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Volume 20, # 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March, 2005 |
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Volume 20, # 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March, 2005 |
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What Really Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Stoltenberg
"What matters is the center inside yourself and how you treat people, and what you can contribute as you pass through life on this earth, and how honestly you love, and how carefully you make choices. These are the things that really matter!"
Character Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michael Josephson,
CHARACTER COUNTS"Whether it’s sports, business or politics, whenever we divorce issues of competence from issues of character, we create a class of amoral professionals who think they’re exempt from common standards of honor and decency. This discredits and demeans the moral standing of everyone involved."
Leader of Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stephen Covey
"The leader of the future has the humility to accept principles and the courage to align with them, which takes great personal sacrifice. Out of this humility, courage, and sacrifice comes the person of integrity."
Destination in Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Rohn
"Direction determines destination. So here is a question you must ask yourself, ‘Are all the disciplines that I’m currently engaged in taking me where I want to go?’ What an important question to ask yourself at the beginning of the month, the beginning of the week, the beginning of the day. Because here is what you don’t ever want to do—kid yourself. Kid your neighbor, kid me and kid the marketplace, but don’t kid yourself—fingers crossed—hoping you will arrive at a good destination when you’re not even headed that way."
Purpose of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Gladstone, former British Prime Minister
"Never forget that the purpose for which a man lives is the improvement of the man himself, so that he may go out of this world having, in his great sphere or his small one, done some little good for his fellow creatures and labored a little to diminish the sins and sorrow that are in the world."
Land of Beginning Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous
"How I wish that there was some wonderful place called the Land of Beginning Again, where all our mistakes and all our heartaches, and all our poor selfish grief, could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door, and never put on again."
Achieve Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
"Perfection is being, not doing, it is not to effect an act but to achieve a character."
Your Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Look sharply after your thoughts. They come unlooked for, like a new bird seen on your trees, and, if you turn to your usual task, disappear; and you shall never find that perception again; never, I say—but perhaps years, ages, and I know not what events and worlds may lie between you and its return."
Forgiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Christopher Notes, July ‘79
"Without forgiveness, there is resentment—or guilt. Instead of human fellowship, there are separate prisons. We have a choice: We can stay where we are—or we can give or ask forgiveness.… Forgiveness is total or is it nothing. It is a risk and risk is seldom easy. Overcoming the fear of being hurt again is the price of love.
We are paralyzed until we accept—really accept—the fact that God forgives us. Once we do, we are freed to love, forgive and accept ourselves. Then healing begins.
But He has also forgiven those who have injured us. We know we have accepted God’s forgiving love only when we can forgive others. The release of the full power of His forgiveness is up to us."
Celtic Spirituality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Esther de Waal, WEAVINGS, II, # 3
"Celtic spirituality was a practice in which ordinary people in their daily lives took the tasks that lay to hand but treated them sacramentally, as pointing to a greater reality which lay beyond them. It is an approach to life which we have been in danger of losing, this sense of allowing the extraordinary to break in on the ordinary. Perhaps it is something which we can rediscover, something which Celtic spirituality can give to us if we would let it renew our vision by teaching our eyes to see again, our ears to hear, our hands to handle."
Life’s Little Instruction Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H. Jackson Brown
"# 47–Don’t waste time learning the ‘tricks of the trade.’ Instead, learn the trade.
# 55–Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life."
Success is Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Arthur Ward
"Success is started by the battery of ambition and the spark plugs of purpose. It is powered by the full of persistence, lubricated by the elbow grease of effort, guided by the steering wheel of common sense, and smoothed by the shock absorbers of faith and forgiveness."
As a Man Thinketh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Allen, p. 43
"Fix your thoughts upon the faultless performance of your duty, no matter how insignificant your task may appear. Only in this way can the thought be gathered and focused, and resolution and energy be developed, which being done, there is nothing which may not be accomplished."
Trust to God… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . St. Augustine
"Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to His love, and the future to His providence."
Think & Grow Rich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Napoleon Hill, p. 18
"Psychologists have correctly said that ‘when one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its appearance.’
When opportunity [comes], it [appears] in a different form and from a different direction than…expected. That is one of the tricks of opportunity. It has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door, and often it comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat. Perhaps this is why so many fail to recognize opportunity."
Clay of Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Source Unknown
Even when we’re overwhelmed by conditions we need not lose control, it’s important to not lose heart and keep trying. We need to keep an open mind and sometimes make major changes or take risks.
The Irish Potato Famine (1846-51) resulted in a 30% drop in the population of the west of Ireland. The prolonged suffering of the Irish peasantry had broken the survivors in body and spirit.
John Bloomfield, the owner of the Castle Caldwell in County Fermanagh, was working on the recovery of his estate when he noticed that the exteriors of his tenant farmers’ small cottages had a vivid white finish. After inquiring, he was informed that there was a clay deposit on his property of unusual fine quality.
To generate revenue and provide employment on his estate, Bloomfield built a pottery factory at the village of Belleek in 1857. The unusually fine clay produced a porcelain china that was translucent with a glass-like finish. It was worked into traditional Irish designs and was an immediate success.
Today, Belleek’s delicate strength and it’s iridescent pearlized glaze is enthusiastically purchased the world over. This multi-million dollar industry arose from innovative thinking during times of crisis and adversity.
Each of us probably walk past similar opportunities each day.
How Much of God? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . T. Hansel (adapted)
In a book called When I Relax I Feel Guilty, a foolish man says, "I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.
I want comfort not challenge; I want ecstasy, not transformation, not a new birth. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. Please, I would like to buy just three dollars worth of God."
A good question to consider: Just how much of God do you want to buy?
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