The Perseverance Path
All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance: it is by this that the quarry becomes a pyramid, and that distant countries are united with canals.
If a man was to compare the effect of a single stroke of the pickaxe, or of one impression of the spade, with the general design and last result, he would be overwhelmed by the sense of their disproportion; yet those petty operations, incessantly continued, in time surmount the greatest difficulties, and mountains are levelled, and oceans bounded, by the slender force of human beings.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counsellor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
Though today may not fulfil
All your hopes, have patience still;
For perchance tomorrow’s sun
Sees your happier days begun.
—Unknown
God is teaching you by His great picture book of nature to wait, to sow your seed, and wait for the slow ripening of the harvest under the patient heavens. He does not give you perfect and full-formed things at once. He sows the seeds of things that will gradually grow and ripen and bear fruit. He gives buds first, and then full unfolded blossoms, and then perfect fruit.
—Hugh Macmillan (c.1850), adapted
Consider the farmer who waits patiently for the coming of rain in the fall and spring, looking forward to the precious fruit of the earth.
—James 5:7 CEB
Lord, when you call us to live and work for you,
give us the wisdom to remember
that it is not the beginning
but the faithful continuing of the task
that is most important in your eyes,
until we have completed it to the best of our ability;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who laid down his life for us
in order to finish your work.
—Author unknown