What Happened to the Lost Gem?

In my childhood a faithful teacher taught me this memory quote: “Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are gone forever.” Many, many times since, I have repeated that quote with deep regret because of the consciousness that I had lost forever much valuable time that I might have saved. Our lives are made up of little things. . . .

“One little grain in the sandy bars;

One little flower in the field of flowers;

One little star in a heaven of stars;

One little hour in a year of hours—

What if it makes, or what if it mars?

 

“But the bar is built of the little grains;

And the little flowers make the meadows gay;

And the little stars light the heavenly plains,

And the little hours of each little day

Give to us all that life contains.”

Those who learn in youth to estimate rightly the value of the moments, and to be intensely resolute in doing little things well, will save themselves many defeats in the warfare of life. The world worships heroes; but true heroism is not found alone in those whom the world calls great. The truest and grandest heroes are unknown to fame. Those who are the truest to duty, whatever it may be, display the greatest heroism. It is our privilege to be heroic. Many of us can never do the great things of which we dream, but we can all be faithful in doing with our might whatsoever our hands find to do.

Our lives take on the color and tone of the little things scattered through them. The little things which we say, and the little things which we do, are the warp and the woof, which when woven and interwoven in the great loom of life, come out the finished fabric—character. The little things we say and do each day should be right, painstakingly right. Then watch the little things. The care of the pennies, that they may multiply into dollars; the watchfulness of the moments, that they may combine into useful hours; the proper attention to trifles, that they may contribute to the success of the whole—this is what is required of us.