1 My daily grant of breath

I wrote the following poem, entitled "My Daily Grant of Breath," in the Spring of 2003, at a point when I learned that the diffusion capacity of my lungs was something less than 50 percent and appeared to be headed even further downward. It was inspired by a passage in the Book of Mormon where king Benjamin was delivering his final address to his people.

If ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments (Mosiah 2:21–22).

O Lord, my Father and my God,

Who lends me breath

And thus preserves my life from day to day,

That I may live and move and have my way

Upon this earth,

By this one truth I’m humbly awed:

That all that Thou requirest of me

Is this one thing:

That I employ that daily grant of breath

In keeping Thy commandments until death

Shall one day bring

Me safely, surely home to Thee.

For first Thou hast created me,

Granted me life,

Wherein already I am indebted,

In Thy perfect image thus created

With breath of life

Freely given that I may serve Thee.

For wisdom counsels: If I serve

My fellow being,

I’m only in the service of my God

And am again indebted to my God,

Blessed for being

Obedient to Thy call to serve.

And through the mercies of Thy Son,

Israel’s Holy One,

Who granted me both life and daily breath,

My aspiration in weakness or in strength

Is to be one,

Submissive in all, as a son.