Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 12 – No. 0710 February 13, 2010
Thought for the week: "People of character do the right thing, not because they think it will change the world, but because they refuse to be changed by the world."
– Michael Josephson
"Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will." – John D. MacDonald
"Each time you are honest and conduct yourself with honesty, a success force will drive you toward greater success. Each time you lie, even with a little white lie, there are strong forces pushing you toward failure." – Joseph Sugarman
"The first virtue of all really great men is that they are sincere. They eradicate hypocrisy from their hearts." – Anatole France
"The proof of integrity is what you do when no one is looking." – Denis Waitley
Children's Science Exam Answers. Anyone who doubts these answers has never taught children!
Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.
Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.
Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?
A: Keep it in the cow.
Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?
A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature creates a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.
Q: What are steroids?
A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.
Q: What happens to your body as you age?
A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.
Q: How are the main parts of the body categorized? (e.g., abdomen).
A: The body is consisted into three parts – the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels, A, E, I, O and U.
Q: What is the fibula?
A: A small lie.
Q: What does "varicose" mean?
A: Nearby.
Q: Give the meaning of the term "Caesarian Section."
A: The Caesarian Section is a district in Rome.
Q: What does the word "benign" mean?
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.
In 1957, Lieutenant David Steeves walked out of the California Sierra Mountains 54 days after his Air Force trainer jet had disappeared...
He related an unbelievable tale of survival after parachuting from his disabled plane. For almost three months he said he had eaten berries and dug snow tunnels to sleep in, had seen no one during the entire time, and finally walked out on his own. By the time he showed up alive, he had already been declared officially dead.
His story was viewed with much skepticism because during that same time frame his assigned unit had been sent to the Korean War. When further search failed to turn up any wreckage, a hoax was suspected and Steeves was forced to resign under a cloud of doubt. He lived for two decades branded as a deserter and possible spy. One story had him selling the plane to the Russians; another shipping it piecemeal to Mexico. Steeves died in 1965.
In 1977 a troop of Boy Scouts hiking through Kings Canyon National Park discovered the wreckage of Steeve's plane, and his story was confirmed. His family was issued an apology from the military and was told that Lt. David Steeves' name was reinstated with honor.
One of Steeves' friends, Eugene Juneet, after the ceremony told the Associated Press, "This was nice," but then he added, "I just wish someone would have believed Dave back then...."¹
* * * * * * *
"After that, He [Jesus after his resurrection] appeared in another form to two of them [his disciples] as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest [of the disciples], but they did not believe them either (Mark 16:12-13, NKJV). What a tragedy that so many in Jesus' day, even though his resurrection was witnessed by many, refused to believe.
A continuously expanding body of medical research now confirms that laughter is a powerful medicine in alleviating the impact that stressful events have on our lives,and in actually preventing accidents and reversing disease.
Laughter is a happy and pleasant experience.
It temporarily diverts our attention and dissipates feelings of fear, isolation, anger, and physical pain. Laughter can be the doorway to purging harmful emotions and resolving mental tension.
It is a form of therapy that encourages us to release the painful emotions of anger, fear, and boredom.
Laughter enables the processing of information in a new way. New perceptions can lead to different and healthier solutions.
William Fry, M.D., psychiatrist and professor emeritus at Stanford University, documented physiological changes from laughter similar to intense aerobic exercise. He stated that... "One hundred laughs is equal to ten minutes of aerobic exercise."
Laughter can also help the immune system. Research at the Department of Clinical Immunology at Loma Linda University School of Medicine has demonstrated that the experience of laughter lowers the level of certain stress hormones and stimulates the immune systems by increasing the number of activated T cells and activated T helper cells.
In addition, mirthful laughter enhances the activity of natural killer cells that play a crucial role in preventing disease.
To create more smiles and laughter, try any or all of these humor strategies:
1. Cultivate a playful attitude.
2. Find humor in daily life.
3. Learn to belly laugh and tell jokes.
4. Learn to laugh at yourself.
5. Hang out with people who are fun to be with,
who make you laugh.
Here are seven truths I've discovered in my struggles to be an effective boss:
It's not what you say that matters; it's what people hear. Just because you said it doesn't mean they heard it. Just because you wrote it doesn't mean they read it. Be sure your message is received and understood.
There are lots of things you don't know and lots of people who hope you don't find out. The boss rarely hears the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. You've got to walk around, look around, listen, and ask direct questions.
Hire for character, train for skills. Integrity, responsibility, and the ability to work with others are vital competencies. You've got to screen out or weed out people you can't believe or rely on or who are toxic to the team.
Settling for warm bodies turns one problem into two. You still have to get someone who's right for the job, but first you have to deal with and remove the wrong person. If you can't find the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?
What you allow, you encourage. If you don't enforce your values and rules, they're not your values and they're not rules.
Doing nothing is doing something. Indecision and inaction cause as much harm as poor decisions. Indecisiveness is incompetence.
It's all about relationships. Your most important job is to get the most out of the people who work with you. You've got to be ready to be a boss, motivator, mentor, counselor, disciplinarian, or friend.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded."1 And as James says about a double-minded person: he is "unstable in all he does."2
Someone has explained how, in the frigid waters around Greenland, "Countless icebergs float around. Some are tiny; others tower skyward. At times the small ones move in one direction while their gigantic counterparts go in another. Why is this? The small ones are pushed around by the winds blowing on the surface of the water, but the huge ice masses are carried along by deep ocean currents."3
In our day there is great pressure to go with the crowd, to be politically correct, to do the convenient thing regardless whether it is right or ethical or not. The reality is, however, unless we have deep roots in God, we too can easily be swayed by the "popular winds of the moment" and be "double-minded and unstable in all we do."
Think of Jesus, he never worried about being politically correct, or pleasing the crowd or the religious leaders of his day, or even King Herod for that matter. His only concern was to do right and please God, his Father. He did right regardless of the consequences. For you and me to make a difference we, too, need to stand for truth and do right regardless of the consequences.
To do this we need backbone. As the saying goes, any dead fish can float down the river, but it takes a live fish to swim against the flow. Furthermore, he who stands for nothing will fall for anything.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me in this day and age to stand for truth, the principles of which are found in your Word, the Bible, and to always do right regardless of the consequences. Give me the courage to live only to please you in all that I am and do as did Jesus. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
1. James 4:7-8 (NIV).
2. James 1:8 (NIV).
3. Author unknown.
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Because the world is filled with strife,
go with peace.
Because the world is filled with deceptions and lies,
go with truth.
Because the world would die without,
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