Morning Briefings

Doing what’s right is hard, and speaking the truth is dangerous. Many have been abhorred for it, some killed, one crucified.

– Andrew Klavan
The Wall Street Journal

Remember Pamela? She began anew in the field of photography by providing her services here at In the Company of Prayer. Her journey has since led her to work with others. Please join us in congratulating Pamela on her continued growth.

– In the Company of Prayer

A Final Farewell: How Randy Pausch, a 47-Year-Old College Professor Came to Teach His Family About Love, Courage and Saying Goodbye. Dying of pancreatic cancer, he showed a love of life and an approach to death that people have found inspiring. His lecture has become a reminder that our own futures are similarly — if not drastically — brief. His fate is ours, sped up.

– Jeffrey Zaslow
The Wall Street Journal

It is probably true that the church doesn’t fully appreciate the needs of people in the business world, but, the church has endorsed my vocation in life: what I do has meaning.

– James M. Childs, Jr.
Ethics in Business: Faith at Work

It’s a fact that many traditional employees resent the arrival of a temp from the reasonable fear that their own job may be next to be converted. Be aware that temp workers may well expect a chilly reception, and it is largely the responsibility of the staff to bring them into the team and introduce them in a positive way to the company culture.

– Peggy Post & Peter Post
Emily Post’s The Etiquette Advantage in Business

The real quest of prayer is to know God and not to get stuff. Prayer is interpersonal communication between a person and God.

– Don M. Aycock
How to Have a Conversation with God

The French philosopher Voltaire once defined optimism as ‘the mania of maintaining that everything is well when we are wretched.’ Some people are blessed with an upbeat personality that allows them to view life through rose-colored glasses and ‘make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes.’ But even sunny-souled people can’t ward off all the shadows, certainly not forever, not without a sure word for an omnipotent God.

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

A faithful leader knows when to release her hold on the world and the world’s ways. Because every godly leader understands she is just a servant using her natural gifts while waiting to be ushered into God’s purpose and presence.

– Victoria Lowe
10 Spiritual Principles of Successful Women

There’s global competition, technology changes, more regulations than ever before. It’s just complicated. Things are harder today.

– Patrick Lencioni
The Five Temptations of a CEO

Creativity, I believe, is inherent in all of us. We are the progeny of almighty God. God is defined in many ways. Most of all, he is the creator.

– Paul M. Johnson
Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney

Thus says the Lord, ‘When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you.’

– Jeremiah 29:12
The New American Bible

Neither Bach nor his contemporaries had any idea that his music would grace the ages. There is the interesting insertion in Bach’s own hand of the letters J.J. at the beginning of each composition and S.D.G. at the end. They are abbreviations for the Latin Jesu Juva (Jesus Help Me) and Soli Deo Gloria (To the Glory of God Alone).

–
Glimpses of Christian History

If working a room is so much fun and so profitable, why do our hearts thump, our palms sweat and our eyes glaze over when we think about it? One reason is that 88 percent of us think of ourselves as shy.

– Susan RoAne
How to Work a Room: Your Essential Guide to Savvy Socializing

Maintaining a sense of urgency throughout a company is one of the most difficult challenges in business.

– Yvon Chouinard
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman

Keeping Faith, Ochoa Takes Magical Tour: ‘The best part about working for Lorena [top ranked female golfer in the world] is not the money, the memories, winning the amazing events,’ caddie Dave Brooker said. ‘It’s that being around her makes me want to be a better person.’

– Karen Crouse
NewYorkTimes.com

There is no guarantee that God will make wealthy those who obey Him in their business endeavors. What God does guarantee is an eternal profit with all temporal needs met.

– William D. Lawrence
Beyond the Bottom Line

No one who has ever experienced God in prayer has ever found anything more joyful, not even owning half the world.

– Peter Kreeft
Prayer: The Great Conversation

Rescue mission: ‘Father Art,’ in five years at Mission San Juan Capistrano, has improved the once-crumbling site while tending to the faithful.

– Greg Hardesty
The Orange County Register

It’s easy to be a decent person and to do good as long as it doesn’t cost you anything. It’s when it costs you everything that you have a story that’s inspirational.

– Screenwriter Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List, Searching for Bobby Fischer)
AFI’s 100 Years…100 Cheers

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Five were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died; 12 had their homes ransacked and burned; two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary army; another had two sons captured; nine fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

– Walter Thorpe, Maj. USAF (retired)
as reported on messianic.com

For all of the misunderstandings and even deliberate attacks on prayer, one fact is certain–people pray.

– Don M. Aycock
How to Have a Conversation with God

In a world that applauds accomplishments and celebrity, it is easy to assume that God values us more highly when our ambitions and goals have been fulfilled. Thus, when we fail or are unsuccessful, we not only disappoint ourselves, but we may fear we have disappointed God.

– Karen Westerfield Tucker from
Strength for Service to God and Country