Taming Tribulation Podcast

By George Matthew Adams

The word "sincere" is derived from two words meaning "without wax."

Many years ago the old Romans used to mend broken vases with a kind of wax which would make the vases seem perfect, almost as good as though they never had been broken. So that the repaired vases used to resemble the genuine, unbroken vases.

But to designate the unbroken vases, they used to talk about them as "sincere" vases — that is, vases that had not been mended — vases "without wax."

Now, then, to be "sincere" is to be your wholehearted, genuine, "without wax" self. It's a great feeling, when you think of the meaning of this little word, to be able to say: "There's a man or woman who is 'sincere.'" He is not patched up, he is sound, he is real.

I have always liked the custom of closing a letter with "Sincerely yours," ever since I read about the meaning of the word "sincere." Somehow it gives a closing seal to a letter which seems to make that letter worth while.

Let us try ever so hard to be "sincere" folks. First, sincere with ourselves, and then sincere with the whole, wide world.

What do you say?

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By George Matthew Adams

Physiologists tell us that the eyes are the most intricately constructed organs in all the intricately constructed body — that more than forty separate parts make up the wonder of the lids alone!

Surely they are fit windows to the soul — your eyes. The boxer fights with his eyes. The artist reflects his finished masterpiece in his eyes. The orator's fervor snaps its fire from his eyes. What you tell to your experienced and knowing physician, you tell with your eyes, unknowing. Your life dances there.

I like to study eyes. To me they are the most interesting of all the features of the face. They tell so much without my asking questions. They speak so deeply without talking.

Eyes cold and calculating, eyes warm and unchanging, eyes kind and loyal, eyes honest — eyes that you could build an empire in! Eyes blue, eyes grey, eyes brown, eyes black — eyes clean and square.

Reverence your eyes; you will never have another pair. Give them rest and health. Give them light and beauty.

Give them companionship with the fit and fine and great.

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By George Matthew Adams

I am dominated by a Man. He never leaves me. He haunts me — he challenges me — he laughs to scorn the ways and means of my lower plans. He is my Great Man. He knows me. He loves me. His name is "My Better I!"

Where would I go? Where would I turn? Where would I step, how should I think? What should I do— and when? He tells me — "My Better I."

No errors too gross, no pain too deep, no burden too heavy — "My Better I" comes in to suggest — and save! Bigger than his time, broader than his age, mightier than all who oppose him — he stalks ahead, immovable as the sky, as eternal as the stars, this super-man, this guardian giant, this daylight ruler, this night-time watcher —"My Better I."

He makes me unafraid. He cleanses my soul. He spurs my finer thoughts. He leads. He guides. He will never let me fail — "My Better I."

"One soul there is that knows me as I am, Reads each pretense, sees through each futile sham; Goads me with scorning lip, with laughter dry, And dogs me night and day—'My Better I.'"

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By George Matthew Adams

Some words are fortunately formed. Fun is one of them. I like the way it looks, even. It looks full of fun. I'm glad somebody thought of spelling "fun" F-U-N. Just think how it would look spelled any other way!

It's funny, but there is more fun in "fun" than in any other word in the world. And there's more happiness in the word "fun" than in any other word in the world. Wherever you put fun, there you germinate health, achievement and power.

The biggest doers are the ones who get the most fun out of their work. And who put the most fun into their work. Liver pills, porous-plasters, XYZ remedies — mere nothings, compared to fun, as a stimulator, invigorator and spuzzorator.

Show me the man who gets fun out of work, and I will show you a person with a round face like a Jonathan apple and a glow like a full moon — also, one who has a complexion like a new peach and a digestion like a daddy rhinoceros.

Fun! Gee, get all you can!

And when you come in contact with a person who looks as though he were enjoying being miserable, poke a quart or so of your special brand of fun in his way. Then watch the sun creep up from the West!

Faith, Hope, Fun, these three — but the greatest of these is Fun.

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By George Matthew Adams

If you will but engrave upon the tablet of your heart this little word — up — and let it lead you, you will never know how to fail.

Everything grows up — beautiful fragrant flowers, trees, cities, babies, nations, the world! What you are in this big life is revealed in the way you interpret your up. It's so easy to fall down. Anyone can do that, over and over again. But it's how you get up that counts. It takes real courage to get up, and stay up.

Long ago, that wonderful old patriarch, Edward Everett Hale, said: "Look up — not down." It is the watchword of every passing night, indicative of a sun-strewn dawn, this up of yours! The vision of this onward world is — up.

No man ever fell so low but he desired to get up. It is the one great aspiration that the great God plants in our souls. But it isn't enough to get up yourself.

You must always remember that — "He climbs highest who helps another up!"

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Habit is a fixed series of acts. Do a thing once and Tracks are marked. Do a thing twice and a Route is mapped. Do a thing thrice and a Path is blazed.

Do the Right thing over and over again.

From the unconscious wink of the eye to the smooth, unnoticed movements of a million worlds, the law of Habit relentlessly rules its course. All life is but a set of Habits.

Do the Right thing over and over again.

The Pennies saved to-day make the Nickels in the bank to-morrow. The Nickels in the bank to-morrow spell the Dollars in the bank next year. The Dollars saved, crystallize into the Fortune after the years! Habit either makes or breaks — either leads you up or drags you down.

Do the Right thing over and over again.

If you are Prompt to-day you will want to be Prompt to-morrow. If you are Square once you will surely seek to be Square again. The fight for a thing Worth While right now cannot help but ease the fight for the thing Worth While later on. It is the law of Habit. And Habit creeps on from the minutest Action repeated over and over again.

Do the Right thing over and over again.

Grow Great off of Habit! There is no other way. Start what you do start — Right. Or else begin all over again. You can fondle the eggs of a Python but you can’t play with the Python. You can break the bad habit to-day, but if you wait until to-morrow the bad Habit will break you.

Do the Right thing over and over again.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Stir up your Salt. For Salt — translated into terms of moral use — is the stuff that seasons and balances one’s work — keeps it from swaying into mediocrity, commonness and nothingness — it’s Grit, Courage, Back-bone, refined to the crystal degree. That’s Salt!

Stir up your Salt.

A man without Salt in his system is about as active a thing as a watch without works. Neither one goes.

Stir up your Salt.

The blood and body of a man is saturated with Salt. When a man’s Salt runs out the man runs out. Stir up your Salt. Salt is the thing that savors Mankind.

Stir up your Salt.

You are worth your Salt if you have worth to add to your Salt. Salt has no value alone. Salt is a partner ingredient. It’s a complement to what you already have to mix with it.

Stir up your Salt.

Salt is at once the commonest and rarest thing in all the world. It’s nowhere — yet almost everywhere. But it’s yours to take and use. Salt in your work is evenness of Effort, solidness of Purpose and assuredness of Faith in Results — Hope for better things — Courage for bigger tasks.

As you work through the minutes and the hours, keep it firmly in mind that Success must needs have its share of Salt.

Stir up your Salt.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

The sweetest word in the Language of Languages is that of — Mother. There is in each letter of this word a wealth of music so Divine — there are vibrating chords of Love so Angelic — that the whole world often pays Homage to Mothers whom it honors.

Nancy Hanks — the Mother of Lincoln; Frances Willard and Jane Addams — Mothers to the Motherless; Queen Victoria — the Mother of a Nation of Mothers. You — whoever you are — your greatest Asset is your Mother. You — bankrupt, discouraged, failure-riddled, hope-wasted, heart-wrenched, self-estranged — there remains still a Day, glorious in Sunsets for you if you will but get back again, in Thought, or Heart, or Person — to your Mother.

The most wonderful Event in the History of the World was when the first Woman became — a Mother. Human Life has become a beautiful thing because the world has had its Mothers. The greatest Characters in every community are the Mothers. The greatest community is that which honors its Mothers most. The greatest men in any community are those who render the highest tribute to Motherhood.

No one ever has Surpassed or ever will Surpass the achievement of a Woman when she becomes a Mother. When did you last write to your Mother? If she has gone from you, how often do you think of her? Do you realize that all you are or ever hope to be, started back into the years when your Mother, her whole being pulsating with Pride, held you tight, and with eyes lustered and watered with Love, watched your very Breath, and kept pace, over the hours, with your faintest Heart Throbs? Think of how, all through those days she wrapped you in her Unselfishness and her Sacrifices.

The measure of your Success will be the degree of Honor you pay to your Mother and to Motherhood. How many indelicate stories would you tell if your Mother could always be present? How many mean and unjust affairs would you bring to pass if you had the eyes of your Mother looking on?

Never mind about the “Apron Strings.” There always comes a time when there are no “Apron Strings” to be tied to. And then you will long for them to come back. If ever Failure begins to press; if ever Friends begin to fade away; if ever the grand figure of your Will shall begin to bow its Power — do this — think of your Mother and live up to her ideals of you.

Kiss your Mother as you go into the fight of this day. And at its close fill her furrowed forehead with your Smiles. Ease her Cares. Write to her though business go to Smash. Go and see her often though it takes you across the Globe. Let her Living Presence keep you Courageous.

And if she has gone from you let her Memory Guide and Inspire you as once you Guided and Inspired her Faith.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

To you who early learn the value of Play applied to your life, and to you who learn just when to apply it, there is opened a road, both wide and short into the town of Peace, Power and Plenty.

Play.

Play stretches the Muscles, rests and soothes the Nerves, stirs the Blood and Clears the Brain. Play Stays the Hand of Age and transplants Youth all along through the advancing Years.

Play.

Play lifts the Burdens from people’s shoulders — Smoothes out the Wrinkles from their Faces and starts Smiles and Joy anew. Play. Play is a Strangler of Worry, an Enemy of Ill-Health and a mighty Force in the Creating of Clean, Strong Thinking.

Play is Insurance against Failure. Play. Play at outdoor Sports. Play at your Books.

Play with your “kiddies” if you have them, and with other people’s “kiddies” if you have none yourself. Play before you start your day and Play at its Close. And occasionally “skip” a day that you may also Play.

Play hard when you do Play. But never Play when you Work and never Work when you Play. Neither make Play out of Work nor Work out of Play.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Friends are essentials. Just as air and food and clothing are essentials. For is not he who has no Friends lacking and lonely and useless? Who ever heard of a useless man having Friends? Like attracts like. No one ever secured a Friend without first vibrating the Friend spirit within himself.

To get a Friend you must be a Friend. The Friend art is a Heart art — all else cheapens it. He to whom we talk and confide and trust is but another of us transplanted where courage and cheer and kindness is ever alert. We go to our Friend and he lifts us up and we feel him coming back to his own again — in ourselves.

A Friend is a mutual partner with whom we need no signed agreements. It is said of Carlyle and Tennyson that they would sit for hours together without the passing of a word and then separate. And both inspired and uplifted because of the meeting! To reach the priceless treasure veins of a Friend it is necessary to go deep.

In the presence of real Friends a sort of Divinity hovers. Back of the knowledge that you have a Friend is the secret of your ability to press on and win at your plans. The glory of Friend joy depends not in numbers. Have but one real Friend — and it is enough! The one that will not refuse to understand you, or protect you, but that through the solid and harsh hour of test, will gladly be the other half of the fight with you. He is your Friend who brings out of you the best of which you are capable.

You and your Friend plan no Parades. You are as you are. The sincerity of Service leads you on — makes each day as certain of Success as though it had already been completed and handed to you. If you are in doubt as to what you ought to be in the world, set yourself to the task of making of yourself a great Friend. Remembering that — A lifetime is all too short in which to be a Friend and get Friends.

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