p. 22 | HAVE A PLAN IN LIFE by Joseph W. Pickett

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 13, 1881

HAVE A PLAN IN LIFE.

By Joseph W. Pickett

I SOMETIMES ask boys and girls, What are you going to do when you grow up? I find they have plans. Some expect to be teachers; some, good farmers and house-keepers; some, mechanics and merchants; some, ministers, physicians, or lawyers. I saw a boy the other day who said he was going to be a stage-driver. I think it is a good thing to have plans. A boy or girl that has no plan will not do much in the world. I am glad to see you plan to have good lessons, to be good in school, to be always kind, never to tell a lie or swear, to be good to everybody, to study and read at home, and never miss a day at Sabbath-school. Some children and some men never have plans; they float about idly all their lives, like a vessel on the ocean that is not going anywhere.

I have often thought what one plan did for me. I forget how it happened; but I made a plan, when a boy, never to sit down at home without a book or paper in my hand. I found a History of the United States, which I read through, and then a History of Greece and of Rome. It was pretty dry sometimes; and I worked so hard on the dear old farm that I could hardly hold my head up. But my plan helped me through; and I learned about this country and all the countries in the world, which is a great help to me now. How well I remember the table in the loved home, that was brought out every night with the light on it, around which we children used to read and study! Plan to read those books which will do you the most good. I suppose some of you are making plans to go to school and to college some time. I like that. I never knew how to enjoy my home fully till I came home in vacation; and I never liked work so well as after studying hard at school.

Now I want you to make one more plan that will help you more than all the rest. I want you to plan to be Christians. I made this plan when a boy, and I am happy that I have lived to carry it out.—Joseph W. Pickett.