If you think you can count on tomorrow, consider the story of the 25th president of the United States. President William McKinley was known for wearing a red carnation on his lapel for good luck. On September 6, 1901, while greeting a crowd in Buffalo, New York, the president gave a little girl his lucky…
Jack Handley said, “Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.” I have often found that what we criticize in others, we generally find in ourselves. Oscar Wilde said it like this: “Criticism…
On the eighth day, God created M&Ms. Okay, that may be a bit of a stretch. But M&Ms are almost too good to have been created by man. Do you know why they are called M&Ms? The creators named their candy after themselves: Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie. Mars was a wealthy businessman who created…
Pablo Casals was considered the greatest cellist who ever lived. When he was 95 years of age, someone asked him why he continued to practice his cello six hours every day. His response? “Because I think I am making progress.” I have a friend who got sober – at the age of 93. It is…
Things change with time. For example, did you know that the fifth largest city in the United States, 100 years ago, was Cleveland, Ohio? Today, Cleveland ranks as America’s 54th largest city. Cleveland is now smaller than Wichita, Aurora, Tulsa, Omaha, and Mesa. Everything changes with time. With age, most of us get shorter and…
If you want to try something that is nearly impossible, try this. Try to overstate the importance of community. Good luck with that. Therapist Elizabeth Dixon writes, “Our relationships, more than anything else, set the stage for our health, happiness, and well-being. Research indicates that the quality of our social relationships affects a range of…
Never judge your self-worth by your net worth. Men tend to draw their self-esteem from their jobs, women from their relationships. So this whole net worth thing is mostly (but not totally) a guy problem. It’s okay to have things and it’s okay to enjoy them. But don’t be so tied to what you have…
If you are drinking your milk with a fork, perhaps you missed the date on the side of the carton. It’s called an expiration date. Eggs, milk, most food – they all have expiration dates. Could there be an expiration date on God’s mercy? God warned, “My people would not listen to me; Israel would…
Offering an example of poor communication, baseball legend Casey Stingel said, “All right everyone, line up alphabetically, according to your height.” Clear communication is important in any sport – including marriage. The Bible warns us to “avoid irreverent babble” (2 Timothy 2:16). Married sex addicts and their spouses have experienced more than their fair share…
Most of us make too many false assumptions. For example, I bet you thought every state capital has a McDonald’s. All of them do – except one. Montpelier, Vermont, the nation’s smallest state capital with a population of 7,500, has no McDonald’s. What a travesty! I hear a lot of false assumptions in my work…