Daily Stop & Thinks

Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can – there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did. (Sarah Caldwell, opera conductor)

Life is a continual learning experience. Caldwell suggests that the opportunities for learning are everywhere. If we’re not learning, we’re not growing. And we never know when what we’ve learned at any given time will prove to be just what we need to know at just the right time sometime later. So, we must keep our eyes and minds open to those potential learning moments.

Take a lesson from the ants . . . Learn from their ways and become wise! (Proverbs 6:6).

Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon (E. M. Forster, English novelist)

Remember how difficult it was to wean your baby from milk to more solid foods? It was often frustrating and messy, wasn’t it? Yet, it was a necessary step in the growth of your child. The same is true in learning for all of us. We need to move on from the simple, spoon-fed truths to the deeper challenges that will enable us to think clearly and develop greater wisdom.

Someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. (Hebrews 5:13-15).

May you and your family be blessed as you celebrate the true meaning of Easter, from the reflection of Good Friday to the joy of Easter Sunday and the promise of eternal life. (Author unknown)

Many will enjoy today as a holiday for parades and Easter egg hunts, but Christians around the world will celebrate the capstone of their faith in recognition of the miracle of the resurrection and take time to worship Jesus Christ, who overcame sin and death. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are the ultimate demonstration of God’s plan to restore mankind to himself.

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live (John 11:25).

We have become a generation of people who worship our work, who work at our play, and who play at our worship. (Quoted by Leland Ryken, author)

Ryken’s quote is illustrated well by the way some people make light of Lent, the 40 days prior to Easter, which ends tomorrow. Lent is intended to be a time of careful spiritual thought, often including giving up patterns of behavior that may be a hindrance to worship. Serious Christians, however celebrate the sacrifice of God’s Son to give us a relationship with Him.

God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).

Practice mercy and forgiveness throughout as a lesson that symbolizes the love shown through his crucifixion. (Unarine Ramaru, university professor)

Today is celebrated in the Christian world as Good Friday, the day when Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem. Even the non-Christian can recognize this event as a demonstration of love that exemplifies mercy and forgiveness from a holy God. And for the followers of Jesus, it is the foundation for their faith in a loving God.

[Follow] the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God (Ephesians 5:2).

People will cling to an unsatisfactory way of life rather than change to get something better for fear of getting something worse. (Eric Hoffer, 20^th century social philosopher)

Do you recognize yourself in Hoffer’s statement? Have you ever hesitated to make a change because you were uncertain—maybe even fearful of the outcome? We all have, no doubt. If you’re in an unacceptable situation, the challenge is to think and plan carefully, take all the precautions you can, and move forward with confidence.

My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing your praises! (Psalm 57:7).

If you do not like it, change it and if you cannot change it, change the way you think about it. (Mary Englebrat, graphic artist)

We often see things we’d like to change—it may be as simple as correcting a typo or as complex as reprogramming our computer. As Englebrat suggests, when we can’t make the change, we must think differently about the problem and find a way to think about it positively. Perhaps it’s a chance to develop a new ability or discover a new friend who can help solve the dilemma.

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance (Romans 5:3).

A sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have, but how many leaders you create. (Mahatma Gandhi, late Indian activist)

It’s been noted that you’re not a good leader if no one is following you. That’s obvious, isn’t it? When your leadership is over, is there anyone to take the reins and lead the enterprise forward? If not, how successfully have you led? So, Gandhi’s comment is more challenging than merely counting the number of followers. Successful leading demands helpful training.

Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher (Luke 6:40).

Leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do. (Frances Hesselbein, author)

Some might think of leadership as the ability to command and order, and the followers will obey. That’s partly true, but Hesselbein, apparently, has a different idea. She has discovered that people respond best to those in authority whose character and lifestyle demonstrate traits that are not only worth copying but make following much easier.

Remember your leaders . . . Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith (Hebrews 13:7).

Those who are best at waiting are best at serving, also. (James Gribble, pioneer missionary)

Today could likely be labeled as the age of “impatience.” We want what we want, and we want it NOW! In spite of modern technology that speeds things up immeasurably, many critical issues of life take time. A seed doesn’t produce fruit overnight, and a creative idea rarely develops into a complete reality instantly. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth working and waiting for.

Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen (James 5:7).

There are seven days in the week, and SOMEDAY isn’t one of them. (Shaquille O’Neal, retired professional athlete)

In our dreaming of the future, how often do we think “Someday I’ll . . .”? But O’Neal is right, “someday” never comes. Unless we make plans to do what we’re dreaming of, it will never happen. No doubt many people have experienced the emptiness of retirement years because they didn’t pursue their dream. Planning and taking action are the next steps after dreaming.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life (Proverbs 13:12).

It’s easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting. (Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity)

Put another way, thinking something doesn’t make it happen. Worthy accomplishments begin with clear thinking and planning, of course, but just contemplating an activity never makes anything happen. Once we begin a project, our thinking about it will no doubt become clearer. But then, we have to take action and do it.

Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed (Proverbs 16:3).