Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 8 – No. 3306 August 19, 2006
Thought for the week: "Well done is better than well said." – Benjamin Franklin
"It's not what you are that holds you back, it's what you think you are not." – Denis Waitley
"You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things—to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals." – Edmund Hillary
"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing; that's why we recommend it daily." – Zig Ziglar
"Chance favors only the prepared mind." – Louis Pasteur
"The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore." – Vincent Van Gogh
"We need a twelve-step group for compulsive talkers. They could call it On Anon Anon." – Paula Poundstone
"Yes, there are times when something is legitimately not our fault. Blaming others, however, keeps us in a stuck state and is ultimately rough on our own self-esteem." – Eric Allenbaugh
A man hated his wife's cat and he decided to get rid of it. He drove 20 blocks away from home and dropped the cat there. The cat was already walking up the driveway when he approached his home.
The next day, he decided to drop the cat 40 blocks away but the same thing happened.
He kept on increasing the number of blocks but the cat kept on coming home before him. At last he decided to drive a few miles away, turn right, then left, past the bridge, then right again and another right and so on until he reached what he thought was a perfect spot and dropped the cat there.
Hours later, the man calls his wife at home and asked her, "Lynn, is the cat there?" "Yes, why do you ask?" answered the wife. Frustrated the man said, "Put that cat on the phone, I am lost and I need directions."
I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.
Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.
A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.
The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can't have them.
Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.
To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.
Don't waste your time on a man/woman, who isn't willing to waste their time on you.
Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the person, we will know how to be grateful.
Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened.
There's always going to be people that hurt you, so what you need to do is keep on trusting and just be more careful about who you trust next time around.
Make yourself a better person and know who you are before you try and know someone else and expect them to know you.
Don't try so hard, the best things come when you least expect them to.
We need others. We need others to love and we need to be loved by them. There is no doubt that without it, we too, like the infant left alone, would cease to grow, cease to develop, choose madness and even death.
– Dr. Leo Buscaglia, 1924-1998 American Author and Professor of 'Love' Dr. Buscaglia's Quotes
When the legendary Bear Bryant coached the University of Alabama's football team, he had a strict rule against drinking.
He also had a star quarterback named Joe Namath. There came a time when Namath admitted that he and some friends had been out drinking. Everyone, including the fans and the alumni, believed Namath was indispensable to the team. There were two games left in the season, against Miami and Mississippi. There was no question that Bryant knew their chances of winning either game without Namath was slim.
However, Bryant told Namath that he had broken the rules and was out for the season, and maybe forever. Bryant received over six thousand letters of protest, but he held firm. Alabama managed to win both games by narrow margins. Namath returned the next year and led Alabama to the National Championship. Years later, he agreed that Bear Bryant was absolutely right to suspend him and to make the suspension stick. You can bet the other Alabama players followed the rules not only for that season, but for future seasons as well.1
Thought: It is difficult to discipline our children when they break the rules we've set for them, isn't it? But what will be the results if we fail to do so?
Kyrie and Brielle Jackson were born prematurely. Each weighed only two pounds.
After a few days in separate incubators, Kyrie grew stronger, but her twin Brielle was not doing well. She cried continually and her blood oxygen level was dangerously low.
As Brielle's condition deteriorated, an intensive care nurse named Gayle tried everything she could think of to calm the crying child, who was gasping for air and turning blue. She held her. She had her dad hold her. She suctioned her nose. But nothing worked.
Gayle had one last idea. She put Brielle in the incubator with her sister Kyrie. Almost immediately, Brielle snuggled up to Kyrie and soon she stopped crying. Her blood-oxygen level rose, she began to breathe more easily, and a normal pinkish color returned.
The sisters were kept together in the incubator for several weeks and Brielle's health improved enough that both girls left the hospital healthy and thriving. This story and a photo of twins in the incubator with Kyrie's arm over her sister in an endearing embrace were widely distributed on the Internet.
I love these sorts of stories, but I've learned to be skeptical, given the prevalence of urban legends. So I went to Snopes.com, a website that investigates maybe-too-good-to-be-true stories. I was delighted to find that the story and the photo (reproduced on the site) were authentic.
I don't know if there's a scientific explanation for this healing hug, but I'm content just drawing a big heart around the story and chalking it off to the power of love.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Let love be your highest goal" (1 Corinthians 14:1, NLT).
As none of us is perfect, most of us have an issue of one kind or another. Probably my biggest issue was being afraid to love, which came from childhood hurts. A friend recently asked me if I ever still feel afraid to love and I said not very often but sometimes I do. "What do you do when you feel this way?" he asked to which I replied, "I do the loving thing."
Nobody feels loving all the time, but we can always do the loving thing if we so choose. People who choose otherwise usually end up driving love away. I've seen this happen and I'm sure you have too.
Jesus never told us how we should or shouldn't feel ... he just told us how to act. Sure, it is important to recognize and acknowledge our feelings. Not to do so is to be in denial. However, it is equally important not to allow our feelings to control us. That can be childish and immature. But rather, we need to be in control of our feelings and regardless of what we feel, always do the right thing, the loving thing. This is a mark of maturity.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, no matter what situation I am in nor how I feel, please help me to be like Jesus and always do the right thing, the loving thing—even if this includes tough love where such is needed. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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