Work In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. (Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet) Writing as a poet, Atwood uses picturesque language to make a point more clearly than a simple statement in prose might. Basically, she’s saying, you should always...
Aim High Not failure, but low aim, is crime. (James Russell Lowell, 19th century editor and diplomat) We may look at a business that has closed as a failure; someone must be blamed for not keeping the enterprise going. The lessons learned from the lack of success in...
Example Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I’ll understand! (Quoted by Benjamin Franklin) A great reminder to teachers. The 3-step process is teaching or doing it alone, showing the learner how to do it, and working with him in doing...
Self-Control I think chocolate makes my clothes shrink! (Coffee mug adage) This is an example of a humorous attempt to avoid facing reality. We know that if we really want our “shrinking clothes” to fit, we need to do something about diet and exercise. Every day there...
Your Mind What goes into a mind comes out in a life. (Greg Groeschel, motivational speaker) What do they say in the computer world? GIGO: garbage in, garbage out. If bad data is entered, bad data will come out. In Mark 7:20 Jesus similarly remarks, “What comes out of...
Prayer Lord, help me slow down andnotrushthroughwhatido. (Humorous prayer) Sometimes we can be very contradictory people. As in another silly prayer, “Lord help me be less independent, but let me do it my way.” We pray for patience, but we want it right now. We pray...
Happiness Sometimes life knocks you on your [bottom]... get up, get up, get up!!! Happiness is not the absence of problems; it's the ability to deal with them. (Steve Maraboli, behavioral scientist) Do we really need a scientist to give us that help? We have...
Worry Worry, by nature, is the product of a lack of faith and trust in God. (John MacArthur, pastor, author) Jesus said, “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over...
Mysteries Mystery is not the absence of meaning; it is the presence of more meaning than we can fully comprehend. (Dennis Covington, American author) We seem to love mysteries. Whodunit movies, TV shows, and books are very popular across generations. More importantly...
In the Storm We are all in this together… we are all in the same boat. (Amanda Miles, young author) How often have you heard something like that about our recent sequestration? But Amanda sees it differently: “Although we may all be in the same water, we are not all...
Reason We must start by teaching our kids not what to think but how to think. (John Stonestreet, Worldview author & speaker) Stonestreet continues, “In the information age, accumulated facts and information are confused with expertise or, even worse, wisdom.” Many...
Zeal Sometimes success is due less to ability than to zeal. (Charles Buxton, 19th century English writer) Sometimes we are surprised when a great achievement is discovered, and we learn that the person responsible did not have the apparent skills for his...