It Never Hurts To Never Give Up

I have some of my father’s books and was looking through one of them when I found the following, type written on a yellowed piece of paper.  He must have had this for a long time.  It encouraged me greatly, must have encouraged my father, and perhaps it will be just that for you too.  The following is what I found:

At age 22  he failed in business. At age 23 he was defeated in legislature.  At age 24 he again failed in business.  At age 25 he was elected to the legislature.  At age 26 his fiance died, leaving him heart-broken.  At age 27 he suffered a nervous breakdown.  At age 29 he was defeated for speaker of the house.  At age 31 he was defeated for elector.  At age 34 he was defeated for congress.  At age 37 he was elected to congress.  At age 39 he was defeated for congress.  At age 46 he was defeated for the senate.  At age 47 he was defeated for vice president.  At age 49 he was defeated for the senate.  At age 51 he was elected president of the united states.

Who was this man who refused to quit?  Abraham Lincoln.

John Bunyan was unjustly put in prison.  Behind bars he wrote Pilgrim’s Progress.

Sir Walter Scott faced a half-million dollars debt for which he was not legally responsible but paid it off when he wrote his best classics in his old age.

Beethoven was almost totally deaf and in deep sorrow when he composed his greatest symphonies.  Handel and Mozart, both approaching death, gave us their most memorable works.

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My father liked to fill his mind with positive thoughts.  That is one of the many things I admired about him.  It’s also something that The Apostle Paul encouraged.  He wrote to the church in Philippians 4:8: “…Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right.  Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

Filling our minds with positive thoughts might just keep us that way.