August Newsletter

“A Love Letter from Jesus.”
My Dear Precious _________________,
I can’t tell you how good it is to send you my love, I love you so much. If you only had an idea. You are precious in my sight and you make me smile and laugh--especially when I see you freed up to be just the YOU I created YOU to BE! Do you realize it is ME who is playing the flute for you? I’m also writing the melodies. I’ll let you decide the meter and the beat, though.
When I see you hurting needlessly, I am very saddened. In your arena, it’s such a waste of time, but I do love to come to you. Rescuing is not always my first response, however. I love you more than that. I meed your real need first--an awareness of your complete dependence on me and more strengthening exercises in trusting and steadfastness. I am your all in all. I only wish you came to me more often and relied upon me more. You see, there is nothing I can’t do for you. I can bring you peace of mind, wisdom and discernment. I can bring you relief from your needless stress. I can bring you a friend during your loneliness and emptiness. I can bring you my caring spirit. I can bring you encouragement. In fact, I can provide you with a guarantee. Mostly, though I wish to bring you love.
Yes, I love you, but I am jealous of your time away from me. Where are you running to? What you are chasing is already here with me now! I do love your heart and I know that it’s true. You do really desire to be earnest in your loving of others and very generous with it, too, but also come be with me. Just be with me ... and listen!
We could really do great things together. Things that only you and I could do. Many private things that no one else may every know about. I k now what you love. I know what makes your heart sing. Let me sing with you.
I many areas you have a very willing spirit and I know your inner battle to develop and protect your own integrity and your desire to keep check on your motives. Bless you for that. I appreciate your honesty and your search for truth. I continue to send you my Holy Spirit to help you with that.
You have not taken advantage, though, of all the many gifts I have for you! Remember, you cannot open my packages if your hands are tied behind your back with worldly commitments. Could we discuss this? Better yet, would you just be still a moment and listen?
By the way, I do not need any proof from you of your worth. You are priceless and fully paid for. Let ME continue giving you my life. I’m just asking for yours.
With my utmost love,
Your Heavenly Father


EVERYONE CAN'T BE IN YOUR FRONT ROW
Life is a theater - invite your audience carefully.
Not everyone is spiritually healthy and mature enough to
have a front row seat in our lives.
There are some people in your life that need to be loved from a distance.
It's amazing what you can accomplish when you let go, or
at least minimize your time with draining negative, relationships/friendships/fellowships!
Observe the relationships around you.
Pay attention to:
which ones lift and which ones lean?
Which ones encourage and which ones discourage?
Which ones are on a path of growth uphill and which ones are going downhill?
When you leave certain people, do you feel better or feel worse?
Which ones always have drama or don't really understand, know and appreciate you and the gift that lies within you? When you seek growth, peace of mind, love and truth, the easier it will become for you to decide who gets to sit in the FRONT ROW and who should be moved to the balcony of your life.
You cannot change the people around you....but you can change the people you are around! Pray for godly wisdom and discernment and choose wisely the people who sit in the front row of your life. author unknown


Place Of Peace
Life has its times when disturbances are distractive,
if allowed to continue personalities become unattractive.
Each of us needs some relief in which to dwell,
a place where we can find peace for at least a spell.
We need a place to go where God's voice can be heard,
a place to contemplate everything that's occurred.
A place to count our Blessings appreciating all we've been through,
a place where strength and courage are renewed.
A place that each of us can truly appreciate;
a place where we don't partake in arguing or debate.
A place where we offer up gratitude and praise,
Thanking God profusely for caring for us in so many ways.
A place where just breathing deeply calms our spirit,
and listening quietly for God's voice assures we'll hear it.
Seek and you shall find I know it is true,
what God has done for others He will do for you.
For some it will be off someplace where they can be alone,
for another perhaps a space in their home.
The Bible speaks of a "Prayer Closet" perhaps that's what it'll be,
your own little place of total privacy.
A place to be alone with Him a place for us to grow,
a place where when He answers us we will know that we know!
God loves every one of us that love will never cease,
He desires we each find our own place of peace.



U.S. drivers should think in gallons per mile: report By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO (Reuters) - If soaring gasoline prices have prompted you to look for a more fuel-efficient ride, using miles per gallon as a guide could lead you astray, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

Instead, they propose a new standard based on gallons per mile, which gives people a far better idea of how much gasoline they might save by switching trading in that gas-guzzling minivan.

"There is a math illusion here," said Richard Larrick, a management professor at Duke University, whose research appears in the journal Science.

Larrick said most people think improvements in miles per gallon are all the same, where a 5 gallon per mile improvement would yield the same gas savings in a car that gets 10 miles per gallon or 20 miles per gallon. (One mile equals 1.61 kilometers, and one U.S. gallon equals 3.79 liters.)

"The reality that few people appreciate is that improving fuel efficiency from 10 to 20 miles per gallon is actually a more significant savings than improving from 25 to 50 miles per gallon for the same distance of driving," Larrick said.

He tested this out in a number of different experiments on U.S. college students.

When presented with a series of car choices in which fuel efficiency was defined in miles per gallon, the students could not easily identify the choice that would result in the greatest gains in fuel efficiency, he said.

People had a much easier time when fuel efficiency was expressed in gallons per 100 miles. In that case, a car that gets 18 miles per gallon uses 5.5 gallons of gas per 100 miles, and a car that gets 28 miles per gallon uses just 3.6 gallons per 100 miles. With gasoline prices over $4 a gallon, that's a difference of about $8 per 100 miles.

"If we just turn everything around, you can see where are the large savings in gallons of gas," Larrick said in a telephone interview. The idea is not new. Many other countries, especially in Europe, already use a standard that compares gas used per trip.

To translate miles per gallon into gallons per 10,000, Larrick said people can simply divide 10,000 by miles per gallon. Cars with the highest miles per gallon are always the most fuel efficient, he said. It is when people are trying to replace a car that they may be misled.

That's how he became interested in this problem.

"We were trying to decide whether to get rid of a minivan and go for a station wagon versus getting rid of a sedan and going for a really high-mileage hybrid car," Larrick said.

"We realized in the end we were better off trading in the minivan and only gaining 10 miles per gallon then we would be trying to swap out the sedan for a highly efficient car."

To help make these choices easier, Larrick and colleagues recommend consumer publications and car makers start listing fuel efficiency in terms of gallons per 10,000 miles driven, which he said is roughly the distance people in the United States drive in a year.

Larrick's team has developed a conversion table that can be found at http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/news/mpg/table.pdfgallon.

July 27

Imperceptible Things Have Real Influence
In the 1920s, a sociology class at John Hopkins University made a study of children in deprived neighborhoods in Baltimore. They identified two hundred children who appeared doomed to spend years in prison. After twenty-five years, another study was made to discover what had happened to those particular children.
Surprisingly, only two were incarcerated. As these men and women were interviewed over and over again came the name of their teacher, "Aunt Hannah." The sociologists were correct in their predictions. By all indications the children would be dregs of society; but there was an intervention, Aunt Hannah, an elementary school teacher who loved them.

Most of the time people criticize in order to forget their own weakness.

An expert is a person who can tell you of your wrong – after you did it.

The best way to lose a friend is to tell him something for his own good.

Some computers are becoming so human they blame their mistakes on each other.

Critics are people who sit on the sidelines and utter snide lines.

Falling in Love Again
The treasure of the kingdom is as new as hearing today the stories of God and God's love for us and falling in love with God again. It is as new as God's power living in our lives this very minute. It is as new as Jesus coming to us in bread and wine.
Using slightly different terms, Jaroslav Pelikan makes a necessary distinction: "Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living."

The desire of love is to give. The desire of lust is to get!

A police recruit was asked during the exam, "What would you do if you had to arrest your own mother?"
He replied, "Call for backup."

Faith expects from God what is beyond all expectation. --Andrew Murray

• Entertainment via a Computer A new survey by Netpop Research finds that 13- to 34-year-olds now consume 36 percent of all their entertainment via a computer. [pluggedinonline.com]

Every time we say, "I believe in the Holy Spirit," we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it. --J. B. Phillips

"To risk nothing is to risk everything. Instead of living fully, I'll be dying slowly. And never will I discover the joy of loving nor the high achievement of becoming all that I was meant and created to be." -- Dick Innes

"The greatest place to live in all the world is where you are loved." -- Unknown

"As a Christian we are to do right regardless of the consequences. It is never the wrong time to do the right thing. And it is never the right time to do the wrong thing." -- Dick Innes


What Christians Want Out of Life
A new study released this week by The Barna Group reveals that different types of Christians want different things out of life. The survey, which was based on a random sample of 1,003 adults in May of this year, asked the participants to rate 19 possible outcomes in life in terms of personal desirability. The preferences were then analyzed according to 12 overlapping but distinct segments of Christians. For example, Evangelical Christians, who are born-again and possess specific theological and social views, were the only group where a high percentage (90%) listed as many as six of the 19 future-life possibilities as being very desirable. The six outcomes this group chose were:
* Having good physical health.
* Having a close personal relationship with God.
* Having a clear purpose for living.
* Living with a high degree of integrity.
* Having just one marriage partner for life.
* Being deeply committed to the Christian faith.
The goals that were chosen by only 1 percent of Evangelicals were "achieving fame and recognition," and "having a comfortable lifestyle."

Other findings of the research:
* Those who see themselves as Christian, but not born again, were less than half as likely to say that being active in a church or being deeply committed to the Christian faith were very desirable.
* Protestants were twice as likely as Catholics to say that working in a high-paying job was highly desirable as a life goal.
* By a margin of between 9 and 16 percent, Protestant Christians who attend a mainline church were less likely than non-mainline Christians to say that being personally active in a church, wanting a close personal relationship with God, or wanting to be deeply committed to the Christian faith were highly desirable. For the complete report, visit www.barna.org

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." -- Stephen King

"You always pass failure on the way to success." – Mickey Rooney

"I do the very best I know how--the very best I can; and mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything." -- Abraham Lincoln


"We make a living by what we earn, but we make a life by what we give." -- Unknown

"Giving is an attitude of life. As the greatest teacher of all times said, "Give to others and God will give to you. Indeed you will receive a full measure, a generous helping, poured into your hands--all that you can hold." -- Jesus Christ, Luke 6:38 (Good News Bible)

While working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I often take my four-year-old daughter on my afternoon rounds.
She was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers and wheelchairs.
One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass. As I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she merely turned and whispered, "The tooth fairy will never believe this!"

God Is Always for Our Good
In all His dispensations God is at work for our good. In prosperity, He tries our gratitude; in mediocrity, our contentment; in misfortune, our submission; in darkness, our faith; under temptation, our steadfastness; and at all times, our obedience and trust in Him. - Unknown

How Badly Do You Want...?
People are always saying, "I'd give anything to be able to ...." There is a basic leadership principle that says, "6x1=6." If you want to write a book, learn to play a musical instrument, become a better tennis player, or do anything else important, then you should devote one hour a day, six days a week, to a project. Sooner than you think, what you desire will become a reality. There are not many things a person cannot accomplish in 312 hours a year! John Mason


Grocery-Store Ethics By Michael Josephson of Character Counts (549.2)
You can tell a lot about a person's character by how he or she acts at the grocery store.
I remember being in a crowded store that had a shortage of shopping carts. A prosperous-looking fellow and his wife were pushing a cart when another man stopped them. "Excuse me," the second man said, "but that's my cart."
The first guy looked annoyed and, instead of apologizing, protested, "But someone took my cart." His wife glared at him, and he reluctantly relinquished his ill-gotten gain.
He had ignored the age-old wisdom: "Two wrongs don't make a right" in favor of a distorted version of the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as others have done unto you."
Then there are the folks who change their mind about buying an item and put it on the nearest shelf, rationalizing that the store hires people to put misplaced things back. Schools employ custodians to clean the halls, but does that mean it's okay for kids to throw their candy wrappers on the floor?
Finally, there are the express-line cheaters who enter the "10 items or less" line with 14 items because they're in a hurry or they love having a competitive edge. They count on the fact that no one will call them on such a moral misdemeanor. And if someone does, they're ready to play lawyer: "It depends on what you call an item. These melons are part of the fruit group so I count them as one."
Being considerate, playing by the rules, and setting a good example are important, even in the grocery store. This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
© 2007 Josephson Institute of Ethics

Unbeknown to most of the congregation, the new minister enjoyed an occasional bottle of wine. One church member, aware of this, presented the clergyman with a bottle of Bordeaux. But the gift had a string attached. The minister would have to say thank you from the pulpit. At the conclusion of the next service, the minister made the announcements, then said "And I want to thank my friend for giving the fine fruit, and for the
spirit in which it was given."

Overheard at the track: "Horse racing is very romantic. The horse hugs the rail, the jockey puts his arms around the horse, and you kiss your money good-by."

July 20

“To distinguish flowers from weeds, simply pull up everything. What grows back is weeds.”

A small boy was looking at the red ripe tomatoes growing in the farmer's garden. "I'll give you my two pennies for that tomato," said the boy pointing to a beautiful, large, ripe fruit hanging on the vine.
"No," said the farmer, "I get a dime for a tomato like that one."
The small boy pointed to a smaller green one, "Will you take two pennies for that one?"
"Yes," replied the farmer, "I'll give you that one for two cents."
"OK," said the lad, sealing the deal by putting the coins in the farmer's hand, "I'll pick it up in about a week."

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of science is not able to make an oyster. --Jeremy Taylor

A man with three doctorates has no more standing before God than a man who has never stepped foot inside a school.

The good news is that production of travel vehicles is up … bicycles, unicycles, rollerblades, kayaks, sleds, shoes …


A little girl asked her mother for a dollar to give to an old lady in the park. Her mother was touched by the child's kindness, and gave her the required sum.
"There you are, my dear," said the mother. "But, tell me, isn't the lady able to work any more?"
"Oh yes," came the reply. "She sells candy."

I think my job could be in jeopardy.
How so?
When I walk by the boss’s office, I can hear him chanting “eeny meeny miny moe.”

They’re getting ridiculous at my job. “No personal calls.” “No surfin’ the web.” “Put your shoes back on.” I mean, how can anyone work in an environment like that?

There may be a wrong way to do the right thing, but never a right way to do a wrong thing.

"The turning point in our lives is when we stop seeking the God we want and start seeking the God who is." - Patrick Morley

Removing all risks from your life renders faith unnecessary. Faith requires risks!

Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

Once when the power went off at the elementary school, the cook couldn't serve a hot meal in the cafeteria. She had to feed the children something, so at the last minute, she whipped up great stacks of peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches. As one little boy filled his plate, he said, "It's about time. At last . . . a home cooked meal!"

"When Russia practiced censorship, we called it 'censorship'. Here, we call it political correctness." -- Lee

"There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either in or out. There's no such thing as a life in-between." - Pat Riley, basketball coach


"When you give someone a book, you don't give him just paper, ink, and glue. You give him the possibility of a whole new life." -- Christopher Morley, 1890-1957, Novelist, Journalist and Poet

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." -- William Arthur Ward

"I aspire to inspire." -- Michael Josephson

"The path of least resistance is the path of the loser." -- H.G. Wells

"Good friendships are fragile things and require as much care as any other fragile and precious thing." – Randolph S. Bourne

"People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges." -- J.F. Newton

"The best thing to do behind a friend's back is pat it." -- Ruth Brillhart

At a recent computer software engineering course, the participants were given an awkward question to answer: "If you had just boarded an airliner and discovered that your team of programmers had been responsible for the flight control software, how many of you would disembark immediately?" Among the ensuing forest of raised hands only one man sat motionless. When asked what he would do, he replied that he would be quite content to stay aboard. With his team's software, he said, the plane was unlikely to even taxi as far as the runway, let alone take off.

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." --Winston Churchill

As a child my mother would always tell me not to sit so close to the TV, that it was bad for my eyes. Now, as an adult I spend 8+ hours a day within 2 feet of a computer screen.


"If you do a good job for others, you heal yourself at the same time, because a dose of joy is a spiritual cure." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

July 13

"Church-goers are like coals in a fire. When they cling together, they keep the flame aglow; when they separate, they die out." - Billy Graham


Worship is giving God the best that he has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to him as a love gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard it for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded. God will never allow you to keep a spiritual blessing completely for yourself. It must be given back to him so that he can make it a blessing to others.--Oswald Chambers


An elderly gent was invited to an old friend's home for dinner one evening. He was impressed by the way his buddy preceded every request to his wife with endearing terms such as: Honey, My Love, Darling, Sweetheart, Pumpkin, etc. The couple had been married almost 70 years and, clearly, they were still very much in love.
While the wife was in the kitchen, the man leaned over to his host, 'I think it's wonderful that, after all these years, you still call your wife those loving pet names'. The old man hung his head. 'I have to tell you the truth,' he said, 'Her name slipped my mind about 10 years ago and I'm scared to death to ask her what it is!


A Wise Old Bird
There is a story about an old man who always had witty and wise answers for people who asked him anything. Once, a smart-alecky came to him with his hands covering something he was holding. He told the sage that he had a small, newly hatched bird in his hands. He challenged the old man to tell him whether the bird was alive or dead. He, of course, planned to prove the old man wrong, because if he said the bird was dead, he would simply open his hands to expose a perfectly healthy baby bird. But if he said the bird was alive, then he would crush the bird before opening his hands. The old man proved wiser than he thought, because he said, "The bird is whatever you choose him to be."

And that's the way it is with the kingdom of God. The choice for the kingdom to live or die is within your grasp. What do you chose?


Top Ten Things I Have Learned from Gardening

10. We really do "reap what we sow". Good seeds bear good fruit.

9. Without rains and storms there is no growth - no fruit is produced.

8. When weeding, be careful! We can't always tell the difference between a nasty weed and a beautiful flower.

7. Deep roots are a good thing. Without them, we'll wither and die.

6. Pruning and trimming, as painful as it seems, actually works to our advantage.

5. In gardening, as in life, cheating does not work. Short-cuts, slipshod efforts, and neglect always show up in the quality of our garden.

4. Like anything worthwhile, beautiful gardens require attention, hard work, and commitment.

3. We cannot rush the harvest. Bearing fruit takes time and patience. Premature fruit is almost always sour.

2. Gardening and growing is a lifetime experience. We can experience growth and beauty until the day we die.

1. Fertilizer happens! In fact, nothing much grows without it.



Interest vs. Commitment

In his book, The One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard says, "There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you do it only when it is convenient. When you are committed to something, you accept no excuses." Good soil represents the company of the committed " people who are determined to serve Christ to the best of their abilities, people who are willing to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to see Christ's kingdom come, people who by their work and their witness bear fruit that does not perish. What kind of soil are you?


Automatic Faith
There was a business consultant who decided to landscape his grounds. He hired a woman with a doctorate in horticulture who was extremely knowledgeable. Because the business consultant was very busy and traveled a lot, he kept emphasizing to her the need to create his garden in a way that would require little or no maintenance on his part. He insisted on automatic sprinklers and other labor-saving devices.

Finally she stopped and said, "There's one thing you need to deal with before we go any further. If there's no gardener, then there is no garden!"

There are no labor-saving devices for growing a garden of spiritual virtue. Becoming a person of spiritual fruitfulness requires time, attention and care. How many of us are like that business consultant? We're very busy during the week and get caught up in work and social activities and don't spend the time we need to work on our spiritual growth? Then we come into church on Sunday for an automatic sprinkling of holy water, feeding off the energy of those around us. How many times during the week are you running really low on your spiritual food by Wednesday or Thursday and do nothing about it?

"There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have either a clear conscience or none at all." - Ogden Nash



Understanding Life

Remember the saying about people's understanding of life:

He who knows and knows that he knows is wise; follow him.

He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep; awaken him.

He who knows not and knows that he knows not is ignorant; teach him.

He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool; shun him.

Jesus also tells us how people respond to the Kingdom of God. There are four:

There are those who understand it and the kingdom grows and produces fruit; they are good soil.

There are those who receive it and the kingdom begins to grow but it is then choked by the worries of life; they are the soil covered by thorns.

There are those who hear it with joy and the kingdom begins again to grow but trouble and persecution kill the growth; they are the shallow soil on the rocky places.

There are those who never understand and growth never occurs; they are the paths, the hard soil where nothing ever grows.

So many are God's kindnesses to us, that, as drops of water, they run together; and it is not until we are borne up by the multitude of them, as by streams in deep channels, that we recognize them as coming from him. We have walked amid his mercies as in a forest where we are tangled among ten thousand growths and touched on every hand by leaves and buds which we notice not. We cannot recall all the things he has done for us. There are so many. --Henry Ward Beecher

"The flight attendant will always tell you the name of your pilot - like anyone goes, 'Oh, he's good. I like his work.'"
- David Spade



There are too many people praying for mountains of difficulty to be removed, when what they really need is courage to climb them.
--Author Unknown,



SIGNS DAD PACKED YOUR LUNCH

Mom usually takes the cellophane *off* the cheese.



You asked for a PB & J. You got pastrami, beef jerky, and

jalapenos.



Veggies and fruit? Potato chips and Orange soda, of course.



Nothing in the bag except a $20 bill and a note: "Don't tell

Mom and you can keep the change."



You made $40 by selling all the extra food he packed that

you didn't eat.



Two words: Cheez Whiz.



Mom's note: "Study hard! I love you!"

Dad's note: "Get a job!"







WORDS TO LIVE BY

It's not how much you accomplish in life

that really counts,

but how much you give to other.



It's not how high you build your dreams

that makes a difference,

but how high your faith can climb.



It's not how many goals you reach,

but how many lives you touch.



It's not who you know that matters,

but who you are inside.



Believe in the impossible,

hold tight to the incredible,

and live each day to its fullest potential.

You can make a difference

in your world.~ Rebecca Barlow Jordan ~

July 6

"In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these." - Paul Harvey

If Jesus Christ had taken a poll, he would never have preached the Gospel.
--Representative Henry Hyde, "You can say that again," U.S. News January 11, 1999, 18

To know and to serve God, of course, is why we're here, a clear truth that, like the nose on your face, is near at hand and easily discernible but can make you dizzy if you try to focus on it hard. But a little faith will see you through. What else will do except faith in such a cynical, corrupt time? When the country goes temporarily to the dogs, cats must learn to be circumspect, walk on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith that all this woofing is not the last word. -- Garrison Keillor

ATTITUDE ++
"I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work." -- Ben Franklin

"There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes." -- William John Bennett

"Freedom's enemies are waste, lethargy, indifference, immorality, and the insidious attitude of something for nothing." -- William Arthur Ward

"Powerful thinking creates a powerful energy in your life...but it all starts with a powerful 'Heartset'...which creates a powerful Mindset." -- Doug Firebaugh

Procrastinator's Creed You may wish to delay reading this until you have more free time.
1. I believe that if anything is worth doing, it would have been done already.
2. I shall never move quickly, except to avoid more work or find excuses.
3. I will never rush into a job without a lifetime of consideration.
4. I shall meet all of my deadlines directly in propoartion to the amount of bodily injury I could expect to receive from missing them.
5. I firmly believe that tomorrow holds the possiblity for new technologies, astounding discoveries, and a reprieve from my obligations.
6. I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.
7. If at first I don't succeed, there is always next year.
8. I shall always decide not to decide, unless of course I decide to change my mind.
9. I shall always begin, start, initiate, take the first step, and/or write the first word, when I get around to it.
10. I will never put off tomorrow, what I can forget about forever.

Vacationing in Alaska, I couldn't help but notice all the warnings about bears posted in campgrounds, visitors centers and rest areas advising people not to feed the bears, how to avoid bears, what to do if a bear sees you, what to do if a bear attacks, and so on.

My favorite, however, was a hand-lettered sign on the door of a small gas station in a remote area. It said: "Warning! If you are being chased by a bear, don't come in here!"

Removing all risks from your life renders faith unnecessary. Faith requires risks!

"I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man I've met." Dwight Moody

"Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body." Seneca

"Lots of people would rather stay where they are in an unsatisfied state than to risk difficulties and obstacles for the sake of attaining their dreams." Michael Lee

"Don't think of problems as difficulties. Think of them as opportunities for action." Author Unknown

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." Anne Bradstreet

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish." John Quincy Adams

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." Winston Churchill

"Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide." Napoleon Bonaparte

"Life has an incredible way of working out the details of our difficulties when we choose not to give up." Josh Hinds

"Confidence is the result of facing difficulties in life and struggling against odds." M. K. Soni

"It cannot be too often repeated that it is not helps, but obstacles, not facilities, but difficulties that make men." William Mathews

All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse, and a good wife. (Daniel Boone)

Everyone wants to save Mother Earth, but no one wants to help mom with the dishes.
There are some church goers who, when they hear the words, “And in conclusion,” quickly begin putting their shoes back on.

Dear Father, to whom our pure devotion is due, When someone seeks to make slaves of us, to prey upon us, to take advantage of us, to put on airs, or to strike us in the face, help us know that such a person does not represent you. For your emissaries don't do such things. Help us look to the examples of Paul, Peter, John, Barnabas, and others like them, who submitted themselves as servants. Help us be like them. In the name of Jesus, our greatest example, I pray. Amen.

Lord, I crawled across the barrenness to you with my empty cup, uncertain in asking any small drop of refreshment. If only I had known you better, I'd have come running with a bucket.--Nancy Spiegelberg

Are you aware that if we died tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family we left behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.
And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than into our own family, an unwise investment indeed, don't you think? So what is behind the story?
Do you know what the word FAMILY means?
FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU

"I am convinced that all human beings have an inborn desire for God. Whether we are consciously religious or not, this desire is our deepest longing and our most precious treasure ... Regardless of how we describe it, it is a longing for love. It is a hunger to love, to be loved, and to move closer to the Source of love. This yearning is the essence of the human spirit" --As quoted by John M. Buchanan, "For the Love of God,"

"It isn't really important to decide when you are very young just exactly what you want to become when you grow up. It is much more important to decide on the way you want to live." -- Golda Meir (1898-1978) Israeli Prime Minister