Set a High Standard
171
exactness, with diligence; overcome the inclination to seek an easy
task.
Whole-hearted Service
The same spirit and principles that one brings into the daily labor
will be brought into the whole life. Those who desire a fixed amount
to do and a fixed salary, and who wish to prove an exact fit without
the trouble of adaptation or training, are not the ones whom God
calls to work in His cause. Those who study how to give as little as
possible of their physical, mental, and moral power are not the workers
upon whom He can pour out abundant blessings. Their example is
contagious. Self-interest is the ruling motive. Those who need to
be watched, and who work only as every duty is specified to them,
are not the ones who will be pronounced good and faithful. Workers
are needed who manifest energy, integrity, diligence, those who are
willing to do anything that needs to be done.
Many become inefficient by evading responsibilities for fear of
failure. Thus they fail of gaining that education which results from ex-
perience, and which reading and study and all the advantages otherwise
gained cannot give them.
[194]
Man can shape circumstances, but circumstances should not be
allowed to shape the man. We should seize upon circumstances as
instruments by which to work. We are to master them, but should not
permit them to master us.
Men of power are those who have been opposed, baffled, and
thwarted. By calling their energies into action, the obstacles they meet
prove to them positive blessings. They gain self-reliance. Conflict and
perplexity call for the exercise of trust in God, and for that firmness
which develops power.—
The Ministry of Healing, 498-500
.
Making the Most of Life
While a good education is a great benefit if combined with con-
secration in its possessor, still those who do not have the privilege of
gaining high literary attainments need not think they cannot advance
in intellectual and spiritual life. If they will make the most of the
knowledge they have, if they will seek to gather something to their