victory

When you are forgotten or neglected,

or purposely set at naught,

and you smile inwardly,

glorying in the insult or the oversight,

That is victory.

----

When your good is evil spoken of,

when your wishes are crossed,

your tastes offended,

your advice disregarded,

your opinions ridiculed,

and you take it all in loving patient silence,

That is victory.

----

When you are content

with any food,

any raiment,

any climate,

any society,

any position in life,

any solitude,

any interruption,

That is victory.

----

When you can bear with any discord,

any annoyance,

any irregularity (of which you are not the cause),

That is victory.

----

When you can stand face to face with folly,

extravagance, spiritual insensibility,

contradiction of sinners, persecution

-- and endure it all as Jesus endured --

That is victory.

----

When you never care to refer to yourself

in conversation,

nor to record your works,

nor to seek after commendation,

when you truly love to be unknown,

That is victory.

Anonymous