Daily Stop & Thinks

STOP AND THINK – Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass…it’s about learning how to dance in the rain. (Vivien Greene, author, designer, and speaker)

Everyone encounters storms in life. Difficulties and trials are inevitable. Since you can’t avoid them, what can you do about them? We can prepare for some that might be anticipated. We can look for help to get through them. Or, we can learn to accept them and make the best of them. Make lemonade out of lemons, as the saying goes.

Consider it pure joy . . . whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance (James 1:2-3).

STOP AND THINK – Appreciation can make a day—even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary. (Margaret Cousins, 20th century Irish-Indian educationist)

“Thank you!” “You are appreciated.” Those are simple words, but when spoken or written sincerely, they are powerful. But they are powerless unless expressed. Look for opportunities to say thanks to someone who has served you well. You will make their day—and maybe spur them on to greater achievement.

I thank my God every time I think of you (Philippians 1:3).

STOP AND THINK – There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. (Edith Wharton, 19th-20th century American Pulitzer Prize-winning author)

In our highly technical age we’ve learned that our lives are no longer private. Everyone seems to know what everyone else is doing and saying. It’s all over social media. So, we need to be careful what people are seeing when they look at us. We want them to see the good of our own lives and the good we are reflecting from our associations or from God.

Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:14)

STOP AND THINK – What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. (Albert Pike, 19th century Confederate officer, attorney)

You Can’t Take It with You was the popular 1937 Pulitzer Prize-winning atoledo play, whose title boldly states an obvious fact of life. Possessions, awards, estates are all left behind when we die. But, the unselfish life, lived for the benefit of others leaves a legacy that blesses others and provides a long-lasting heritage. Such a life also lays up treasures for life after death.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal (Matthew 6:20)

STOP AND THINK – Treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again. (Og Mandino, 20th century American author and speaker)

Suppose everyone did this every day. Wow! How different would life be! But if only you were to live this way, would it make any difference? If Mandino is right, it would change your life and, no doubt, bring change to many others, also.

Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow (Isaiah 1:17)

STOP AND THINK – Only one decision pleases God: obedience. (Charles Swindoll, pastor and author)

In the universal struggle of mankind to know and please God, men have developed many different images of God and established the “rules” they think they must follow to please Him. Perhaps, it’s too simple a thought, but the Bible is clear: what God wants of His followers is obedience to His will and Word.

Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22)

STOP AND THINK – A girl’s true beauty is the reflection of her inner happiness. (Anonymous)

Physical beauty is paramount in the minds of many young men and women, so this comment is a helpful reminder of what is really most important in life. One’s outward appearance, after all, will change with age, and it doesn’t always improve. But the inward beauty of virtue, morality, and integrity will be reflected in an attractive appearance at any age.

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment . . . Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight (1 Peter 3:3-4)

STOP AND THINK – Seek to do good, and you will find that happiness will run after you. (James Freeman Clarke, 19th century American theologian and author)

The U.S. Declaration of Independence suggests that among our rights is “the pursuit of happiness.” Sounds like happiness is something you have to go after, you have to do something, or go somewhere to find it. Clarke, suggests, however, that you don’t have to search for happiness; rather it will find you if you are pursuing the good of others.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share (1 Timothy 6:18)

STOP AND THINK – I am . . . convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence that will risk nothing and which . . . misses happiness as well. (Mary Cholmondeley, 19th-20th century English novelist)

This writer points out that happiness may be missed, not so much because of the wrong we do, but because of the failure to do good. Self-protection and the fear of failure or rejection may prevent us from stepping out of our shell, taking a risk, venturing into an uncertain future. Thus, we not only fail to do good, but we also suffer the loss of a happy heart.

If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them (James 4:17).

STOP AND THINK – Happiness is quite simply good health and a bad memory. (Earnest Hemingway, 20th century American author and journalist)

We could probably agree that health and happiness often go together. Poor physical health can affect our emotional health, so we become despondent or even depressed, when we don’t feel well. Then, too, we may choose not to remember unhappy moments, thinking that will keep us in a brighter frame of mind. But does that really make us happy or healthy?

For they [God’s words] are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body (Proverbs 4:22).

STOP AND THINK – Happiness is not the pursuit of thrills or gratification of sensual desires. It is, instead, the pursuit of virtue. (Chuck Colson, former presidential advisor, cultural commentator, and prison reformer)

People seem to be motivated more by their appetites than by moral character. Whether it is gluttony, sex, drug addiction, or another out-of-bounds desire, restraint is thrown to the wind in order to gain self-satisfaction. All too often, instant gratification trumps patience and moderation.

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable . . .think about such things (Philippians 4:8).

STOP AND THINK – The strength and happiness of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going, and going that way too. (Henry Ward Beecher, 19th century American clergyman and reformer)

Apparently, there is a spiritual aspect to happiness. According to Beecher, it can’t be found in secular pursuits or purely physical or temporal endeavors. Instead, it is to be discovered by striving to understand the ways and will of God and giving oneself to their pursuit.

Therefore, I urge you . . . to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. . . Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:1-2).