by Inspiration | Oct 7, 2024 | Inspiration, Archives
The Best Way to Travel Once upon a time, a king had a great highway built for the people who lived in his kingdom. After it was completed, but before… The Best Way to Travel Once upon a time, a king had a great highway built for the people who lived in his kingdom. After it was completed, but before it was opened to the public, the king decided to have a contest. He invited as many of his subjects as desired to participate. The challenge was to see who could travel the highway the best, and the winner was to receive a box of gold. On the day of the contest, all the people came. Some of them had fine chariots, some had fine clothing and fancy food to make the trip a luxurious journey. Some wore their sturdiest shoes and ran along the highway on their feet to show their skill. All day they traveled the highway, and each one, when he arrived at the end, complained to the king about a large pile of rocks and debris that had been left almost blocking the road at one point, and that got in their way and hindered their travel. At the end of the day, a lone traveler crossed the finish line warily and walked over to the
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by Inspiration | Oct 6, 2024 | Inspiration, Archives
Lessons Learned from My Dog It’s graduation time and commencement speakers will soon share words of wisdom with new grads. Some lessons shared will be profound, and others quite simple…. Lessons Learned from My Dog It’s graduation time and commencement speakers will soon share words of wisdom with new grads. Some lessons shared will be profound, and others quite simple. What would I share, if invited? Things I learned in graduate school, principles proven in my consulting career, or tidbits picked up from my own mistakes? No, I think I’d share lessons I’ve learned from my dog. Here are a few: 1. Play the hand you’re dealt. Some of us are born into the lap of luxury; others are not. Some of us come programmed for joy, and others less so. Some of us are nurtured magnificently, and others are nearly ignored. Rocky was given up before he was two. You might think he’d be sullen, unable to trust, or stuck with a bit of a chip on his canine shoulder. Not so. He’s a happy little guy who seems to demonstrate that it’s not what you’ve been given that counts-it’s who you become and what you do with what you’ve got! 2. Be Your Self. When we adopted Rocky, I almost forgot to ask his name. The clerk rolled
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by Inspiration | Oct 5, 2024 | Attitude, Archives
Giving to Jesus Here is a story, about a nine-year-old boy who lived in a rural town in Tennessee. His house was in a poor area of the community. A… Giving to Jesus Here is a story, about a nine-year-old boy who lived in a rural town in Tennessee. His house was in a poor area of the community. A church there had a bus ministry that came knocking on his door one Saturday afternoon. The child came to answer the door and greeted the bus pastor. The bus pastor asked if his parents were home and the small boy told him that his parents take off every weekend and leave him at home to take care of his little brother. The bus pastor couldn’t believe what the child said and asked him to repeat it. The youngster gave the same answer and the bus pastor asked to come in and talk with him. They went into the living room and sat down on an old couch with the foam and springs exposed. The bus pastor asked the child, “Where do you go to church?” The young boy surprised the visitor by replying, “I’ve never been to church in my whole life.” The bus pastor thought to himself about the fact that his church was less than three miles from
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by Inspiration | Oct 4, 2024 | Inspiration, Archives
The Dark Spot One day, Professor John Morgan entered his class and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They all waited anxiously at their desks for the… The Dark Spot One day, Professor John Morgan entered his class and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They all waited anxiously at their desks for the exam to begin. John handed out the exams with the text facing down, as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked the students to turn over the papers. To everyone’s surprise, there were no questions – just a black dot in the center of the paper. The Professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s faces, told them the following: “I want you to write about what you see there.” The students, confused, got started on the inexplicable task. At the end of the class, the professor took all the exams and started reading each one of them out loud in front of all the students. All of them, with no exception, defined the black dot, trying to explain its position in the centre of the sheet. After all had been read, the classroom was silent. Professor John Morgan smiled and said, “I’m not going to grade you on this, I just wanted to give you something to think about.
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by Inspiration | Oct 3, 2024 | Family, Archives
No Regrets At the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, the sport of canoe racing was added to the list of international competitions. The favorite team in the four-man canoe race… No Regrets At the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, the sport of canoe racing was added to the list of international competitions. The favorite team in the four-man canoe race was the United States team. One member of that team was a young man by the name of Bill Havens. As the time for the Olympics neared, it became clear that Bill’s wife would give birth to their first child about the time that the U.S. team would be competing in the Paris games. In 1924 there were no jet airliners from Paris to the United States, only slow ocean-going ships. And so Bill found himself in a dilemma. Should he go to Paris and risk not being at his wife’s side when their baby was born? Or should he withdraw from the team and remain with his family? Bill’s wife insisted that he go to Paris. After all, competing in the Olympics was the culmination of a life long dream. But Bill felt conflicted and, after much soul searching, decided to withdraw from the competition and remain home, where he could support his wife when the child arrived. He
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