J Davis Illingworth

Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams, or wake up and chase them. (Rebekah Radice, social media strategist) Most people would likely want to forget their nighttime dreams. But, there are times when we might stay awake, thinking about...

The secret of life ... is to fall seven times and to get up eight times. (Paulo Coelho, Brazilian lyricist and novelist) We all stumble from time to time; that is, we make mistakes, we fail in some way or another. But, like a toddler, learning to walk, we have to get...

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. (C. S. Lewis, British apologist and author) We often view people on a personal scale of value or achievement. To us, there may be many extraordinary people—athletes, artists, scholars, etc. But, in...

When you’re going through something hard and wonder where God is, remember, the teacher is always quiet during a test. (Often quoted) Remember what it was like to take a test in school, no matter what level? You went through mental gymnastics to try to recall what the...

We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it. (Rick Warren, American pastor and author) We can learn a lot from history—whether it’s national, cultural, or personal. It’s helpful to know, for example, how progress has been made in medicine or...

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. (Martin Luther King Jr.) Late civil rights leader King went on to say, “There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions.” In a political season, we are often inundated...

Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story. (Casey Stengel, 20th century major league baseball Hall of Fame manager) Stengel’s observation about players reveals an important principle about teamwork. We saw it demonstrated in the...

It is senseless to pay tuition to educate a rebel who has no heart for truth. (the Bible) This is a paraphrase of a biblical proverb that makes a lot of sense in 21st century life. Costs for higher education have skyrocketed at a pace exceeding normal inflation. Fewer...

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. (Edith Wharton, 19th-20th century Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist) Where there is darkness, people of goodwill, want to bring light—whether it’s physical, emotional, or...