"If we are going to do well in life one of the first lessons we must learn is self discipline. This is no easy task. We have to watch over and manage ourselves almost as if we were somebody else", that from columnist John R. Gunn.
If we are to manage life wisely, we not only must study to know ourselves, but we must learn to rightly relate ourselves to the people around us. And then we must go on to study our environment and the needs of our time so that we may sanely plan our relationships and endeavors.
As life proceeds we should take account of all that happens to us and study how to turn every experience into capital for larger life and larger usefulness.
All this may sound very simple, but it isn't. The management of life calls for more wisdom than we possess in ourselves. It is a task that requires divine guidance and help. The whole history of man, apart from his relation to God, is the history of man's attempt to understand himself and govern himself. That history is a history of failure. Only where man has governed himself by God's laws has man's history been successful.
There is only one hope for man and that is that he be governed by one, who knowing man perfectly, is able to direct his steps. That one is God.
O Lord, teach us that we may learn to do well. Help us that we may acquire wisdom and skill for the management of our lives.