Member-only story
How a Poster from Childhood Shaped My Life for the Better
I shall pass this way but once
Kneeling backwards in my great-aunt’s rocking chair I slowly read the words to an old quote hanging on her kitchen wall. I was six years old, and some of the words were difficult. But Aunty Pat and Uncle Bill patiently helped me to sound out each word and explained their meaning in smaller words I could understand.
They told me how the man who wrote those words had died a long time ago, but he’d been a missionary, like the man who was the vicar at the church I went to every Sunday. He loved God and wanted to be a good person, helping others and even animals, all his life. I memorized that poster and the ideology behind it.
I often wondered about this special man. His words remained with me as I sought to do my best to live up to the meaning. I’d often remember them when I was about to be unkind or make a bad decision. Such a simple thing, a quote from long ago hanging in a kitchen and read by a little girl a hundred years later. But it shaped many of my life choices.
It wasn’t until I was older and returning to my Christian roots that it became clear the words were closely linked to scripture and what I’d come to know as the Fruit Of The Holy Spirit.
