My Vow

I always carry with me in a pocket or bag, a little black moleskin notebook.  Throughout the day, as I have thoughts, or bits of inspiration, usually things that are only significant to me, I write in my little black book.

It was a darker day on my mission, when I was especially frustrated, with the work, the people, other missionaries, myself.  A day when I was struggling to decide what I would make of myself, and who it was that I wanted to be.  It seemed so easy to just coast through my mission, through my life.  It was a day I witnessed people participate in some of the most demeaning actions towards their fellow brethre, belittling them, devaluing their God given worth.  I remember as I sat on the side of a road that day I scribbled out some thoughts about who it is that I wanted to be.  These thoughts turned into this poem, and then this poem eventually became the foundation of the creed that I have decided will dictate my life.

I vow today to fight for truth,

for love, for hope, for faith, and youth

To always stand on the side of good

to learn to love, that which man should

To always smile when the sun is gone,

to apply my brain, my heart, my brawn

To lift all those who look for light

to sit with those in their darkest night

To always be going in the way I should

To ever be pondering "have I done all I could?"

To wear out my love, for the life of the soul

to put in the time and the effort and toll

To never tear down but to always make stronger

my brother in need who cannot stand much longer

To not only speak, but to say and to live

to not keep for myself, what I can and should give

To hesitate never when faced with a choice

to sacrifice all when I hear needy voice

I Vow today to take a stand,

against burying virtue in the dust and sand

I vow not to idle when I see goodness mocked

when purities trampled and kindness is knocked

When that which is vulgar is disguised as the clean

When masses accept the dirty, filthy, obscene.

When the perceptions of most, find false right in the wrong

when evil creeps into speech action and song

When the wholesome's considered cheap tawdry and naught,

when men flee to their comforts, when there are wars to be fought

When few, if any,will take a stand,

I Will not flinch!  But I'll be a good man!

Who will not give into the popular view

but will cherish and give, all I have to the true

And if I exaust my whole life, without rest

just trying and doing and seeking what's best

I may never change, the hearts of the more

but perhaps I could be, as a wave on the shore.

that consistently comes to beat upon land,

and with each pursuit chips away at the sand

and washes away just a bit at a time

all the rubbish, and driftwood, the waste and the slime

This is my vow to be steady and sure

to be diligent, righteous and not only endure

but to thrive and to battle and fight for the truth

For love, and for faith, and for, hope, and for youth.