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Volume
40, #2 Plant these "seeds" well and water often. Enjoy!
How to Learn . . . . . . . . . Prof. Jacob Neusner "Much that you learn today won’t be true five years from now; many things you haven’t heard today will be important five or ten years ahead. If I teach you something supposedly ‘relevant,’ I’m guaranteeing irrelevance. If I teach you how to work, to have good attitudes, to take responsibility for your own ideas, to communicate and to think a problem through, no matter what subject matter I use in order to get those basic skills of mind and intellect across, then I’m giving you something you can use for a very long time. Those skills will never change." Four Steps to Achievement . . . . . . . . .
William Arthur Ward
Self-Acceptance . . . . . . . . . Christophers News Notes, Nov. 1987"The one thing that you have to work at is self-acceptance; do not put yourself down. Believe in your own inner goodness. After all God made you; a good tree produces good fruit. Believe it! God loves you as you are, wounds and all. Trust Him. Trust is all you have to give, trust is love’s answer." Try to Find Out . . . . . . . . . John Ruskin "At every moment of our lives we should be trying to find out, not in what we differ with other people, but in what we agree." Use of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . Robert Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes, Preface "I’ve found that illustrations serve three purposes. First, they wake people up who have drifted off during the more didactic portion of my message. Second, they keep children tuned in. Third, illustrations enable people to see the practicality of what is being preached. Through the use of stories, illustrations, and quotes people see themselves in a mirror and are better able to personalize the truth of Scripture" Power of Character . . . . . . . . . Michael Josephson The Power of Character, p. 2 "Describing a person’s character is like taking an inventory of that person’s dominant habits of thought and action at a particular time. Of course it’s not easy to change our ways. Our habits of heart and mind are well entrenched, rooted in durable dispositions and beliefs. Yet just as a mountain is constantly being reshaped by weather, our character can be reformed by our choices. Our human capacity to reason and choose makes the formation of our character an ongoing process. Each day we can decide to change our attitudes, reevaluate and rerank our values, and exercise a higher level of self-control to modify our behavior.…? Better Counsel . . . . . . . . . Gotthold Ephraim Lessing "Better counsel comes overnight." Write and Speak . . . . . . . . . Pres. Gerald R. Ford "If I went back to college again, I’d concentrate on two areas: learning to write and speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively." Fully Human Fully Alive . . . . . . . . . Fr. John Powell, SJ "You are loved by God, unconditionally as you are:
Wherever you are in your development, whatever you are doing, with a strong affirmation of all your goodness and good deeds, with a gentle understanding of your weaknesses, God is forever loving you. You do not have to change, grow or be good in order to be loved. Rather, you are loved so that you can change, grow and be good." A Little Coaching . . . . . . . . . Jim Rohn "We could all use a little coaching. When you’re playing the game, it’s hard to think of everything." A Dwelling Place . . . . . . . . . The Cord, May ‘82
Listening . . . . . . . . . Fr. Herbert Weber, Faith Today"Listening, as an act of the heart, makes room for the other people in one’s life. The fears, joys or even the everyday experiences of someone else start to matter. It creates a new view of self and the surrounding world. Listening becomes a bridge that provides a connection with other members of a human family." Re-making Self . . . . . . . . . Winfred Rhodes "Life’s greatest achievement is the continual re-making of yourself so that at last you know how to live." The Ten Cannots . . . . . . . . . William J.H. Boetcker, often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln
Life is an Empty Bottle . . . . . . . . . Sower’s Seeds Aplenty, # 41 A woman went to her doctor with a catalogue of complaints about her health. The physician examined her thoroughly and became convinced that there was nothing physically wrong with her. He suspected it was her negative outlook on life — her bitterness and resentment — that was the key to her feeling the way she did. The wise physician took the woman into a back room in his office where he kept some of his medicine. He showed her a shelf filled with empty bottles. He said to her: "See those bottles. Notice that they are all empty. They are shaped differently from one another, but basically they are all alike. Most importantly, they have nothing in them. Now, I can take one of these bottles and fill it with poison — enough poison to kill a human being. Or I can fill it with enough medicine to bring down a fever, or ease a throbbing headache or fight bacteria in one part of the body. The important thing is that I make the choice. I can fill it with whatever I choose." The doctor looked her in the eye and said, "Each day that we are given is basically like one of these empty bottles. We can choose to fill it with love and life-affirming thoughts and attitudes, or we can fill it with destructive, poisonous thoughts. The choice is ours." So, what will you choose? Life-affirming, positive, healing thoughts? Or, the seething poisons of anger, bitterness and prejudice? The choice is yours!
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You do not have to win or earn or be worthy of his love. It is a ‘given.’ Of
course, you can refuse to accept it. You can separate yourself from God’s love
for awhile, or even for an eternity.
"Francis [of Assisi] found God within himself. The Lord made a dwelling place of
his heart and filled Francis with a light that illuminated his vision. This was
his life’s work: to make a fitting dwelling place within himself for the Lord."
You
cannot help little men
