In Memory of My Poetic Mother

Picture of my Mom just a few years before passing away.

My mother passed away when I was only seven weeks old. A few years back my father gave me a copy of her journal. In this personal record was this poem she had written titled "BEST".  This simple poem explains how a life full of "things" is often never confused with "BAD" and "WORST", but by GOOD things. This happens when we are distracted from doing the BEST things by being caught up in GOOD things.

I enjoy reading this and other journal entries from my mother. You could tell she is pure in heart and full of love for God. 

"BEST" 

While I invest my time in Good 

Best waits 'round along with Should. 

Should grows larger with neglect 

Still BEST maintains status select. 

Bad and Worst I never touch 

For I am much too careful—much 

To let those evil imps rob me 

Of blessings in eternity. 

When Judgement calls for an account 

And I the witness chair do mount 

At my defense Good will arise 

Yet BEST and SHOULD will tell no lies. 

The sentence? 

Fair. 

Can only be 

A Good reward assigned to me. 

Yet glories I will never know 

Will be assigned and justly go 

To an investor in the BEST 

who would not be content with less. 

That Satan! Master of Deceit! 

Engineered my own defeat 

Why BAD and WORST he needn't use 

When GOOD the issues can confuse. 

By Linda Lee Stratford Anderson 

There is a story of a friend who took his family on multiple summer vacation getaways. At the end of the summer he asked his teenage son which of all the summer vacations he enjoyed most. The father learned from the reply, and was taken back to hear is son say “The thing I liked best this summer was the night you and I laid on the lawn and looked at the stars and talked.” It wasn't the fancy resorts or expensive museums, but the one-on-one time with his Dad. Perhaps an example of the GOOD contrasted against the BEST. The key is that we never let the GOOD impede us from what is BEST.