Cold Winter

The temperature had taken an overnight plunge, and Minnesota reaffirmed its reputation as one of the nation's coldest states. Despite a wind-chill of minus 40, we steelworkers erecting a TV tower in a Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb showed up for work. By 9 a.m., a tall Texan climbed down from ...

Politeness

How we live in relation to one another is becoming increasingly important, even in our parenting. According to one source, "Politeness is making a comeback. Growing numbers of Americans say that parents need to teach their children good behavior. Between 1991 and 1995, the share of U.S. adults who...

Planning

Two women were visiting at their 25th school reunion, and one commented, "I've lived a well-planned life. My first husband was a millionaire, my second was an actor,my third husband was a minster, and now I'm married to a funeral director." "Why is that a well-planned...

Influence

Carl Henry wrote in Twilight of a Great Civilization: "We may even now live in the half generation before all hell breaks loose, and if its fury is contained we will be remembered, if we are remembered at all, as those who used their hands and hearts and minds and very bodies to plug the dikes...

Church Discipline

"In Returning to Your First Love, pastor Tony Evans tells how his younger brother, after rebelling against their father's authority, was sent packing, suitcase in hand. Twenty minutes later, the banished one returned home, asking to be reinstated to the family. He had been put out in order to learn respect, and ...

Enthusiasm

Chuck Swindoll has a close friend who spent a day at San Diego's SeaWorld. "While he and his wife were near the main mall, they saw something unusual in the distance: a bunch of ducks coming toward them on roller skates! They could do it, my friend said, but as they got closer, he could tell...

Pessimism

An optimist sees the best in the world, while a pessimist sees only the worst. An optimist finds the positive in the negative, and a pessimist can only find the negative in the positive. For example, as a duck...