— A blacksmith makes five dollars worth of iron into horseshoes and gets ten dollars for them.
— A cutler makes the same iron into knives and gets two hundred dollars.
— A machinist makes the same iron into sixty-eight hundred dollars’ worth of needles.
— A watchmaker makes it into two hundred thousand dollar’s worth of mainsprings; or into hair-springs and gets two million dollars, sixty times the value of the same weight of gold!
So it is with life and the opportunity given each of us when we are born. One person takes her time and talents and combines them to advance her earthly interests alone. Another takes the same opportunity, and through wisdom and the counsel of God’s Word, shapes and molds his life for time and eternity.
Wise people refine their character so that they are worth something to the world and useful to God. The world was made better and richer for their having lived.
It is up to you whether you will develop your life into a noble accomplishment, your character into a thing of beauty, and your talents into a source of glory to God. An aimless, drifting, purposeless life does not bespeak even the intelligent forethought of the ant, which harvests in the summer against the ravages of winter (Prov. 6:6). We may botch our lives with sin and uselessness until late in life, and then come to our senses. We might even patch up the broken pieces, but it is a sorry apology to leave in payment for a life of magnificent possibilities. “Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” (Deut. 32:29). Life is what you make it – so don’t waste it!
Gayle Oler
Lake City, FL