Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 15 – No. 2313 June 08, 2013
Thought for the week: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." – Winston Churchill
"Nurture your mind with great thoughts for you will never go any higher than you think." – Benjamin Disraeli
"The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time." – Abraham Lincoln
"Life is a series of experiences, each of which makes us bigger, even though it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and griefs which we endure help us in our marching onward." – Henry Ford
"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." – Mother Teresa
"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination." – Nelson Mandela
"The key is not to prioritize what is on the schedule, but to schedule your priorities." – Stephen Covey
Isn't it disappointing when someone says they will do something: get back to you, call you, etc. and they don't?
When you tell someone you will do something, then do it! If anything, do it better. Do it sooner than you promised. Others will trust and have faith in you. Be a person of your word. If someone is asking something of you that can't be done (or you don't want to do it) then tell them up front. Be honest about it. They may not be happy, but you will keep their respect and your own. – Ray Lammie
Editor's Note: "Keeping one's word is a character issue. Men and women of character always keep their word." – RWI
Corrupt the young. Get them away from religion. Encourage their interest in sex. Make them superficial by focusing their attention on sports, sensual entertainments and other trivialities. Always preach true democracy but seize power as fast and as ruthlessly as possible. Encourage government extravagance, destroy its credit. Produce fear with rising prices, inflation and general discontent. Encourage disorders and foster a lenient attitude toward disorders. By specious argument cause the breakdown of the old moral virtues: honesty, sobriety, self-restraint. Cause registration of firearms [to] leave the population defenseless.
In addressing graduates, Albert Schweitzer said, "I don`t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."
Mignon McLaughlin tells us, "People are made of flesh and blood and a miracle fiber called courage."
Courage comes in two forms: physical courage and moral courage. Physical courage is demonstrated by acts of bravery where personal harm is risked to protect others or preserve cherished principles. It's the kind of courage that wins medals and monuments. Moral courage may seem less grand, but it is more important because it's needed more often.
Moral courage is the engine of integrity. It is our inner voice that coaxes, prods, and inspires us to meet our responsibilities and live up to our principles when doing so may cost us dearly.
It takes moral courage to be honest at the risk of ridicule, rejection, or retaliation, or when doing so may jeopardize our income or career. It takes courage to own up to our mistakes when doing so may get us in trouble or thwart our ambitions. It even takes courage to stand tough with our kids when doing so may cost us their affection.
Like a personal coach, moral courage pushes and prods us to be our best selves. It urges us to get up when we'd rather stay in bed, go to work when we'd rather go fishing, tell the truth when a lie would make our life so much easier, keep a costly promise and put the interest of others above our own.
The voice of moral courage is also our critical companion during troubling times; it provides us with the strength to cope with and overcome adversity and persevere when we want to quit or just rest.
At unexpected and unwelcome times, we all will be forced to deal with the loss of loved ones, personal illnesses and injuries, betrayed friendships, and personal failures. These are the trials and tribulations of a normal life, but, without moral courage, they can rob us of the will and confidence to find new roads to happiness and fulfillment.
Moral courage is essential, not only for a virtuous life, but a happy one. Without courage, our fears and failures confine us like a barbed wire fence.
The voice of moral courage is always there, but sometimes it is drowned out by the drumbeat of our fears and doubts. We need to learn to listen for the voice. The more we call on it and listen to it and trust it, the stronger it becomes.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"There's a lighthouse on a hillside / that overlooks life's sea. / When I'm tossed He sends out a light, / light that I might see. / And the light that shines in darkness now / Will safely lead me on. / If it wasn't for the lighthouse, / This ship would sail no more.
"Oh I thank God for the lighthouse, / I owe my life to Him. / King Jesus is the lighthouse / Upon the rocks of sin, / He has shone a light around me / That I could clearly see. / If it wasn't for the lighthouse, / Then where would this ship be.
"Everybody that lives around us / says tear the lighthouse down. / You know the big ships / they don't sail by this way no more, / so what's the use of it standing 'round? / Ahh, but then my mind goes way on back / to that stormy night, / when just in time, / oh thank God I saw the light ./ 'Twas the light from that old lighthouse / that still stands up there on a hill.
"Oh I thank God for the lighthouse, / I owe my life to Him. / King Jesus is the lighthouse / Upon the rocks of sin, / He has shone a light around me / That I could clearly see. / If it wasn't for the lighthouse, / Then where would this ship be.
"Oh, If it wasn't for the lighthouse, / Then where would this ship be."1
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, how can I ever thank you enough for giving your Son, Jesus, to be the saving lighthouse for a sin-sick lost world that includes me. Thank you for saving me from a lost eternity by forgiving me for all my sins, and for your gift of eternal life to spend eternity with you in Heaven forever. Please help me to point others to Jesus, the Lighthouse. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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