Thought of the Week: December 27, 2015

“Christmas is not just a day, an event to be observed and speedily forgotten. It is a spirit which should permeate every part of our lives.”

~William Parks

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Charlie Brown’s faithful friend Linus walks to center stage engulfed in a single spotlight and with a cadence that captures the wonder of it all, Linus begins:
 
“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
 
After concluding his soliloquy, Linus walks back over to Charlie Brown and says: “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Thought of the Week: December 20, 2015

“Christmas is not in tinsel and lights and outward show. The secret lies in an inner glow. It's lighting a fire inside the heart. Good will and joy a vital part. It's higher thought and a greater plan. It's glorious dream in the soul of man."


~ Wilfred A. Peterson (The Art of Living)

Thought of the Week: December 13, 2015

“Stars of heaven, clear and bright,
Shine upon this Christmas light,
Vaster far than midnight skies
Are its timeless mysteries.”

~ Timothy Dudley-Smith
   ("Stars of Heaven, Clear and Bright")

Thought of the Week: December 6, 2015

“Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you … to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old … Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world … stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death… Then you can keep Christmas! But you can never keep it alone.”

~ Henry van Dyke

Thought of the Week: November 29, 2015

"If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from the other person's angle as well as from your own."

~ Henry Ford

Thought of the Week: November 22, 2015

“For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thought of the Week: November 15, 2015

“We have a duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the man who speaks such a word.”

~William Barclay

Thought of the Week - November 8, 2015

“A problem is something we can change, and become possible when we take responsibility to fix it.”

                                  ~ John C. Maxwell

Thought of the Week: November 1, 2015

“You can run from your dreams in fear or run to your dreams with faith.”

~ Tina Downey

Thought of the Week: October 25, 2015

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” 

~ Theodore Roosevelt

Thought of the Week: October 18, 2015

“Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean giving up familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, and relationships that have lost their meaning.”

~ John C. Maxwell

Thought of the Week: October 11, 2015

“The road to happiness lies in two simple principles: find what it is that interests you and that you can do well, and when you find it put your whole soul into it - every bit of energy and ambition and natural ability you have.”

~ John D. Rockefeller III

Thought of the Week: October 4, 2015

“Make the decision to serve wherever you go and to whomever you see. As long as you are serving, you will be receiving.”      ~ Greg Anderson

Thought of the Week: September 27, 2015

“There are two types of preparation--physical and mental. You can't get by with just one or the other.”

~ Ken Stabler

Thought of the Week: September 20, 2015

"People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be part of something they're really proud of, that they'll fight for, sacrifice for, that they trust."

~ Howard Schultz (Starbucks)

Thought of the Week: September 13, 2015

"The truth doesn't hurt unless it ought to."

                                        ~ B.C. Forbes

Thought of the Week: September 6, 2015

“You can't help someone get up a hill without getting closer to the top yourself.”

~ H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Thought of the Week: August 30, 2015

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”

~ Edith Wharton

Thought of the Week: August 23, 2015

“You will never change your life until you change something you do daily.”

~John C. Maxwell

Thought of the Week: August 16, 2015

“Who you surround yourself with has more bearing on whether or not you will make it than your "plan" does.”

                                             - Dr. Henry Cloud

Thought of the Week: August 9, 2015

“The truth is that you can spend your life any way you want, but you can spend it only once.” 

~ John C. Maxwell

Thought of the Week: August 2, 2015

“We find by losing. We hold fast by letting go. We become something new by ceasing to be something old.”

~ Frederick Buechner

Thought of the Week: July 26, 2015

“Whether you are an executive or an intern, your actions speak for the type of leadership you provide — be it positive or negative. Never minimize or trivialize the importance of your actions. Be positive and ethical, and do what you do better each and every day. Remember, someone somewhere is always watching you.”

                                                     ~ Marc A Corsini

Thought of the Week: July 19, 2015

“Never be too proud to change.”

~ Bobby Bowden

Thought of the Week: July 12, 2015

“The true measure of your character is what you would do if you were sure no one would ever find out.”

~ John C. Maxwell

Thought of the Week: July 5, 2015

“In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again."

~ Edward Gibbon (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)

Happy 4th of July

"Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.  Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
                                        ~ George Washington

Thought of the Week: June 28, 2015

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”

~Arnold Schwarzenegger

Thought of the Week: June 21, 2015

“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person.  He believed in me.”

~Jim Valvano

Thought of the Week: June 14, 2015

“Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you, but not in the one ahead.”

~ Bill McGlashen

Thought of the Week: June 7, 2015

“We expected that good-to-great leaders would begin by setting a new vision and strategy.  We found instead that they FIRST got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats – and THEN they figured out where to drive it.”

                           ~ Jim Collins

Thought of the Week: May 31, 2015

“If everybody else is doing it one way, there's a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction. But be prepared for a lot of folks to wave you down and tell you you're headed the wrong way.”

~ Sam Walton

Thought of the Week: May 24, 2015

“Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games.”

~ Babe Ruth

Thought of the Week: May 17, 2015

“Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.”

~Sam Ewing

Thought of the Week: May 10, 2015

“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

Thought of the Week: May 3, 2015

“Hearing is one of the body's five senses.  But listening is an art.”

~ Frank Tyger

Thought of the Week: April 26, 2015

“There are two big forces at work, external and internal.  We have very little control over external forces such as tornados, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain.  What really matters is internal force.  How do I respond to those disasters? Over that I have complete control.”

~ Leo Buscaglia

Thought of the Week: April 12, 2015

“Economy is half the battle of life; it is not so hard to earn money as to spend it wisely.”

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

Thought of the Week: April 5, 2015

“A pessimist, they say, sees a glass of water as being half-empty; an optimist sees the same glass as half-full. But a giving person sees a glass of water and starts looking for someone who might be thirsty.”

~ G. Donald Gale

Thought of the Week: March 29, 2015

“It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out--it's the grain of sand in your shoe.”

~ Robert Service

Thought of the Week: March 22, 2015

“We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”
 
~ President Ronald Reagan

Thought of the Week: March 15, 2015

“St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time — a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic.”
                                                                        ~Adrienne Cook

Thought of the Week: March 8, 2015

“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.”

~ Samuel Johnson

Thought of the Week: March 1, 2015

"Diamonds are only lumps of coal that stuck to their jobs"

~  B.C. Forbes

Thought of the Week: February 22, 2015

“Status quo, you know, is Latin for 'the mess we're in'.”

~ Ronald Reagan

Thought of the Week: February 15, 2015

“You know you’re in love when you don’t want to fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”

~ Dr. Seuss

Thought of the Week: February 8, 2015

“The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”          ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Thought of the Week: February 1, 2015

“He who cannot forgive others destroys the bridge over which he himself must pass.”

~ George Herbert

Thought of the Week: January 25, 2015

“I would rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.”        ~Robert H. Schuller

Thought of the Week: January 18, 2015

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”

~ John A. Shedd

Thought of the Week: January 11, 2015

“Your big opportunity may be where you are right now.”

~Napoleon Hill

Thought of the Week: January 4, 2015

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its chapter is New Year’s.”          ~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce