Sunday thoughts...

We had Stake Conference this weekend and I felt blessed to be taught by our wonderful stake leaders. One thing that really touched me was how important it is to teach our youth gospel principles and have the spirit of discernment with our children. We need to be constantly watching, listening, setting an example for them and praying for them so that we may be able to discern when they are in trouble and need counsel or guidance to get back on the right path. It was a really powerful talk and he quoted a beautiful poem that I believe I have heard President Monson quote before. I wanted to share it.

The Bridge Builder Poem

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim, near,
“You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you a bridge at the eventide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head:
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.”

Author: Will Allen Dromgoole