Worth While

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

It is easy enough to be pleasant,
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while is one who will smile,
When everything does dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through tears.

It is easy enough to be prudent,
When nothing tempts you to stray,
When without or within no voice of sin
Is luring your soul away;
But it’s only a negative virtue
Until it is tried by fire,
And the life that is worth the honor on earth
Is the one that resists desire.

By the cynic, the sad, the fallen, 
Who had no strength for the strife,
The world’s highway is cumbered today;
They make up the sum of life.
But the virtue that conquers passion,
And the sorrow that hides a smile,
It is these that are worth the homage on earth
For we find them but once in a while.

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1 Peter 2:12
Live such good lives among the pagans that, 
though they accuse you of doing wrong, 
they may see your good deeds 
and glorify God on the day He visits us.


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