Take Time
Take time to laugh
It is the music of the soul.
Take time to think
It is the source of power.
Take time to play
It is the source of perpetual youth.
Take time to read
It is the fountain of wisdom.
Take time to pray
It is the greatest power on earth.
Take time to love and be loved
It is a God-given privilege.
Take time to be friendly
It is the road to happiness
Take time to give
It is too short a day to be selfish
Take time to work
It is the price of success.
Promise Yourself
- To be so strong that nothing can disturb
your peace of mind;
- To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to
every person you meet;
- To make all your friends feel that there is
something in them;
- To look at the sunny side of everything and
make your optimism come true;
- To think only the best, to work only for the
best, and to expect only the best;
- To be just as enthusiastic about the success
of others as you are about your own;
- To forget the mistakes of the past and press
on to the greater achievements of the future;
- To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile;
- To give so much time to the improvement of
yourself that you have no time to criticize others;
- To be too large for worry, too noble for
anger, too strong for fear; and too happy to permit the presence of trouble;
- To think well of yourself and to proclaim
this fact to the world, not in loud words, but in great deeds;
- To live in the faith that the whole world is
on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.
(C.D. Larson, Your Forces and
How to Use Them)
Just For Today
Decide to be happy today, to live with what
is yours - your family, your business, your job, your luck. If you can't have what you
like, maybe you can like what you have.
Just for today, be kind, cheerful,
agreeable, responsive, caring, and understanding. Be your best, dress your best, talk
softly, and look for the bright side of things. Praise people for what they do and do not
criticize them for what they cannot do. If someone does something stupid, forgive and
forget. After all, it's just for one day.
Who knows, it might turn out to be a nice
day.
The World Is A
Puzzle
There was a man who had a little boy that
he loved very much. Everyday after work the man would come home and play with the little
boy. He would always spend all of his extra time playing with the little boy.
One night, while the man was at work, he
realized that he had extra work to do for the evening, and that he wouldn't be able to
play with his little boy. But, he wanted to be able to give the boy something to keep him
busy. So, looking around his office, he saw a magazine with a large map of the world on
the cover. He got an idea. He removed the map, and then patiently tore it up into small
pieces. Then he put all the pieces in his coat pocket.
When he got home, the little boy came
running to him and was ready to play. The man explained that he had extra work to do and
couldn't play just now, but he led the little boy into the dining room, and taking out all
the pieces of the map, he spread them on the table. He explained that it was a map of the
world, and that by the time he could put it back together, his extra work would be
finished, and they could both play. Surely this would keep the child busy for hours, he
thought.
About half an hour later the boy came to
the man and said, "Okay, it's finished. Can we play now.?"
The man was surprised, saying, "That's
impossible. Let's go see." And sure enough, there was the picture of the world, all
put together, every piece in it's place.
The man said, "That's amazing ! How
did you do that ?" The boy said, "It was simple. On the back of the page was a
picture of a man. When I put the man together the whole world fell into place."
A Tale of Tradition
A hard working Chinise rice farmer was
supporting his children, wife, and his aging father. He worked long and hard each day, and
still, he was barely making enough to feed his children and wife.
One day, he stopped working for the entire
day. Instead he built a small cart out of wood he had. The next day he went to his aging
father, and insisted that the old man was no longer able to help the family. He was only
eating and taking up precious resources. So, he loaded him into the newly built cart, and
headed up a nearby mountain.
When he got to the top, he stopped, and
aimed the cart facing down the mountain, but before he could roll the cart, his father
stopped him saying, "wait, son, I can understand what you are doing, and even why you
are doing it, but please save the cart, your son will need it."
A Special Teacher
Years ago a John Hopkin's professor gave a
group of graduate students this assignment: Go to the slums. Take 200 boys, between the
ages of 12 and 16, and investigate their background and environment. Then predict their
chances for the future.
The students, after consulting social
statistics, talking to the boys, and compiling much data, concluded that 90 percent of the
boys would spend some time in jail.
Twenty-five years later another group of
graduate students was given the job of testing the prediction. They went back to the same
area. Some of the boys - by then men - were still there, a few had died, some had moved
away, but they got in touch with 180 of the original 200. They found that only four of the
group had ever been sent to jail.
Why was it that these men, who had lived in
a breeding place of crime, had such a surprisingly good record? The researchers were
continually told: "Well, there was a teacher..."
They pressed further, and found that in 75
percent of the cases it was the same woman. The researchers went to this teacher, now
living in a home for retired teachers. How had she exerted this remarkable influence over
that group of children? Could she give them any reason why these boys should have
remembered her?
"No," she said, "no I really
couldn't." And then, thinking back over the years, she said musingly, more to herself
than to her questioners: "I loved those boys...."
Listening
When a man whose marriage was
in trouble sought his advice, the Master said, "You must learn to listen to your
wife."
The man took this advice to
heart and returned after a month to say he had learned to listen to every word his wife
was saying.
Said the Master with a smile,
"Now go home and listen to every word she isn't saying."
The Mountain
There were two warring tribes
in the Andes, one that lived in the lowlands and the other high in the mountains. The
mountain people invaded the lowlanders one day, and as part of their plundering of the
people, they kidnapped a baby of one of the lowlander families and took the infant with
them back up into the mountains.
The lowlanders didn't know how
to climb the mountain. They didn't know any of the trails that the mountain people used,
and they didn't know where to find the mountain people or how to track them in the steep
terrain.
Even so, they sent out their
best party of fighting men to climb the mountain and bring the baby home.
The men tried first one method
of climbing and then another. They tried one trail and then another. After several days of
effort, however, they had climbed only several hundred feet.
Feeling hopeless and helpless,
the lowlander men decided that the cause was lost, and they prepared to return to their
village below.
As they were packing their
gear for the descent, they saw the baby's mother walking toward them. They realized that
she was coming down the mountain that they hadn't figured out how to climb.
And then they saw that she had
the baby strapped to her back. How could that be?
One man greeted her and said,
"We couldn't climb this mountain. How did you do this when we, the strongest and most
able men in the village, couldn't do it?"
She shrugged her shoulders and
said, "It wasn't your baby."
(Jim Stovall, You Don't Have
to Be Blind to See) |
A lesson from a Mad Hatter
One of the first steps to
accomplishing great things in your life is to cease dwelling on the negative things in
your past. Carefully assess your present strengths, successes, and achievements. Dwell on
those positive events in your life, and quit limiting your potential by constantly
thinking about what you have done poorly. Alice and the Mad Hatter in Wonderland had a
conversation that illustrates this concept:
Alice: Where I come
from, people study what they are not good at in order to be able to do what they are good
at.
Mad Hatter:
Mad Hatter: We only go
around in circles in Wonderland, but we always end up where we started. Would you mind
explaining yourself?
Alice: Alice: Well, grown-ups
tell us to find out what we did wrong, and never do it again
Mad Hatter: Mad Hatter: That's odd!
It seems to me that in order to find out about something, you have to study it. And when
you study it, you should become better at it. Why should you want to become better at
something and then never do it again? But please continue.
Alice: Alice: Nobody ever
tells us to study the right things we do. We're only supposed to learn from the wrong
things. But we are permitted to study the right things other people do. And sometimes
we're even told to copy them.
Mad Hatter: Mad Hatter: That's
cheating!
Alice: Alice: You're quite
right, Mr. Hatter. I do live in a topsy-turvy world. It seems like I have to do something
wrong first, in order to learn from what not to do. And then, by not doing what I'm not
supposed to do, perhaps I'll be right. But I'd rather be right the first time, wouldn't
you?
Positioning
Heron stands in the blue
estuary,
Solitary, white, unmoving for hours.
A fish! Quick avian darting;
The prey is captured.
People always ask how to follow Tao. It is
as easy and natural as the heron standing in the water. The bird moves when it must; it
does not move when stillness is appropriate.
The secret of its serenity is a type of
vigilance, a contemplative state. The heron is not in mere dumbness or sleep. It knows a
lucid stillness. It stands unmoving in the flow of the water. It gazes unperturbed and is
aware. When Tao brings it something that it needs, it seizes the opportunity without
hesitation or deliberation. Then it goes back to its quiescence without disturbing itself
or its surroundings. Unless it found the right position in the water's flow and remained
patient, it would not have succeeded.
Actions in life can be reduced to two
factors; positioning and timing. If we are not in the right place at the right time, we
cannot possibly take advantage of what life has to offer us.
Almost anything is appropriate if an action
is in accord with the time and place. But we must be vigilant and prepared. Even if the
time and the place are right, we can still miss our chance if we do not notice the moment,
if we act inadequately, or if we hamper ourselves with doubts and second thoughts.
When life presents an opportunity, we must
be ready to seize it without hesitation or inhibition. Position is useless without
awareness. If we have both, we make no mistakes.
(Deng Ming-Dao)
Weakness or
Strength ?
Sometimes your biggest weakness can become
your biggest strength. Take, for example, the story of one 10-year-old boy who decided to
study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.
The boy began lessons with an old Japanese
judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn't understand why, after three months of
training the master had taught him only one move.
"Sensei," the boy finally said,
"Shouldn't I be learning more moves?"
"This is the only move you know, but
this is the only move you'll ever need to know," the sensei replied.
Not quite understanding, but believing in
his teacher, the boy kept training.
Several months later, the sensei took the
boy to his first tournament. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches.
The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became
impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. Still amazed by
his success, the boy was now in the finals.
This time, his opponent was bigger,
stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched. Concerned
that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match
when the sensei intervened.
"No," the sensei insisted,
"Let him continue."
Soon after the match resumed, his opponent
made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin
him. The boy had won the match and the tournament. He was the champion.
On the way home, the boy and sensei
reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what
was really on his mind.
"Sensei, how did I win the tournament
with only one move?"
"You won for two reasons," the
sensei answered. "First, you've almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in
all of judo. And second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to
grip your left arm."
The boy's biggest weakness had become his
biggest strength.
WHAT IS MATURITY
Maturity is the growing
awareness that you are neither wonderful nor worthless.
It has been said to be the
making of place between what is. and what might be.
It isn't a destination. It is
a road.
It is the moment you wake up
after some grief or staggering blow and think, 'I'm going to live after all.'
It is the moment when you find
out something you have long believed in isn't so, and parting with the old conviction,
find that you're still you;
The moment you discover
somebody can do your job as well as you can, and you go on doing it anyway;
The moment you do the thing
you have always been afraid of; the moment you realize you are forever alone--but so is
everybody else, and so in some ways you are more together than ever, and a hundred other
moments when you find out who you are.
It is letting life happen in
its own good order, and making the most of what there is.
Choices
There comes a time in your
life, when you must decide,
No help from anyone, on which
you've always relied.
Between right and wrong,
between black and white,
Between good and bad, to walk
away or fight.
To be honest and true. to be
open with your heart, Or to hide your feelings, play it safe from the start.
To sit back and watch, to
listen and learn,
Or jump into the fire, taking a chance on a burn.
To stay. to move. to not care,
or always prove.
To be strong, to be weak, to
be aggressive, to be meek.
To laugh out loud with all
your might, or smile a little just to be polite.
To stay together. to live
apart. to think with your mind, or trust your with heart.
To live in the past. to always
look back, to look ahead to the future, with ambition you won't lack.
Begun at the front. or start
at the end, believe in your own self, or follow the trend.
To dream. to hope, to quit, to
cope. To be a lover, to be a friend to be real, or just pretend.
Choices we make can make or
break, to have to decide at all could be our worst fall.
Choices are sometimes
deceiving, you can be lured by the sweetest bait.
So make your decision wisely,
because to change your mind could be too late.
Life is about choices, for
however we decide,
We'll have to live with our decision until the day we have died.
Let Go...
The following is a very meaningful story
which is called "Let Go", and written by Dr. Billy Graham.
A little child was playing one day with a
very valuable vase. He put his hand into it and could not withdraw it. His father too,
tried his best, but all in vain. They were thinking of breaking the vase when the father
said, "Now, my son, make one more try. Open your hand and hold your fingers out
straight as you see me doing, and then pull."
To their astonishment the little fellow
said, "O no, father. I couldn't put my fingers out like that, because if I did I
would drop my penny."
Smile, if you will--but thousands of us are
like that little boy, so busy holding on to the world's worthless penny that we cannot
accept liberation. I beg you to drop the trifle in your heart. Surrender! Let go, and let
God have His way in your life.
|
