Welcome to our Sunday Talks, an exclusive series for the patrons of the inspirational living podcast.

Today's talk was edited and adapted from How to Be Happy by Maria Frank, published in 1893.

Never wait for a chance to do good, never seek for some great thing, but improve each small opportunity as it comes to you, and someday you will be surprised to find that the truly great occasion of your life would have been overlooked had you not been keeping track

of the small things.

Or to put it another way, the person who overlooks a small opportunity will have lost their

eyesight when a great one comes.

Be also content with the things you have.

Some people have better things.

Others have worse.

You perhaps cannot have the better.

You have no desire for the worse.

Then be content with what you have.

You may have had better things in the past. You may have worse things

in the future. Be thankful for the present and be content. If your lot is a hard one, you may improve it,

but not by murmuring, fretting, or showing discontent.

Just learn the lesson of contentment.

Do your work, and wait on God for brighter days, for richer fruits, for pure joys.

Do not draw into your shell, so much is to be gained by contact with the outside world.

The influence of the social current has the same effect upon human nature as produced by the constant friction of the sea upon the pebbles on the beach.

Rough corners are polished, and the sharper angles are smoothed down into symmetrical proportions.

However, it is not enough to be simply in the swim.

If you wish to be happy, cultivate that society which elevates and ennobles.

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