Illustration: Virtues/Reputation
Many European royals had the same name, so they often were differentiated by numbers such as Charles I, II or III. Even this became difficult to remember, so people gave their kings nicknames.
Illustration: Thanksgiving
A minister's wife and worship leader used to lead the congregation in that old song, "Count Your Blessings." When the congregation got to the part where it would sing, "Count your blessings, name them one by one/Count your blessings, see what God hath done," she would say, "One is not enough. Let's count them by twos."
Illustration: Preaching
Terry Fator combines impressions with ventriloquism. He vaulted to fame by winning "America's Got Talent" and received one of the most lucrative contracts in Las Vegas entertainment history.
Illustration: Love
In The Book of Babel by Mark Abley, the author says there are 6,000 languages spoken in the world today, but half of them are unlikely to survive into the next century.
Sermon Illustration: Kindness
Officer Jeremy Henwood was a well-respected military veteran and police officer. He was killed Aug. 7, 2011, while sitting in his car in an unprovoked attack. Three minutes before the attack, Officer Henwood was getting his food in a McDonald's when a young boy came to the counter short of cash.
Illustration: Integrity
In his book The President is a Sick Man, Matthew Alge tells the story of a man who in August of 1893 wrote a story in which he claimed the President of the United States Grover Cleveland had cancer. He went on to tell of a risky and secret operation to the president's jaw performed on a yacht. The man was Elisha Jay Edwards, and his story appeared in the Philadelphia Press.
Illustration: Empathy
When we have a hard time understanding people, perhaps we would do well to consider what the French writer Michel Montaigne said in 1533. He wrote, "I never met a man who thought his thinking was faulty."