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