THE WALKING STICK

As you open the door that will lead to the rest of your life, I ask that you remember one thing:

Remember that deep within your heart, in that part of you that God created when your faith was born -- is a walking stick that He put there. It has been tried and will be yet tried by storms that make you feel like a canary in a tornado -- a swirling vortex sucking the very life out of you.

Your walking stick has been twisted and broken and has grown back again and again and again. Through it all, it has survived. And as long as it survives, so will you. Your heart still beats. The very thing that breaks you, strengthens you. For however long you have to breathe another breath, you possess in your innermost being -- the immeasurable rectitude of the rod of God. -- PDM