As I mentioned last week, for the month of October, we are looking at some of the more well-known prayers that are part of our recent and no-so-recent Christian history. The prayer we are starting with today was originally know as the Paradoxical Commandment by Dr. Kent M. Keith, but there is a more well-known version that is attributed to Mother Teresa—it is said it was found written on the wall of her home for children in Calcutta, so I think it’s particularly well-suited for us to examine!

“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

Although I don’t know if this technically a prayer, I do fully believe that in order to live by this mantra, we would have to incorporate it in to our prayer life, asking God to help us be able to perform each of these acts. The reason that I love this saying so much is that it completely tears away the worries we create by focusing on what others think about us. We so often live our lives in a way where we let others control us. We do things (and don’t do other things) based solely on other people’s opinions. We also often fall in to the trap of believing that we are owed recognition for our good deeds—or that we are owed anything at all.

By living out this prayer, we are letting go of all of those notions about what others owe us, or what we owe others, and we are attempting to live a life focused on pleasing God alone. However, if we succeed here, we will obviously live in a way that is loving to others, regardless of how we are loved back. Living this prayer ensures that we follow God and that we are true to ourselves, which honestly can have no other by-product except for living a life of service to others. When approached in this manner, however, that service is accompanied by freedom, rather than being chained to the opinions of our fellow man/woman.