Streams in the Desert - Jul 30

If anyone gives even a cup of cold water . . . , he will certainly not lose his reward. (Matthew 10: 42)

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What shall I do? I expect to pass through this world but once. Therefore any good work, kindness, or service I can render to any person or animal, let me do it now. Let me not neglect or delay to do it, for I will not pass this way again.
~an old Quaker saying

It isn’t the thing you do, dear,
It’s the thing you leave undone,
That gives you the bitter heartache
At the setting of the sun;
The tender word unspoken,
The letter you did not write,
The flower you might have sent, dear,
Are your haunting ghosts at night.
The stone you might have lifted
Out of your brother’s way,
The bit of heartfelt counsel
You were hurried too much to say;
The loving touch of the hand, dear,
The gentle and winsome tone,
That you had no time or thought for,
With troubles enough of your own.
These little acts of kindness,
So easily out of mind,
These chances to be angels,
Which even mortals find—
They come in nights of silence,
To take away the grief,
When hope is faint and feeble,
And a drought has stopped belief.
For life is all too short, dear.
And sorrow is all too great,
To allow our slow compassion
That tarries until too late.
And it’s not the thing you do, dear,
It’s the thing you leave undone,
That gives you the bitter heartache,
At the setting of the sun.
~Adelaide Proctor

Give what you have, for you never know—to someone else it may be better than you can even dare to think.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Reference

Cowman, L. B. E.; Reimann, Jim. Streams in the Desert: 366 Daily Devotional Readings (pp. 292-293). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

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