“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