"The inevitable corollary to self-righteousness is contempt for other people."

"The inevitable corollary to self-righteousness is contempt for other people."
~ author unknown, can't find source again

Self-righteousness (also called sanctimoniousness, sententiousness, and holier-than-thou attitudes) is a feeling or display of (usually smug) moral superiority derived from a sense that one's beliefs, actions, or affiliations are of greater virtue than those of the average person. Self-righteous individuals are often intolerant of the opinions and behaviors of others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-righteousness

quotes on how to stay married for a long time

quotes on how to stay married for a long time:

In her book "Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give," the writer Ada Calhoun recounts asking her mom, in a fit of frustration with her husband, how she had stayed married.
Her mother's response: "Don't get divorced."

The actor Jamie Lee Curtis expressed a similar sentiment when asked about her longtime marriage to actor-director Christopher Guest.
"It's a fascinating thing," Curtis told Today in 2015. "I could write a book on marriage called 'Don't Leave.'"
She later elaborated in an interview with Good Housekeeping. "There's a recovery phrase that says, 'Stay on the bus...the scenery will change,'" she said. "I think it can apply to almost anything where you feel unhappy in that moment. I'm not a wild romantic. I'm a realist. I respect him. And I just don't leave."

Gwyneth Paltrow shared something her late father had said of his and her mother's long union:
"How did you and Mom stay married for 33 years?" she asked him.
" 'Well,' he said, 'we never wanted to get divorced at the same time.' "

quotes from CNN "This may be the secret to Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's amazingly long marriage" by Peggy Drexler, October 19, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/19/opinions/jimmy-carter-rosalynn-carter-long-marriage-drexler/index.html  as of 10/20/2019

other quotes:

"The best way to get most husbands to do something is
to suggest that perhaps they're too old to do it."
~ Shirley MacLaine

"Always look out for Number One
and be careful not to step in Number Two."
~ Rodney Dangerfield

"Do it once.  Do it right.  And never do it again."
~ Unknown

"The secret to a happy marriage is the same as the secret for alligator wrestling.
You must never let go."

"If dependence upon God is the objective, weakness is an advantage."

"If dependence upon God is the objective, weakness is an advantage."
~ Rev. Alistair Begg, Truth for Life

Christians celebrating Halloween

Hillsong pastor Nathan Finochio addressing criticism that Christians who celebrate Halloween are participating in a pagan practice and glorifying the devil:
A follower asked Finochio “Halloween yes or no?” and he replied with a very detailed response.
“Pagan Feast of Winter Solstice? Oh that’s now JESUS BIRTHDAY.
Pagan Feast of Spring Planting? Oh that’s now EASTER WEEKEND.
Pagan Celtic Festival involving dressing up and warding off evil spirits? Oh now it’s ALL SAINTS DAY and we celebrate the VICTORIOUS CHURCH THAT HAS BEEN OVERCOME BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB!!! CANDY PLEASE!!!” he wrote.
The pastor added, “I’m not afraid of any devil or demon or incantation. They are terrified of me. Halloween is now MY HOLIDAY and I am claiming all candy for the glory of God and the celebration of the Saints.
What now? I’ll dress up however I like! My favorite characters, pop culture stuff, whatever. It’s my party and you’re invited. I’m alive today and a Saint tomorrow. Give me candy.”

www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/celebrity/hailey-baldwin-claps-back-at-fake-christian-halloween-comments/ar-AAJ2h0q

Native American Seven Generations Teaching

Indigenous Practices and Seven Generations Teaching

Seven Generations Teaching: What we do today impacts the next seven generations to come. Conversely, what happened in the past seven generations impacts us today.

The Seven Generations Teaching is a concept that is part of many North American Indigenous cultures, specifically the Anishnaabe. Many understand this teaching as what you do today affects the next seven generations. We can have a positive impact on the next seven generations or a negative impact depending upon our choices as individuals and as a collective. This teaching also reflects upon knowing your ancestors, the past seven generations. If you do not know where you have come from you will not know where you are going.

quoted from:
Western University
Scholarship@Western
Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)
8-18-2009
Beyond Recovery: Colonization, Health and Healing for Indigenous People in Canada
Lynn F. Lavallee
Jennifer M. Poole

Citation of this paper: Lavallee, Lynn F. and Poole, Jennifer M., "Beyond Recovery: Colonization, Health and Healing for Indigenous People in Canada" (2009).Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi). 254. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/aprci/254

https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1190&context=aprci


"Rich people plan for four generations.
Poor people plan for Saturday Night."
~ Gloria Steinem

Responding to Unjust Accusations

“Tammie Jo, you will never be held responsible for what they say to you. You will be held accountable for every word you say to others. Let God take care of them.”

~ Jerolene Bonnell, the mother of Captain Tammie Jo Bonnell Shults, Navy lieutenant commander pilot, Southwest Airlines pilot, Captain of Southwest Flight 1380, author of Nerves of Steel

We are called to live by faith — not fairness.
~ Habbakuk 2:4

Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me.
~ Psalm 35:1

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.
~ Exodus 14:14

Do not be afraid of them; the Lord your God himself will fight for you.
~ Deuteronomy 3:22

Time Will Tell

"You will never be alone my love,
my heart is your home.
Hand in hand,
today, tomorrow and forever."

These were the words chosen by Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in his Instagram post, announcing his engagement to Princess Beatrice on Thursday, September 26, 2019.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-49843830

What we speak . . .

“What we speak becomes the house we live in.”
~ Hafiz

For a New Beginning - John O'Donohue

For a New Beginning
John O'Donohue

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.


John O'Donohue was an Irish poet, author, priest, and
philosopher.

Trust

Cara Wall, The Dearly Beloved: A Novel, Simon & Schuster, 2019, Kindle pages 207-8

quote:
They went to service at her church, and James was spellbound by her father’s presence. He was not only in the pulpit but was, somehow, also of it—an alloy of man and minister, fearsome and approachable, exacting but kind. James felt the tension of the current, upheaving times in the church, but also the long rudder Nan’s father had put in the water, his strong hand on the wheel. He wondered how he would ever attain that wherewithal, that command.
When he asked Nan’s father about it later, in the same office in which they had sat once before, her father said, “In my opinion, the most important job a minister has is to become a man who can lead his congregation through difficult times.”

“This,” her father continued, “requires you to become someone they can trust.”
James flinched; it was a quick and sudden cut. He saw, instantly, that he was not that man for his congregation.
“Nan tells me you are the one causing trouble at your church.”
James nodded.
Nan’s father shook his head and sighed. “That’s one option—standing for what you want to stand for. If you stick with it, you’ll earn people’s respect. But if you want to earn people’s trust, you can’t chastise those who disagree with you. You have to include everyone—no matter how misguided they seem to you. You have to give them time to say their piece, look them in the eye, and give them credit for it.”
James said, “That is the very last thing I want to do.”
“Then you’re an activist, James, and you should quit the ministry.”
James flinched again. He had seen, in this trip, what Nan had lost in marrying him. In marrying her, he had lost the freedom of choosing any other profession. And he did not regret it. “That’s the other very last thing I want to do.”
“A divided congregation will always turn on itself, James, and then what use will they be to the outside world?”
It was exactly what Nan had been trying to tell him. As he watched her brush her hair before bed that night, leaning against the edge of the dresser, he said, “Your father is a wise man.”
Nan turned to him and smiled. “I know.”
“I haven’t been so wise.”

I’m So Excited for 40th Grade

New York Times - Op-Ed Headline
Sept. 7, 2019

I’m So Excited for 40th Grade
by Mary Laura Philpott
When we become adults, we lose the prompt to reboot our lives every fall. But we don’t have to.

10 Powerful Quotes That Will Inspire You To Take Action

10 Powerful Quotes That Will Inspire You To Take Action
Zdravko Cvijetic
Jun 27, 2016

1. “Every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. Human beings, on the other hand, have been given the dignity of choice. You can choose to be all or you can choose to be less. Why not stretch up to the full measure of the challenge and see what all you can do?”
- Jim Rohn

2. “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”
- Cecil Beaton

3. “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
- Muhammed Ali

4. “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.”
- Jordan Belfort

5. “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.”
- Eric Thomas

6. “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
- Samuel Beckett

7. “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
- Steve Martin

8. “At the end of the day, let there be no excuses, no explanations, no regrets.”
- Steve Maraboli

9. “Someone once told me the definition of Hell: The last day you have on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become.”
- Anonymous

10. “Memento Mori (Remember That You Have To Die)”
- Latin Proverb

Leave your legacy.

(Blogger deleted Zdravko Cvijetic's other comments, for brevity)

https://medium.com/@zdravko/10-remarkable-quotes-that-will-inspire-you-to-take-action-7711003e527a

the story you keep telling yourself

 “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the [BS] story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.”
~ Jordan Belfort

old proverb about the definition of hell

Old proverb about the definition of hell:
On your last day on earth, the person you became
meets the person you could’ve become
and realizes the things you could’ve done.

Put yourself behind my eyes . . .

“Study me as much as you like,
you will not know me,
for I differ in a hundred ways
from what you see me to be.

Put yourself behind my eyes
and see me as I see myself,
for I have chosen to dwell
in a place you cannot see.”

~ Rumi,
a 13th-century Persian poet, faqih, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic

Pet Peeves

"Don't pet the peeves."
~ Max Lucado

What a Wonderful World

What a Wonderful World
Joey Ramone, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald

I see trees of green
Red roses, too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, "what a wonderful world"

I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, "what a wonderful world"

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying, "how do you do"
They're really saying "I love you"

I hear babies cry
Watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, "what a wonderful world"
And I think to myself, "what a wonderful world"

Songwriter: DOUG DIPRETA

Spring

“Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade.”
~ Charles Dickens, writer

God is mystery

“To say that God is mystery is to say that you can never nail him down. Even on Christ the nails proved ineffective.”

~ Frederick Buechner

"increases in endocannabinoids only when they were coached"

New York Times email
Well
August 22, 2019
quote:
Many people can attest to the fact that exercise helps them feel emotionally balanced.
This week Gretchen Reynolds writes about new research exploring that connection. Researchers used blood samples from women with depression who rode exercise bikes, sometimes coached and sometimes at their own pace.
They found something surprising:
Both kinds of exercise made them feel a bit better, but their blood showed increases in endocannabinoids only when they were coached.

Seventy-year-old Bob Long: “Preparation trumps youth”

New York Times Evening Briefing email, August 21, 2019
quote:
Seventy-year-old Bob Long of Boise, Idaho, won the Mongol Derby, a grueling 1,000-kilometer competition across the steppes of Mongolia. Mr. Long rode about 100 hours in seven and a half days, on 28 different horses, by his tally.
The amateur rider began training in January with previous winners of the race, riding four or five horses a day as far as each could go, and learning how to change horses efficiently. The key to Mr. Long’s success? “Preparation trumps youth,” he said.

Who Jesus Is

Who Jesus Is
by Bear Grylls, from his new devotional, Soul Fuel

When I was growing up, Madonna once said, “Jesus Christ was like a movie star, my favorite idol of all.”(1)

Napoleon Bonaparte went further: “I know men, and I tell you Jesus Christ was not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and other religions the distance of infinity.”(2)

And then there was novelist H. G. Wells: “I am an historian, I am not a believer. But, this penniless preacher from Galilee is irresistibly the centre of history.”(3)

There has never been a human quite like Jesus. He towers above us all in goodness and courage, in impact and influence. The greatest artists, leaders, and thinkers, all put together, are dwarfed by Him.
Yet Jesus did not come to impress us. He said He had come to save us, in total humility, as God come down among us. If He is who He says He is, and the Gospel is real, then this is very good news. He simply wants us to learn to reach out and trust Him to help and calm us, to forgive and restore us. If we are to live fully and empowered, then this has to be the first step.
So wherever you are with God — whether you are searching, are wanting more, or have turned your back and are walking away — this verse is truth:
The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. — Luke 19:10

(1) Scott Cohen, “Madonna: The 1985 ‘Like a Virgin’ Cover Story,” Spin, May 1985.
(2) Clayton Kraby, “Napoleon Bonaparte’s View of Jesus,” Reasonable Theology, https://reasonabletheology.org/napoleon-bonapartes-view-of-jesus/.
(3) Thomas A. Harris, I’m OK—You’re OK (New York: Quill, 2004).

Thich Nhat Hanh quotes

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce.
Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person.
But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce.
Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience.
No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.
Thich Nhat Hanh

When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Bring Small Children to Church

To Those Who Bring Small Children to Church:
There you are at church. Your baby or toddler is restless. Perhaps even a little boisterous. You try to silence them, and nothing. You try to pacify them with food or toys, and nothing. Eventually, you resort to the last thing you wanted to do: you pick them up, and before a watching audience, you make the march out of the church. All the while you’re a little embarrassed, maybe a little frustrated too.
You might even think to yourself, “There’s no point in coming to church. I get nothing out of it because I have to constantly care for my kid.”
I want you - mothers and/or fathers - to know just how encouraging you are to so many.
The elderly woman who often feels alone beams with a smile at the sight of you wrestling with your little one. She’s been there before. She knows how hard it can be, but she smiles because to hear that brings back precious memories. Seeing young parents and their small children brighten her day; she may have just received bad news about her health but seeing the vitality of young ones removes - if but for a moment - her fears.
The older man who always seems to be grouchy notices you too. He’s always talking about how children in this day have no respect or sense of goodness. But he sees you - a young family - in church every week. Like clockwork, he can depend on the sight of you and your young family. You give him hope that maybe the Church isn’t doomed after all, because there are still young parents who love God enough to bring their restless children to church.
Bring your children to church! If we don’t hear crying, the church is dying. As hard as it might be for you as a parent who’s half-asleep, keep on doing what you’re doing. You are an encouragement, and you’re starting off your children’s lives as you should.
~ Author unknown

Weekly Housekeeping Schedule

"So how did the Karkuts manage to keep this house looking like new for 57 years? Industrious parents who were willing to put in the time and effort, Mills says."
quotes:
Mom had everything planned:
Monday she would do the laundry and the ironing.
Tuesday was for running errands.
Wednesday she would change the sheets and clean the bedrooms.
Thursday she would clean the kitchen and the common rooms.
Friday was the bathrooms.

daughter Christina Mills explaining her mother Ann's housekeeping skills
https://www.phillymag.com/property/2019/07/25/house-for-sale-abington-midcentury-split-level/
Mr. and Mrs. E. Walter Karkut (Ann)

The 4 way test from Rotary International

The 4 way test from Rotary International:

• Is it the truth?
• Is it fair to all concerned?
• Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
• Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

no mistakes, just happy little accidents

“We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents.”
~ Bob Ross, one of America’s most beloved artists, on his TV show, “The Joy of Painting”

“Lord, you are my life.”

Mark Galli quoting Pope Francis:

Pope Francis, in a recent homily, is not being antagonistic toward journalists (at least I hope not), just making this point:

We may be curious about Jesus, or interested in church matters or religious news. We may open computer sites and the papers, and talk about holy things. … Jesus does not care about polls or past history. He is not looking for religion editors, much less “front page” Christians. He is looking for witnesses who say to him each day: “Lord, you are my life.”

Mark Galli
Editor-in-Chief, Christianity Today
​The Galli Report  (email)
Date: Fri, Jul 5, 2019 at 10:08 AM 

man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone

“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
~ Blaise Pascal, Pensées

Jesus claimed to fulfill His mission by dying for us

John Stott, one of the most influential Christians of our time, said Jesus claimed to fulfill His mission by dying for us:

"And the reason for this emphasis by the apostles is that they had seen it in the mind of Jesus himself.  It set him apart from the other religious leaders in history.  They died of natural causes in a good old age, having successfully completed their mission.  Muhammad was 62, Confucius 72, the Buddha 80 and Moses 120.  But Jesus died the horrible death of crucifixion in his early thirties, repudiated by his own people, apparently a complete failure, yet claiming to fulfill His mission by His death.  Indeed, during his last few days on earth, he was still looking forward to the accomplishment of his work.
"So the church has been right to choose the cross as its symbol for Christianity.  It could have chosen he crib in which the baby Jesus was laid, or the carpenter’s bench, or the boat from which he taught the people, or the towel with which he washed and wiped the disciple’s feet or the tomb from which he rose again, or the throne he occupies today, any one of these could have been an appropriate symbol of the Christian faith.  But the church passed them all by in favor of the cross, which stands for the necessity and centrality of his death." 
John Stott, Why I Am a Christian (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2003), 50-51.

John Calvin's definition of faith

John Calvin gave this definition of faith:

“We must not think that Christian faith is a pure and simple knowledge of God, or an understanding of the Scripture, which flutters about in the brain without touching the heart.  That is the opinion we normally hold of things which are validated for us by some reason which sounds probable.
Christian faith is, rather, a sure and solid assurance of the heart, by which we cling securely to the mercy of God which is promised to us through the gospel.”

John Calvin, Truth for All Time: A Brief Outline of the Christian Faith, Stuart Olyott, trans. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1998), 28.

Einstein's cluttered desk

One study by researchers at the University of Minnesota found a messy environment can make us more creative, whereas orderly surroundings make us more likely to confirm to traditional expectations.
As Albert Einstein – the owner of a notoriously messy desk – put it: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

Can decluttering your house really make you happier?
By Sarah Griffiths
15 May 2019
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190515-can-decluttering-your-house-really-spark-joy  as of 5/16/2019

"Life is a process of accepting the messes and learning to clean them up."

Quote from email:
New York Times Thursday Evening Briefing
Date: Thu, May 9, 2019, 6:32 PM

"Life is a process of accepting the messes and learning to clean them up."
That's according to Kelley Schlise, a plumber's daughter who will attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the fall.
Hers is one of five college application essays about work, class and money selected by our money columnist Ron Leiber after his sixth annual callout to high school seniors.

the most valuable result of all education

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly."
Thomas H. Huxley
English biologist (1825 - 1895)

Every time you make a choice . . .

"Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow- creatures, and with itself… Each of us at each moment is progressing to one state or the other."
~ C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The reality is that you will grieve forever. . .

"The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not 'get over' the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it.
You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered.
You will be whole again but you will never be the same.
Nor should you be the same nor would you want to."

~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler
www.whatsyourgrief.com

The Work of Christmas

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
    to find the lost,
    to heal the broken,
    to feed the hungry,
    to release the prisoner,
    to rebuild the nations,
    to bring peace among the people,
    to make music in the heart.

By American poet Howard Thurman from his “The Work of Christmas”

"when you fear God you fear nothing else"

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.
“Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord”;…

from The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 537 L

“Now it is today, and we can do so many stuff!”

“Now it is today, and we can do so many stuff!”
~ Daphne, upon awakening one morning
(Jenny's beloved six year-old granddaughter)

11 Inspirational Quotes from George H.W. Bush

11 Inspirational Quotes from George H.W. Bush
Life lessons from the former President of the United States.
By Lauren Hubbard
Dec 1, 2018
www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a20053077/best-george-hw-bush-quotes/  as of 12/7/2018

From his mild-mannered facade, few would have guessed that George H.W. Bush led such an eventful life: he served as a WWII combat pilot for the Navy, director of the CIA, and, of course, the 41st President of the United States, presiding over such momentous historical events as the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the Cold War. Alongside Barbara, his beloved wife of 73 years, Bush dispensed words of wisdom long beyond his tenure in public service, inspiring many with his faith and hope for a better tomorrow.

Here, a few of Bush's best-loved quotes.

ON PROBLEM SOLVING:
"No problem of human making is too great to be overcome by human ingenuity, human energy, and the untiring hope of the human spirit."

ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
"International exchanges are not a great tide to sweep away all differences, but they will slowly wear away at the obstacles to peace as surely as water wears away a hard stone."

ON TEAMWORK
"In crucial things, unity. In important things, diversity. In all things, generosity."

ON THE FUTURE
"I do not mistrust the future; I do not fear what is ahead. For our problems are large, but our heart is larger."

ON LIFE
"Be bold in your caring, be bold in your dreaming and above all else, always do your best."

ON COOPERATION
"Don't confuse being 'soft' with seeing the other guy's point of view."

ON FREEDOM
"Freedom and the power to choose should not be the privilege of wealth. They are the birthright of every American."

ON DOING WHAT'S RIGHT
"No generation can escape history."

ON EDUCATION
"Think about every problem, every challenge, we face. The solution to each starts with education."

ON HIS LEGACY
"History will point out some of the things I did wrong and some of the things I did right."

ON AMERICA
"America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world."

www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a20053077/best-george-hw-bush-quotes/  as of 12/7/2018

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” —Theodore Roosevelt.

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
—Theodore Roosevelt

"Grief is the terrible reminder of the depths of our love. . ."

Musician Nick Cave has shared an emotional open letter about how he still feels the presence of his son, Arthur, who died in 2015 aged 15.
"If we love, we grieve. . . . Grief and love are forever intertwined. Grief is the terrible reminder of the depths of our love and, like love, grief is non-negotiable. There is a vastness to grief that overwhelms our minuscule selves."
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-46084553

experiencing something new, in order to be able to choose something different

e-News, Sisters of St. Joseph, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia
Edition No. 79 — October 15, 2018

20th Anniversary Gift of Hope Gala Honors Sister Rita Woehlcke SSJ
October 5, 2018
Sister Rita Woehlcke SSJ received the Humanitarian of the Year Award at the event.
The Center is nationally recognized for cutting edge practices in breaking the cycle of homelessness, substance abuse and poor ‘starts’ for children.
Rita began her relationship with the Center for Great Expectations in 1995 and was instrumental in creating the mission statement and designing a vision for comprehensive care. In each case, the model was based on experiencing something new, in order to be able to choose something different, and then having the internal and external resources and support to maintain that new life. She views her time at CGE as one the most significant in her ministerial life. . . .
Congratulations, Rita!

Temper, temper

"Temper, temper! Don't give it away. Nobody wants it."
~ David M's grandmother

Wealth Priorities

Save 10% of your income.
Invest 10% in other people, according to God's priorities.
Live on 80% of your income.
Be blessed!

B-WAFF - Beautiful, Wonderful, Amazing, Fabulous, Fantastic

Did You B-WAFF Today?
B-WAFF is an acronym created by Rhonda Bryne. It stands for Beautiful, Wonderful, Amazing, Fabulous, Fantastic. These are POWERFUL words that change how one feels, thinks, and behaves. In other words, B-WAFF are positive affirmations that only need to be SAID to cause one to be positive in her feelings, thoughts, and behavior.
Try it. Tell the very next person you see right now: “You are __________”(use one of the B-WAFF words). What was the person’s reaction? How did YOU feel?
As related to P.E.O., they can move a chapter from being ORDINARY to being EXTRAORDINARY.
How is this done? As our State President Ellen Endslow would say, “Easy peasy,”that is, just before you walk into your next chapter meeting, say to yourself, “My chapter is ___________ “(use one of the B-WAFF words). Note what happens!
Oh, by the way, you can also use these words when angry with someone. The next time that you are angry with someone, just say, “You’re just AMAZING!” (Bet you’ll smile!)
So, don’t forget to B-WAFF today!
Alicia King Redfern
PA State Vice President

Quoted from an African missionary's newsletter

Quoted from an African missionary's newsletter, discussing seminary education for pastors:
"The African culture does not believe that men should be involved in the care of young children or even in teaching them. I am trying to convince my class of men that teaching, especially children, should be at the heart of the church. I want to get them excited about teaching Sunday School and making it a fun and enjoyable experience where children can come to know about the love of God.
Most of them look at me with stony faces revealing their aversion to the job, preaching to adults is what they consider the most important part of being a pastor. I pray that these men can become loving and caring fathers as well as pastors who understand the need to reveal the love of God the Father through their example."

The gender imagery that God has given us - C.S. Lewis

https://www.marykassian.com/re-imagining-god-in-the-shack/
quote:
The gender imagery that God has given us is highly important. It reflects critical truths about the nature of the Trinity. Calling him “she” violates his character and important imagery about the nature of our relationship to him. As C.S. Lewis observes,

Common sense, disregarding the discomfort, or even the horror, which the idea of turning all our theological language into the feminine gender arouses in most Christians, will ask “Why not? Since God is in fact not a biological being and has no sex, what can it matter whether we say He or She, Father or Mother, Son or Daughter?”
But Christians think that God Himself has taught us how to speak of Him. To say that it does not matter is to say either that all the masculine imagery is not inspired, is merely human in origin, or else that, though inspired, it is quite arbitrary and unessential. And this is surely intolerable: or, if tolerable, it is an argument …  against Christianity. It is also surely based on a shallow view of imagery. Without drawing upon religion, we know from our poetical experience that image and apprehension cleave closer together than common sense is here prepared to admit; that a child who has been taught to pray to a Mother in Heaven would have a religious life radically different from that of a Christian child. And as image and apprehension are in an organic unity, so, for a Christian, are human body and human soul.
The innovators are really implying that sex is something superficial, irrelevant to the spiritual life… [But] one of the ends for which sex was created was to symbolize to us the hidden things of God. One of the functions of human marriage is to express the nature of the union between Christ and the Church. We have no authority to take the living and semitive figures which God has painted on the canvas of our nature and shift them about as if they were mere geometrical figures… [God images himself as masculine because]…we are all, corporately and individually, feminine to Him.
…The male you could have escaped, for it exists only on the biological level. But the masculine none of us can escape. What is above and beyond all things is so masculine that we are all feminine in relation to it.
(Quotes from C.S. Lewis Essays Notes on the Way and That Hideous Strength.)

https://www.marykassian.com/re-imagining-god-in-the-shack/

Moments in Bonding - self-confident attaching

Moments in Bonding
“Bonding is a two-way street; parents and children interact.  Although we can, at present, describe only crudely the experience of bonding from the baby’s point of view, we can nevertheless see that the baby that self-confidently attaches itself to its mother is likely to behave in ways that arouse more affectionate and spontaneous maternal responses.  Conversely, a child who has suffered traumatic institutional separation from its mother will react with anger, anxious possessiveness, or self-protective detachment.  This obstructive behavior, in turn, produces negative responses from the mother that increase the child’s anger, possessive clinging, or guarded apathy.”

William F. May, "The Retarded," On Moral Medicine, 2nd ed.: #98: 738.

May’s footnote 8 for this paragraph:
8.  For further details, see John Bowlby, Attachment and Loss, Vol. I (New York: Basic Books, 1969), p. 340

Stuff you don't wanna forget

the following were copied from Desiree's Desired Creations, Desiree McCrorey
http://desiredcreations.com/misc_25Things.htm

25 things you should have learned by the time you have reached middle age

1. If you're too open-minded, your brains will fall out.
2. Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often.
3. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian, any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
4. It ain't the jeans that make your butt look fat.
5. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.
7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.
8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.
10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.
11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.
12. A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel so good.
13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.
14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.
15. No one has ever been shot while doing the dishes.
16. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.
17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.
18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.
20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.
21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.
23. When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste.
24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.
25. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.

A few more goodies...

1. Dogs have owners. Cats have staff.
2. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.
3. Don't sweat the petty things. Don't pet the sweaty things.
4. After all this is over, all that will really have mattered is how we treated each other.
5. Always remember you’re unique. Just like everyone else..
6. Don’t approve of political jokes; too many of them are already elected.
7. Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.
8. To avoid hating yourself in the morning--sleep 'till noon.

I don't know the origins of these, but whoever wrote them, thank you so very much! ;-)

Ozymandias

Ozymandias
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

written 1817

Redemption

"If you have been forgiven by God
then he gives you the power to forgive others."
~ youth pastor
I Can Only Imagine movie

I Can Only Imagine is a 2018 American Christian drama film directed by the Erwin Brothers and written by Alex Cramer, Jon Erwin, and Brent McCorkle, based on the story behind the MercyMe song of the same name, the best-selling Christian single of all time.
The film stars J. Michael Finley as Bart Millard, the lead singer who wrote the song about his relationship with his father (Dennis Quaid). Madeline Carroll, Priscilla Shirer, Cloris Leachman, and Trace Adkins also star.
I Can Only Imagine was released in the United States on March 16, 2018.

Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost . . .

Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost,
No birth, identity, form—no object of the world.
Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing;
Appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain.
Ample are time and space—ample the fields of Nature.
The body, sluggish, aged, cold—the embers left from earlier fires,
The light in the eye grown dim, shall duly flame again;
The sun now low in the west rises for mornings and for noons continual;
To frozen clods ever the spring's invisible law returns,
With grass and flowers and summer fruits and corn.

~ Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much

"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
James 5:16 KJV

Your Bible and your newspaper

"Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible."
~ Karl Barth

Let's Keep Praying!

LET'S KEEP PRAYING!
Ephesians 6:18

Irina Ratushinskaya's childhood quest for God, even while she was hearing school lectures promoting atheism and mocking Christianity, led her to a deep and unflinching faith. Her poetry expressed that faith and brought inspiration and hope to believers all over Russia.
It also brought her to the attention of the KGB. At age 28, Irina was arrested and sentenced to 7 years hard labor in the Bareshevo labor camp. There she was subjected to relentless interrogations, chilling cold, starvation, hard labor, and months of solitary confinement.
Irina's faith did not break. During the lonely nights, huddled against the cold wall of her cell, she composed poetry in her head about God. When Irina was finally released, she credited the prayers of believers for sustaining her. In one of her poems, she wrote:

Believe me, it was often thus:
In solitary cells, on winter nights
A sudden sense of joy and warmth
And a resounding note of love.
And then, unsleeping, I would know
A-huddle by an icy wall:
Someone is thinking of me now,
Petitioning the Lord for me.

I wonder, have we been faithful in praying for people who are going through difficult situations? Our prayers can make a difference!
- David C. Egner

You can expect God to intervene if you're willing to intercede.

What’s Before Identity Politics - The Galli Report

The Galli Report
email, 8/17/2018
Mark Galli, Editor-in-Chief, Christianity Today

What’s Before Identity Politics

This next piece gave me more empathy for people who are deeply invested in identity politics. I’ve noted many times how unhealthy I think this has become, but I hadn’t considered the root of the passion so many have to understand who they are and do so by fixating on their culture, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, or whatever. Nathanael Blake at Public Discourse argues that it goes back to Nietzsche’s proclamation of the death of God.

Without a transcendent worldview, all that remains is what we can see and touch—that’s the only reality left to find meaning in. But we also recognize how contingent and relative: “Consequently, tribal identity is no longer a secure psychological retreat into a stable source of meaning but a contested construct. Getting ‘woke’ and engaging in identity politics are attempts to find meaning in something that is an acknowledged social construct.”

This is behind the increasingly common claim that to challenge people’s sexual behavior or gender identity is to question, deny, or attack their humanity and even their existence. This seems insane to those who still reside in a Christian cosmos, for whom sexual desire or one’s feelings about gender are not at the core of one’s identity, and for whom criticizing sinful acts is a far cry from enacting a genocide of the sinful. But to those whose experiential sense of self is only that which they have created or adopted from their culture and their own desires, this makes sense. If self-creation is the fullest expression of our humanity, then critiquing someone’s self-constructed identity is to critique his humanity.

José Micard Teixeira – I NO LONGER

José Micard Teixeira – I NO LONGER

I no longer have patience for certain things, not because I’ve become arrogant, but simply because I reached a point in my life where I do not want to waste more time with what displeases me or hurts me.
 I have no patience for cynicism, excessive criticism and demands of any nature.
I lost the will to please those who do not like me, to love those who do not love me and to smile at those who do not want to smile at me.
I no longer spend a single minute on those who lie or want to manipulate.
I decided not to coexist anymore with pretense, hypocrisy, dishonesty and cheap praise.
I do not tolerate selective erudition nor academic arrogance.
I do not adjust either to popular gossiping.
I hate conflict and comparisons.
I believe in a world of opposites and that’s why I avoid people with rigid and inflexible personalities.
In friendship I dislike the lack of loyalty and betrayal.
I do not get along with those who do not know how to give a compliment or a word of encouragement.
Exaggerations bore me and I have difficulty accepting those who do not like animals.
And on top of everything I have no patience for anyone who does not deserve my patience.

~ José Micard Teixeira
Portuguese author

Brother Roger: Love your neighbor, whatever his or her religious or political outlook.

Brother Roger’s purpose in forming the ecumenical monastic community in Taizé, France was to provide safety and the love of God to those fleeing the hurts and conflicts of World War II. As he wrote in The Rule of Taizé,

Never stand still: advance with your brothers, race towards the goal in the steps of Christ. His path is a way of light – I am, but also, you are the light of the world” (John 8:12 and Matthew 5:14). In order for the light of Christ to permeate you, it is not enough to gaze on it as though you were purely spirit: you need to commit yourself resolutely, body and soul, to that path. Be a sign for others of brotherly love and of joy. . . .
Love the disadvantaged, all those who experience human injustice and are thirsting for justice. Jesus had a particular concern for them. . . .
Love your neighbor, whatever his or her religious or political outlook.

Brother Roger, The Rule of Taizé in French and English, Brewster, Mass.: Paraclete Press, 2013, 9-13.

Fearing God

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.
"Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord"; . . .

"I get enough."

How 3 words can stop what's stealing your joy: Instead of staying stuck in comparing and competing
Ann Voskamp

"I get enough."

I get enough… because I get enough Jesus – and Jesus for me is enough.
I get enough… because I get enough God – and God in me is enough.
I get enough… because I get enough grace – and His grace to me is enough.
I get enough… because I get enough Love – and His Love all around me, for me, in me, is enough.
I get enough.
When I can’t remember that I get enough – I just have to remember to give thanks.

Eucharisteo always precedes the miracle:
Give thanks – and you get the miracle of knowing that you do get enough. You get enough God.

The disease of not-enough… is cured when you give thanks for more than enough grace.
. . .
“He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?
If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing Himself to the worst by sending His own Son  –  is there anything else He wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us?” (Romans 8:32, NIV, MSG)
If God already gave us the extraordinary extravagance of Jesus – He will give the ordinary enough of right now.

The column was originally published on Ann Voskamp’s blog, annvoskamp.com.
www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/07/29/how-3-words-can-stop-whats-stealing-your-joy-instead-staying-stuck-in-comparing-and-competing.html

She is a friend of my mind.

"She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind."
~ Toni Morrison, Beloved

Fear Not

Fear Not
Our fear is a hump we have to get over, and we have to get over it before we can go very far with Jesus. To help an alcoholic or a drug addict, we must first get him or her off the stuff. That is the first step, the first lesson (if you will): to stop drinking or using. Only then does it make sense to talk about other things.
Jesus knew that people, from the day they are born, are slaves to fear, just as much slaves as a drunkard is to his bottle or an addict to his needle. And, until we can stop being afraid, and trust God, nothing else works. We are simply too consumed by fear and worry and anxiety to think about anything else.
For that reason Jesus spent a great deal of time telling us not to be afraid -- telling us directly, and acting out God's grace by feeding people who were hungry and rescuing those in trouble on the sea. God will be there when we need him. Fear not. It the first lesson in the Christian primer, the one on which all the others build.
~ William R. Boyer, Four Miles Out

truth-telling, confronting injustice, and pursuing peace

William Sloane Coffin, Jr., who died at the age of 81, was a scholar, civil rights leader, antiwar activist, and a prophet. He summed up his faith by saying, "I believe Christianity is a worldview that undergirds all progressive thought and action."
He also said, "The Christian church is called to respond to Biblical mandates like truth-telling, confronting injustice, and pursuing peace."

Hope

"Hope is not a matter of waiting for things outside us to get better. It is about getting better inside about what is going on inside. It is about becoming open to the God of newness."

- Joan D. Chittister, Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, MI, 2003, 110.

Turn your face to the sun

"Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall always behind you."

- native New Zealand proverb

Give Light

"Give light and the darkness will disappear of itself. "

- Erasmus

Failure and Success

"Failure changes us for the better, success for the worse."

- Seneca, Roman philosopher 

Live in the Present

"When we yield to discouragement it is usually because we give too much thought to the past and to the future. " -St. Therese of Lisieux, Peacemaking, 1989 ed.

Glued to Our Faults

Glued to Our Faults
James S. Hewett once gave an apt example of people not getting the respect they deserve. Especially young people.
He tells about his son, who was using one of those super-adhesive glues on a model airplane he was building. "In less than three minutes," says James Hewett, "his right index finger was bonded to a shiny blue wing of his DC-10. He tried to free it. He tugged it, pulled it, waved it frantically, but he couldn't budge his finger free."
Soon, they located a solvent that did the job and ended their moment of crisis.
Then James Hewitt writes this: "Last night I remembered that scene when I visited a new family in our neighborhood. The father of the family introduced his children: 'This is Pete. He's the clumsy one of the lot.' 'That's Kathy coming in with mud on her shoes. She's the sloppy one.' 'As always, Mike is last. He'll be late for his own funeral, I promise you.'"
James Hewett goes on to say, "The dad did a thorough job of gluing his children to their faults and mistakes. People do it to us all the time. They remind us of our failures, our errors, our sins, and they won't let us live them down.
Like my son trying frantically to free his finger from the plane, there are people who try, sometimes desperately, to free themselves from their past. They would love a chance to begin again. When we don't let people forget their past, when we don't forgive, we glue them to their mistakes and refuse to see them as more than something they have done.
However, when we forgive, we gently pry the doer of the hurtful deed from the deed itself, and we say that the past is just that--the past--over and done with . . ."
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

"Church would be easy if it weren't for people."

"Church would be easy if it weren't for people."
Allister Begg, Truth for Life radio program,
heard on radio 6-25-2018

"Know how to use the power that you have."

"Know how to use the power that you have."

~ Truthful Grace

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

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

~ Pastor John Newton, ex drunken slave trader, author of the hymn "Amazing Grace"

Loving well is the best revenge

"Loving well is the best revenge."

~ author unknown

the intuitive mind

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."

~ Albert Einstein

strength, courage and confidence

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Mindfulness

"Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness."

~ James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Native American Proverbs and Wisdom

Native American Proverbs and Wisdom

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. – Cherokee

Force, no matter how concealed, begets resistance. – Lakota

Remember that your children are not your own, but are lent to you by the Creator.  – Mohawk

Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children. – Tribe Unknown

Walk lightly in the spring; Mother Earth is pregnant. – Kiowa

Everything the power does, it does in a circle. – Lakota

Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, Wisdom is of the future. – Lumbee

The bird who has eaten cannot fly with the bird that is hungry. – Omaha

Do not wrong or hate your neighbor for it is not he that you wrong but yourself. – Pima

It is no longer good enough to cry peace, we must act peace, live peace and live in peace. – Shenandoah

The one who tells the stories rules the world. – Hopi

Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand. – Tribe Unknown

Wisdom comes only when you stop looking for it and start living the life the Creator intended for you. – Hopi


Lakota Instructions for Living

Friend do it this way – that is,
whatever you do in life,
do the very best you can
with both your heart and mind.

And if you do it that way,
the Power Of The Universe
will come to your assistance,
if your heart and mind are in Unity.

When one sits in the Hoop Of The People,
one must be responsible because
All of Creation is related.
And the hurt of one is the hurt of all.
And the honor of one is the honor of all.
And whatever we do affects everything in the universe.

If you do it that way – that is,
if you truly join your heart and mind
as One – whatever you ask for,
that’s the Way It’s Going To Be.

Passed down from White Buffalo Calf Woman


Native American Ten Commandments

1. Treat the Earth and all that dwell therein with respect
2. Remain close to the Great Spirit
3. Show great respect for your fellow beings
4. Work together for the benefit of all Mankind
5. Give assistance and kindness wherever needed
6. Do what you know to be right
7. Look after the well-being of Mind and Body
8. Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater Good
9. Be truthful and honest at all times
10. Take full responsibility for your actions

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-proverbs/

The Surgeon's Prayer

"May we be helped to do here whatever is most right."

~ Traditional Native American Prayer

every mentally ill person you’ve ever worked with is basically lonely

Richard Rohr quote:
I once met a psychiatrist who said something to me that initially I thought was an overstatement: “Richard, at the end of your life, you’ll realize that every mentally ill person you’ve ever worked with is basically lonely.”
“Oh, come on, that’s a little glib, isn’t it?” I replied.
“Oh, I admit, there are surely physiological reasons for much mental illness, but loneliness might just be what activates it. Every case of nonphysiologically-based mental illness stems from a person who has been separated, cut off, living alone, and has forgotten how to relate in one way or another.” I still wonder if that might be true.

Richard Rohr, with Mike Morrell, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House: 2016), 45.

Remember to FROG every relationship.

GIFTED FOR LEADERSHIP
APRIL 28, 2016
www.christianitytoday.com/gifted-for-leadership/2016/april/how-to-lead-dominating-male-leaders.html as of 4/29/2016
LINDA A. WURZBACHER
How to Lead Dominating Male Leaders
Three things I’ve learned as I’ve led dominant men
quote:

I like to say: Remember to FROG every relationship. FROG stands for “Fully Rely on God.” And that means keeping a teachable spirit before the Lord. Second John 2:27 says, “But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.”
It has taken me way too many years to realize that God will help, teach, and direct me in every relationship I have. But one requirement is that I remain open, teachable, and accountable to him. 

Linda A. Wurzbacher is Lead Pastor of Blessed Hope Community Church in Rochester, New York.

Jesus put his body where his mouth was

Jesus put his body where his mouth was.
That's one reason why I trust him.
~ Truthful Grace

when the people of God are presented with the facts . . .

“I have most often seen that, when the people of God are presented with the facts, they do the right thing.”
~ Pastor John Bisagno,
currently the retired pastor of the 22,000-member First Baptist Church of Houston, Texas

no longer in the fight

“I pray that when I die, all of hell will rejoice that I am no longer in the fight.”
~ C.T. Studd

http://www.essentialcslewis.com/2017/01/07/ccslq-31-hell-rejoices/

What C.S. Lewis said about Humility

“It is better to forget about yourself altogether.”
from Mere Christianity, book 3, chapter 8 (The Great Sin)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step.
The first step is to realise that one is proud.”
from Mere Christianity, book 3, chapter 8 (The Great Sin)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call ‘humble’ nowadays: he will…not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.”
from Mere Christianity, book 3, chapter 8 (The Great Sin)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“May God’s grace give you the necessary humility. Try not to think—much less, speak—of their sins. One’s own are a much more profitable theme!
And if on consideration, one can find no faults on one’s own side, then cry for mercy: for this must be a most dangerous delusion.”
from The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3 (to Mary Willis Shelbrune on 1/9/1961)

http://www.essentialcslewis.com/2015/10/03/humility-is-not/

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself,
it’s thinking of yourself less.”

The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren, 2002 (original) edition, Day 19, “Cultivating Community”

The Privilege, or the Burden, which Christianity lays upon Men

“It is painful, being a man, to have to assert the privilege, or the burden, which Christianity lays upon my own sex. I am crushingly aware how inadequate most of us are, in our actual and historical individualities, to fill the place prepared for us.”

from "Priestesses in the Church?" (in God in the Dock, C.S. Lewis)
http://www.essentialcslewis.com/2015/11/14/ccslq-12-monkey-bars/

Love people before they deserve it

If you want to be miserable,
go through life thinking of yourself as the "innocent victim."
If you want the joy of the Lord,
love people before they deserve it.
~ Truthful Grace

Jesus: But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
~ Luke 6:35-36 ESV

"The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us."
~ C.S. Lewis

The Road Is Too Rough - Olga J. Weiss

The Road Is Too Rough
(Poetry on the rejection and isolation Christ must have felt.)

The road is too rough," I said,
"Dear Lord, there are stones that hurt me so."
And He said, "Dear child, I understand,
I walked it long ago."

"But there's a cool green path," I said;
"Let me walk there for a time."
"No child," He gently answered me,
"The green path does not climb."

"My burden," I said, "Is far too great,
How can I bear it so?"
"My child," He said, "I remember the weight;
I carried My cross, you know."

But I said, "I wish there were friends with me
Who would make my way their own."
"Oh, yes," He said, "Gethsemane
Was hard to bear alone."

And so I climb the stony path,
Content at last to know
That where my Master had not gone,
I would not need to go.

And strangely then I found new friends,
The burden grew less sore;
And I remember--long ago
He went that way before.

Olga J. Weiss

What Jesus will be is a mother hen who defends her chicks

The well-known preacher Barbara Brown Taylor says,
"Jesus won’t be king of the jungle in this or any other story. What he will be is a mother hen, who stands between the chicks and those who mean to do them harm. She has no fangs, no claws, no rippling muscles. All she has is her willingness to shield her babies with her own body. If the fox wants them, he will have to kill her first."
Jesus came to be a suffering servant and live a life of self-sacrifice. And he calls us to that life as well.
Mickey Anders, The Fox and the Hen

"Do not corner something you know is meaner than you."

"I learned some invaluable lessons in Nashville that apply to both farming and show business:
Do not corner something you know is meaner than you;
keep skunks of all kinds at a distance;
if you forgive your enemies, it messes up their heads."
~ Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson, Turk Pipkin (2006). “The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart”, p.53, Penguin
http://www.azquotes.com/author/10736-Willie_Nelson

"Show 'em what you can do."

"I suppose I could have sat back and pitied myself. For a time I wondered if I'd ever be able to go on to a stage and perform again. After a couple of weeks I began to feel I could fight my way back to health if I put my mind to it. I thought to myself: 'Pity never did anybody any good. Go on. Patsy, show 'em what you can do.'"
~ Patsy Cline
http://www.azquotes.com/author/2994-Patsy_Cline

"I'm not going to limit myself just because . . ."

"I'm not going to limit myself just because people won't accept the fact that I can do something else."
~ Dolly Parton
http://www.azquotes.com/author/11357-Dolly_Parton

"if you're feeling low, don't despair."

"If you're feeling low, don't despair. The sun has a sinking spell every night, but it comes back up every morning."
~ Dolly Parton
http://www.azquotes.com/author/11357-Dolly_Parton

"I look at their eyes and their smile and seek out the good first"

"When I meet someone, I look at their eyes and their smile and seek out the good first - it's easy to find when you're looking for it. You let a person shine with their own light and try to connect it to yours. As soon as I say hello, I go right to that light and I don't care who you are! I know we're all pieces of the same thing - I go for that common light because I know it's in all of us."
~ Dolly Parton
http://www.azquotes.com/author/11357-Dolly_Parton

Nelson Mandela, “with freedom comes responsibilities”

Nelson Mandela ended his extraordinary autobiography, entitled “Long Walk to Freedom,” with these words:

“I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”

so long as you show up

Steel Magnolias was not a great movie, but it had one magnificent line.
"God don't care which church you go to, so long as you show up."

www.facebook.com/E.C.M.churchhumor/

Did Jesus really have to die on the Cross?

Anselm's answer to someone wondering if Jesus really had to die on the Cross:

"You have not yet fully reflected on what a heavy weight your sin is."

"My iniquities have gone over my head"; they surround me,
"and like a heavy burden" weigh me down (Ps 38:5).
Free me, unburden me, and do not let "the abyss" of them "close its mouth over me" (Ps 69:16).

another translation:
Anselm: "You have not as yet estimated the great burden of sin."
https://www.ewtn.com/library/CHRIST/CURDEUS.HTM
CHAPTER XXI

Howard Thurman quotes

from https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Howard_Thurman  as of 3/1/2018

"Jesus rejected hatred because he saw that hatred meant death to the mind, death to the spirit, and death to communion with his Father. He affirmed life; and hatred was the great denial."
Jesus and the Disinherited (1949), p. 88

"The movement of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men and women often calls them to act against the spirit of their times or causes them to anticipate a spirit which is yet in the making. In a moment of dedication they are given wisdom and courage to dare a deed that challenges and to kindle a hope that inspires."
Footprints of a Dream : The Story of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples (1959), p. 7

"Prayer is a form of communication between God and man and man and God….
I am always impressed by the fact that it is recorded that the only thing that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to do was to pray."
Disciplines of the Spirit (1977)

The Work of Christmas, Howard Thurman

"The Work of Christmas"
Howard Thurman

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.

Howard Thurman. "The Work of Christmas" in The Mood of Christmas & Other Celebrations. 1985
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Howard_Thurman