Answers [Pay] more intention to the question than to the answer and never [be] afraid to go in an opposite direction to find a solution. (Richard Saul Wurman, author) In the midst of a conversation, we are often so distracted with the answer we’re preparing to offer...
Growing You’ve got to continue to grow, or you’re just like last night’s corn bread—stale and dry. (Loretta Lynn, singer-songwriter) Children often “can’t wait” to grow up. Getting taller than someone else may be important to them. There comes a time, however, when...
Love We cannot love on our own, be gentle on our own, or bear our burdens alone. (Schultz & Estabrook, authors) We’d like to think that we are the “captain of our ship,” in full control of our emotions and our actions. We soon discover, however, that life includes...
Snowflakes No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. (Voltaire, 18th century French writer) As I write this, I’m viewing a heavy snowfall through my window. The scene makes Voltaire’s picturesque allusion very real. I certainly don’t expect an avalanche in...
Simplicity Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated. (Confucius, 6th century B.C. Chinese philosopher) We might not agree that life is always simple, but we certainly recognize that we often make it pretty complicated. For example, trying to...
Success Nothing changes your opinion of a friend as surely as success - yours or theirs. (Franklin P. Jones, author) Can you remember when a friend of yours suddenly received some acclaim because of his or her successful accomplishment? How did you respond to the...
Risks We all need to decide whether to "play it safe" in life and worry about the downside, or instead take a chance, by being who we really are and living the life our heart desires. (Charlie Badenhop, author) Some people like to take risks; no matter the danger,...
Humility If you're a horrible decision maker and want to become better, become humble. (Mike Lee, minister) When you review the reasons things aren’t going well, have you realized it may be because you’ve made some bad decisions—some poor choices, perhaps? Sometimes...
Enjoy Life Life is like an ice cream cone...you have to learn to lick it. (Charlie Brown, “Peanuts” cartoon) Is life like an ice cream cone because it’s gone so quickly? Or because it’s really so tasty? Or because, if you don’t deal with it properly, you’ve lost the...
Knowledge Plus Scholarship is not simply the production of knowledge. . . [In former times] scholars chiefly engaged in the transmission of knowledge for the purpose of formation. (Chris Gehrz, college professor) They say that knowledge is doubling every 12 hours or...
Teamwork I am a member of the team, and I rely on the team. I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion. (Mia Hamm, USA women’s soccer star) Tom Wilson, another professional athlete put it this way, “Many of us...
Easter But from this earth, this grave, this dust, my God shall raise me up, I trust. (Walter Raleigh, 16th-17th century English writer) For the Christian, the resurrection of Jesus is not only the keystone of his faith in the saving work of Jesus on the cross, but,...