Friday, December 06, 2002

[11/1/2002 9:38:41 PM | Jonimae Capinig]
Hearts that are "fit to break" with love for the Godhead
are those who have been in the Presence and have looked with
opened eye upon the majesty of Deity. Men of the breaking
hearts had a quality about them not known to or understood by
common men. They habitually spoke with spiritual authority.
They had been in the Presence of God and they reported what
they saw there. They were prophets, not scribes: for the
scribe tells us what he has read, and the prophet tells us what
he has seen. The distinction is not an imaginary one. Between
the scribe who has read and the prophet who has seen, there is
a difference as wide as the sea. We are today overrun with
orthodox scribes; but the prophets, where are they? The hard
voice of the scribe sounds over evangelicalism, but the Church
waits for the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the
veil and has gazed with inward eye upon the Wonder that is God.
... A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God [1948]


The deeper sorrow carves into your being, the more joy
you can absorb.
Jan Coleman

The more extensive a man's knowledge of what has
been done, the greater will be his power of
knowing what to do.
Benjamin Disraeli



When you judge another, you do not define them, you define
yourself.

Wayne Dyer
(1940-, American Psychotherapist, Author, Lecturer)

==================================

Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.

James Allen



We Christians too often substitute prayer for playing the
game. Prayer is good; but when used as a substitute for
obedience, it is nothing but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable
Pharisaism... To your knees, man! and to your Bible! Decide
at once! Don't hedge! Time flies! Cease your insults to God,
quit consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame, lying, and
cowardly excuses. Enlist!
... C. T. Studd (1860-1931)




"You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have,
for instance."

-- Franklin P. Jones



We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have
much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in
doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing
nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days
are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.

Seneca
(BC 3-65 AD, Roman Philosopher, Dramatist, Statesman)

There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself. We
cannot force it any more than love.

William Hazlitt

The superior man... does not set his mind either for or against
anything, he will pursue whatever is right. The superior man thinks of
virtue, the common man of comfort.

Confucius
(BC 551-479, Chinese Ethical Teacher, Philosopher)



In order for us to realize genuine happiness, we must be willing to court contentment every step of the way.

Sarah Ban Breathnach writes on simplicity and abundance.



"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."

-- Oscar Wilde



Right is right, even if everyone is against it; and wrong is
wrong, even if everyone is for it.

William Penn



People do not lack strength; they lack will.

Victor Hugo
(1802-1885, French Poet, Dramatist, Novelist)



Reading is good, hearing is good, conversation and
meditation are good; but then, they are only good at times and
occasions, in a certain degree, and must be used and governed
with such caution as we eat and drink and refresh ourselves, or
they will bring forth in us the fruits of intemperance. But
the spirit of prayer is for all times and occasions; it is a
lamp that is to be always burning, a light to be ever shining:
everything calls for it; everything is to be done in it and
governed by it, because it is and means and wills nothing else
but the totality of the soul -- not doing this or that, but
wholly... given up to God to be where and what and how He
pleases.
... William Law (1686-1761)



Nothing is small or great in God's sight; whatever He wills
becomes great to us, however trifling, and if once the voice of
conscience tells us that He requires anything of us, we have no
right to measure its importance.
... J. N. Grou (1731-1803)



Temptations discover what we are.

Thomas รก Kempis



God wants us to know that when we have Him we have
everything.
... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)



If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have
an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.

Marian Wright Edelman



Failure is not failure to meet your goal. Real failure is failure to reach as high as you possibly can. No man will ever truly know that he had succeeded until he experiences an apparent failure.

Robert Schuller



Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action to all eternity.

Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801) was a Swiss physiognomist, theologian, and poet.



[edit]
[10/25/2002 9:16:20 PM | Jonimae Capinig]
Goals give you more than a reason to get up in the morning;

they are an incentive to keep you going all day. Goals tend to

tap the deeper resources and draw the best out of life.

Harvey Mackay runs Mackay Envelopes, Inc., in Minneapolis,

but he is better known for his syndicated column. is the author

of the New York Times #1 bestsellers Swim With The Sharks

Without Being Eaten Alive and Beware the Naked Man Who

Offers You His Shirt.

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision
just passes time. Vision with action can change the world. A

true
leader must first see an idea as opportunity, then choose to act

upon it.

Joel Barker
(American Businessman, Consultant, Author)


To solve big problems you have to be willing to do unpopular
things.

Lee Iacocca
(1924-, American Businessman, Former CEO of Chrysler)


The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of
getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks

into small
manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.

Mark Twain
(1835-1910, American Humorist, Writer)

The past is an illusion. You must learn to live in the present
and accept yourself for what you are now. What you lack in

flexibility
and agility you must make up with knowledge and constant

practice.

Bruce Lee
(1940-1973, Chinese-American Actor, Director, Author, Martial

Artist)

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

John Enoch Powell
(1912-, British Statesman


The more you know the less you need to say.

Jim Rohn
(American Businessman, Author, Speaker, Philosopher)

Tears shed for self are tears of weakness, but tears shed for
others are a sign of strength.

Billy Graham
(1918-, American Evangelist)


Success is 99 percent failure.

Soichiro Honda
(Japanese businessman, founder of Honda Motor Corp.)

Seek first to understand and then to be understood.

Stephen R. Covey
(American Speaker, Trainer, Author of "The 7 Habits of Highly

Effective
People")

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every
day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day,

something no one
else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be

always
part
of unanimity.

Christopher Morley
(1890-1957, American Novelist, Journalist, Poet)

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they

are.
I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in the

world
are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they

want and if
they can't find them, make them.

George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950, Irish-born British Dramatist)


Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary
people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather

what is
impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see

it as
possible.

Cherie Carter-Scott
(American Author, Speaker, Trainer)

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to
have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what

they want
so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse.

You
must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do,

in order to
have what you want.

Margaret Young
(American Author)


My basic principle is that you don't make decisions because

they
are easy; you don't make them because they are cheap; you

don't make
them because they're popular; you make them because they're

right.

Theodore Hesburgh
(American Educator)



Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch
which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it

burn
as brightly as possible before handing it on to future

generations.

George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950, Irish-born British Dramatist)

Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on

something,
perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of

anyone
stumbling on something sitting down.

Charles F. Kettering
(1876-1958, American Engineer, )


We shall never learn to know ourselves except by
endeavoring to know God; for, beholding His greatness, we
realize our own littleness; His purity shows us our foulness;
and by meditating upon His humility we find how very far we are
from being humble.
... Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare
to win.

Bobby Knight

The most important thing you can do to achieve your goals is to
make sure that as soon as you set them, you immediately

begin to create
momentum. The most important rules that I ever adopted to help

me in
achieving my goals were those I learned from a very successful

man who
taught me to first write down the goal, and then to never leave

the
site of setting a goal without first taking some form of positive

action
toward
its attainment.

Anthony Robbins
(1960-, American Author, Speaker, Peak Performance Expert)

"Resolve to be a master of change rather than a victim of

change."

-- Brian Tracy

If you do not value yourself independently of your achievements,

you will not value your achievements.

Gillian Butler, PhD and Tony Hope, MD. Gillian Butler is a

clinical psychologist. Tony Hope is a psychiatrist


"One is successful just in the sincere attempt to become
successful."


"You cannot climb a mountain if you will not risk a fall."


"Fear is the cancer of the human spirit."


"The greatest heroic feats in history cannot hold a candle to
the courage it takes to raise a child."


"If I die tonight in my sleep:
let me have hugged and told my children that I love them,
let me have told my mother how much she is loved and

appreciated,
let me have helped a friend or better, a stranger,
let me have worked very hard these past hours in the name of

my
personal progress, and, let me have gone to sleep with the
knowledge that I did the very best I could do today."


"Give a shelterless man tools and he will build a home.
Inspire him, encourage him, give him vision, and he will build
an empire."


"Life is a Gift, not a Prize."


"There's no more nobler mission than positively impacting

people
in their lives."


"You'll never go wrong doing anything for the right reason."


"Loss creates a vacuum into which something greater always

flows."


"What you Think is what you Get."




[edit]

[9/23/2002 9:35:58 PM | Jonimae Capinig]
The deeper sorrow carves into your being, the more joy
you can absorb.
Jan Coleman
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I am one of those who believe that spiritual
progress is a rule of human life, but the approach
to perfection is slow and painful. If a woman
elevates herself in one respect and is retarded in
another, it is because the rough trail that leads
to the mountain peak is not free of ambushes of
thieves and lairs of wolves.
Kahlil Gibran
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I don't suffer from stress. I'm a carrier.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Believe that you are bigger than your difficulties,
for you are, indeed.
Norman Vincent Peale

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I don't have an attitude problem. You have a
perception problem.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The doctor and the pastor ask about your health,
but eternity makes you responsible for your
condition.
Soren Kierkegaard
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It is no use saying "we are doing our best." You
have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Winston Churchill
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What is the use of living if it be not to strive for
noble causes and to make this muddled world a better
place for those who will live in it after we are gone.
Winston Churchill
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

One nice thing about egotists; they don't talk
about other people.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Diplomacy is the art of saying "good doggie" while
looking for a bigger stick.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves,
and sharpens our skills. Our antagonist is our
helper.
Edmund Burke
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply
to serve as a warning to others.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Don't be irreplaceable; if you can't be replaced,
you can't be promoted.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Learn from the mistakes of others, you can't live
long enough to make them all yourself.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different
from something that happens to you: You produce it.
You live it.
Bruce Mau

***********************************************
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small
people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you,
too, can become great.


Mark Twain
(1835-1910, American Humorist, Writer
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In the long run, in spite of everything, I have been
very lucky. I asked for bread and was given a stone.
It turned out to be precious.
Quentin Crisp


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Quote: To have someone understand why we cry or laugh, why we feel downcast for no apparent reason, is to have a friend. A friend accepts our changes of mood without telling us to snap out of it. They know if we could so easily handle tears we would have done it already. All our loneliness and worry and fear seems to fade in the presence of a friend who never judges but stands alongside with loyalty... It gives us what we need to be a friend as well.

Joyce Sequichie Hifler
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

" People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when darkness sets in, their beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

All our loneliness and worry and fear seems to fade in
the presence of a friend who never judges but stands
alongside with loyalty... It gives us what we need to
be a friend as well.
Joyce Sequichie Hifler

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."
- Thomas Jefferson
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"The price of greatness is responsibility."
- Winston Churchill
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time."
- Abraham Lincoln

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

pain allows us 2 appreciate grace wid depth. hapiness allows us 2 learn how 2 celebrate n d gudnes of god. we nd both 2 nurture a faith not boneles but viagrous-david anota

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
debate where? maintain d tension bet sovereignty n human responsibility. dat s a mystery but affirm both bec both r true.-david anota

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Insanity is my only means of relaxation.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox:what is soft is strong.
Lao Tsu
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and
the trees only so long as its surface is
undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true
image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly
relaxed.
Indra Devi

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If we could read the secret history of our enemies,
we should find in each man's life sorrow and
suffering enough to disarm any hostility.
H.W. Longfellow
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Resolve to find thyself; and to know that he who
finds himself, loses his misery.
Matthew Arnold

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Don't pray to escape trouble. Don't pray to be
comfortable in your emotions. Pray to do the will
of God in every situation. Nothing else is worth
praying for." - Samuel M. Shoemaker

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"I have found the greatest power in the world is
the power of prayer." - Cecil B. DeMille

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"The sun with all its planets moving around it, can ripen the
smallest bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else to do. Why
then should I doubt His power?" -- Galileo, Italian Astronomer

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Pray like it depends entirely upon God and work like it depends
entirely upon you." -- Unknown
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


"Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run
faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning
a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or
it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion
or a gazelle -- when the sun comes up, you had better be running.
-- Unknown

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened."
-- Unknown

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are
pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are
different colors... but, they all exist very nicely in the same
box." -- Unknown

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a
detour." -- Unknown

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine
upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." -- Numbers 6:24-26

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"And what, incidentally, do you think integrity is? The ability
not to pick a watch out of your neighbor's pocket? No, it's not
as easy as that. If that were all, I'd say that 95% of humanity
were honest, upright men. Only, as you can see, they aren't.
Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea."
-- Ayn Rand "The Fountainhead" (1943)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"It is more difficult to be an honorable man for a week than to
be a hero for fifteen minutes." -- Jules Renard

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"What is left when honor is lost?" -- Publilius Syrus

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge
without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." -- Samuel Johnson

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your
tears will prevent you from seeing the stars."
-- Rabindranath Tagore

[edit]

[9/23/2002 9:30:08 PM | Jonimae Capinig]
"If the Creator had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, He surely meant us to stick it out." -- be strong n take courage.do not fear nor b dismayd.
=================================

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an Irish writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925.
===========================================


Quote: He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skills. Our antagonist is our helper.

Edmund Burke
===================================

Quote: To know and not do is not yet to know.

Zen saying.
=========================================

Quote: Live passionately. Appreciate what you have. Get off the beaten path. Don't smell just the roses, smell everything you can and leave your mark along the way. Slobber as you please. As Socrates' dog once said, the unexuberant life is not worth living.

Rocky, Stephen Wilson's dog. Steve Wilson was an editor / columnist for the Arizona Republic. Rocky is the golden retriever who shares the family home.
=========================================

Quote: A life directed chiefly toward the fulfillment of personal desires sooner or later always leads to bitter disappointment.

Albert Einstein
=========================================

Self-awareness--recognizing a feeling as it happens--is the keystone of emotional intelligence... the ability to monitor feelings from moment to moment is crucial to psychological insight and understanding... People with greater certainty about their feelings are better pilots of their lives, having a surer sense of how they really feel about personal decisions...

Daniel Goleman is a psychologist who consults internationally and lectures frequently to business audiences, professional groups and on college campuses. He reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times and has served as a visiting faculty member at Harvard.

===========================================
Believe that you are bigger than your difficulties, for you are, indeed.

Norman Vincent Peale


[edit]

[8/12/2002 10:12:16 AM | Jonimae Capinig]

"For the man who uses well what he is given shall be given more,
and he shall have abundance." -- Matthew 25:29


"God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well."
-- Romans 12:6


"However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them?"
-- The Dhammapada


"If you would learn the secret of right relations, look only for the divine in people and things, and leave all the rest to God."
-- J. Allen Boone (Kinship with all Life)


"Come to the edge, he said.
They said: We are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came.
He pushed them... and they flew." -- Guillaume Apollinaire


"Wherever life may take you, whatever goals you seek, remember that you're special and your talents are unique. Remember what is in your heart should always be your guide, and that each day you're thought about with much love and pride." -- Unknown


"He who is outside his door has the hardest part of his journey behind him." -- Dutch Proverb


"You are not called to be a canary in a cage. You are called to be an eagle, and to fly sun to sun, over continents."
-- Henry Ward Beecher


"Whoever you are, there is some younger person who thinks you are perfect. There is some work that will never be done if you don't do it. There is someone who would miss you if you were gone. There is a place that you alone can fill."
-- Jacob M. Braude


"It is more difficult to be an honorable man for a week than to be a hero for fifteen minutes." -- Jules Renard


"What is left when honor is lost?" -- Publilius Syrus


"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." -- Samuel Johnson


"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." -- Jim Elliot, Missionary killed by Auca Indians



You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you: You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth are the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

Bruce Mau


Our forgiving of others will not procure forgiveness for ourselves; but our not forgiving others proves that we
ourselves are not forgiven.
... John Owen (1616-1683)



Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity. = Carl Jung (1875-1961, Swiss Psychiatrist)



Enthusiasm, like measles, mumps and the common cold, is highly contagious. = Emory Ward


Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit. = Napoleon Hill


Change yourself and your work will seem different.

Norman Vincent Peale



By forgetting the past and by throwing myself into other interests, I forget to worry.

Jack Dempsey


Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace.
Bhagavad Gita


Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

George Washington



Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen.

Lee Iacocca



All my life I used to wonder what I would become when I grew up. Then, about seven years ago, I realized that I was never going to grow up - that growing is an ever ongoing process.

M. Scott Peck


Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

William James


A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.

Larry Bird


Your own words are the bricks and mortar of the dreams you want to realize. Your words are the greatest power you have. The words you choose and the use establish the life you experience.

Sonia Croquette


You will never find time for anything. you must make it.

Charles Buxton


Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

Helen Keller


You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.

James Allen


When you face your fear, most of the time you will discover that it was not really such a big threat after all. We all need some form of deeply rooted, powerful motivation -- it empowers us to overcome obstacles so we can live our dreams.

Les Brown

[edit]

We cannot become what we need to be, remaining what we are.

Max Depree
(1924-, American Furniture Manufacturing Company Executive)
***************************

It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that
matters.

Epictetus
(50-120, Stoic Philosopher)

***************************************
Faith is to the soul what life is to the body. Prayer is
to faith what breath is to the body. How a person can live and
not breathe is past my comprehension, and how a person can
believe and not pray is past my comprehension too.
... J. C. Ryle, "A Call to Prayer"
[Thanks to Robert J. Douglas at RJDOUGLAS@stthomas.edu]

******************************

Say not always what you know, but always know what you say.

Claudius
(10 BC-AD 54, Roman Emperor)

***************************

Nobody seriously believes the universe was made by God
without being persuaded that He takes care of His works.
... John Calvin (1509-1564)

*******************************
You create your opportunities by asking for them.

Patty Hansen
(American Author)

*******************************
Adversity cause some men to break; others to break records.

William A. Ward
============================================
You don't always get what you ask for, but you never get what you
don't ask for... unless it's contagious!

Franklyn Broude
============================================
[At the Garden of Olives Monastery]
"Why are you all so quiet all the time?" I say, still
whispering at him in this hoarse voice.
"We are teachers and workers," he says, "not talkers."
"Workers, O.K.," I say, "but how can a teacher be quiet all
the time and teach anybody anything?"
"Christ was the best," he says, thinking of something. "He
lived thirty-three years. Thirty years he kept quiet; three
years he talked. Ten to one for keeping quiet."
... Franc Smith, Harry Vernon at Prep [1959]

_______________________________________________________________
Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unloveable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again, that I am a nobody." ....[My dark side says,] "I am no good... I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected and abandoned." Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.

Henri Nouwen (1932 - 1996) was a Jesuit priest and writer, born in the Netherlands.
************************
We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see
things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long
winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others
nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring
them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely
hope that their dreams will come true.

Woodrow T. Wilson
(1856-1924, Twenty-eighth President of the USA)

============================================
There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than
the long range risks of comfortable inaction.

John F. Kennedy
(1917-1963, Thirty-fifth President of the USA)

============================================


"Read something positive every night and listen to something helpful
every morning."

-- Tom Hopkins
*************************
You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things - to
compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to
reach challenging goals.

Sir Edmund Hillary
(1919-, New Zealand Mountaineer, Explorer)

============================================
Needing someone is like needing a parachute. If he
isn't there the first time you need him, chances
are you won't be needing him again.

I can please only one person per day. Today is not
your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either.



Kindness is a hard thing to give away. It keeps coming back to the giver." **
************************
Your enemies are your best spiritual teachers because
their presence provides you with the opportunity to
enhance and develop tolerance, patience, and under-
standing [and thus] to develop your capacity for
compassion.

Dalai Lama


If the only prayer you say in your life is
"thank you," that would suffice.

Meister Eckhart


If you want to live a happy life, tie it to
a goal, not to people or things.

Albert Einstein


The unexamined life is not worth living.
Socrates


For let me tell you, that the more the
pleasures of the body fade away, the greater
to me is the pleasure and charm of
conversation.
Plato

In order for us to realize genuine happiness, we must
be willing to court contentment every step of the way.
Sarah Ban Breathnach

Sarah Ban Breathnach writes on simplicity and
abundance.


The real art of conversation is not only to say the
right thing at the right time, but also to leave
unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.


***************************************************************************
Nothing is small or great in God's sight; whatever He wills
becomes great to us, however trifling, and if once the voice of
conscience tells us that He requires anything of us, we have no
right to measure its importance.
... J. N. Grou (1731-1803)

Liken yourself to a beautiful original part of creation -- a true work of art. Then each day ask yourself how you are living: either in ways that show gratitude for this beauty of in ways that indicate how you are defacing it.

Robert J. Wicks writes about simplicity and every day spirituality.

"Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad
memory." -- Franklin Pierce Adams.


"Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not
its twin." -- Barbara Kingsolver.


"Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the
good old days." -- Doug Larson.


"The little reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood
upright again when the storm had passed over." -- Aesop.


"Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in
rising every time we fall." -- Oliver Goldsmith


"The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be
what we pretend to be." -- Socrates


"Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel
that has crushed it." -- Mark Twain


"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may
have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."
-- Colossians 3:13


"Many men fail because they quit too soon. They lose faith when
the signs are against them. They do not have the courage to hold
on, to keep fighting in spite of that which seems insurmountable.
If more of us would strike out and attempt the "impossible," we
very soon would find the truth of that old saw that nothing is
impossible... Abolish fear and you can accomplish anything you
wish." -- C. E. Welch


"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
-- Galatians 2:20


"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
-- 1 Corinthians 1:18)


"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
-- Matthew 6:21


=================
Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it.



'Cultivate an attitude of gratitude, of giving and
forgiving. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.'

- Ralph Waldo Emerson -



Liken yourself to a beautiful original part of creation
-- a true work of art. Then each day ask yourself how
you are living: either in ways that show gratitude for
this beauty of in ways that indicate how you are
defacing it.
Robert J. Wicks

Robert J. Wicks writes about simplicity
and every day spirituality.



To live happily with other people, ask of them only what they can give.

Tristan Bernard



"Football isn't a contact sport, it's a collision sport.
Dancing is a contact sport." -- Duffy Daugherty


"If you train hard, you'll not only be hard, you'll be hard to
beat." -- Herschel Walker (greatest back in UGA history)


"The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital."
-- Joe Paterno


"The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer." -- John Madden


"How you respond to the challenge in the second half will
determine what you become after the game, whether you are a
winner or a loser." -- Lou Holtz


"I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough,
manly sports. But I do not believe in them if they degenerate
into the sole end of any one's existence. I don't want you to
sacrifice standing well in your studies to any over-athleticism;
and I need not tell you that character counts for a great deal
more than either intellect or body in winning success in life.
Athletic proficiency is a mighty good servant, and like so many
other good servants, a mighty bad master. " -- Theodore Roosevelt


"Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you
will go about achieving it and staying with that plan."
-- Tom Landry


"The difference between a successful person and others is not a
lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of
will." -- Vince Lombardi


"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at
hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have
applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand."
-- Vince Lombardi


"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You
don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a
while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit.
Unfortunately, so is losing." -- Vince Lombardi
****************************

The deeper sorrow carves into your being, the more joy
you can absorb.
Jan Coleman

I am one of those who believe that spiritual
progress is a rule of human life, but the approach
to perfection is slow and painful. If a woman
elevates herself in one respect and is retarded in
another, it is because the rough trail that leads
to the mountain peak is not free of ambushes of
thieves and lairs of wolves.
Kahlil Gibran


I don't suffer from stress. I'm a carrier.


Believe that you are bigger than your difficulties,
for you are, indeed.
Norman Vincent Peale


I don't have an attitude problem. You have a
perception problem.

The doctor and the pastor ask about your health,
but eternity makes you responsible for your
condition.
Soren Kierkegaard

It is no use saying "we are doing our best." You
have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Winston Churchill

What is the use of living if it be not to strive for
noble causes and to make this muddled world a better
place for those who will live in it after we are gone.
Winston Churchill

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.


One nice thing about egotists; they don't talk
about other people.

Diplomacy is the art of saying "good doggie" while
looking for a bigger stick.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves,
and sharpens our skills. Our antagonist is our
helper.
Edmund Burke

It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply
to serve as a warning to others.

Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

Don't be irreplaceable; if you can't be replaced,
you can't be promoted.

Learn from the mistakes of others, you can't live
long enough to make them all yourself.

You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different
from something that happens to you: You produce it.
You live it.
Bruce Mau

***********************************************
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small
people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you,
too, can become great.


Mark Twain
(1835-1910, American Humorist, Writer

In the long run, in spite of everything, I have been
very lucky. I asked for bread and was given a stone.
It turned out to be precious.
Quentin Crisp



Quote: To have someone understand why we cry or laugh, why we feel downcast for no apparent reason, is to have a friend. A friend accepts our changes of mood without telling us to snap out of it. They know if we could so easily handle tears we would have done it already. All our loneliness and worry and fear seems to fade in the presence of a friend who never judges but stands alongside with loyalty... It gives us what we need to be a friend as well.

Joyce Sequichie Hifler

" People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when darkness sets in, their beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross



All our loneliness and worry and fear seems to fade in
the presence of a friend who never judges but stands
alongside with loyalty... It gives us what we need to
be a friend as well.
Joyce Sequichie Hifler




"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."
- Thomas Jefferson

"The price of greatness is responsibility."
- Winston Churchill

"The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time."
- Abraham Lincoln



pain allows us 2 appreciate grace wid depth. hapiness allows us 2 learn how 2 celebrate n d gudnes of god. we nd both 2 nurture a faith not boneles but viagrous-david

debate where? maintain d tension bet sovereignty n human responsibility. dat s a mystery but affirm both bec both r true.-david

Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives
I can get.


Insanity is my only means of relaxation.


Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox:what is soft is strong.
Lao Tsu

Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and
the trees only so long as its surface is
undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true
image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly
relaxed.
Indra Devi

If we could read the secret history of our enemies,
we should find in each man's life sorrow and
suffering enough to disarm any hostility.
H.W. Longfellow

Resolve to find thyself; and to know that he who
finds himself, loses his misery.
Matthew Arnold

-- A BIT OF WISDOM/REFLECTION:

"Don't pray to escape trouble. Don't pray to be
comfortable in your emotions. Pray to do the will
of God in every situation. Nothing else is worth
praying for." - Samuel M. Shoemaker

"I have found the greatest power in the world is
the power of prayer." - Cecil B. DeMille


"SELECTED QUOTES"
_________________



"The sun with all its planets moving around it, can ripen the
smallest bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else to do. Why
then should I doubt His power?" -- Galileo, Italian Astronomer


"Pray like it depends entirely upon God and work like it depends
entirely upon you." -- Unknown


"Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run
faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning
a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or
it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion
or a gazelle -- when the sun comes up, you had better be running.
-- Unknown


"Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened."
-- Unknown


"We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are
pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are
different colors... but, they all exist very nicely in the same
box." -- Unknown


"A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a
detour." -- Unknown


"The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine
upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." -- Numbers 6:24-26


"And what, incidentally, do you think integrity is? The ability
not to pick a watch out of your neighbor's pocket? No, it's not
as easy as that. If that were all, I'd say that 95% of humanity
were honest, upright men. Only, as you can see, they aren't.
Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea."
-- Ayn Rand "The Fountainhead" (1943)


"It is more difficult to be an honorable man for a week than to
be a hero for fifteen minutes." -- Jules Renard


"What is left when honor is lost?" -- Publilius Syrus


"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge
without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." -- Samuel Johnson


"If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your
tears will prevent you from seeing the stars."
-- Rabindranath Tagore


A successful person is one who can lay a firm
foundation with the bricks that others throw at him
or her.


David Brinkley

It is never right to compromise with dishonesty.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

Friday, November 01, 2002

Hearts that are "fit to break" with love for the Godhead
are those who have been in the Presence and have looked with
opened eye upon the majesty of Deity. Men of the breaking
hearts had a quality about them not known to or understood by
common men. They habitually spoke with spiritual authority.
They had been in the Presence of God and they reported what
they saw there. They were prophets, not scribes: for the
scribe tells us what he has read, and the prophet tells us what
he has seen. The distinction is not an imaginary one. Between
the scribe who has read and the prophet who has seen, there is
a difference as wide as the sea. We are today overrun with
orthodox scribes; but the prophets, where are they? The hard
voice of the scribe sounds over evangelicalism, but the Church
waits for the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the
veil and has gazed with inward eye upon the Wonder that is God.
... A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God [1948]


The deeper sorrow carves into your being, the more joy
you can absorb.
Jan Coleman

The more extensive a man's knowledge of what has
been done, the greater will be his power of
knowing what to do.
Benjamin Disraeli



When you judge another, you do not define them, you define
yourself.

Wayne Dyer
(1940-, American Psychotherapist, Author, Lecturer)

==================================

Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.

James Allen



We Christians too often substitute prayer for playing the
game. Prayer is good; but when used as a substitute for
obedience, it is nothing but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable
Pharisaism... To your knees, man! and to your Bible! Decide
at once! Don't hedge! Time flies! Cease your insults to God,
quit consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame, lying, and
cowardly excuses. Enlist!
... C. T. Studd (1860-1931)




"You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have,
for instance."

-- Franklin P. Jones



We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have
much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in
doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing
nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days
are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.

Seneca
(BC 3-65 AD, Roman Philosopher, Dramatist, Statesman)

There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself. We
cannot force it any more than love.

William Hazlitt

The superior man... does not set his mind either for or against
anything, he will pursue whatever is right. The superior man thinks of
virtue, the common man of comfort.

Confucius
(BC 551-479, Chinese Ethical Teacher, Philosopher)



In order for us to realize genuine happiness, we must be willing to court contentment every step of the way.

Sarah Ban Breathnach writes on simplicity and abundance.



"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."

-- Oscar Wilde



Right is right, even if everyone is against it; and wrong is
wrong, even if everyone is for it.

William Penn



People do not lack strength; they lack will.

Victor Hugo
(1802-1885, French Poet, Dramatist, Novelist)



Reading is good, hearing is good, conversation and
meditation are good; but then, they are only good at times and
occasions, in a certain degree, and must be used and governed
with such caution as we eat and drink and refresh ourselves, or
they will bring forth in us the fruits of intemperance. But
the spirit of prayer is for all times and occasions; it is a
lamp that is to be always burning, a light to be ever shining:
everything calls for it; everything is to be done in it and
governed by it, because it is and means and wills nothing else
but the totality of the soul -- not doing this or that, but
wholly... given up to God to be where and what and how He
pleases.
... William Law (1686-1761)



Nothing is small or great in God's sight; whatever He wills
becomes great to us, however trifling, and if once the voice of
conscience tells us that He requires anything of us, we have no
right to measure its importance.
... J. N. Grou (1731-1803)



Temptations discover what we are.

Thomas รก Kempis



God wants us to know that when we have Him we have
everything.
... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)



If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have
an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.

Marian Wright Edelman



Failure is not failure to meet your goal. Real failure is failure to reach as high as you possibly can. No man will ever truly know that he had succeeded until he experiences an apparent failure.

Robert Schuller



Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action to all eternity.

Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801) was a Swiss physiognomist, theologian, and poet.


Friday, October 25, 2002

Goals give you more than a reason to get up in the morning;

they are an incentive to keep you going all day. Goals tend to

tap the deeper resources and draw the best out of life.

Harvey Mackay runs Mackay Envelopes, Inc., in Minneapolis,

but he is better known for his syndicated column. is the author

of the New York Times #1 bestsellers Swim With The Sharks

Without Being Eaten Alive and Beware the Naked Man Who

Offers You His Shirt.

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision
just passes time. Vision with action can change the world. A

true
leader must first see an idea as opportunity, then choose to act

upon it.

Joel Barker
(American Businessman, Consultant, Author)


To solve big problems you have to be willing to do unpopular
things.

Lee Iacocca
(1924-, American Businessman, Former CEO of Chrysler)


The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of
getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks

into small
manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.

Mark Twain
(1835-1910, American Humorist, Writer)

The past is an illusion. You must learn to live in the present
and accept yourself for what you are now. What you lack in

flexibility
and agility you must make up with knowledge and constant

practice.

Bruce Lee
(1940-1973, Chinese-American Actor, Director, Author, Martial

Artist)

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

John Enoch Powell
(1912-, British Statesman


The more you know the less you need to say.

Jim Rohn
(American Businessman, Author, Speaker, Philosopher)

Tears shed for self are tears of weakness, but tears shed for
others are a sign of strength.

Billy Graham
(1918-, American Evangelist)


Success is 99 percent failure.

Soichiro Honda
(Japanese businessman, founder of Honda Motor Corp.)

Seek first to understand and then to be understood.

Stephen R. Covey
(American Speaker, Trainer, Author of "The 7 Habits of Highly

Effective
People")

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every
day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day,

something no one
else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be

always
part
of unanimity.

Christopher Morley
(1890-1957, American Novelist, Journalist, Poet)

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they

are.
I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in the

world
are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they

want and if
they can't find them, make them.

George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950, Irish-born British Dramatist)


Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary
people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather

what is
impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see

it as
possible.

Cherie Carter-Scott
(American Author, Speaker, Trainer)

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to
have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what

they want
so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse.

You
must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do,

in order to
have what you want.

Margaret Young
(American Author)


My basic principle is that you don't make decisions because

they
are easy; you don't make them because they are cheap; you

don't make
them because they're popular; you make them because they're

right.

Theodore Hesburgh
(American Educator)



Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch
which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it

burn
as brightly as possible before handing it on to future

generations.

George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950, Irish-born British Dramatist)

Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on

something,
perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of

anyone
stumbling on something sitting down.

Charles F. Kettering
(1876-1958, American Engineer, )


We shall never learn to know ourselves except by
endeavoring to know God; for, beholding His greatness, we
realize our own littleness; His purity shows us our foulness;
and by meditating upon His humility we find how very far we are
from being humble.
... Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare
to win.

Bobby Knight

The most important thing you can do to achieve your goals is to
make sure that as soon as you set them, you immediately

begin to create
momentum. The most important rules that I ever adopted to help

me in
achieving my goals were those I learned from a very successful

man who
taught me to first write down the goal, and then to never leave

the
site of setting a goal without first taking some form of positive

action
toward
its attainment.

Anthony Robbins
(1960-, American Author, Speaker, Peak Performance Expert)

"Resolve to be a master of change rather than a victim of

change."

-- Brian Tracy

If you do not value yourself independently of your achievements,

you will not value your achievements.

Gillian Butler, PhD and Tony Hope, MD. Gillian Butler is a

clinical psychologist. Tony Hope is a psychiatrist


"One is successful just in the sincere attempt to become
successful."


"You cannot climb a mountain if you will not risk a fall."


"Fear is the cancer of the human spirit."


"The greatest heroic feats in history cannot hold a candle to
the courage it takes to raise a child."


"If I die tonight in my sleep:
let me have hugged and told my children that I love them,
let me have told my mother how much she is loved and

appreciated,
let me have helped a friend or better, a stranger,
let me have worked very hard these past hours in the name of

my
personal progress, and, let me have gone to sleep with the
knowledge that I did the very best I could do today."


"Give a shelterless man tools and he will build a home.
Inspire him, encourage him, give him vision, and he will build
an empire."


"Life is a Gift, not a Prize."


"There's no more nobler mission than positively impacting

people
in their lives."


"You'll never go wrong doing anything for the right reason."


"Loss creates a vacuum into which something greater always

flows."


"What you Think is what you Get."



Monday, September 23, 2002

The deeper sorrow carves into your being, the more joy
you can absorb.
Jan Coleman
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I am one of those who believe that spiritual
progress is a rule of human life, but the approach
to perfection is slow and painful. If a woman
elevates herself in one respect and is retarded in
another, it is because the rough trail that leads
to the mountain peak is not free of ambushes of
thieves and lairs of wolves.
Kahlil Gibran
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I don't suffer from stress. I'm a carrier.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Believe that you are bigger than your difficulties,
for you are, indeed.
Norman Vincent Peale

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I don't have an attitude problem. You have a
perception problem.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The doctor and the pastor ask about your health,
but eternity makes you responsible for your
condition.
Soren Kierkegaard
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It is no use saying "we are doing our best." You
have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Winston Churchill
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What is the use of living if it be not to strive for
noble causes and to make this muddled world a better
place for those who will live in it after we are gone.
Winston Churchill
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

One nice thing about egotists; they don't talk
about other people.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Diplomacy is the art of saying "good doggie" while
looking for a bigger stick.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves,
and sharpens our skills. Our antagonist is our
helper.
Edmund Burke
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply
to serve as a warning to others.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Don't be irreplaceable; if you can't be replaced,
you can't be promoted.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Learn from the mistakes of others, you can't live
long enough to make them all yourself.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different
from something that happens to you: You produce it.
You live it.
Bruce Mau

***********************************************
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small
people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you,
too, can become great.


Mark Twain
(1835-1910, American Humorist, Writer
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In the long run, in spite of everything, I have been
very lucky. I asked for bread and was given a stone.
It turned out to be precious.
Quentin Crisp


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Quote: To have someone understand why we cry or laugh, why we feel downcast for no apparent reason, is to have a friend. A friend accepts our changes of mood without telling us to snap out of it. They know if we could so easily handle tears we would have done it already. All our loneliness and worry and fear seems to fade in the presence of a friend who never judges but stands alongside with loyalty... It gives us what we need to be a friend as well.

Joyce Sequichie Hifler
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

" People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when darkness sets in, their beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

All our loneliness and worry and fear seems to fade in
the presence of a friend who never judges but stands
alongside with loyalty... It gives us what we need to
be a friend as well.
Joyce Sequichie Hifler

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."
- Thomas Jefferson
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"The price of greatness is responsibility."
- Winston Churchill
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time."
- Abraham Lincoln

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

pain allows us 2 appreciate grace wid depth. hapiness allows us 2 learn how 2 celebrate n d gudnes of god. we nd both 2 nurture a faith not boneles but viagrous-david anota

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
debate where? maintain d tension bet sovereignty n human responsibility. dat s a mystery but affirm both bec both r true.-david anota

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Insanity is my only means of relaxation.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox:what is soft is strong.
Lao Tsu
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and
the trees only so long as its surface is
undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true
image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly
relaxed.
Indra Devi

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If we could read the secret history of our enemies,
we should find in each man's life sorrow and
suffering enough to disarm any hostility.
H.W. Longfellow
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Resolve to find thyself; and to know that he who
finds himself, loses his misery.
Matthew Arnold

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Don't pray to escape trouble. Don't pray to be
comfortable in your emotions. Pray to do the will
of God in every situation. Nothing else is worth
praying for." - Samuel M. Shoemaker

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"I have found the greatest power in the world is
the power of prayer." - Cecil B. DeMille

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"The sun with all its planets moving around it, can ripen the
smallest bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else to do. Why
then should I doubt His power?" -- Galileo, Italian Astronomer

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Pray like it depends entirely upon God and work like it depends
entirely upon you." -- Unknown
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


"Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run
faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning
a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or
it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion
or a gazelle -- when the sun comes up, you had better be running.
-- Unknown

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened."
-- Unknown

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"We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are
pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are
different colors... but, they all exist very nicely in the same
box." -- Unknown

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"A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a
detour." -- Unknown

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"The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine
upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." -- Numbers 6:24-26

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"And what, incidentally, do you think integrity is? The ability
not to pick a watch out of your neighbor's pocket? No, it's not
as easy as that. If that were all, I'd say that 95% of humanity
were honest, upright men. Only, as you can see, they aren't.
Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea."
-- Ayn Rand "The Fountainhead" (1943)

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"It is more difficult to be an honorable man for a week than to
be a hero for fifteen minutes." -- Jules Renard

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"What is left when honor is lost?" -- Publilius Syrus

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"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge
without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." -- Samuel Johnson

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your
tears will prevent you from seeing the stars."
-- Rabindranath Tagore
"If the Creator had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, He surely meant us to stick it out." -- be strong n take courage.do not fear nor b dismayd.
=================================

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an Irish writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925.
===========================================


Quote: He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skills. Our antagonist is our helper.

Edmund Burke
===================================

Quote: To know and not do is not yet to know.

Zen saying.
=========================================

Quote: Live passionately. Appreciate what you have. Get off the beaten path. Don't smell just the roses, smell everything you can and leave your mark along the way. Slobber as you please. As Socrates' dog once said, the unexuberant life is not worth living.

Rocky, Stephen Wilson's dog. Steve Wilson was an editor / columnist for the Arizona Republic. Rocky is the golden retriever who shares the family home.
=========================================

Quote: A life directed chiefly toward the fulfillment of personal desires sooner or later always leads to bitter disappointment.

Albert Einstein
=========================================

Self-awareness--recognizing a feeling as it happens--is the keystone of emotional intelligence... the ability to monitor feelings from moment to moment is crucial to psychological insight and understanding... People with greater certainty about their feelings are better pilots of their lives, having a surer sense of how they really feel about personal decisions...

Daniel Goleman is a psychologist who consults internationally and lectures frequently to business audiences, professional groups and on college campuses. He reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times and has served as a visiting faculty member at Harvard.

===========================================
Believe that you are bigger than your difficulties, for you are, indeed.

Norman Vincent Peale

Monday, August 12, 2002


"For the man who uses well what he is given shall be given more,
and he shall have abundance." -- Matthew 25:29


"God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well."
-- Romans 12:6


"However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them?"
-- The Dhammapada


"If you would learn the secret of right relations, look only for the divine in people and things, and leave all the rest to God."
-- J. Allen Boone (Kinship with all Life)


"Come to the edge, he said.
They said: We are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came.
He pushed them... and they flew." -- Guillaume Apollinaire


"Wherever life may take you, whatever goals you seek, remember that you're special and your talents are unique. Remember what is in your heart should always be your guide, and that each day you're thought about with much love and pride." -- Unknown


"He who is outside his door has the hardest part of his journey behind him." -- Dutch Proverb


"You are not called to be a canary in a cage. You are called to be an eagle, and to fly sun to sun, over continents."
-- Henry Ward Beecher


"Whoever you are, there is some younger person who thinks you are perfect. There is some work that will never be done if you don't do it. There is someone who would miss you if you were gone. There is a place that you alone can fill."
-- Jacob M. Braude


"It is more difficult to be an honorable man for a week than to be a hero for fifteen minutes." -- Jules Renard


"What is left when honor is lost?" -- Publilius Syrus


"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." -- Samuel Johnson


"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." -- Jim Elliot, Missionary killed by Auca Indians



You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you: You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth are the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

Bruce Mau


Our forgiving of others will not procure forgiveness for ourselves; but our not forgiving others proves that we
ourselves are not forgiven.
... John Owen (1616-1683)



Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity. = Carl Jung (1875-1961, Swiss Psychiatrist)



Enthusiasm, like measles, mumps and the common cold, is highly contagious. = Emory Ward


Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit. = Napoleon Hill


Change yourself and your work will seem different.

Norman Vincent Peale



By forgetting the past and by throwing myself into other interests, I forget to worry.

Jack Dempsey


Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace.
Bhagavad Gita


Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

George Washington



Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen.

Lee Iacocca



All my life I used to wonder what I would become when I grew up. Then, about seven years ago, I realized that I was never going to grow up - that growing is an ever ongoing process.

M. Scott Peck


Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

William James


A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.

Larry Bird


Your own words are the bricks and mortar of the dreams you want to realize. Your words are the greatest power you have. The words you choose and the use establish the life you experience.

Sonia Croquette


You will never find time for anything. you must make it.

Charles Buxton


Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

Helen Keller


You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.

James Allen


When you face your fear, most of the time you will discover that it was not really such a big threat after all. We all need some form of deeply rooted, powerful motivation -- it empowers us to overcome obstacles so we can live our dreams.

Les Brown

Saturday, August 03, 2002

The Church knew what the Psalmist knew: music praises God.
Music is as well, or better, able to praise Him than the
building of a church and all its decoration; it is the Church's
greatest ornament.
... Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

_______________________________________________________________

Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity; and as
no man is good but as he wishes the good of others, so no man
can be good in the highest degree, who wishes not to others the
largest measures of the greatest good. To omit for a year, or
for a day, the most efficacious method of advancing
Christianity [i.e., the Bible], in compliance with any purposes
that terminate this side of the grave, is a crime [the like} of
which I know not that the world has yet had an example.
... a letter from Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
to William Drummond of Edinburgh, 1766

_______________________________________________________________
One of the catchwords in contemporary Protestantism is that
religion must aid man in "becoming human" or even "truly human"
-- whatever that means -- and the "model" is Christ. Take the
"obvious things" about Christ as listed by a contemporary
minister:
He was a popular and controversial preacher;
He gathered a group of followers;
He spent most of his time with the disinherited;
He taught with authority;
He never married;
He never (so far as we know) held a job;
He did not participate in public affairs;
He did not have income, property, or an address;
He was in bitter and frequent conflict with the religious
and political authorities;
He seemed to expect that the world would be eminently,
radically, and supernaturally transformed;
He attacked the traditions and values of his own people;
He practically forced the authorities to prosecute and
execute him.
There is nothing exclusively religious, much less Christian, in
this description, which, with a few exceptions, might apply
also to Socrates or to "Che" Guevara. I asked many socially
oriented ministers why they were Christians at all. Some said
through faith, and some said that Christianity gave them
courage and the motivation to endure (but so do other beliefs).
Some said they hardly knew and that, if another, more
acceptable, ideology came along, they would embrace it.
... Arthur Herzog, The Church Trap

_______________________________________________________________
The "good" man, the man whose god is righteousness, has as
his life's ambition the keeping of rules and commandments and
the keeping of himself uncontaminated by the world. This
sounds admirable; but, as the truth of Christ showed, the whole
of such living, the whole drive and ambition, the whole
edifice, is self-centered. That entire process of effort must
be abandoned if a man is to give himself in love to God and his
fellows. He must lose his life if he is ever going to find it.
... J. B. Phillips, When God was Man [1954]

_______________________________________________________________
This total and entire conversion of the inner man, this
absolute doing away of the old and acceptance of the new life,
being in its nature a real breach and not a formal one,
necessarily involved a corresponding outward breach with the
old form of life. Of this breach Baptism was the sacrament.
In Baptism the change was effected and realized in fact.
Baptism was not a mere formal external act, a symbol of a
spiritual fact which was already complete without it. A
Spiritual conversion which was not also a conversion of life
was no conversion at all, but a delusion... With the heart man
believes, with the mouth he confesses; but a mouth which does
not confess disproves the existence of a heart that believes.
The soul cannot be God's and the life not God's at the same
time. The soul can not be recreated and the life remain
unchanged. The spiritual breach is proved and realized and
completed in the outward breach. Where there is no outward
change, it is safe to deny an inward change. Faith without
Baptism and all that Baptism involved was consequently no part
of St. Paul's teaching.
... Roland Allen,
Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or ours? [1927]

_______________________________________________________________
A lost reputation is the best degree for Christ's service.
... C. T. Studd (1860-1931)

_______________________________________________________________

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.
Only through experience of trial and suffering
can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared,
ambition inspired, and success achieved.
Helen Keller
*!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

You must live in the present, launch yourself on
every wave, find your eternity in each moment.
Fools stand on their island opportunities and
look toward another land. There is no other land,
there is no other life but this.
Henry David Thoreau
====================================
Start by doing what's necessary, then do what's
possible, And suddenly you are doing the
impossible.
Saint Francis of Assisi
*!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

When they discover the center of the universe,
a lot of people will be disappointed to discover
they are not it.
Bernard Bailey
*!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

Your belief determines your action and your action
determines your results, but first you have to
believe.
Mark Victor Hansen
*!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which
every man has plenty; not on your past
misfortunes of which all men have some.
Charles Dickens
*!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

The most difficult thing in the world is to
know how to do a thing and to watch someone
else do it wrong, without comment.
Theodore H. White


Love always begins with the person closest to you. It does not begin with nameless and faceless people. It begins with those you sweat and struggle with--those who frequently disagree with you and put you down. That is why it is so hard. It is easier to love the world than your closest relative. The world is general. Your relative is specific. The world is vague. Your relative has character... Whom will you love today? Can you love him or her in the way Christ loves you? It won't be easy. Love is never an option.

Jim Smoke is a Christian writer on the experience of being single and on divorce.

-=======================
Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

Helen Keller (1880-1968)

======================
One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends anymore."

Antoine De Saint-Exupery (1900-1944
============================






Saturday, July 27, 2002

We cannot divide either man or the universe... into two
parts which move on different planes and have no vital
relations; we cannot... limit the divine reaction against sin,
or the experiences through which, in any case whatever, sin is
brought home to man, to the purely spiritual sphere. Every sin
is a sin of the indivisible human being, and the divine
reaction against it expresses itself to conscience through the
indivisible frame of that world, at once natural and spiritual,
in which man lives. We cannot distribute evils into the two
classes of physical and moral, and subsequently investigate the
relation between them: if we could, it would be of no service
here. What we have to understand is that when a man sins he
does something in which his whole being participates, and that
the reaction of God against his sin is a reaction in which he
is conscious (or might be conscious) that the whole system of
things is in arms against him.
... James Denney, The Atonement and the Modern Mind [1903]

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To be prayerless is to be without God, without Christ,
without grace, without hope, and without heaven.
... J. C. Ryle (1816-1900), "A Call to Prayer"

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will
vibrate in eternity.
... Edwin Hubbel Chapin (1814-1880

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
When we are troubled with temptation and evil thoughts,
then we see clearly the great need we have of God, since
without him we can do nothing good. No one is so good that he
is immune to temptation; we will never [in this life] be
entirely free of it.
... Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house.
Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door
neighbor. Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and
happier.
Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face,
kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm
greeting.

Mother Teresa
(1910-1997, Albanian-born Roman Catholic Missionary)


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


"Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone, person to person."

-- Mother Theresa


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life
is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is
possible."

-- Richard M. DeVos

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Material success may result in the accumulation of possessions; but
only spiritual success will enable you to enjoy them."

-- Nido Qubein

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What is the use of living if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone.

Winston Churchill
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Monday, July 08, 2002

Men perish with whispering sins -- nay, with silent sins,
sins that never tell the conscience that they are sins, as
often with crying sins; and in hell there shall meet as many
men that never thought what was sin, as that spent all their
thoughts in the compassing of sin.
... John Donne (1573-1631)
======================

Christ's call is to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; He
came not to call scoffers but sinners to repentance; not to
build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, and cathedrals
at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means
of clever essays, stereotyped prayers, and artistic musical
performances, but to capture men from the devil's clutches and
the very jaws of Hell. This can be accomplished only by a
red-hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion, in the power of
the Holy Spirit, to the Lord Jesus Christ.
... C. T. Studd (1860
======================================
When religion is in the hands of the mere natural man, he
is always the worse for it; it adds a bad heat to his own dark
fire and helps to inflame his four elements of selfishness,
envy, pride, and wrath. And hence it is that worse passions,
or a worse degree of them are to be found in persons of great
religious zeal than in others that made no pretenses to it.
History also furnishes us with instances of persons of great
piety and devotion who have fallen into great delusions and
deceived both themselves and others. The occasion of their
fall was this: ... They considered their whole nature as the
subject of religion and divine graces; and therefore their
religion was according to the workings of their whole nature,
and the old man was as busy and as much delighted in it as the
new.
... William Law, Christian Regeneration [1739]
==============================
: Healthy fear evokes fully awakened attention and calm point in the presence of realities we cannot control. It cautions us before we dive into ocean breakers, safeguards us on narrow mountain paths with spectacular views, and makes us respectful when approaching the sacred mystery of any person. In healthy fear, what little power we may have is wonderfully concentrated. It is the mother of wisdom and the companion of courage.

Robert C. Morris
==============================
Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don't go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids don't laugh at you.

Jim Rohn
=============================
"You can't live a perfect day without doing something
for someone who will never be able to repay you." -
John Wooden
============================
If only you could love enough you would be the
happiest and most powerful being in the world.
Emmet Fox
========================
Desire is the key to motivation, but it's the
determination and commitment to an unrelenting
pursuit of your goal - a commitment to
excellence - that will enable you to attain
the success you seek.
Mario Andretti

*!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do
everything, but still I can do something; and
because I cannot do everything, I will not
refuse to do something I can do.
Edward Everett Hale

*!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

Happiness isn't something you experience; it's
something you remember.
Oscar Levant
========================
Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can
start from now and make a brand new ending.

Carl Bard
=========================
The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and
look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them,
make
them.

George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950, Irish-born British Dramatist)
========================
The most painful thing to experience is not defeat but regret.

Leo Buscaglia
(American Expert on Love, Lecturer, Author
=========================
Real happiness is not dependent on external things. The pond is
fed from within. The kind of happiness that stays with you is the
happiness that springs from inward thoughts and emotions. You must
cultivate your mind if you wish to achieve enduring happiness.

William Lyon Phelps
======================
Putting off an easy thing makes it hard, and putting off a hard
thing makes it impossible.

George Lorimer
=====================
One of life's most painful moments comes when we must admit that
we didn't do our homework, that we are not prepared.

Merlin Olsen
(American Football Player, Sports Broadcaster, Actor)
=======================
Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely
happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.

Epicurus
(c.341-270 BC, Greek Philosopher
=========================
Nothing on earth can stop the man with the right mental attitude
from achieving his goals; nothing on earth can help the man with the
wrong mental attitude.

Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826, Third President of the USA
========================
Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on
saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that
I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I
have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity
to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.

Mahatma Gandhi
(1869-1948, Indian Political, Spiritual Leader
======================
Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but
manifestations of strength and resolution.

Kahil Gibran
(1883-1931, Lebanese Poet, Novelist
==========================

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small
people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you,
too, can become great.

Mark Twain
(1835-1910, American Humorist, Writer)
==================
It's quantity of time at home and quality of time at work that
counts; don't mix them up.

Brian Tracy
(American Trainer, Speaker, Author, Businessman)
=====================
Have you ever considered the cost of quitting? For a real eye
opener... ask Thomas Edison... Steve Jobs... Michael Jordan... or Jim
Carrey. Ask them how much it would have cost them if they had quit.
What about you?

Doug Firebaugh
==============
I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2,000-step process.

Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931) was an American inventor who, singly or jointly, held a world record 1,093 patents. In addition, he created the world's first industrial research laboratory
---------------------