Being the person you are

"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are."

~ Kurt Cobain

I do and I understand

I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.

~ Chinese Proverb

Tough People Last

"Tough times never last, but tough people do."

~ Robert H. Schuller

Tullian Tchividjian: Allow Your Critics to Teach You

Tullian Tchividjian answers a question about surviving an attempt Sunday by dissident church members to remove him as senior pastor of the 2,500-member Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida:

Have you talked with your grandfather about this conflict? What would Billy Graham say about this?

I have talked to him about it on numerous occasions. His encouragement to me is simply, "By God's grace, I've weathered many storms just like this, and if you submit to what God is trying to teach you, he will make you wise and humble and useful."

In other words, don't become proud and self-righteous. Be teachable. And God will make you useful.

Don't become bitter, in other words. Allow even your most vocal critics, who may criticize you unjustifiably, to become tools in God's hands to teach you something. Emerge from this more of a gospel man, more of a God-centered man.

Tullian Tchividjian: Allow Your Critics to Teach You
The new pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church talks about the effort to remove him from the pulpit.
Interview by Bobby Ross Jr.
posted 9/24/2009 08:56AM
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/
septemberweb-only/138-41.0.html?start=1

Shell Shock

Joseph Persico writes about "shell shock," the physiological reaction of soldiers who faced the seemingly endless barrage of artillery fire and shelling from the enemy:

In a curious sociological phenomenon, as the level of responsibility rose, the incidence of shell shock declined. An officer looking after his men, inspecting fortifications, checking on rations, in short, a man whose attentions were directed outward--was less likely to crack than a simple, uneducated solider left alone on sentry duty or crouched in a shell hole for hours, even days, his thoughts fixed obsessively on his fate.

Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918: World War I And Its Violent Climax, Random House: 2005, p. 155.

I am never wrong

"I'm willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong."

~ Samuel Goldwyn

Living Better

"Being organized isn't about getting rid of everything you own or
trying to become a different person; it's about living the way you
want to live, but better."

~ Andrew Mellen, professional organizer and life coach

Peace and Gratitude

"I come in peace, I depart in gratitude."

Garrison Keillor

Removing the fear

"The real trick is putting yourself around people you admire."
"As soon as you can make fun of something, it instantly removes the fear."

Aston Kutcher
Parade, 8/2/2009

Moving Hearts

"Governments move armies, but only individuals can move hearts."

~ Marianne Williamson

If you only have a hammer ...

"If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."

~ Abraham Maslow