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Volume 16, # 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May, 2001 |
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Volume 16, # 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May, 2001 |
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Obstacle or Stepping Stones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Carlyle, Insight, # 53, p. 10
"Thomas Carlyle said, ‘The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.’ That block of granite is often nothing more than a decision."
Toil Bestowed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ralph Waldo Emerson
"There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till."
Servant Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M. Scott Peck, A World Waiting To Be Born, p. 250ff
"Defining ambition as the thirst for power for oneself, for one’s own sake, [the manager] must strip it away until all that is left is the thirst to be of service to others. Only then will the manager have become a true servant leader.
…The capacity to rise above temptation is the essence of freedom. One is simply not free to serve, to do the right, when one gives in to the temptation to stay in power; that is, when it becomes a compulsion to do whatever is most popular."
An Egotist… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J.F. Newton
"An egotist is not a man who thinks too much of himself. He is a man who thinks too little of other people."
Power of Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FAITH TODAY, May `85
"Having endowed people with the power to make choices, God always respects human freedom. To force people to conform to His will, to order events in such a way as to absolve people of their responsibility, would dehumanize them. For freedom distinguishes human beings from animals.
The power to make free choices—to exercise the human will—is a precious and terrible power. We can use it to fulfill ourselves or to destroy ourselves. Used rightly, free choice is a share in God’s own creativity."
Wisdom Seeds
"To measure up to all that is demanded of one, a person must over-estimate one’s capacities."
Wolfgang Goethe"The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success."
Henry Ward Beecher
Prayer for Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bits & Pieces, Vol. 20, # 12, p. 5
"It is strange that in our praying we seldom ask for a change in character, but always a change in circumstances."
Words or Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry Steele Commager
"We believe that our words—which we assume to express our principles—represent us more truly even than our actions, but to outsiders it is the actions that are more eloquent than the words."
Sense of Wonder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Earl Nightingale, Insight, # 56, p. 25
"The playwright Christopher Fry wrote on keeping the sense of wonder. It’s been very good advice: ‘…The first of our senses which we should take care never to let rust through disuse is that sixth sense, the imagination.…I mean the wide-open eye which leads us always to see truth more vividly, to apprehend more broadly, to concern ourselves more deeply, to be, all our life long, sensitive and awake to the powers and responsibilities given to us as human beings."
Troubles We Bear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Edward Everett Hale
"Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three—all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have."
Secret for Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wayne Dyer
"Voltaire said, ‘I guess we’ll have to learn to cultivate our own garden.’
"You must learn to cultivate your own garden. You have to keep your nose out of everybody else’s garden…As long as yours is the way you want it to be. As long as you learn how to take what you have and enjoy it, and make your life work on your terms, cultivating for yourself a sense of purpose and a sense of mission—that’s one of the greatest secrets you can learn."
Gratitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Christophers, 3-Minutes-A Day, # 23, Aug. 19
"Gratitude is one of the hallmarks of the believer—gratitude to God for the gifts he has given us, and gratitude to those who have made it possible for us to develop those gifts to their full potential.
No one achieves success unaided. If you have been successful in life, remember in a special way those who made that success possible."
Always Do Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mark Twain
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
One Who Cares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W. Phillip Keller
"We need pause only a few moments to examine under a microscope the breath-taking beauty of a butterfly’s wing, the fastidious fabric of a feather, the intimate structure of a snowflake, the exquisite symmetry of a seashell, and we sense deep down instinctively, the imprint of One who cares—and cares very deeply."
As Ourselves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eric Hoffer, Bits & Pieces, Sept. `86
"The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves; we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world."
Recruiter for Real Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Johnny Ray Youngblood
Bostonia (Sum `93), p. 42ff via Homiletics, Jan-Mar. `94Johnny Ray Youngblood, Senior Pastor of St. Paul Community Baptist in Brooklyn, NY…delivered the 1993 Commencement Address at Boston University. He announced that he was assuming the role of a recruiter in his speech, a recruiter for real life because "You are in no way optional. Some of us may be obsolete, but you are not optional. Nor, graduates, do you have any options.…the world family needs you. You are not optional and you have no options.
We don’t need more people who want to manage, maintain, critique, analyze, merely live off the blood and money and sweat and tears and backs of those who came before us, especially who built imperfectly the institutions and patterns of thought and behavior that we have fallen heirs to today. We need more teachers, not educational experts.…The world needs more engineers who love the shape and feel of lumber and glass and steel.…No more pastors and rabbi’s and priests and nuns who just take care of business as usual, but men and women who will approach even the sacred truths with new revelations.…We need men and women who want to roll up their sleeves and build or rebuild the backbone institutions of the public sector and the voluntary sector."
The Oak & the Reeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous
There is an old fable in which the mighty oak tree which stood for over one hundred years finally was blown over by a storm. The tree feel into a river that floated it downstream until it came to rest among the reeds growing along the riverbank. The fallen giant asked the reeds in amazement, "How is it that you were able to weather the storm that was too powerful for me, an oak tree, to withstand?"
The reeds replied, "All these years you stubbornly resisted the winds that swept your way. You took such pride in your strength that you refused to yield, even a little bit. We, on the other hand, have not resisted the winds, but have always bent with them. We recognized the superior power of the wind and so, the harder the wind blew the more we humbled ourselves before it."Next Apple Seeds™ planting is September 2001.
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