Morning Briefings

In my survey of wives, women voted motherhood as one of their top three prayer needs. They said that one of the most worrisome aspects of parenting is finding the successful balance between being a good mother and being a good wife. Whether she says it or not, she often feels guilty about neglecting her husband or her children.

– Stormie Omartian
The Power of a Praying Husband

Western civilization seems to have forgotten what every primitive society understands–you need kids to have a healthy society. Children are huge consumers. Then they grow up to become taxpayers. That’s how a society works, but the postmodern secular state seems to have forgotten that. Europe and Japan, which comprise two of the world’s major economic engines aren’t merely in recession, they’re shutting down. This will have a huge impact on the world economy. There is a direct correlation between abandonment of traditional religious society and a drop in the birth rate.

– Herbert Meyer
What in the World is Going On?

He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.

– Proverbs 14:26 as noted in
Proverbs for Parenting

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 as drastically–brief. His fate is ours, sped up.

– Jeffrey Zaslow
The Wall Street Journal, May 3, 2008

As a teenager, I felt immeasurable wiser and savvier than my dad. But as I grew older, I saw my dad as more of a man because he let me share in some of his fears and regrets. Because of that courage in showing me that he was just another guy, I saw him even more as godlike and supremely lovable.

– Vincent Staniforth
Questions for My Father: Finding the Man Behind Your Dad

When you find a vocation, embrace it with your whole heart. Few people are so lucky. They begin their search for work with an eye to the wrong prize, so when they succeed they win something of little value. They gain money or prestige, but they lose their hearts. Eventually, their days become nothing more than a commodity they exchange for money and they begin to shrivel and die.

– Kent Nerburn
Letters to My Son: A Father’s Wisdom on Manhood, Life and Love

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

Remember, the role of the leader is to identify and meet legitimate needs. I can still recall what my mother told me the day I married my beautiful wife Rita, God rest her soul, fifty years ago this month. She told me never to ignore a woman. One of the primary works of love is paying attention to each other.

– from James C. Hunter’s
The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership

Success–which I define as doing reasonably well at your chosen career–has huge demands on those who attain it, particularly in our hyper-competitive culture where conditions can change virtually overnight. The combination of marriage, family and career can be consuming. By the time most of us approach our fourth decade, anything that promises relief gets our attention.

– Bob Buford
Stuck in Halftime

My son, keep your father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teachings. When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.

– Proverbs 6:20, 22
Proverbs for Parenting

Above all we need, particularly as children, the reassuring presence of a visible community, an intimate group that enfolds us with understanding and love.

– Lewis Mumford
How We Behave at the Feast

Memorial Day is gone and Labor Day beckons. Sometime in between, many of us are likely to find ourselves at an oft-dreaded workplace event: the company picnic. That determinedly casual atmosphere is the largest snake hiding under the office picnic table. The goal is to be noticed in a positive light. You don’t want to be the subject of gossip at the water cooler Monday morning.

– JoAnn Greco
Yahoo! HotJobs, July 1, 2007