“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to
goodness, knowledge” – 2 Peter 1:5
In 1964, Margaret Powers was engaged to be married. After an inspirational walk
along the beach with her fiancé, she wrote a poem called “Footprints.” She
rewrote it on a piece of paper, placed it in a sealed, postmarked and mailed it
to herself, a procedure sometimes used to establish copyright.
In 1980, while traveling from Toronto to Vancouver, her boxes of poems were
stolen from her moving truck. But then about a year or so later, she was in a
bookstore in Washington State and saw "Footprints" etched on a plaque with the
credit being “Author Unknown.”
She began to see the poem on numerous greeting cards and in 1987, lawyer friends
tried to persuade her to take her case to court when others tried to take credit
for the poem. But she changed her mind saying: "A lawsuit would have lasted a
lifetime. A court case could have taken the poem out of circulation. I would be
the winner monetarily, but would I be a real winner?"
In 1988, Hallmark was persuaded she was the author and began paying Margaret an
annual fee, although other publishing companies continued to use "Footprints,"
asserting the author is unknown. Margaret uses the royalties from her poem to
fund her ministry in the poorest areas of Mexico. She fully believes the
biblical warnings that rich people will be expected to account for use of their
money. In retrospect, she considers herself blessed: "After all, when I'm dead
and gone, will it really matter who wrote 'Footprints'?"
Do you desire to do good in all that you do? Today in prayer, thank Christ that
He is our example for doing good and seek His goodness in all that you do.
“All that is good, all that is true, all that is beautiful, all that is
beneficent, be it great or small, be it perfect or fragmentary, natural as well
as supernatural, moral as well as material, comes from God.” – John Henry Newman
God’s Word: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” – Romans
12:21
By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2006, Devotional E-Mail DEVOTIONS LETTERS OF PETER
pkennedy6@yahoo.com
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