mike lee

In life it's good to have high ideals, but it's also wise to know when present reality is not lining up with those ideals.

The jaded person throws out his ideals when reality doesn't match his ideals. The wise man adapts, without giving up what is right.

In the long run, if we give up our ideals, we give up hope for a better world, if not for this generation, maybe for the next.

Once there was a very old man who began planting apple trees in an open field. People came to see what he was doing and wondered why he expended so much time and effort to plant trees that would probably not bear abundant fruit until long after he was dead.

When someone asked why he did it, he said it was for future generations to enjoy.

Now some may say the old man was foolish, while others may say that he was unselfish, idealistic and full of hope and joy.

What kind of people do we want to be?

Consider the following passage:

The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the

Corinthians

13

Love

1  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

4  ¶ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

5  doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

6  rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

7  beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

8  ¶ Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

9  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

10  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

12  For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

13  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.