out from Men of Good Will.

Pray: Helps for praying for the world. And this one, A Way to Christian Healing. Some of you know the books of Marion Dunlop. How many of you know any of her books? Well, this is a doctor who has written this. But it’s really based upon the ideas which she uses in her books. And when I was at the CFO retreat in St. Paul, Elsa Yockey told me that Mary… I said to her, “You’re always telling me something new that I haven’t been able to find. What do you have for me this time?” She said, “Well, Marion Dunlop in England has a meditation group. And you may write there and get materials which they send out every month.”

Now, so far I have not written back. I wrote into them and written back, because there was one little thing, and I haven’t yet quite gotten to this, that you are to keep a meditation twice a day. Now I can keep one once a day, but I haven’t yet been able to get myself into the groove and the pattern. I’m a creature of habit of keeping a second one. But I know I will. And I know I will be writing in. And I know that I will be receiving her materials. Don’t we need to be open to everything? I think it was Starr Daily who once said that anything, if it is good, it belongs to God, and since I belong to God, then that belongs to me too. To keep an open mind to find the good in many of these places. I’ll put these over here in case any of you might like to look at them, to see if you might be interested. But I have lots of good… goodies to give away.

Some of you have had this. The Methodist Women’s Society, several years, put these out. Prayer for World Leaders, and a list of the United Nations. It’s lovely to keep in your Bible when you’re praying for the world, to pray for them. That’s a giveaway.

I’d like to go to a retreat before your camp begins. The Disciplined Order of Christ is going to have down here at Unity, April 28th through March 3rd, a retreat. And Donald Boyce is to be the retreat leader. And some of you may have been within a camp where he is, a Camp Farthest Out where he has been a retreat leader. So you see, all of these groups are God’s groups. And people work in both and many of them. This is free too.

I expect most of you know about He Is Able. And in case you haven’t had a copy, here are some. I’m one of these strange creatures who believe that the church has failed many of its members, not only in the area of prayer and healing, but also in not giving the folks like me in the pew help for meeting this facing of the fact that life does not continue here on earth forever and ever in its present form.

Someday I’m going to be released. I hope that all of us will be emerged by caterpillars, and having gone through that cocoon stage, we will emerge into this great unseen like gorgeous butterflies. At our winter retreat a year ago I made the statement that it had been a long, long time since I had heard a sermon on life after death. The Lord likes to play tricks on you. That was on Saturday. I got home on Sunday, and our Reverend Dr. Leatherman preached on this. But I’ll have to confess, now of course I haven’t been there every Sunday because we’ve been out of the town, but otherwise we are. I haven’t heard another one on that topic. It’s almost over a year. How many sermons have you heard to help people to prepare for this, for themselves and for their loved ones, in the last year? Very many?

Not many. You may have heard one or two or three, but not too many. Well now you’re going to say, “Well, what strange things do you believe in?” Well, I believe in the Bible. I believe that Christ rose from the dead, and He said, “Because I live, ye too shall live.” I really believe it. And there are many other things in the Bible that we can believe. But here are two very good helps. And if these don’t go around to everybody that wants one, if you’ll write and tell me what you want, either Life After Death, which came out in Guideposts, and then they put all this series of articles into one booklet, or this, Our Beloved Alive, by Ethel Banks. You know, who was an Episcopalian minister’s wife and a leader in our camps and interested in CFO and edited Sharing Magazine. I’ve been giving these away for years. Very seldom do I ever buy flowers for friends when a loved one passes. But I can watch in our chimes, and when I see the name of someone who’s lost somebody in our church, or at a camp like this, I can just give these away. So I can afford, don’t you see, from the money saved from the floral wreaths, and usually there are so many of them,

to buy these by the hundred. So I don’t bother to buy them. A lot less than a hundred. So if there are you folks that want some of these and haven’t had them, take them. And if the supply runs out, see we didn’t come in our car, so I hated to put the whole big package in.

You’re right. Maybe that’s a good thing, because if you really wanted enough to bother to write, you really want it. Now some of these other areas. Well, to let go and let God have His wonderful way. I expect so many of you have heard me tell this story about that fine big boy of ours, who’s now down here in St. Paul Seminary in Kansas City. When he was seven, and Miriam was ill the night before, he came up to our upper room where I was early in the morning, and he said, “Mother, I want to say a prayer for Miriam.” Now I wish you’d all put him on your prayer list, because if he, when he gets to be a preacher, if he can pray his original prayers as this, he’ll really reach the hearts of his congregation. And this is what I heard. And fortunately I wrote it down, because I forgot so many of the other things that they said. “The Lord God Almighty can help a person who is in sickness or scare…”

“And even if he is in scarement, he can believe on the Lord God of our Jesus Christ. Amen.” He really relinquished her, didn’t he? He really put her there. And he knew… Well, singing. If when somebody calls you or comes to you, you can get them to singing some of these things that have this faith in them. Now if they’re pretty much right set in the church, maybe some of these CFO songs might seem a little frivolous to them. But you can always have them sing, “Joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of grace. Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above. Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away. Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day.” You can’t keep singing these things and acting them out without changing. Nine years ago, when daddy lay over in the hospital, and they said, “We don’t know. Send for all the children. We don’t know what the verdict is.” And I took that towel. I tried meditating. I couldn’t keep my thoughts quiet and settled down. Took that towel and cried into it. And then I began doing devotion in motion.

What was I singing? His favorite song: “I want to be happy, but I can’t be happy till I make you happy too.” These things, Norman Vincent Peale stresses this often: “Act as if.” Get it into your face. Get it into the muscles of your body. Get it into your voice, into the tone.

“Act as if.” Of course, all of these are based upon scripture, prayer, sharing with someone, song. And then I was with a very fine person who is an instructor in speech at Manchester College in Manchester, Indiana, Jo Kimmel. And when we got to sharing about our experience with Glenn Clark, she had one just like the one I had last night that I told you about. And she had been to CFOs all over the country. I believe she’s been to as many as I have. And the day that she was up at the Methodist Church up at Ankeny with Mark Weston, this group there, she told us what… You’ve heard Glenn suggest before to take and draw a tree. And on this tree, on the trunk, to write things. And on one branch write people, and on the other branch write places, and then make your little branches out with definite, specific things and people and places, your soul’s sincere desires about these things. Well, when you… Maybe after two or three months, when you go back, you’ll be surprised how many of those have come true already. And you’ll be surprised how many of them, after reconsidering, were not really soul’s sincere desires at all.

You might have fun. So when I went home I made my little tree and put it in my Bible. I keep adding to it too. Then I was reminded by my husband about the egg business. You know, remember how Glenn Clark used to talk about the eggs? And you took them, made out little eggs, and you put them in the Bible, either beside the 91st Psalm, you know, “He will cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust,” or Matthew 23:37, or Luke 13:34. So he had this. It was a very good idea. This prayer group leader had. He gave Edward an egg. So I said, “Edward, make me a whole lot of eggs.” Oh, I’ve just been having more fun hatching eggs. And that poor Bible just gets so full. And every once in a while I have to go back, and I date them now, so that I take out the oldest ones. And if I haven’t had a report from somebody about what they’d ask me to pray about, I call them up, or I drop them a note and say, “I want to hear the good news about that egg. Does that egg have to go back in the Bible, or has that been answered?”

Then Mildred. Now, one of you folks from Missouri, tell me her last name. And she was up at the Iowa Camp too. Her husband and boy told me about an article which came out in one of these Unity magazines, new, about in 1967, which was written by Charles Roth. And he called it “Tab It Good.” And then, so, T-A-B stands for…

Ha. Fully accept the belief. So I put the date at the top on my little egg. And then the first… Oh, you’re supposed, first of all, to think, “What is it?” Now definitely, be specific. What is that thing that’s bothering you? That problem, that concern, for yourself, for another. But you don’t write down that in that negative form. You write it down in this positive form. You tab it: “I totally accept the belief.” And then you make that into an affirmative sentence. Well, the other day I was talking to one of my friends in our prayer group, and so I told her about this. And so then I decided I’d tell you folks too, if it would seem to be helping. Eva, maybe it might help somebody here. That, after the date, and I… Then you tab it with your affirmative sentence. Then at the bottom I write…

Either “Thank You, God,” T-Y-G, or… The… According to the article, it said, “I am grateful,” which has the same idea. I like to thank Him ahead of time and just feel grateful before I can see any glimmer of light. Now those are the first three steps. Then the last three that I like to use. Then I look at that and I see, “Is there anything now that my partner wants me to do besides praying for this person?”

What are the thoughts that I’m to send it, like, “Bless him and wake him up”? Or maybe there’s a piece of… What was it? I took over to Malgren the other day. Yeah, had a lot of fruits on. I thought, “Edward, I can’t eat all that up. Isn’t there somebody in the neighborhood?” “Why yes, Rose… Is it down in the hospital? Mr. Malgren’s all alone.” So while I’ve been praying mostly for Rose, I should have been praying for him too. But at least I did an action prayer for him. That promise. And then you not only promise Him, but you do it.

Then you come down to this one. You read that affirmative statement, “I totally accept the belief,” three times. Three times. And the last step is to forget it. Well now, we’re human, and that anxiety may come a popping up again. Well then, just say, “Oops, God, I’m sorry,” or something like that. And then you go right back again, and instead of, think, going in that old rut of the negative concerns, you again read the statement, “I totally accept the belief,” three times. Then you again forget it. But every time it pops up, it’s a good idea to memorize this little, and make it short so you can, this little thing that you have. I went to a retreat for the women of our Methodist Church there in Des Moines, and the woman who came a long distance gave us some wonderful ideas. And she quoted these points from E. Stanley Jones, and I jotted them down, and I’d like to share them with you. Perhaps this will be the one thing you’ll take home from this retreat. But they dovetail right in with this little egg idea of Glenn’s. These thoughts by Charles Roth on tabbing it. He says, “First decide what you want to pray for.” I remember years ago in Carroll, we thought that it was time

to be finding another teaching job for my husband. And we called Joe Trarm, an old CFO, down in… He was down Corpus Christi, Texas. And over the phone he said, “Be definite. If there’s a change of work, don’t just say, ‘Oh Lord, I would like to change my work,’ but be definite.” And our little girl Meredith was only about seven years old, and she sat one hot Sunday afternoon. She didn’t know anything about this, and she must have named over 40 different kinds of work that we had no idea the little girl would ever know about. “Daddy, would you like to do this? Daddy, would you like to do that?” But be definite. Finally we got down to the stage where we were definite. Second, “Determine the worth of your objective.” Well, some of these you will discard, some you will hold on to for years maybe. “Make your prayers big.” And third, “Write it out.” Fourth, “Still the mind.” Fifth, “Talk to God about it in confidence that He is aching to answer you.” Don’t you love that word aching? God is aching to answer you. Not that… Sometimes we are so busy begging and beseeching, He can’t get His answers through to us, though He is aching to. Maybe it is the people around us

that are holding us by their fear thoughts. But whatever the reason is that God can’t get through with His glorious answer, He is aching to answer it. And in this we can trust. Now sixth, “Promise God what you will do to make that prayer come about. You are His partner.”

Seven, “Do everything that comes to your mind.” I like to put it this way, “Don’t leave a stone unturned.” Eight, “Thank Him for answering it in His own way and time.” And if Glenn ever did something good for me, he did when he gave me this: “At the right time, at the right place, in the right way, and right for all concerned.” Now sometimes I get to nudging Him a little bit. I want Him to do it a little bit faster. But if I have said “At the right time,” and really meant it, He takes me at His word, and He does it at the right time, according to His beautiful mosaic and time schedule. Nine, “Dismiss the prayer from your mind.” And you see how these, E. Stanley Jones, dovetail right in with these others so nicely.

One of the hardest things to release and turn over are the griefs, especially our self-grief, our self-pity. In this little book, Our Beloved Alive, and in Bishop Austin Pardue’s book, He Lives, we can open our hearts to realizing that the communion service is really a time when the invisible and the visible parts of the kingdom of heaven are united, and the veil between is very thin. And then we declare, “Therefore with angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven,” that includes all of yours, including my dear sister, Marie, who stepped across on February 28th, “all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious name.” There’s just one time that I’d like to be clairvoyant in church.

Say that, and thy heart is lifted, praising God with them. Or when we sing, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly host.” I’d kinda like to… I’m just curious enough, I’d kinda like to see just who those folks are that I know over there that are singing that praise with me. Or at the communion table.

It would be nice, wouldn’t it? But as my mother used to say, “It’s a good thing we can’t foresee the future.” These things are hidden from us, for most of us anyway. But we can know it. We can know it with a certain certainty that nothing can shake.

Our Beloved Alive. It’s a lovely little poem. It’s full of lovely quotations. And it ends up with this line about our beloved alive: “Given perchance a power to shield and guide us, our unseen guardians from the unknown land.”

Or these words that are supposedly from the Shield of St. Patrick. Oh, I had fun on St. Patrick’s Day in our Methodist church. What do you suppose they had on the altar? They had green flowers. Well, of course, who could help but think about St. Patrick’s? So I, in my heart, I was just thanking him. And I sang, “Christ be in me, Christ within me, Christ above me, Christ beneath me.” You know, all that one that we have in our song book. And then these words: “I bind unto myself today the power of God to hold and lead, His eye to watch, His hand to stay, His

ear to hearken to my need. The wisdom of my God to teach, His hand to guide, His shield to ward, the word of God to give me speech, His heavenly host to be my guard.” Well, isn’t that wonderful? The Lord of hosts and His legions of light to be our guard all day long, as we are seeking to grow and to be of service.

My testimony. You can read Glenn’s in A Man’s Reach, of what happened to him after his little brother Paige passed on. And you come to Des Moines, and I’ll take you down to that cemetery and show you Paige’s grave and the rest of Glenn’s family that are buried there.

And then you remember, after his mother passed on, certain other things happened to him. And then when they wrote that little caption that said, “This is written by a man whose every prayer is answered,” he said he was going to write back. And he told Louise that was too extravagant a sentence. And she said, “No, Glenn, I wouldn’t, for I have noticed that ever since your mother has been gone that this has been true.”

And so I bear my witness to you that since my mother went in 1928, doors for graduate work opened, a teaching position where I lived with my sister and her husband, leadership in the Camps Farthest Out, beginning in 1930 with Glenn, the two Glenns, and Ruth, who is no longer living.

And then on to my husband even coming to camp, proposing to me there, and the doctor saying, “No children,” but three children, and five grandchildren, and even a cure for erythema induratum, which is still on the list of incurable diseases. All of these wonderful dreams that my mother had for me coming true.

So let us look well to this day, for it is life, the very life of life. In its brief course, all the verities and realities of your existence: the bliss of growth, the glory of action, the splendor of beauty. For yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision, but today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day. Such is a salutation of the dawn. Let us pray.

Lord Jesus Christ, our Master, Savior, Elder Brother, Companion, we thank You for having sent Your Holy Spirit to make Your home in us and within us this day, to make Your home in us and within us this day and evermore. Amen.