Brighten the Corner

Brighten the Corner

Phil4:11

Hello All ~

I’ve always loved to pretend. As a little girl, my friend Nancy and I used to dress up in long flowing dresses, put on a ladies trio record (Yes, I said a record. I know. I’m old!) and imagine we were performing on a huge stage. One of our favorite songs we’d “sing” went like this:

Do not wait until some deed of greatness you may do,

Do not wait to shed your light afar;

To the many duties ever near you now be true,

Brighten the corner where you are.

We would sing that catchy tune at the top of our lungs, complete with a hairbrush microphone and an ironing board for a piano!

I recently discovered the writer of that song to be a lady on the precipice of a promising career as a public speaker. Her name was Ina Mae Duley Ogdon from Toledo, Ohio. Just as the speaking requests were filling Ina’s mailbox, her father’s health took a turn for the worse. She took her invalid father into her home and cared for him, a responsibility she accepted cheerfully. But because of the new demands on her time, she had no energy left to pursue her speaking career. While people pondered her dilemma and wondered what she would do, Ina saw no predicament at all. From her perspective, turning down the speaking invitations was the simple solution, much to the dismay of her eager listeners.

People like Mrs. Ogdon inspire me. Somewhere she learned that greatness and joy does not come from a large audience or man’s applause. It comes from faithfully fulfilling the post in which God has chosen for you, no matter how obscure and thankless. I long to be a person who can say as Paul does in Philippians 4:11, “I have learned in whatsoever state I am to be content.”

Her life was not her own. She had obviously embraced the position God had given her. I’m sure today in Heaven, she has no regrets for her obedience! Maybe today you and I could concentrate on looking around us to brighten whatever corner we have been assigned.

…so do not sit and idly wish for wider new dimensions

Where you can put in practice your many good intentions

But at the spot God placed you, begin at once to do

Little things to brighten up the lives surrounding you!

Helen Steiner Rice

Hope & Glory! to You ~ Love

Rebecca