Character It must happen IN you before it can happen THROUGH you! (Timothy Kight, Elementary school teacher) This is an important lesson for adults as well as children. After all, what you ARE is more important than what you DO. Why? Because what you are determines...
Planning By failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail. (Benjamin Franklin) Some folks really like to be spontaneous; they don’t like to plan too far ahead. Life is more exciting, they think, when you don’t know exactly what’s coming up next. Sometimes, however,...
Balance The amazing activity of the cat is delicately balanced by his capacity for relaxation. (William Lyon Phelps, 19th-20th century author and critic) You might often see a cat lazing in the sun’s rays while all kinds of activity may be going on around it. At other...
Comparison Comparison is the thief of joy. (Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President) It’s a simple statement, but certainly conveys an important and practical lesson. It can work both ways. Do you lose your joy when you see someone doing so much better than you do? Or...
Freedom Nothing is more wonderful than the art of freedom, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom. (Alexis de Tocqueville, 19th century French historian) Americans are proud of their liberty, which was gained for them by the heavy price of war and the...
Ideals It is your responsibility . . . not just to be zealous in the pursuit of your ideals, but to be sure that your ideals are the right ones . . . (Antonin Scalia, late Supreme Court Justice) Scalia completes the sentence, “. . . —not merely in their ends but in...
Hard Work Hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard. (Kevin Durant, pro athlete, quoting Tim Notke, basketball coach) Pro athletes have great talent, of course, but as Durant said, “Working hard is better than having talent and not putting effort or work in...
Serving God’s greatest invitations often come in life’s interruptions. (Bob Fetterhoff, retired pastor) Don’t you hate to be interrupted—the phone call during family dinner or the doorbell during the last overtime of a thrilling ball game? If we could look at them as...
Leadership in Action Leadership is action, not position. (Donald H. McGannon, author) Like a good combat officer, effective leaders can’t stay behind their desks all the time. They have to go ahead of the “troops,” leading by example. But movement alone isn’t enough,...
Troubles God sometimes takes us into troubled waters, not to drown us but to cleanse us. (Author unknown) It’s a paradox of Christian teaching, written in different ways. For example, in response to Paul’s prayer for healing, God replied, “My grace is all you need. My...
Consequences When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. (Lois McMaster Bujold, fiction writer) Many of us suffer from short-sightedness. We too often make a decision or take action before we’ve thought of the consequences. Some people...
The Present Sometimes you will not know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory. (Dr. Seuss, pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel, author of children’s books) We live such busy lives, filled with urgencies—whether imagined or real—that demand our attention so that...