Forwarded Messages

An anti-technology, anti-social media campaign message watched more than 40 million times through technology and social media.... Isn't it ironic?  Nonetheless, its good to be reminded once in a while... and I believe, it's a matter of discipline.  >>Anthony, thank you for forwarding>> 

The lead story on our local news this morning was about potholes. After the rough winter we have experienced already, the roads are a mess — with auto-damaging potholes on all the main thoroughfares. It reminds me of the way human life works. Life is a journey. We map our roads to success and happiness. There are curves along the way, and we must not give in to the temptation just to coast. Okay. You've got it. Right? The notion of life as a road to travel has been used in the Bible, by Scott Peck, and in the vocabularies of practically all of us. There are no roads without potholes. So the people who get the most joy out of life are the ones who learn early how to deal with discouragement. Temperament appears to predispose some people to see the dark side of situations and to incline toward pessimism. There are external circumstances over which one does not have control. There are people who can make life harder for you as critics or enemies. But you are not helpl...

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't ...good for the environment. The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days." The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment f or future generations." She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were truly recycled.

"I speak without exaggeration," Thomas Edison once said, "when I say that I have constructed three thousand different theories in connection with electric light, each one of them reasonable and apparently likely to be true. Yet in two cases only did my experiments prove the truth of my theory." That means Edison developed 2,998 failed theories along with his two successful experiments! The entire story of the light bulb is a long, tedious tale of repeated trial and failure. Yet, through it all, Edison was watching attentively -- and learning.

A 10-year-old boy 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,”(Teacher in Japanese) 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...

DO NOT GO WHERE THE PATH MAY LEAD; GO INSTEAD WHERE THERE IS NO PATH, AND LEAVE A TRAIL...  (Thank you Dhes Handumon for the photo) Some years ago, a large American shoe manufacturer sent two of its sales reps to different parts of the Australian outback. The company hoped it could drum up some business among the Aborigines. It was risky venture, but the firm realized how many new customers could be gained if the venture was successful.

In a country church, an altar boy was serving the priest at Sunday mass. When he accidentally dropped the cruet of wine, the village priest slapped the boy and shouted, "Leave the church and don't come back!" That boy became Tito, the Communist leader.   In the cathedral of a large, inner city church, the altar boy accidentally dropped the cruet of wine.   With a twinkle in his eye, the Bishop told the boy, "One day you will be a priest."   That boy grew up to be Archbishop Fulton Sheen. -- "Don't use your mouth to tell lies; don't ever say things that are not true." Proverbs 4: 24 (NCV) To avoid the pits of life, we must guard our words.   Words are power tools!  In the right hands and used correctly, words can create.  In the wrong hands and used incorrectly, words can destroy.  The truth of Proverbs 13:3 is a haunting one, "Whoever controls his mouth protects his own life. Whoever has a big mouth comes to ruin." (GWT)  ...

Our world loves " bigness ."  Large , economy-sized boxes of detergent. Supersized meals. Big screen TVs. Vehicles with extra leg room, extra head room and vast storage space. The bigger -is-better phenomenon affects the workpalce too. Associates vie for the biggest office, the heftiest raise, the longest service record. About the only thing we want small is our lap top computers - but even then, we want them to have large memory capacity and multitude of special features. Our God is certainly capable of big feats . He partted the Red Sea. He created the universe in less than a week. But it's better not to measure our business success by how much money we earn. God isn't interested in the size of your salary. He's interested in your life and the small but faithful steps you take toward Him. Remember, a little obedience and faithfulness makes a big difference to God. In the end, it's not the size of your paycheck that matters - it's the ...

EVEN THE BEST RACEHORSES HAS TO STOP FOR OATS ONCE IN A WHILE... God doesn't sweat. He doesn't get tired or suffer with aching muscles. He never needs to take an aspirin or use Ben-Gay. Yet what did He do after creating the world? He rested. He took the time to step back, cease working, and enjoy His creation. If an all-powerful Being took the time to rest, that should speak volumes to us mere mortals. We need to rest occasionally. We need to take time to recover physically, emotionally, and spiritually from life's demands. We need to take stock of where we've been, where we are, and where we're headed. We need to take time to be a friend, a parent, a child of God.

He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm. - Proverbs 13:20 Your companions are like buttons on an elevator. They will either take you up or take you down... Companionship choices are difficult to make. Jesus spent time with many people of low reputation, even to the point of being accused of being a low-life Himself. Yet, we are cautioned in Proverbs that "bad company corrupts good character." The key to following Jesus' example and protecting ourselves lies in discernment.

After winning the grueling Tour de France in 1999, cyclist Lance Armstrong went on to repeat the feat in the year 2000. Armstrong won both these races and a score of others after battling cancer, a cancer so devastating that it had spread throughout his body, even to his brain. After his remarkable victory in the 1999 Tour de France, Armstrong said that he wouldn't have been able to win if not for the cancer! The drive, the perseverance, and the courage that he developed while battling his internal enemy made him strong enough to ride faster and harder - and with more determination - than all of his opponents.

Envy takes the joy, happiness and contentment out of living. Jealousy isn't referred to as the "big green monster" for nothing. God hates jealousy so much that it made His top-ten list -- the Ten Commandments. He etched in stone the following words: "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." In workplace terms, this commandment from the book of Exodus could read, "You shall not covet your co-worker's salary, his corner office or award plaques, his title, budget, or privileges, or his favored status with the company president."

Maybe it is time for some of us Christians to apologize. In our desire to have others become Christians, we may have been less than honest with our non-Christian friends. We have talked in terms of "converting," "being saved," "joining with us," and other religious sounding words. In truth, becoming a Christian can be explained by a much simpler term: it is an invitation to die.   Becoming a Christian requires you to die. Jesus came to this world because God wanted you to live with him forever. He offers eternal life. The perfect God wants the imperfect man to live with Him forever. He made that possible by letting Jesus die for all the things we did that were unlike God. Jesus came here to die for you, so you could live.

Some people would rather endure an enema than love an enemy... Is there any tougher commandment than the one that instructs us to love our enemies? Not tolerate them or simply do kind things for them. Love them. Those obnoxious, cruel, hateful people. The boss who treats you unfairly. The co-worker who pretends to be your friend, then back - stabs you. The unhappy customer who unfairly criticizes you to your superiors. The technical support person who is consistently rude. Or that certain someone who is simply annoying.

An inspiration... Kenny Easterday is a 35-year-old American man born with a rare disease (sacral agenesis) that prevents his spine from growing correctly. Doctors amputated his legs when he was a baby to use his shinbone for completing his underdeveloped spine. Kenny never liked wheelchairs and refused to wear prosthetic legs, so he learned with his dad to walk on his hands and to move with a skateboard.

COURAGE is fear that has said its prayers. An auto racer who set the world speed record. A fighter pilot who recorded the most aerial - combat victories against the Germans in World War 1. A man who survived a plane crash and spent twenty-two days on raft in the Pacific Ocean. What do these three have in have in common? They are all the same person: Eddie Rickenbacker. When Eddie was twelve, his father died. So Eddie quit school to become the family breadwinner, doing whatever he had to do to help the family survive. As a teen, he started working as a race car mechanic. By the time he was twenty - two, he, himself, was racing. Two years later, he set the world speed record at Daytona.

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?' The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.' Then he told the following story: Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me pla...

Let's see if you can relate... My assistant is out sick today. The printer's out of toner. My car is in the shop again, So I'm forced to drive a loner. Two new software programs to learn, But the verbiage makes me dizzy. I've tried to call up tech support, But their line is always busy. The repairman's torn the copier apart, So my report will be quite late. With people swooping in like flies, How can I concentrate? The telephone rings endlessly. There's gossip in the hall. My candy dish is empty now. And a salesman's come to call. Sometimes I'd like to chuck it all. Trade this madness in for boredom. But the kids needs braces, clothes, and shoes. And how else can I afford them? * That day is lost in which one has not laugh.  Do not live to work... instead, work to live. ---o0o--- Humans are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: ' I am blind, please help .' There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words. The man said, 'I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.'

Preparation    Look, I pray on Sunday, It's what you're supposed to do on church day," Kevin stated. "On Monday, it's business. Don't mess up my life asking me to mix the two." All I wanted was for him to consider introducing his employees to Faith Notes. Frankly his words stunned me. Somewhere in his past, Kevin, like many of us, began compartmentalizing his life, his identity. Each compartment has shaped its own version of Kevin. He has become a handful of different people: a churchman, a family man, a businessman, a networker, a public and a private guy. His calendar organizes it all and keeps his identities separate. Some would say he is gifted at it, but the real Kevin, the original Kevin, has gotten lost somewhere among all the copies. As Kevin walked away, he turned and said, "I'm doing pretty well keeping everything separate and that's the way I like it."