Morning Briefings

We remember now to thank our Creator for all that we are and all that we have. May our sharing with one another embody the generosity made possible for us by the Giver of the original gift.

– Philip Foubert from
Graces

If you are the one being toasted–that is, if it’s your skills as a cook or prospects as a vice-president being toasted–you smile and express thanks, but you don’t drink the toast with everyone else. That would be like clapping for yourself when you’ve been awarded first prize.

– Edith Hazard & Wallace Pinfold
Rising to the Occasion

Saying thanks, it turns out, isn’t just pious or polite. It’s good for you. But there’s a catch. It doesn’t really work if you do it only once a year.

– Kim Painter, USA Today
Your Health: Giving thanks can make you happier, healthier

When the road gets dark and you can no longer see, let my love throw a spark; have a little faith in me. And when the tears you cry are all you can believe, just give these loving arms a try and have a little faith in me.

– as sung in Mandy Moore: Coverage

Tough choices don’t always involve professional codes or criminal laws. Nor do they always involve big, headline-size issues. They often operate in areas that laws and regulations don’t reach.

– Rushworth M. Kidder
How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living

Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town, spend a year there doing business, and make a profit’ — you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.

– James 4:13
The New American Bible

Rarely does life unfold with the predictability of carefully scripted strategic leadership; far more leadership is improvised. We rely on our wits and accumulated wisdom.

– Chris Lowney
Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World

Good people can’t stand the sight of deliberate evil; the wicked can’t stand the sight of well-chosen goodness.

– Eugene H. Peterson on Proverbs 29:27
The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language

In football, a fumble can lose the game. In faith a stumble can lose a soul. However, through the game we are taught to learn from our mistakes, to pick ourselves up off the turf, remove the clumps of grass from our facemasks, and play on. Through the gospels, we learn that though we may stumble time and again, all we need do is seek forgiveness.

– Gary Graf
And God Said, ‘It’s Good!’: Amusing and Thought-Provoking Parallels Between the Bible and Football

How the world strikes me is not precisely how it strikes anyone else. Even my own interpretations are unstable. Many past ‘defeats’ I see now as improvements, and many ‘victories’ I see as spiritual failures. There are few if any aspects of my life that I am wise enough to change ‘for the better.’

– Hugh Prather
Spiritual Notes to Myself: Essential Wisdom for the 21st Century

When you are up against a step, you cannot see where the next step is leading. Sometimes opportunity is like staring at the knees of a giraffe.

– Laurie Beth Jones
Jesus, CEO

We must have courage to face life’s inevitables: pain, suffering and sorrow. When trouble comes, the coward says, ‘Run away.’ The hero says, ‘Stay and master it.’ Courage is not an instinct. Fear is an instinct. Courage is something that you acquire.

– James Milton McKnight from
Strength for Service to God and Country

Jesus didn’t even ask his disciples not to abandon him–he proved to them they couldn’t.

– Hugh Prather
Spiritual Notes to Myself: Essential Wisdom for the 21st Century

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person. When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.

– from a subscriber email

It might seem strange to pray at your computer, in front of a screen, especially if there are other people around you, or distracting noises. But God is everywhere, all around us, constantly reaching out to us, even in the most unlikely situations. When we know this, and with a bit of practice, we can pray anywhere!

– Sacred Space

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.

– Robert Frost, American author and poet

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

– Abraham Lincoln

So many people use unanswered prayers as a reason for not believing in God.

– Anthony DeStefano
Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To