Determination

“Desire realized is sweet to the soul...” Prov 13:19

Some people called her “Crazy Maisie” and after hearing her story you might understand why.

Maisie collected ninety tons of aluminum cans over a thirty-year span so her hometown of Eskridge, Kansas could have a city pool. She rummaged though trash bins and went up and down roads looking for cans. She then hauled them thirty-five miles to the recycling center in Topeka.

After thirty years, she had amassed $100,000. The government rewarded her determination with a $73,000 grant and the pool became a reality on July 14, 2001. At eighty-one years of age, Maisie made the first splash in her town of six hundred people. In 2003, she received the Jefferson Award and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award for extraordinary public service.

When asked about her efforts, Maisie simply said, “Sure, it was a lot of work, but what do you accomplish if you don’t work?”

At the age of 84, Maisie was still collecting cans because the town needed to pay for the upkeep of the pool and for life guards.

How much more should we be determined to do they things of God? May God give each of us the desires of our heart and may our desires be to please Him with our lives!