It’s easy to feel pessimistic if we listen to all of the horrific news reports that air constantly. It seems like all we hear about are the things that are going wrong in the world––from terrorist attacks and school shootings to local drug busts. It seems like things are getting worse and worse. When we…
Toddlers as well as older children, all instinctively know how to test us. It’s their job! They need to test us in order to learn to become independent, productive citizens who know how to take care of themselves, and at some point, perhaps, children of their own. The following poem, first published by Erma Bombeck…
If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it was, and always will be yours. If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with. If it just sits in your living room, messes up your stuff, eats your food, uses your phone, takes your money and never behaves as if you actually set it…
The “restorative justice” system for resolving disputes was practiced by indigenous people for centuries. The basic principles of the system are applied in some Mennonite and Amish communities to this day. It came into wider popularity in the 1970s when Nelson Mandela took over as president of South Africa. He instated it in the courts…
People say money is not the key to happiness, but if you have enough money surely you can have a key made. Not so! Money helps us feel somewhat more secure, but it does not guarantee happiness. Buying something we think we need or want might make us feel better temporarily, but the feeling does…
A motivational speaker started his presentation by holding up a one- hundred-dollar bill. He asked, “What’s it worth?’ Someone in the front row said, “A hundred dollars if it’s real”. The speaker crumpled the bill, “Now what’s it worth?” “A hundred dollars!” came a chorus of answers.” Then the speaker threw the bill on the…
A farmer went to a big city to visit his sister for the weekend. He attended church with her. When he got home his wife asked how it was. He said it was okay, but all they sang were those praise songs. He said it would be like if I talked to you saying, ‘The…
What happens to us is less important than how we react to it. Take the case of the donkey that fell in a pit. The farmer who owned the donkey had trouble figuring out how to get him out. He decided just to bury the old donkey where he was by filling in the pit. …
Ole was the pastor of the Norwegian Lutheran Church. Pastor Sven was the pastor of the Swedish Covenant Church just down the street in their small town. One day they joined forces and were seen pounding a sign into the ground. It read, “DA END ISS NEAR! TURN YERSELF AROUNT NOW BAFOR IT ISS TOO…
A medical study conducted in Denmark with 607 patients who had heart disease, indicated that participants with more positive attitudes were 58 percent more likely to live at least another five years. It may have been partly because they were also more likely to be more active. A positive attitude may not only extend one’s…