---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 21
number: 6
published: 1918-04
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: "Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations, “My Work,” *Improvement Era* 21, no. 6 (April 1918): 514–515."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2106unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2106unse
start_page: 514
end_page: 515
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-04)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2106unse
  publication_year: 1918
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# My Work

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My Work

(Selected, Author Unknown)

I come to thee, 0 Lord, for strength and patience

To do thy will;

Help me, 0 Father, in this world of duty,

My place to fill.

I may not go and labor in thy vineyard,

Where through long hours

Brave men and women toil, and from thy presses

The red wine pours.

My work at home lies with the olive branches;

My field is there —

To train them fitly for the heavenly garden

Needs all my care.

I mav not, in the woods and on the mountains,

Seek thy lost sheep —

At home a little flock of tender lambkins

'Tis mine to keep.

Thou givest us, thy servants, each our life-work;

No trumpet tone

Shall tell the nations in triumphant pealing

How mine was done.

But 'twill be much if, when the task is over,

Through grace from thee,

I give thee back, unharmed, the precious treasures

Thou gavest me.

<!-- page:515 -->

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