Think About It

Today would have been my Mom’s 87 th birthday.   I lost my mother about a decade ago, but many of the lessons she taught me still stick.   When I look back on what she shared with me there are a few things really stand out, but maybe the one keeps being replayed in my mind is, “You don’t have to tell everything you know.”   I think her primary focus was on spreading gossip and telling family secrets, but the more I ponder it, the broader this logic becomes.   It’s more than just keeping confidences, it’s controlling our tongues.   Whether it is choosing not to share stories or not talking when it isn’t necessary, being quiet can be a virtue.   Long before Elaine Wharton made her appearance on earth, the sage, Solomon, observed, “When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.” (Proverbs 10:19).   Are we willing to do more listening than talking?   When we do, we will not only gain more informati...

On this date in 1936, the 7 th place Brooklyn Dodgers fired their manager.   Why is this footnote in history 90 years old noteworthy?   The manager was Casey Stengel.   The Mighty Casey would go on to become one of best known and most beloved characters in baseball history.   In all, he would rack up over 1900 wins as a manager.   In the twelve years he was with the New York Yankees (from 1949 to 1960) he would win 1149 games, and amass a .623 winning percentage.   He would collect ten American League pennants and 7 World Series titles.   Not bad for a guy who was looking for a job a decade earlier. It is tempting to think that achievement is the culmination of a steady stream of successes, but that’s not always true.   Often, accomplishment is found in managing peaks and valleys.   It is about sticking with it when things are tough.   In essence it is getting up once more than we are knocked down.   (Yeah, I know there are a l...

How do we defend our faith?   Most of us know that, as believers, we have a need to stand up for what is right – however, do we understand the perimeters of what this entails?   You see, it is tempting to prove our rightness in a way that others won’t forget it.   Our reasoning is that if we are confident in what we believe and forceful in defending our beliefs, we win.   The question is “what” do we win?   Do we gain respect or just a reputation for being hard nosed and hard to endure?   A little earlier, I purposefully used the word “rightness” not “righteousness”.   You see rightness is knowing the answer while righteousness involves doing the right things.   I believe we can have the right answer, but if we combine that with the wrong attitude, we won’t be good influences.   We might win the argument, but lose points in the game of life. Years ago, the early Christian leader, James, observed, “And the seed whose fruit is righteousness...

Several years ago I spent quite a bit of time studying adult education.   One of the lasting lessons I learned was that we are all intelligent in our own way.   (Or was it that we are all ignorant in our own way?   Actually, I think both are true!)   When we stop and think about it, it's easy to see that we have our talents and we all have some sort of personalized intellect.   Not only do we learn differently, we all learn different things. The reason I bring this up is to encourage us to acknowledge the differences between people.   First, as we interact with someone we should try to put them in a position where their smarts are shown.   Figure out what they know and give them a chance to shine.   Second, let’s give ourselves credit for what we know.   We may not be able to explain geometry, but if we are a whiz at geography, let’s be out there teaching other people about how to navigate the world around them.   Most of us are well...

I am not sure why I was chosen, but I am getting several phone calls a day offering me some kind of a “really neat” loan opportunity.   All I need to do is call them back and (I assume) start repaying the loan.   Now, I realize this is not something I am interested in and since they don’t use the same phone number, I can’t block them, so I just let it go to voicemail and delete it.   I have heard their pitch so often I just ignore it.   I can’t imagine it will ever happen, but if some legitimate financial offer was made, I would probably miss out on it just because I have tuned out the rhetoric for so long. As I erased another one of those calls the other day I got to thinking about how often people have claimed that we are on the cusp of the Lord returning again.   They figure they can read the signs and begin to proclaim that the end of the world is at hand.   They get people wound up, only to be let down when nothing ever materializes.   I am co...

Who are we hanging out with?   As I look at that sentence, I am not sure it is grammatically correct; but I think you get my point.   Who is influencing us?   In years past, this might have been relegated to who we saw on a day-to-day basis, but in today’s digital world, we can even be influenced by people we have never met.   So with global influence in mind, I want us to consider the question, “Are they good for us?”.   Do the people we have a physical relationship with make us better?   Do the people we follow on social media help us to be our best?   One of the things I have come to notice in my lifetime is how contagious anger and hatred can be.   Humans have a propensity to get whipped up into a frenzy pretty easily.   Again, in days gone by we might be able to mitigate this potential by reducing the size of the crowds (mobs); but caustic people can have a massive footprint today.   This is why we need to be very careful who we...