On this day...October 11

• In 1884, famous U.S. Frist Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was born. Her parents had wanted a “precious boy,” and the fact that Eleanor was “a more wrinkled and less attractive baby than average” couldn’t have pleased them. She grew up “ugly and old-fashioned,” and her mother dubbed her “Grannie.” When she married her cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore said, “There’s nothing like keeping the name in the family.” Being the president’s wife offended her sense of the sartorial: “You are no longer clothing yourself,” she said, “you are dressing a public document.” She was nevertheless the most influential of the presidents’ wives, and caused one columnist to write, “FDR is 20 percent mush and 80 percent Eleanor.”

• In 1303, sacrilegious pope Boniface VIII died after a reign of nine years. He’d managed to trick his predecessor, Celestine V, into abdicating, and then put him in prison, where one of Boniface’s nephews killed him by driving a nail through his head. At his inaugural meal Boniface dined alone, served by two kings who “responded to his signals like servant boys.” On his death, however, he could have little hope of resurrection, for years earlier he’d said that man had as much chance of eternal life as “a roast fowl on the dining table.”

- from Today’s The Day by Jeremy Beadle (Signet) 

Daily inspiration

What can I do to maintain my focus as I grow spiritually?

God’s Response: “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” – Philippians 3:12-14

God’s Promise: “I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” – Philippians 1:6

- from One Year Mini Daily Inspiration (OMF Literature Inc.)