I Will Prove True to My Maker

1. Life will bring me many lessons;
    How I take them is the key–
Toil and trouble–are they blessings,
    Or a curse to hinder me?

Refrain
I will prove true to my Maker, ev’ry time, ev’ry place.
    Undivided, I’ll serve Him, being strong by His grace.
I’ll meet my trials with courage, do each duty with care,
    For my Saviour is with me ev’rywhere.

2. Life’s a schoolroom, I’m a student,
    Learning, learning, ev’ry day.
Projects, lessons, tests, assignments;
    Teach me in the narrow way.
Refrain

3. Greater height means greater hardship,
    Greater toil means greater trust.
I will take my schools with gladness
    God knows all, and He is just.
Refrain

4. Grant me courage, grant me wisdom,
    That I may my lessons learn.
For my school, I will be thankful;
    Be it rough and hard and stern.
Refrain

– (Refrain based on Joseph’s resolve, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 214)

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Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 213-214:
Meanwhile, Joseph with his captors was on the way to Egypt. As the caravan journeyed southward toward the borders of Canaan, the boy could discern in the distance the hills among which lay his father’s tents. Bitterly he wept at thought of that loving father in his loneliness and affliction. Again the scene at Dothan came up before him. He saw his angry brothers and felt their fierce glances bent upon him. The stinging, insulting words that had met his agonized entreaties were ringing in his ears. With a trembling heart he looked forward to the future. What a change in situation–from the tenderly cherished son to the despised and helpless slave! Alone and friendless, what would be his lot in the strange land to which he was going? For a time Joseph gave himself up to uncontrolled grief and terror.

But, in the providence of God, even this experience was to be a blessing to him. He had learned in a few hours that which years might not otherwise have taught him. His father, strong and tender as his love had been, had done him wrong by his partiality and indulgence. This unwise preference had angered his brothers and provoked them to the cruel deed that had separated him from his home. Its effects were manifest also in his own character. Faults had been encouraged that were now to be corrected. He was becoming self-sufficient and exacting. Accustomed to the tenderness of his father’s care, he felt that he was unprepared to cope with the difficulties before him, in the bitter, uncared-for life of a stranger and a slave.

Then his thoughts turned to his father’s God. In his childhood he had been taught to love and fear Him. Often in his father’s tent he had listened to the story of the vision that Jacob saw as he fled from his home an exile and a fugitive. He had been told of the Lord’s promises to Jacob, and how they had been fulfilled–how, in the hour of need, the angels of God had come to instruct, comfort, and protect him. And he had learned of the love of God in providing for men a Redeemer. Now all these precious lessons came vividly before him. Joseph believed that the God of his fathers would be his God. He then and there gave himself fully to the Lord, and he prayed that the Keeper of Israel would be with him in the land of his exile.

His soul thrilled with the high resolve to prove himself true to God–under all circumstances to act as became a subject of the King of heaven. He would serve the Lord with undivided heart; he would meet the trials of his lot with fortitude and perform every duty with fidelity. One day’s experience had been the turning point in Joseph’s life. Its terrible calamity had transformed him from a petted child to a man, thoughtful, courageous, and self-possessed.

Tags: Care, Courage, Gladness, Grace, Hardship, Lessons, Resolve, School, Strength, Toil, Wisdom