Stock-market losses mean dramatic change to retirement incomes, investments, and financial security. Doctors read reports that spell out very bad news. (Source: Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God (Zondervan, 1997), p. She was so taken with it that she had copied it down on a 3 x 5 card for me: "Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory." She said her minister must have had a hard week, because after he read it he banged the pulpit and then turned his back to them and cried. The weekend before she went into the hospital for the last time, Peggie came home all excited about a quotation from William Barclay that her minister had used. Illustration: Philip Yancey tells of a letter he received from a friend whose daughter, Peggie, was terminally ill. You've got a job like that? No wonder you're tired! Even Nehemiah takes his hat off to you! 122 submitted by Dave Slagle, Lawrenceville, Georgia.) (John Ortberg and Ruth Haley, An Ordinary Day with Jesus (Zondervan, 2001), p. Then Peggy would ask the other person, "And what do you do?" Illustration: Author and preacher Tony Campolo said that when his wife, Peggy, was at home fulltime with their children and someone would ask, "And what is it that you do, my dear?" she would respond, "I am socializing two Homo sapiens into the dominant values of the Judeo-Christian tradition in order that they might be instruments for the transformation of the social order into the kind of eschatological utopia that God willed from the beginning of creation." Don't ever stop teaching them the values that are important to you, important to God.
Don't go dry on the love and laughter well. This can be so tough - but you must resolve now to never give up.ĭon't give up on the patience meter. When you get to a point of total exhaustion, it's hard to keep going. They had known a lot of discouragement, a lot of disappointment - no doubt they were really numb to the entire experience. Their forefathers had made some choices that cost them dearly. They had a rough past, because of the exile, and their worst days were only a few weeks behind them. And all of them knew how tough life could be. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, children, teen-agers - everyone.
Nehemiah's rebuilding project involved everyone. After Nehemiah and Ezra led their people to rebuild Jerusalem, they had a great day of celebration, just 52 days after the work had begun. In a tough race? Don't quit! Sooner or later, you'll reach the point where your hard work during lean times will pay off. (Jim Collins, Good To Great (Harper Business, 2001), p. "So, if I'm hurting bad, then my competitors must hurt a whole lot worse!"
INSURMOUNTABLE JOY HOW TO
The kids learn how to pace themselves and race with confidence: "We run best at the end," they think at the end of a hard race. Then the coaches calculate not how fast the runners go, but how many competitors they pass at the end of the race, from mile two to the finish. Everything is geared to this simple idea, and the coaching staff knows how to create this effect better than any other team in the state.įor example, they place a coach at the 2-mile mark (of a 3.1-mile race) to collect data as the runners go past. And we run best at the end of the season, when it counts the most. He was referring to their simple strategy: We run best at the end. "Why are we so successful? We don't work any harder than other teams. "I don't get it," said one of the coaches. The program had been transformed in the previous five years from good (top 20 in the state) to great (consistent contenders for the state championship on both the boys' and girls' teams). The coaching staff of a high school cross-country running team got together for dinner after winning its second state championship in two years. Illustration: In Good to Great, Jim Collins writes:
0 kommentar(er)
