The road of patience

Today's crumb is a poem written by Peter J. Henniker-Heaton, my Sunday School teacher when I was a high school senior. He was an editor at The Christian Science Monitor when it was an international daily newspaper. In his spare time, he wrote poems. This one is called "The Road of Patience."

Not through the valleys lies the road of patience,

But over lofty peaks of right desire,

On every hand the wonders of God's presence

And His serene and sun-bright atmosphere.

Not through the slough of tedium and depression

The road of patience runs, but on the hills

Of firm resolve and steadfast recognition

That man expresses God and never fails.

Sometimes it seems a highway thronged and busy,

Sometimes a sheep path where we walk alone;

But Love is there to make rough places easy

And, though we stumble, hold and help us on.

No human effort builds the road of patience.

God laid it well before the world began,

Himself the God of love, the God of patience,

For man, his perfect son, to walk upon.