Experience Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson afterwards. (Oscar Wilde, 19th century playwright) We might wish it weren’t true, but we have to admit that experience is often the best teacher. Unfortunately, as Wilde...
Adversity It’s your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life’s story will develop. (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, German airline executive) They say that in every life a little rain must fall. Rain is a necessary element, but we often see it as...
Family The web of this nation is made from the thread spun in the home. (Billy Sunday, late evangelist) In his time, Sunday preached against alcohol, drugs, and immorality with a strong voice and wide acceptance. Today when the traditional family is under attack, his...
Others If all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world. (Blaise Pascal, 17th century French philosopher) Pascal’s observation is not very encouraging, is it? Could what he thought of 17th century society be true in the 21st?...
Live with Joy Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching. (Satchel Paige, late baseball player) Paige isn’t encouraging hypocrisy—pretending to be something you’re not. He’s proposing that we live our lives with...
Father’s Day One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters. (George Herbert, 17th century Welsh poet) Fatherless homes have become a major cause of unhealthy child development. The single-parent family must depend more now than ever on outside help. School teachers...
Worry Worry is like a rocking horse—it keeps you going but it doesn't get you anywhere. (Rev. J. Davis Illingworth, Sr.) Worry and anxiety are far too common in the lives of busy and overactive 21st century citizens. Our deep-seated concerns trouble us all day and...
Success I don't know the key to success, but I do know the key to failure is trying to please everyone. (TV comedy actor) In the midst of a variety of possible “keys to success,” it might be helpful to look at just one negative key, the one quoted above. How many...
Rules Lord, help me follow established procedures today. In a Myers-Briggs personality type survey, that statement was followed by, “On second thought, make that for a few minutes.” When we respond that way, we are suggesting either that we don’t like the “established...
The Future We forget that we work today not just for the present but for the long-term future. (Carl Trueman, author) Trueman observes: “We want results now” which is exactly the reason we often don’t think enough about the implications of our actions. It’s just that...
Flag Day Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong. (James Bryce, 19th-20th century British academic) Sadly, some people don’t regard the flag as anything special and will go so far as to burn it....
Daring Daring greatly means the courage to be vulnerable (Brené Brown, American research professor) “I dare you.” “I double-dare you.” Do you remember those childhood challenges? They were sometimes a test to see how brave we were. To accept the dare was to make...