Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger. (Franklin P. Jones, author) Probably no one really likes to be criticized. We might say we need constructive criticism to help us improve the way we live or act....
Your choices create your reality. (Jason Harvey, author) Harvey continues, “You shape your future every day through the choices you make.” Much in life we can’t control—the weather or the pace of time, for example; but we are in charge of our choices. Every day...
In prayer it is better to have a heart without words, than words without a heart. (John Bunyan) Prayer is a common worldwide practice, whether as a religious rite in a public gathering or in one’s private meditation. For some, their habit is to recite prayers learned...
Don’t be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life. (Bertolt Brecht, 20th century German dramatist and poet) Death is fearful to many people who have no hope for a future life. It’s the unknown that so often distresses us, but Brecht helps us consider where our...
Ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims. (John Stonestreet, worldview writer) Have you seen those light bulbs above the cartoon characters’ heads when they get a new idea? It’s kinda like that when a new thought occurs to us, isn’t it. No doubt, most...
Hope, it seems, is not related to our circumstances but rather to our relationships. (Kip Cone, pastor) The Bible often speaks about hope and faith together. “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is only as good as its object. (Don’t put...
We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. (Edith Lovejoy Pierce, poet) Well, here we are! A new year—a new month—a new day. We can’t write the 2018...
A New Year is on the way and the possibilities are endless. (Source unknown) We wrap up 2017 tonight, and many people will celebrate the coming of the New Year with raucous entertainment and thoughtless behavior. But, tomorrow we will all begin a new calendar with...
Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. (Hal Borland, late author and naturalist) This is the time to review the events and activities of 2017. There were highlights and disappointments—things...
If you see someone without a smile give them yours. (Dolly Parton, singer, songwriter) Dolly Parton and many other popular entertainers bring smiles to people’s faces in their light-hearted performances. But, life doesn’t involve only times for amusement and...
Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. (Warren Buffett, investor and philanthropist) In a day of lightening speed Internet, we’ve become accustomed to getting what we want when we want it—like right now. The word-picture...
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. (Marcus Aurelius, 2nd century Roman philosopher) Our thought-life is a very private thing, isn’t it? Sometimes we wish people could know what we’re thinking. At other times we are no doubt glad that...