Cliff's Memorandum

My family went through some of Grandpa's things this year. My brother framed this Memorandum for me for Christmas, and it’s one of my favorite gifts of any kind ever. It’s Grandpa’s declaration to live for the Lord, signed in 1940, when he had just turned 23. I was that age when I moved to New York City, so this is special on many levels. Here’s the text:

Memorandum

Resolved: 1-29-40

To:

FIRST:

1. To give God first place in my life. 2. To put from my life every doubtful act, thought and thing. 3. To participate more whole-heartedly and to a greater degree in Sunday school, church and other religious work. 4. To continue tithing my gross income so that God’s work may be furthered.

SECOND: 1. To do each day’s work to the best of my ability. 2. To expand my leisure time in the pursuit of courses, good reading, etc., so that I may better my mind and increase my knowledge, that I may be preparing myself for something better in this life—that I might take advantage of any greater opportunities offered me by God as a part of His plan for me.

TO THE END: That I might live a life pleasing unto the Lord. That I might reap the harvest of a Christian life. That in this life, I might have the satisfying, useful and prosperous results of such living.

Signed: CR Miller

He went on to live this out, serving as a minister, a missionary, a Christian light at a secular university as a professor of history, a godly father and grandfather: www.cliffmillerphd.blogspot.com.
Rich Swingle