Point to Ponder: Persevering Past the Critics

Ponder: To give thorough consideration, to think carefully, reflect deeply, cerebrate

It's election time and I thought today about what Roger Anderson wrote, "Some days you're the pigeon; some days you're the statue." Hundreds of candidates in America are running the race for public office, and some of them are having a "statue" day. One thing that comes with the territory of having a radio talk show/writing a column, is criticism. I don't mean disagreement. I mean accusation, name calling and the like. But it doesn't bother me, I think, because of what we went through with my husband's three races for public office (once for State Assembly and twice for U.S. Congress). You learn quickly that there are those who will lie about you and twist your positions to make them something they're not, or be just plan mean. And you learn to persevere no matter what. But isn't that the challenge each of us faces no matter what "line of work" we are in? Both of us are grateful for the fire of those days because they made us stronger. I really do believe that God will work all things for good in our lives if we let Him. The following quote by President Theordore Roosevelt is one of my favorites:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he falls, at least falls while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

© Sharon Hughes 2004


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