Purpose

​Purpose
We have a book in what I refer to as “the littlest room in the house.”  It is there to read if I feel inclined.  I remember someone saying they always read there otherwise it was a waste of time.  I don’t know about it being a waste of time, but I do know it was one of the places I could do two things at once if I read.
Recently I was reading the book and I came across something that really stood out to me.  It was a prayer by General Douglas MacArthur for his son. I would like to write it out changing some words to a more modern word.  I will at times make comment.
”Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.”
I honestly felt the Australian cricket team was not humble in victory.  I wanted them to win but was embarrassed when they did.
“Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be; a son who will know you and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.”
I do not hold to knowing myself as an end in itself, but knowing myself well enough to know what I submit to my maker.
“Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort. But under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge.  Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.”
I find this undesirable but necessary.  I plan for ease but invariable trouble strikes.  And being totally up-front with myself I do find excessive ease more of a problem then problems.   Often I am at my most vulnerable when things are easiest.
“Build me a son whose heart will be clean, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.”
Winning to me is not about putting another under the thumb but when they want it lifting them.  I reckon I talk too much at table tennis.  When I have a win (and it has happened) I tend to share with the other the points I was working on in the hope they sure up their defences in that area.
“And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humour, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself to seriously.  Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.”
I do love the phrase “the simplicity of greatness.”  I find maintaining a sense of humour important.  I don’t feel I need to go around like I have swallowed a lemon as life is serious enough.  If I can help myself and another to find humour in a situation when it is appropriate I have succeeded.
Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, “I have not lived in vain.”
I do know I want a sense of purpose.  To know my life is more than just one lived without lasting meaning or consequence.  To live life on purpose.