Reminders: Pray Like You Mean It!

A man was late for an important meeting.  He was circling the parking lot desperately searching for a parking space.  In exasperation he prayed, “Heavenly Father, if you will help me find a place to park, I will start going to church again.”  Just then a parking space opened up right in front of him. …

Reminders: Make Every Day Count

When a reporter asked August Turak what was in his wallet, the well-known entrepreneur and award-winning author replied, “Expired driver’s licenses.”  He said, “I keep several in my wallet. Occasionally looking at how I’ve aged in my license photos reminds me to make every day count.”  Reader’s Digest, October 2013 Most of us don’t like our…

Food for Thought: What Do You See?

 “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” Henry David Thoreau In other words, looking gives the brain an impression of the scene, but seeing requires interpretation.  Knowing what we have seen involves bringing our own point of view and experience into play. This is why eyewitnesses often have very different stories…

Reminders: Erasing Regrets

“A German high school teacher was struggling to rewind a DVD for her class, and in frustration she blurted out, ‘Where’s the fast backwards button?!’  We’ve all had moments where we wish that button existed.” Reader’s Digest, November 2014. Some of us would like a fast backward button to return us to an earlier time…

Food for Thought: Fear vs Faith

The cartoon character Charlie Brown always seems to be concerned about something.  In one comic strip in the series Charlie comes up with a new idea for dealing with life.  Charlie explained, “I’ve developed a new philosophy: I will dread only one day at a time.”: Reader’s Digest, November 2014, p.28  This begs the question,…

Food for Thought: Trading Places

In the 1983 movie “Trading Places”, a snobbish businessman, played by Dan Aykroyd, is forced by his boss, who had made a bet with his brother, to trade places with a homeless man played by Eddy Murphy.  The film touched on a variety of social issues such as stereotypes about race, homelessness, and materialism.  In…

Reminders: God is Missing!

Two little boys were known “troublemakers” who were stealing everything they could get their hands on, even stealing from a church.  One day the pastor stopped one of the boys and asked, “Where is God?” expecting him to know that God is everywhere.  Instead, the boy shrugged and the pastor repeated, “Where is God?”  The…