®   Volume 23, # 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December, 2007

©

Plant these "seeds" well and water often. Enjoy!

download as PDF

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Crux of Pedagogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Carmody, The Progressive Pilgrim

    "The medium through which imagination usually tries to communicate is language. That necessitates that the teacher be skilled linguistically. One must have a gift for pinning concepts to a board, a facility for striking memorable phrases."

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Warmth & Good Cheer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brian Tracy

    "In life you can never be too kind or too fair; everyone you meet is carrying a heavy load. When you go through your day expressing kindness and courtesy to all you meet, you leave behind a feeling of warmth and good cheer, and you help alleviate the burdens everyone is struggling with."

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Time to Think . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mortimer Adler, YourSuccessStore.com

    "You have to allow a certain amount of time in which you are doing nothing in order to have things occur to you, to let your mind think."

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Evocative Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chuck Colson, How Now Shall We Live, p. 440

"Just think of the effective ways Jesus used images and stories. He could have just said, ‘Take care of people who are hurt and victimized.’ Instead, he spun the story of the Good Samaritan. He could have just said, ‘God forgives your sins.’ Instead, he told the parable of the Prodigal Son. Why? Because a story gets at aspects of the truth that are beyond the power of didactic teaching.     Symbols, metaphors, allegories and images move the whole person—the emotions and senses, as well as the intellect. The rich, evocative words of literature are far more powerful than factual description."

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Person who Advances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B.C. Forbes

    "The person who advances is not the one who is afraid to do too much; it is the one whose conscience will not permit him to do too little, the one whose driving desire is to give the best that is in him, even though it may seem at times like casting bread upon unrelenting waters."

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The Imaginative Faculty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich, p. 101

    "The imaginative faculty functions in two forms. One is known as ‘synthetic imagination’ and the other as ‘creative imagination.’

    SYNTHETIC IMAGINATION: Through this faculty, one may arrange old concepts, ideas or plans into new combinations. This faculty creates nothing. It merely works with the material of experience, education, and observation with which it is fed.

    CREATIVE IMAGINATION: The faculty through which ‘hunches’ and ‘inspirations’ are received.…This faculty functions only when the conscious mind is working at an exceedingly rapid rate…The creative faculty becomes more alert in proportion to its development through use."

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Wisdom Seeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Arthur Ward

"Words are tools that we all can use…
to comfort, to warm, or to abuse."

"Self-pity ends when self-giving begins."

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Called to be Witnesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Connections, 12/11/94

"[W]e are called to be witnesses of God’s by the love we extend to others; precursors of his justice by our unfailing commitment to what is right and good; lamps reflecting the light of God’s Christ in our forgiveness, mercy and compassion; harvesters of souls through our humble and dedicated servanthood."

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Be Perfect… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ernest Kurtz, The Spirituality of Imperfection, p. 46

    "A critical error in the history of Western spirituality arises from the out-of-context quotation of the words of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter five, verse 48: ‘Therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ The term perfect is translated from the Greek teleios, which means more accurately ‘fully complete.’…When taken in context, then, the point of the admonition ‘to be perfect’ is to be compassionate in a way that treats all others fairly, equally.…spirituality is founded in the recognition and acceptance of one’s creatureliness and finitude."

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Maxims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Max Lucado

"Changing direction in life is not tragic. Losing passion in life is."

"You’ll regret opening your mouth. You’ll rarely regret keeping it shut."

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Today’s Quest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charles Swindoll, The Quest for Character, p. 98

    "Vision. It is essential for survival. It is spawned by faith, sustained by hope, sparked by imagination and strengthened by enthusiasm. It is greater than sight, deeper than a dream, broader than an idea. Vision encompasses vast vistas outside the realm of the predictable, the safe, the expected. No wonder we perish without it."

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Let Me Not Keep Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Linda Felver, A Book of Christmas, Nashville: Upper Rooms, 1988, p. 48

"Let me not wrap, stack, box, bag, tie, tag, bundle, seal, keep Christmas.
Christmas kept is liable to mold.
Let me give Christmas away, unwrapped, by exuberant armfuls. Let me share, dance, live Christmas unpretentiously, merrily, responsibly with overflowing hands, tireless steps and sparkling eyes.
Christmas given away will stay fresh—even until it comes again."

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Deep Inward Fires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry David Thoreau

    "Ah, but is not this a glorious time for your deep inward fires?…There are brave thoughts within you that shall remain to rustle the winter through."

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2 Sides of the Ledger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Rohn

    "The Bible gives us a list of human stories on both sides of the ledgers. One list of human stories is used as examples—do what these people did. Another list of human stories is used as warnings—don’t do what these people did. So when your story ever gets in one of these ledgers, make sure they use it as an example for others, not a warning."

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One of God’s Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous, Sower’s Seeds That Nurture Family Values, # 90

    One winter day, a little boy was standing on a grate next to a bakery trying to keep his shoeless feet warm. A woman passing by saw the frosty-toed child and her heart ached. He had on only a light-weight jacket and no shoes, and the air was chilly, the wind sharp.

    "Where are your shoes, young man?" she asked. The boy reluctantly admitted he didn’t have any. "Why don’t you come with me and we’ll see what we can do about that?" the woman said. Taking his hand, she led him into a nearby department store and bought him a new pair of shoes and a warm jacket.

    When they came back out onto the street, the little boy was so excited that he immediately started to run off to show his family his gifts. Suddenly he halted, turned around and ran back to the woman. He thanked her and then hesitated, "Ma’am, could I ask you a question? Ma’am, are you God’s wife?"

    The woman smiled and said, "Oh, no, I’m not God’s wife, just one of God’s children."   

    The little boy grinned and nodded enthusiastically, "I knew it! I just knew you were related!"

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Beautiful Person Within . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Voicings Publications

    A woman who was feeling terribly insecure went to a Christian psychiatrist for therapy. After several sessions, the psychiatrist said to her. "Margaret, as we’re talking I sense that there is a beautiful person within you. I would like to work with you to try and bring out that beautiful person."

    The woman said that when she heard this, it almost wiped her out. She said she realized that all through her upbringing, all through her marriage, she had never heard anyone say anything like that to her. It had always been demand, obligation, expectation, being cut down, being criticized. "I sense that there is a beautiful person within you." Hearing these words, the life within her was suddenly kindled. She could begin, now, to relieve her insecurity and affirm her own unique gifts.

Merry Christmas!

 

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