You do not have a fire hot enough

"But he said to them, 'You do not have a fire hot enough to make me play the coward.'"

~ 4 Maccabees 10:14 NRSV

Always Be Prepared

Quote:

The greatest going-over-the-side I ever heard of (and this is not by way of recommendation) happened at Wheaton College about 40 years ago.

Wheaton's president, V. Raymond Edman, a godly man, was speaking in chapel one Friday morning. He had just finished telling about the time he had carefully rehearsed for an audience with the then-emperor of Ethiopia. His application for the students, whom he felt had slipped into a spirit of irreverence in their worship, was simple: you must always be prepared to respectfully conduct yourself in the presence of the King of Kings.

Having made his point, Dr. Edman suddenly slumped to the floor and died. Having spoken of entering the presence of the King, he did it himself. He left, apparently, at the moment of God's choosing, whom, we trust, watches over our leave-decisions, too.

~ Gordon Macdonald

violence and methodical, sophisticated and civilized coldness

Israel's Holocaust museum grapples with Holocaust diminishment
CNN's Izzy Lemberg sent this report on a major Holocaust conference in Jerusalem:

Yad Vashem, Israel’s main museum and research facility for preserving the memory of the Holocaust–including concentration camps like Auschwitz, above–devoted much of its annual conference on Monday to grappling with the challenges of Holocaust denial and diminishment. . . .

Alain Finkielkraut, a prominent French philosopher, keynoted the event, arguing that “Post-Nazi Europe knows that neither culture nor progress is a safeguard against ferocity."

"It knows that modernity does not necessarily overcome cruelty," he said of Europe, "and that the most egregious evil is produced by a combination of unleashed violence and methodical, sophisticated and civilized coldness."

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/15/israels-holocaust-museum-grapples-with-holocaust-diminishment/?hpt=Sbin

'positive-sentiment override'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8745000/8745287.stm
quote, underline added:

Married couples can find it easier to widen each others' worlds and reap the benefits of shared meaning and memories.

They're also shored-up by the respect society offers those who trouble to state, publicly, their relationship's importance. And if the obstacle race works out, at the end, if they're lucky, they approach the finish with somebody to remind them where they left their spare teeth.

But magic only works if you believe in it, if you don't simply work at marriage, but play at and relish it. Studies find that the more optimistic your expectations, the greater your demands, the more marriage will give you.

Magic only works if you believe in it, if you don't simply work at marriage, but play at and relish it.

If you seek the best, keep noticing each other, complain well but criticise less, and don't let leisure slide. (Although husbands tend to enjoy more free time, according to latest research, wives' pleasures have greater impact on whether a union is happy.)

Try a psychological trick called 'positive-sentiment override'. If your beloved snaps at you, don't snap back or take it personally. No, they're having a bad day.

With care, luck and selective attention, the ball and chain can weigh lighter than ever.

Catherine Blyth, author of The Art of Marriage (John Murray, £12.99). www.catherineblyth.com

If Men Were to Rewrite the Rules

Rule # 1 - Anything we said six or eight months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
All comments become null and void after seven days.

Rule # 2 - If we say something that can be interpreted in two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other way.

Rule # 3 - It is in neither your best interest or ours to make us take those stupid Cosmo quizzes together.

Rule # 4 - You can either ask us to do something OR tell us how you want it done - not both.

Rule # 5 - Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials or time-outs.

Rule # 6 - Christopher Columbus didn't need directions and neither do we.

Rule # 7 - When we're turning the wheel and the car is nosing onto the off ramp, you saying "Is this is our exit?" is not necessary.

Hacking at the branches of evil

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve."

~ Henry David Thoreau

Lives of quiet desperation

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation
and go to the grave with the song still in them."

~ Henry David Thoreau

Wisdom of Dad

· "Be nice to everyone, because everyone has a hard time."
· "I think the perfect business would be one where you didn't have to deal with people."
· "If you keep your eyes on the sky you will starve."
· "Just let people keep talking, they will usually tell on themselves."
· "People will only change when they have had a significant emotional experience, but even then the change is not always permanent."
· "Poop don't run uphill."
· "Sometimes all you can do is all you can do, and well that's all you can do!"
· "Sometimes you just get tired of Cheeseburgers!"

http://theologyshock.blogspot.com/2007/05/
do-you-want-to-be-healed.html

Isolation and False Fronts

June, 2010 (Web-only) Christianity Today
www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/juneweb-only/32-51.0.html

Learning from the Gores about the Grace of Separation
Why separating can be pro-family.

Earlier this week, Al and Tipper Gore announced to a small circle of close friends via e-mail—and thus to the world—that they are separating after 40 years of a seemingly very happy and successful marriage. . . .

By separating, the couple is making a bold statement. Whether they realize it or not, the announcement of separation does not necessarily say the couple is giving up (that is what divorce would mean). Separation at least leaves room for the possibility of restoration and reconciliation. The couple can enter their time of separation intending to air out the anger and hurt that has built up, then commit to entering individual counseling to work through their problems. . . .

There is another important reason why separation can be a gift to a marriage: It lets the cat out of the bag and gets our community involved. That truth—that one marriage can affect another—is why we are talking about the Gores. It is an important gauge of how much we value marriage when even hardened political reporters are mourning the Gores' news and expressing collective romanticism and hopefulness about what marriage should mean. Even The Washington Post lamented passionately this week, "Please Al and Tipper, don't do this. For our sakes—don't!"

And here we find one of Satan's most potent tools in killing marriages: isolation and false fronts. All of that is smashed to pieces when a couple announces they are seeking separation before divorce. It gives our friends time and space to get into our business. This is profoundly healthy and should come as no surprise—after all, our Trinitarian God is inherently about community, accountability, and investing in one another, while Satan is all about loneliness, abandonment, and shame. Separation can be an opportunity to bring godly counsel and support into the marriage, as it serves to bring the relational infection out into the healing light.

~ Glenn T. Stanton, Director of Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family and the author of Why Marriage Matters and My Crazy, Imperfect Christian Family (both NavPress).

The utmost compassion for sinners

"No one is of the Spirit of Christ but he that has the utmost compassion for sinners. Nor is there any greater sign of your own perfection than you find yourself all love and compassion toward them that are very weak and defective. And on the other hand, you have never less reason to be pleased with yourself than when you find yourself most angry and offended at the behavior of others."

~ William Law, an eighteenth-century Anglican

Understanding the evil in your own heart

"The person who understands the evil in his own heart is the only person who is useful, fruitful and solid in his beliefs and obedience. Others only delude themselves and thus upset families, churches and all other relationships. In their self-pride and judgment of others, they show great inconsistency."

~ John Owen, one of the great Puritan scholars

Eight Simple Tips To Avoid Late Night Snacking

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/darya-pino/
weight-loss-tips-8-simple_b_566418.html

1. Eat a satisfying dinner

2. Eat fruit

3. Drink herbal tea

4. Brush your teeth

5. Drink some water
Sparkling water flavored with a little citrus or cucumber is particularly effective at distracting your mouth from the desire to keep chewing.

6. Call a friend

7. Get moving

8. Play video games

Darya is a scientist, foodie and advocate of local, seasonal foods.

"Self-expansion" and a happy marriage

New York Times
May 10, 2010, 5:07 pm
The Science of a Happy Marriage
By TARA PARKER-POPE
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/
05/10/tracking-the-science-of-commitment/
quote:

it may not be feelings of love or loyalty that keep couples together. Instead, scientists speculate that your level of commitment may depend on how much a partner enhances your life and broadens your horizons — a concept that Arthur Aron, a psychologist and relationship researcher at Stony Brook University, calls “self-expansion.”

To measure this quality, couples are asked a series of questions: How much does your partner provide a source of exciting experiences? How much has knowing your partner made you a better person? How much do you see your partner as a way to expand your own capabilities?

The Stony Brook researchers conducted experiments using activities that stimulated self-expansion. Some couples were given mundane tasks, while others took part in a silly exercise in which they were tied together and asked to crawl on mats, pushing a foam cylinder with their heads. The study was rigged so the couples failed the time limit on the first two tries, but just barely made it on the third, resulting in much celebration.

Couples were given relationship tests before and after the experiment. Those who had taken part in the challenging activity posted greater increases in love and relationship satisfaction than those who had not experienced victory together.

Now the researchers are embarking on a series of studies to measure how self-expansion influences a relationship. They theorize that couples who explore new places and try new things will tap into feelings of self-expansion, lifting their level of commitment.

“We enter relationships because the other person becomes part of ourselves, and that expands us,” Dr. Aron said. “That’s why people who fall in love stay up all night talking and it feels really exciting. We think couples can get some of that back by doing challenging and exciting things together.”

Tara Parker-Pope’s new book is “For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage.”

When food becomes your hugs, your kisses

Geneen Roth, Women Food and God

"You can tell where you've given up or how you've given up when food becomes your hugs, your kisses, your best friends and your biggest relationship."

"I give a set of seven eating guidelines in the book. They are very easy. Kids intuitively follow them:
* Eat when you're hungry.
* Eat what your body really wants.
* Pay attention to your food.
* Stop when you've had enough.
Kids follow those automatically. As soon as we start using food for reasons besides hunger, we stop listening to our bodies."

www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/05/04/
women.food.god.geneen.roth/index.html?hpt=Sbin

The “Christianity and” Syndrome

The “Christianity and” Syndrome

C.S. Lewis once said that the same thing happens in Christianity; it’s what you add to it that ruins it. In fact, C.S. Lewis called it the “Christianity and Syndrome;” where we link our faith to some other cause to which we are partial and say “this is the center of our faith.”

And so we hear from our pulpits that the main focus for us must be Christianity and Marxism, or Christianity and Capitalism, or Christianity and Social Action, or Christianity and Gun Control, or Christianity and the Republican Platform, or Christianity and the Pro-life Movement or Christianity and the Twelve Step program or Christianity and Homosexual Rights movement or anything else you might want to insert there.

And the fact is, that as soon as you add an “And” to Christianity you have lost your focus. A Christian worldview speaks to all of those important issues; but every one of them is peripheral to who we are. We are not Christians AND something else; we are Christians, and we let our faith guide us in all other decisions of life.

Gregory T. Riether

I believe like a child that suffering will be healed

Dostoevsky, in Brothers Karamazov:

“I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, of the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they’ve shed; and it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify what has happened.”

Military chaplain doesn't limit his mission to church

First published in print: Saturday, May 1, 2010

Maj. Jake Marvel: Chaplain of the New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing.

As the highest ranking chaplain at Stratton Air Force Base in Glenville, Marvel conducts spiritual programs for airmen. He has deployed in support of military missions. He has prayed and counseled Army National Guardsmen after Hurricane Katrina and military personnel injured in the war in Iraq at a U.S. base in Germany. He has also accompanied the 109th Airlift Wing on trips to Antarctica and Greenland.

How do you serve military members with different religious backgrounds?

"I find beauty in the different faiths. It's not my job to convert folks to my faith. My job is to let people experience the depths of their own faiths and become aware of that in their lives. I work to enable them to have the courage to become the people God has created them to be."

-- Dennis Yusko

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=926976&category=REGION#ixzz0mjmkx1Bl

The Love that made the worlds

The Problem of Pain
Chapter 3
C.S. Lewis

When Christianity says that God loves man, it means that God LOVES man: not that He has some “disinterested,” because really indifferent concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, we are the objects of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one. The great spirit you so lightly invoked, the “lord of terrible aspect,” is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist’s love for his work and despotic as a man’s love for a dog, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes.

when you're economically empowered

Rescuing girls from sex slavery
By Ebonne Ruffins, CNN
April 30, 2010 5:30 p.m. EDT

Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN) -- Geeta was 9 when she began wearing makeup, staying up until 2 a.m. and having sex with as many as 60 men a day.

"I used to be really sad and frustrated with what was happening in my life," she said. . . .

It was not until Geeta was 14 that a police officer rescued her and brought her to a safe house compound run by Anuradha Koirala. The 61-year-old woman and her group, Maiti Nepal, have been fighting for more than 16 years to rescue and rehabilitate thousands of Nepal's sex trafficking victims. . . .

By the early 1990s, an increasing demand for help and persistent cases of violence against women compelled Koirala to do more. Maiti Nepal was her brainchild for giving voice, legal defense and rehabilitation to victims of sex trafficking.

Roughly translated, Maiti means "Mother's Home." The group has facilities throughout Nepal and India, but most of the rehabilitation work takes place at its main campus in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Koirala said girls from the brothels arrive empty-handed, sick, in many cases pregnant or with small children, and "psychologically broken."

"When the girl first comes to Maiti Nepal, we never, never ask them a question. We just let them [be] for as long as they need. We let them play, dance, walk, talk to a friend," Koirala said. "They are afraid at first, but eventually they will talk to us on their own." . . .

The group's ultimate goal is to help girls become economically independent and reintegrated into society.

"We try to give them whatever work they want to do, whatever training they want to do, because when you're economically empowered, people forget everything. People even forget [she is] HIV-positive or was trafficked," Koirala said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/29/
cnnheroes.koirala.nepal/

Hammer

When the only tool you have is a hammer,
every problem looks like a nail.

~ Unknown

The Most Important Job in the World

Quote:
Tony Campolo adapted by James Moore, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

Dr. Tony Campolo is a well-known and highly-respected, inspirational speaker. Over the last several years, Tony Campolo has spent much of his time traveling around the world on speaking tours.
Meanwhile, his wife, Peggy, has chosen to stay home and give herself and all that she has to the "Bringing Up" of their two children, Bart and Lisa. On those rare occasions when Peggy does travel with Tony, she finds herself engaged in conversations with some of the most accomplished, impressive, influential, sophisticated people in the world.
After one such trip, Peggy told Tony that sometimes as she visits with these powerful people… she finds herself feeling intimidated and sometimes even questioning her own self-worth. Tony said to her: "Well, honey, why don't you come up with something you could say when you meet people that will let them know that you strongly value what you do and you feel that it is dramatically, urgent and crucial and important.
Well, not long after that, Tony and Peggy Campolo were at a party… when a woman said to Peggy in a rather condescending tone, "Well, my dear, what do you do?" Tony Campolo heard his wife say:
"I am nurturing two Homo Sapiens into the dominant values of the Judaeo-Christian tradition in order that they might become instruments for the transformation of the social order into the kind of eschatological utopia God envisioned from the beginning of time."
And the other woman said:
"O, my, I'm just a lawyer."
I like that story because it reminds us that there are a lot of important jobs in the world today but not one of them is more important than the job of being a mother.

I just helped him cry

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.
When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

~ Author Unknown

It is always better to act than to grieve

"It is always better to act than to grieve."

~ Beowulf

Enough Already!

quotes from Peter Walsh's Enough Already!

A lot of clutter is a lack of acceptance that a moment has passed.

The cycle problem:
If you put a load of clothes in the wash, and halfway through you turn the machine off and leave it for a few days, you will come back to a mound of smelly laundry. You have to finish the cycle. When you have a bowl of cereal, does the box go back in the cupboard? When you bring in the mail, do you immediately open and sort it? At night, do your clothes go in the hamper or on the floor? We have a choice: to be mindful and complete the cycle, or to end up with a stinky load of washing in the metaphorical machine. Inside we're all 8-year-olds expecting someone to pick up after us. Those days are gone.

The Ground Rules

1. Everything you own should have value, either because it's functional or beautiful or you just love it. Remember the question of what you'd grab if your house were on fire; that's your baseline for determining an object's worth.

2. Every item needs a place where it "lives." Setting things down on the coffee table or kitchen counter creates piles and confusion. My clients mock me when I say, "Where do your keys live? They live in a bowl or on a hook by the front door"—but you never lose anything when you put it where it lives.

3. Focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking is supposed to help you get more things done quickly, but when you try to do 19 things at once, everything ends up incomplete. You're trying to simplify your life, so simplify your approach to getting organized.

Catalogs: You can log on to Catalogchoice.org, a free service that will stop these unwanted mailings from being sent to you.

Formals: DonateMyDress.org provides formal wear to girls who can't afford prom or special occasion dresses.

The Inherited Items and Mementos:
Your home is not a museum. ... You're not living her life, and you're not a bad person for giving inherited items away. ... Donate it, document what it's worth, and take it off your taxes. Or give it to another family member who would really like it. Or sell it on eBay. ... Rule of thumb: If it serves no purpose, let it go.

The Car:
What should be in the car: registration, insurance certificate, owner's manual, maps and/or GPS, extra pair of sunglasses in case of glare, small folding umbrella, headset for your cell phone (preferably you're not talking while driving, but if you are, please be hands-free), envelope with supermarket and drive-through restaurant coupons and any gift certificates you've received (it's pointless for them to be in the drawer at home).
What should be in the trunk: tool kit, flashlight, working spare tire. In winter, add ice scraper, bag of kitty litter (for traction in snow), a small blanket.

Email: If you're constantly responding to e-mail, you're being pulled away from the things that you need or want to do. Try checking it hourly.

The (Shudder) Basement or Garage:

Where do you start? First, get rid of unsalvageables.

Once you've gotten rid of the garbage, start grouping similar items.

When everything has been sorted, prune: Is this important enough to save? Is it useful? Discard what isn't.

Next, containerize what's left. ... I'm all about clear plastic storage. ... Get rolling shelves that can be moved to one side of the room and perhaps even covered with drapes.

At the end of this project, you'll have accomplished three goals: There will be less stuff, what's left will be in order, and everything will be in containers that work with your space. 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. There are enough things in the world that you can't control—but you can bring some order into your home and your life.

Graduation Memories, PTS

I recall Diogenes Allen at our 1988 baccalaureate service. Many parents and relatives were there when he unpacked a passage from Mark’s gospel. Said Dr. Allen, “I looked at several commentaries regarding this passage and found this comment, ‘several unrelated sayings from Q.’ Well, perhaps Mark knows how to relate the sayings of Jesus better than any exegete.”
The bravado of that statement, of course, was lost on many family members who looked at one another, wondering, “What in the world is Q?”
Scott Kinder-Pyle (M.Div., 1988)
Spokane, Washington

Tom Gillespie, at my commencement in 1986, said “...and remember that the Bible is not a map, it’s a compass.” I’ve always remembered that, and I’ve quoted it frequently over the years. It’s one of the most concise and useful bits of theology I’ve ever heard.
David Preisendanz (M.Div., 1986)
Willow Grove, Pennsylvania

http://www3.ptsem.edu/inSpireContent.aspx?id=3409&

Humiliation

Nelson Mandela:

Sometimes a leader has to criticize those with whom he works—it cannot be avoided. I like a leader who can, while pointing out a mistake, bring up the good things the other person has done. If you do that, then the person sees that you have a complete picture of him. There is nobody more dangerous than one who has been humiliated, even when you humiliate him rightly. ...

If you are humble, you are no threat to anybody. Some behave in a way that dominates others. That's a mistake. If you want the cooperation of humans around you, you must make them feel they are important—and you do that by being genuine and humble. You know that other people have qualities that may be better than your own. Let them express them. ...

We must teach people that when they've been wronged, they must talk to their enemies and resolve their differences for the sake of peace.

www.oprah.com/world/Oprah-Interviews-Nelson-Mandela/

Elliott Smith's idea of Heaven

Asked once by New Musical Express what his idea of heaven was, Elliott Smith replied,
"George Jones would be singing all the time. It would be like New York in reverse. People would be nice to each other for no reason at all. And it would smell good."

New York in Reverse
Elliott Smith's idea of heaven was modest, like everything else about the songwriter.
By Alex Abramovich
Posted Wednesday, October 22, 2003, at 4:08 PM PT
http://slate.msn.com/id/2090203/

Three Desires of Husbands

"We husbands have three desires in life: food, sex, and … we can't think of the third thing."

~ Phil Callaway,
author of I Used to Have Answers, Now I Have Kids (Harvest House)

You are never too old

http://www.bluefishtv.com/Store/
Downloadable_Video_Illustrations/1739/Never_Too_Late

quote:

Noah was five-hundred when he began building the ark.
Abram was middle-aged when God called him out of Ur to begin a new nation.
Sarah was ninety-nine when she gave birth to Isaac.
Moses was eighty when God told him to rescue the nation Israel from Pharaoh.
Caleb was forty years old when he spied on the Canaanites.
Daniel was eighty-six when he was thrown into the lion's den.
Jesus was thirty when he began his ministry.

It's never too late to follow God's call.

"I really needed to swim out to the wave"

quotes from Raquel Welch, April 2010:

Today, Raquel says she has a great relationship with her kids, but it took work. "I just started out realizing that I really needed to swim out to the wave. I needed to take a lot more initiative and just keep letting them know that I wanted to be there in their lives with them, that I had something I could offer to them," she says. "Little by little, the disappointment or the lack of confidence they had in me melted away."
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Sex-Symbol-Raquel-Welch-on-Aging/6

Marilyn [Monroe] oozed "availability," which was how we young girls felt hormonally, though we had to put a lid on it. What troubled me back then was the fact that as hypnotic as Marilyn was to watch, she gave the impression of someone who could be easily taken advantage of and who couldn't fight back . . . like my mother. For that reason, I didn't want to be like her at all. She was an accident waiting to happen. Later, I saw that there were some men who could be protective. That was reassuring, but then they might end up taking ownership of you. Being a girl was like walking a tightrope.
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Excerpt-Raquel-Welchs-Raquel-Beyond-the-Cleavage/10

Jaime Escalante Math Program

Jaime Escalante Math Program
This article was first published in the Journal of Negro Education in 1990.

www.thefutureschannel.com/jaime_escalante/
jaime_escalante_math_program.php

"Yes, the barriers disadvantaged or minority students face are substantial, but it is the very possibility of their remaining trapped by them for an entire lifetime which requires that such students be urged to succeed in their academic studies. It may be their only way out. If students have not been taught that they are the “victims” of their environment and that they must, therefore, adjust to it, then teachers can gain their full willingness – and strength – to overcome whatever obstacles they face.
...
"Admittedly, there are those extremely rare children with such severe problems that they are unable to become successful students; but given admiration, discipline and encouragement, even “impossible” children will sometimes surprise everyone and “miraculously” begin to perform at higher levels.
...
"A teacher is a teacher when he or she identifies a student’s strengths and activates the student’s potential to learn.
...
"The key, for the teacher as well as for the student, is hard work. Hard work makes the future. When hard work is combined with love, humor and a recognition of the ganas – the desire to learn, the ability to sacrifice, the wish to get ahead – that burns in our young people, the stereotypes and the barriers begin to crumble."

A Wise Man

"A fool thinks himself to be wise,
but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."

~ William Shakespeare

The 80% Rule

http://health.msn.com/fitness/womens-fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100254483>1=31050

"Most guys avoid anything that even smacks of perfectionism," and that applies to dieting, too, says Prevention adviser Pamela Peeke, M.D., an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "When women start a diet, they go from zero to 100—they become 'perfect' overnight, which is a hallmark of failure.
That's why I developed the 80 percent rule: Hit your weight-loss goals 80 percent every single day you can. One day, it'll be 120 percent because it happens to be a great day. Other days, you'll hit 50 percent or even 20 percent when you're dealing with PMS. Just make sure it averages out to 80 percent."

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, quotes

"Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place....With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us."
~ Chapter 1, pp. 13-14

"A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya," he cried, "I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick."

~ John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men)

Einstein on Christianity and Judaism

Christianity and Judaism
If one purges the Judaism of the Prophets and Christianity as Jesus taught it of all subsequent additions, especially those of the priests, one is left with a teaching which is capable of curing all the social ills of humanity.
It is the duty of every man of good will to strive steadfastly in his own little world to make this teaching of pure humanity a living force, so far as he can. If he makes an honest attempt in this direction without being crushed and trampled under foot by his contemporaries, he may consider himself and the community to which he belongs lucky.

~ From Einstein's book The World as I See It (Philosophical Library, New York, 1949) pp. 111-112

Os Guinness, The Call

“In the decades I have followed Jesus, second only to the joy of knowing him has been a sorrow at the condition of those of us today who name ourselves his followers. If so many of us profess to live by the gospel yet are so pathetically marginal to the life of our societies and so nondescript and inconsequential in our individual lives, is there something wrong with the gospel, or does the problem lie with us?”

"Years ago that question prompted me to a search through other times and places to look for instances in which the truths of the gospel were neither platitudinous nor impotent but fresh, compelling, explosive, and consequential. Along with the truth of the cross of Christ, the truth of calling has been as influential on individuals and societies as any truth in history--and will be again, when rediscovered."

"Do you want to know a truth that in the momentous challenges of our modern world will be at once a quest to inspire you, an anchor to hold you fast, a rich fare to nourish you, and a relationship you will prize above all others? Listen to Jesus of Nazareth; answer his call."

~ Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life, Thomas Nelson: Nashville, TN, 1998, p. 59

Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful

"Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful."

~ Author unknown

Jesus Loves Me Too Much to Let Me Stay That Way

"Jesus Christ Loves Me Just The Way I Am,
But Too Much To Let Me Stay That Way."

~ Author unknown

get what you always got

"If you always do what you always did,
you'll always get what you always got!"

"One day at a time,
no guilt,
and move on."

Dotti
www.dwlz.com

a TULIP of communication

Quoted from PreachingNow email list:

In a recent interview on the website Breakfast With Fred, Steve Brown (speaker for KeyLife, a prof at Reformed Seminary, and a Preaching Magazine senior consulting editor) explained that, "In my classes at the seminary, I teach a TULIP of communication. The TULIP presupposes the authority of Scripture, understanding doctrine, knowing how to exegete a text. The principles are as follows . . .

T = Therapeutic. " The communicator must, by necessity, speak to problems with solutions. Like a surgeon, the words may heal or hurt to heal . . . but if there is no healing, then there is no real communication."

U = Unconventional. "The greatest sin for a communicator is the sin of boring the audience . . . Don't say it the way everybody else has said it. Don't say the expected. Don't fit into anybody else's mold."

L = Lucid. "I tell students that a good measurement of their communication skills is this question: If your listeners wanted to take notes, could they? . . . The content my be only one point made by a story . . . but that one point should be clear . . . clear enough so that it would be written down and put into practice."

I = Illustrated. "Stories are very, very important in modern communication. Learn where to find them, how to use them and then use them often . . . "

P = Passionate. "If you don't care, nobody else will. If you aren't excited about what you are going to say, nobody else will be excited. So, if your "hot buttons" are not pushed, don't try to communicate it to anybody else." (To read the entire interview, click here.)

Preaching

"Preaching should break a hard heart, and heal a broken heart."

Pastor John Newton,
ex drunken slave trader,
author of "AMAZING GRACE."

self-discipline and awareness of consequences are critical

The Dalai Lama had not heard of Tiger Woods before. After hearing the facts, he agreed that a return to Buddhism would be helpful, saying that self-discipline and awareness of consequences were critical.

Os Guinness on the Civility of William Wilberforce

Os Guinness on William Wilberforce
Posted by Tim Challies
In Author Interviews

There are scores of lessons we can learn from Wilberforce, but take just one: his civility. As a follower of the way of Jesus, he loved his enemies and always refused to demonize them. At one time he was the most vilified man in the world, but while he never minced words in speaking about the evils of slavery, he was always gracious, generous, modest, funny, witty, and genuinely loving toward his enemies. When one of his worst enemies died, he at once saw to it anonymously that his widow was cared for adequately. Compare this with the religious right's demonizing of its foes. The latter is not so much uncivil as unChristian.

http://www.discerningreader.com/blog/2008/02/
author-interview-os-guinness

book review of The Call, Os Guinness

The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life
Os Guinness

Amazon book review
By Michael Taylor (Indian Trail NC)

I personally thought some of Guinness' better points were:

1. Be devoted to Jesus instead of your service to Jesus.


2. Be inner-directed by God rather than other-directed by the opinions of
   others (what God thinks matters most!).


3. God calls us to a life of faith.


4. Deliberately spend time in solitude with God.


5. Glorify God in the ordinary things of life.


6. A sense of calling keeps us focused when modern-day life threatens to tear us apart.


7. Taking God's call seriously means we will pay the price of being abused and
   treated as fools by those who do not understand.

All in all, an excellent read!

http://www.amazon.com/Call-Finding-Fulfilling-Central-Purpose/
dp/0849944376/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267217114&sr=8-1

Know where you are going

"If you don't know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere."

~ Henry Kissinger

Joy exist in us

"Joy doesn't exist in the world, it exists in us."

~ Benjamin Franklin

geniuses learn from other people's mistakes

“Most people never learn anything at all,
very smart people learn from their own mistakes,
and the geniuses learn from other people's mistakes.”

~ Brazilian adage

The eternal human needs

The eternal human needs:
love, safety, meaning, health, forgiveness, inspiration, liberation, renewal, etc.

~ Rabbi Brad Hirschfield

To get something you never had ...

"To get something you never had,
you have to do something you never did."

~ Author Unknown

Prayer - Mary Oliver

Praying
Mary Oliver

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.



The Summer Day
Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Quiet Angels

"I believe that friends are quiet angels
who lift us to our feet
when our wings
have trouble remembering how to fly."

~ Author Unknown

"Forgotten is Forgiven"

The News From Lake Woebegone, Garrison Keillor
"Forgotten is Forgiven"
Prairie Home Companion Feb. 13, 2010

(paraphrase)

After I heard that 1 Cor. 13 love chapter in the Lutheran church, I was moved by it to visit my cousin Barbara. We had not spoken for five years. I brought a peace offering with me -- a couple of loaves of home-baked banana bread, and a quart of Bailey's Irish Creme.

I knocked on her door. I had the banana bread in my hand.
You've gotta bake a peace offering yourself.

She said "This is good."
And so peace was made.
This is how we do this in Lake Woebegon, you see.

This goes against psychology, which tells you that you should talk through these things.
But we believe that if you talk through your problems, you find new ones, and you dig the hole deeper, and you open up a whole fresh can of worms.

And so the way we solve problems is just to look at them and deny that they ever existed. This is how you do it in Lake Woebegon.

The secret of a good marriage is the same as being in a lifeboat for a month.
No sudden moves, allow the other person a lot of room, keep all disastrous thoughts to yourself, and don't try to talk through your problems.
Just try to have more fun -- that's the way you rescue a marriage.

Dorothea's Defenses of Others

"I feel convinced that his conduct has not been guilty; I believe that people are almost always better than their neighbors think they are,"

Dorothea says this in defense of Lydgate, who, let's face it - looked pretty guilty. It is in line with another of her best quotes, when she is defending Will Ladislaw:

"..people may really have in them some vocation which is not quite plain to themselves, may they not? They may seem weak and idle because they are growing. We should be very patient with each other, I think."

http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/
Middlemarch-Quotes---Who-Said-It-176081.html

“I will learn what everything costs”

following quoted from:
The Cost of Everything, or Why Everyone Should Read George Elliot's Middlemarch

the Finale of Middlemarch:
"The effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not no ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."
— George Eliot (final lines - Middlemarch)

What Eliot reminds us is that there is a largely invisible web of people, events, and conditions that sustains us, and that for every Wordsworth, there are many more “mute, inglorious Miltons” who “rest in unvisited tombs.”
...
No character in Middlemarch, no matter how “minor,” is inconsequential.
...
The whole web of society—from Sir James Chettam, and Mr. Brooke, to Bulstrode and the Vincys, to Raffles and the Dagley family of tenant farmers—are interdependent. And that is to say nothing of that great web of history. One individual cannot extract himself from this web, nor one class, nor one race, nation, or epoch, any more than the novelist herself can stand outside of the enormously complex web of history and declare “here, this is how it happened—this is how Rome was founded.”
...
All our actions will have far-ranging, unimaginable, and probably unintended consequences. We must try, therefore, to learn, even if imperfectly, what everything costs.
...
Dorothea’s voice, as she made this childlike picture of what she would do, might have been almost taken as a proof that she could do it effectively. The searching tenderness of her woman’s tones seemed made for a defence against ready accusers. Lydgate did not stay to think that she was Quixotic; he gave himself up, for the first time in his life, to the exquisite sense of leaning entirely on a generous sympathy, without any check of proud reserve. And he told her everything, from the time when, under the pressure of his difficulties, he unwillingy made his first application to Bulstrode; gradually, in the relief of speaking, getting into a more thorough utterance of what had gone on in his mind—entering fully into the fact that his treatment of the patient was opposed to the dominant practice, into his doubts at the last, his ideal of medical duty, and his uneasy consciousness that the acceptance of the money had made some difference in his private inclination and professional behavior, though not in his fulfillment of any publicly recognized obligation…
As Lydgate rode away, he thought, “This young creature has a heart large enough for the Virgin Mary. She evidently thinks nothing of her own fortune, and would pledge away half her income at once, as if she wanted nothing for herself but a chair to sit in from which she can look down with those clear eyes at the poor mortals who pray to her. She seems to have what I never saw in any woman before—a fountain of friendship towards men—a man can make a friend of her. Casaubon must have raised some heroic hallucination in her. I wonder if she could have any other sort of passion for a man? Ladislaw? --there was certainly an unusual feeling between them. And Casaubon must have had some notion of it. Well--her love might help a man more than her money." Dorothea on her side had immediately formed a plan of relieving Lydgate from his obligations to Bulstrode, which she felt for sure was a part, though small, of the galling pressure he had to bear. (763,768-69)
...
Ultimately, Dorothea fails to restore Lydgate’s reputation or improve his marriage. She never knows what a precious gift she has given. This is what true charity is: the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. But the realist novelist does.
...
So that, every semester, and sometimes twice a semester, when I get to Dorothea’s declaration “I will learn what everything costs,” I have to fight back the tears. And it’s not just exhaustion-induced emotion, as it may have been when you marathon readers got there. It strikes me as just about the most romantic—or better, loving—thing one person can say to another. It says that whatever reality throws in our path, whatever constraints, whatever uncertainties, whatever obstacles, I will assume the costs, and do whatever I can to be loyal, decent, and loving towards you. So much better than Will’s earlier declaration to Dorothea “you are a poem!”
...
We readers of Middlemarch, “the home epic,” know that “the growing good of the world is half owning to those who lived a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”

"the effect of her being on those around her was incalculable"

"But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not no ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."

— George Eliot (final lines - Middlemarch)

Christopher Hitchens Gets it Exactly Right

quote from Dr. Ray Pritchard:
http://www.christianity.com/blogs/pritchard/11625690/

During a recent trip to Portland, Oregon, noted atheist Christopher Hitchens laid down some seriously good theology. Most people recognize Hitchens as the author of the bestselling book God is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything. Since the book's publication in 2007, Hitchens has toured the country debating a series of religious leaders, including some well-known evangelical thinkers. In Portland he was interviewed by Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell. The entire transcript of the interview has been posted online. The following exchange took place near the start of the interview:

Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I'm a liberal Christian, and I don't take the stories from the scripture literally. I don't believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

Hitchens: I would say that if you don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you're really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.

Sewell wanted no part of that discussion so her next words are, "Let me go someplace else."
This little snippet demonstrates an important point about religious "God-talk." You can call yourself anything you like, but if you don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins and then rose from the dead, you are not "in any meaningful sense" a Christian.

Talk about nailing it.
In one of the delicious ironies of our time, an outspoken atheist grasps the central tenet of Christianity better than many Christians do. What you believe about Jesus Christ really does make a difference.

His True Self

"When he came here, he began to be his true self."

~ David L., at a SM memorial service 1/31/2010

John was like a burning and shining lamp

"John was like a burning and shining lamp."

~ John 5:35a, NLT

35 John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his message.
36 But I have a greater witness than John—my teachings and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they prove that he sent me.
37 And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face,
38 and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the one he sent to you.

~ John 5:35-38, NLT

Fear of the Cross

"You can't be afraid to do something just because there is a cross involved."

~ Truthful Grace

Peace at the bottom

Thematic Summary of Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
http://www.articlemyriad.com/summary_little_dorrit.htm

The doctor, too, seems to feel at home as if among family or a community when in the prison. He comments to Mr. Dorrit in one of the important quotes from "Little Dorrit" by Dickens that all he wants is “A little more elbow room,” and he expounds upon the benefits of their incarceration and the prison environment: “We are quiet here; we don’t get badgered here… It’s freedom, sir, it’s freedom!....Elsewhere, people are restless, worried, hurried about, anxious respecting one thing, anxious respecting another. Nothing of the kind here, sir” (Dickens 78-79).
Quite paradoxically, the doctor concludes by proclaiming, “[W]e have got to the bottom, we can’t fall, and what have we found? Peace” (Dickens 78-79).
Mr. Dorrit recognizes that he actually agrees with the doctor, acknowledging that while he was “[c]rushed at first by his imprisonment, he had soon found a dull relief in it” (Dickens 79).

God was ready to take him home

quote from Jack's Life: The Life Story of C.S. Lewis, by Douglas H. Gresham, his stepson:

“He was the finest man I ever knew in my life, and I miss him to this day. But he was ready to go. He had done all he wanted to do and said all he wanted to say; and more important still, God was ready to take him home.”

cats: to love things for themselves

How are dog people and cat people different?
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN

quotes:

Veterinarian David Bessler, senior emergency clinician at NYC Veterinary Specialists in New York City, said he was a dog person growing up, but that owning a cat has "converted " him. It hasn't changed his personality, but he can imagine that dog people and cat people have personality differences.

"To love cats, you have to be able to love things for themselves; they have their own life, they aren't necessarily dependent on you," he said. "Your dog kind of lives for you."
...
Both of those studies are mentioned in an upcoming book called "Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why it is So Hard to Think Straight About Animals" by Hal Herzog, professor of psychology at Western Carolina University.
...
About 37 percent of American households have dogs and 32 percent have cats, but the cat population (82 million) is significantly higher than the dog population (72 million), said Herzog, citing 2007 data from the American Veterinary Medical Association. That's because people tend to own multiple cats, as they are more amenable to many people's lifestyles, he said.

People tend to gravitate toward the animals they were raised with, Herzog said. Cat owners tend to be raised in cat families, and dog owners tend to be raised in dog families. In fact, one study found the animal you like is the one your grandparents lived with, he said.

The field of anthrozoology, the study of how animals and people relate to one another, only recently took off, Herzog said.

"I think our interactions with animals shed a lot of light on larger issues in human psychology," he said. "With pets it's things like attachment and why we're altruistic toward other creatures, especially creatures that we're not genetically related to."

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/13/
cat.dog.personality/index.html?hpt=Sbin

someone who appreciates you

“Your heart just breaks, that’s all. But you can’t judge, or point fingers. You just have to be lucky enough to find someone who appreciates you.”

~ Audrey Hepburn

Loving Dogs

"The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs."

~ Charles de Gaulle, President of France, 1958-69

http://www.answers.com/topic/charles-de-gaulle
"Charles de Gaulle rose to the rank of general and was serving as France's minister for National Defense and War in June, 1940, when France capitulated to Germany early in World War II. DeGaulle escaped to Britain, where he made a famous broadcast calling on the French people to resist (earning him the nickname of the "Man of June 18, 1940"). DeGaulle formed the Free French forces and led the provisional government that ruled France after it was retaken from Germany. After the war he was elected head of the French government."

Marriage benefits men the most

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/01/05/
elizabeth.gilbert.marriage.book/index.html

'Eat, Pray, Love' author tackles marriage
By A. Pawlowski, CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• In "Committed," Elizabeth Gilbert spends months traveling and researching marriage
• Gilbert, boyfriend were "sentenced to wed" to avoid immigration problems
• "Women go into marriage with such high expectations," Gilbert says
• Julia Roberts will play her in the film version of Gilbert's memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love"
  

excerpt:

CNN: Marriage has often been portrayed as something that protects women. But you found in your book that it benefits men the most. Were you surprised by that?

Gilbert: It's surprising, though it shouldn't be. Looking at study after study, it becomes quite chilling to see how very much benefited men are by marriage. Married men perform in life exceptionally better than single men, they live longer, they're richer, they're happier.

CNN: And yet men are often reluctant to enter into marriage.

Gilbert: Which is the big irony. They have to be dragged kicking and screaming into something that will benefit them enormously in life. And the cruel irony is that the people who drag them kicking and screaming into it -- the women -- are the ones who often find that they've gotten the short end of the stick.

Women give more and as a result they give up more.

I think the other problem is that women go into marriage with such high expectations, really inflated romantic ideas about what this relationship is going to be. Men go into marriage with virtually no expectations whatsoever. Ten years later, the men are delightfully surprised to find out that it's actually kind of nice, and the women have sort of had to take a nose dive from what they thought it was going to be.
...

There's a wonderful expression, a Brazilian adage, that says most people never learn anything at all, very smart people learn from their own mistakes, and the geniuses learn from other people's mistakes.

Martin Luther King Jr. quotes

“It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.” (MLK)

“We must learn to live together as brothers (and sisters/my addition) or perish together as fools.” (MLK)

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” (MLK)

“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.” (MLK)

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” (MLK)

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” (MLK)

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.” (MLK)

“A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.” (MLK)

Goals - Picasso

"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone."

"Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success."

"Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility."

"The chief enemy of creativity is "good" sense."

"There are only two types of women - goddesses and doormats."

"We don't grow older, we grow riper."

"You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea."

"You mustn't always believe what I say. Questions tempt you to tell lies, particularly when there is no answer."

~ Pablo Picasso

work and happiness

"Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time."

~ Pablo Picasso

dangerous sympathetic understanding

"Is there anything more dangerous than sympathetic understanding?"

~ Pablo Picasso

Faith looks up

"Worry looks around,
sorry looks back,
Faith looks up."

~ author unknown

How To Make a Marriage Work

“Keep a neat and clean house;
Feed him well and have meals ready on time;
Have interesting thoughts to discuss at the table;
Listen to his telling of his day.”

~ Georga Henderson, PEO
(Mother of Francine I. Neff, PEO, Treasurer of the U.S.)

We are all equal creatures before God

"When you realize that we are all equal creatures before God, you can help others without being patronizing and superior, and you can receive without being degraded."

~ Rev. Dr. Diogenes Allen (1932-2013), Theologian, Professor of Philosophy, Princeton Theological Seminary

Four Fundamental Questions

Dallas Willard writes that there are four fundamental questions that every world view—and every human being—must answer.

What is real?

Who has "the good life"?

Who is a good person?

How do you become a good person?

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/
currenttrendscolumns/leadershipweekly/
tigerandthegoodlife.html

Happy, Normal People

"Happy, normal people have boring lives. They don't make good movies."

~ Truthful Grace

(to explain why the people in movies create conflict in their lives when a better decision would avoid the conflict)

Experiencing Notan

from Ute Arnold

Experiencing Notan: a new orientation of seeing

"NOTAN" is a Japanese word for balance between dark and light, background and foreground, yin and yang.

Notan demands a totally new orientation of seeing and experiencing ... the concept of opposing dualities and energy forces by finding the integration of doing and non-doing, empty and full, good and bad, positive and negative, outside and inside, anxiety and presence...

Writing is no trouble

"Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself - it is the occurring which is difficult."

~ Stephen Leacock

In love with a dimple

"Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl."

~ Stephen Leacock

The most beautiful thing

"The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling.
And even more beautiful, is to know that you are the reason behind it!"

~ Author Unknown

The more grateful you are

"The more grateful you are, the more you get to be grateful about. It's that simple."

~ Louise Hay, founder of Hay House

Our Pets

our pets:
"beauty without vanity,
strength without insolence,
courage without ferocity,
and the virtues of man without his vices"

~ Lord Byron

"The relationship trumps the issue."

"I got some great advice once: "The relationship trumps the issue." Like a lot of entrepreneurs, and especially social entrepreneurs, I get pretty fired up and attached to my own viewpoints. At times when I have disagreed with someone, when the stakes are high, I can take it personally and it's added distance between me and the person. Remembering that the relationship trumps the issue is key."

~ Premal Shah, Kiva President

Get the right things done

"Most coaches get things done right.
The winners get the right things done."

Coach Frank Broyles

Bitterness

"I will not be poisoned by your bitterness."

~ Ann Shirley
Ann of Green Gables, the Sequel
Lucy Maud Montgomery

Presidential Thanksgiving quotes

President Ronald Reagan, Thanksgiving Day, 1986:

"Perhaps no custom reveals our character as a Nation so clearly as our celebration of Thanksgiving Day. Rooted deeply in our Judeo-Christian heritage, the practice of offering thanksgiving underscores our unshakable belief in God as the foundation of our Nation and our firm reliance upon Him from Whom all blessings flow."

President Harry Truman's proclamation from 1951:

"We are profoundly grateful for the blessings bestowed upon us: the preservation of our freedom, so dearly bought and so highly prized; our opportunities for human welfare and happiness, so limitless in their scope; our material prosperity, so far surpassing that of earlier years; and our private spiritual blessings, so deeply cherished by all. For these we offer fervent thanks to God."

Aim for the bull's eye

"We always aim for the bull's eye. We don't always make it."

~ Clint Eastwood

Getting Older

George Clooney is aware that humans are mortal.

"I'm kind of comfortable with getting older because it's better than the other option, which is being dead."

Guidance

"Do not ask the Lord to Guide your Footsteps
if you are not willing to move your Feet."

~ author unknown

one dead dog away from a country song

David Hiltbrand: dhiltbrand@phillynews.com
Philadelphia Inquirer
Oct. 4, 2009

-Yee ha. Funniest line of the week went to Gaby on "Desperate Housewives."

After Carlos listed all the trials that his poor niece had endured, Gaby said, "Yeah, yeah. She's one dead dog away from a country song."

Don't Hope ... Decide

Don’t Hope…Decide

Michael Hargrove tells about a scene at an airport that literally changed his life.
He was picking up a friend. He noticed a man coming toward him carrying two light bags. The man stopped right next to Hargrove to greet his family. The man motioned to his youngest son (maybe six years old) as he laid down his bags. They hugged and Hargrove heard the father say, “It’s so good to see you, son. I missed you so much!”
“Me, too, Dad!” said the son.
The oldest son (maybe nine or ten) was next.
“You’re already quite the young man. I love you very much, Zach!”
Then he turned to their little girl (perhaps one or one-and-a-half). He kissed her and held her close.
He handed his daughter to his oldest son and declared, “I’ve saved the best for last!” and preceded to give his wife a long, passionate kiss. “I love you so much!” He said to his wife softly.
Hargrove interrupted this idyllic scene to ask, “Wow! How long have you two been married?”
“Been together fourteen years total, married twelve of those,” the man replied, as he gazed into his wife’s face.
“Well then, how long have you been away?”
The man turned around and said, “Two whole days!” Hargrove was stunned. “I hope my marriage is still that passionate after twelve years!”
The man stopped smiling and said, “Don’t hope, friend . . . decide!”

And that’s it, isn’t it? For most of us it comes down to a decision. “Till death us do part.” It doesn’t happen in every relationship, but that is still the ideal that Jesus gives us.

~ Michael Hargrove, quoted by King Duncan, Collected Sermons

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