In the Diary of Brooks Adams is an entry about a special day when he was eight years old. He wrote, “Went fishing with my father; the most glorious day of my life,” and through the next 40 years there were constant references to that day and the influence it had on his life. Brooks’ father was Charles Francis Adams, Abraham Lincoln’s ambassador to Great Britain. He also had a note in his diary about the same day. It simply said, “Went fishing with my son: a day wasted.”What the father counted as a wasted day, the son thought was one of the greatest days of his childhood. It is amazing to me how one singular event can be seen so differently.
It is a brilliant reminder that many times our “unimportant conversations” or our “inadvertent actions” can have a seismic influence on someone’s life. Doing the right thing is often a decision of character, but the impact can change the course of a country or the outlook of a child. Remember, 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”