Give Him Grace

A Selection from Ruth Bell Graham’s Written Collections

September 1, 2008

by Ruth Bell Graham

May he face life’s problems
as he faced
his broken bike
when he was small,
working till he’d traced
each problem to its source,
and fixed it; all
was a challenge he’d accept
with curiosity and then
work night and day.
What’s losing sleep when
interest is involved?
Hobby or problem
he never turned it loose
till it was solved.
Now
he’s a man.
And man-sized problems
stare him in the face.
Interested or not,
Lord,
give him grace.
As this is a problem tough,
and not a toy,
so, too, he is a man now,
Lord
—not a boy.
(Yet in the boy he once was I could see
delightful glimpses of the man that he would be.)