A Letter I Wrote to a Friend with Quotes from MISTER ROGERS

Quotes from Life’s Journey’s according to Mister Rogers

You’ll be the one to decide your next steps . . . and the next steps won’t all be easy – not by any means – but if they’re honest, they’ll be worth the try. Any real work has it’s tough times . . .

May you seek out your own continuing life education and, over time, over your whole lifetime, may you grow in faith and reverence, uprightness in morals, knowledge of language and arts, forgiveness, honesty, commitment, maturity, and your capacity to love.

Sometimes it takes years and years of experimentation to realize who we can be . . . what we can make of what has come to us. No one would have ever predicted that Mahatma Gandhi would become the person to dramatically change the life of people in India. He even went to England when he was young to explore whether it might be better to be an Englishman. But look how he put it all together later on.

Maybe it’s happened to you already when you can actually integrate what you’ve learned with your personality – when you can actually use your education to be who you want to be, to choose out of the mixed bag of explorations what you want to call yourself. That’s when your education adds an extra measure of excitement!

Dear ---,

            I know exactly how you’re feeling. I just happened to be reading this Mister Rogers book over the weekend, and these quotes made me think of you. Remember that though we all may give you advice and tell you what decision we think you should make, only you have to live every day with the full extent of the consequences of your decisions – not those who gave you the advice. You have to do the work, not us, so the decision you make should be your honest choice.

            I’ll compare life to a basketball game for you. Do you have to be 100% certain your going to make a shot before you take it? You might be a little off, someone might even block your shot, but if you never take shots for fear of missing, you’ll never score. If you miss the shot, do walk off the court and say the game is over? Or do you hustle up for the rebound? If you don’t get the rebound do you walk off the court? Or do you get back on defense? Bottom line, whether you make the shot or not, you’re going to have to hustle the entire game if you want to win. Missing a few shots in the first quarter, or being down at the half, doesn’t mean you won’t come out on top at the end of the game. So decide now - pull up for the jumper, make a pass and get the assist, drive through the middle for the lay up . . . but you have to decide because the game is in play. You may even need a timeout to get your strategy together. But you can’t win unless you play!

Your sis in Christ,

Sarah L. Webb