Morning Briefings

Grads Work on Basics in Tough Job Market: This year’s graduates face an even tougher job market. Many big firms made their hires when the job market was better back in the fall, leaving slimmer pickings for students graduating into a weaker economy.

– Erin White
The Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2008

Gratitude is the key to a virtuous life. Conversely, all sin boils down to ingratitude–to an abuse or neglect of God’s gifts.

– Mark E. Thibodeaux
God, I Have Issues

Texas singer seeks to understand a tragedy: ‘I think in many ways everybody is a survivor, it’s just a little bit more obvious in my case. Everybody has been knocked back, and for the most part, you know what people do? They keep going, and most people do it with grace and humor and goodwill and a spirit of generosity.’

– Naomi Koppel, AP, as reported on
Yahoo! News, May 23, 2008

I have often been forced to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that there was no place else to go.

– Abraham Lincoln

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

– John 15: 13

Having been told ‘Look around you,’ and having also been told ‘Pray always,’ perhaps we could combine these two charges and use our eyes as a means of perpetual adoration.

– Edward M. Hays
Pray All Ways

What may I give to the Lord for all the good things he has done for me? I will take the cup of salvation, and give praise to the name of the Lord. I will make the offering of my oath to the Lord, even before all his people.

– Psalm 116: 12-14

In God’s eyes, addictions are avenues for salvation. They provide the impetus I need to finally surrender my life to God. My addiction is ‘exhibit A’ among my proofs for why I can’t manage the job of being my own savior.

– Mark E. Thibodeaux
God, I Have Issues

Prayer is a strategic alliance with God. It is a good faith contract, a spiritual handshake agreement. Only faith and patience are required on our part.

– Cher & Bill Horton
Business Prayers for Millennium Managers

If you’re waiting to have a good idea before you have any ideas, you won’t have many ideas.

– David Allen
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

You know, Lord. You knew yesterday who I would be today, and you know today who I’ll be tomorrow. Maybe I don’t need to know myself as well as I thought.

– Maribeth Walker
A Moment With God for Graduates: Prayers for Every Graduate

Of all we have to do in this life, here is the hardest task, to die well.

–
Sacred Space

In business, we like to avoid commitment. Liability scares us, so we add endless phrases to qualify our views on a topic. As a study in contrast, consider wedding vows with the traditional ‘I do.’ Two short words, nowhere to hide.

– Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway, and Jon Warshawsky
Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter’s Guide

For twenty centuries she has been called blessed by people in all walks of life: intellectuals, illiterates, kings, warriors, tradesmen, men and women, infants and elderly: Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women.

– Francis Fernandez
In Conversation with God

He who gives a child a treat, makes joy-bells ring in Heaven’s street. He who gives a child a home, builds palaces in Kingdom come. She who gives a baby birth, brings Savior Christ again to earth.

– James Masefield

I worried most at night about my age. I had Susana when I was 35 and Emma when I was 39. I couldn’t help calculating the future: When Emma is 21, I’ll be 60. How old will I be when my daughters marry? None of my friends is likely to see her grandchildren marry.  What have we done?

– Wendy Mogul
The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children

In my experience the bad days have been exceptions rather than rules. But some people face a lifetime of adversity. During such times, we’re swimmers drawn toward open water by powerful undertows of doubt. We grieve and weep and sometimes feel we’re drowning. But what if we knew it would turn out well, whatever we are facing? What if Romans 8:28 really were more than a cliche? What if it always worked? Would it make a difference to you?

– Robert J. Morgan
The Promise: How God Works All Things Together for Good

On a particularly difficult day a nurse prayed: ‘O God, where are you? Why don’t you send help?’ ‘I did,’ God replied, ‘I sent you. And as long as it takes, I will be with you whenever and wherever you honor human life.’

– Fr. James Krings
Living Faith

When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

– Will Rogers from
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Although being nice can be a worthy attribute to cultivate, it must never deter us from speaking the truth and from loving in tough ways.

– Sr. Melannie Svoboda
Living Faith

America trusts in the abiding power of prayer and asks for the wisdom to discern God’s will in times of joy and trial. As we observe this National Day of Prayer, we recognize our dependence on the Almighty, we thank Him for the blessings He has bestowed upon us, and we put our country’s future in His hands.

– A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America