Deep Waters
Deep Waters
Contents
1 Do not let Kindness and Truth leave you
The Heart of a Lesson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Are You God’s Wife? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Secret of Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Someone Who Understands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Hospital Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2
3
3
4
5
A Home for the Jonquils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Old Lamplighter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Most Caring Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Pickle Jar ............................ 8
A Lift in the Rain ........................ 10
The Richer Reward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Smile! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Cavemen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Class Project: Smile! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2
Giving Again ............................ 15
Compliments Count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3
A Finger, then a Hand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
The Ant and the Contact Lens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4
Crying for the Wasp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The Hen or the Egg? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6
The Chosen Vessel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Two Lights to Show the Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8
Michelangelo’s Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Handle with Care .................... 114
Gossip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Greatness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Greed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Growth ............................ 146
Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Happiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Heart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
History ............................ 148
Honesty ............................ 148
Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Human Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Humility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Immaturity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Indecision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Industriousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Integrity ............................ 153
Intoxication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Judging ............................ 154
Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Kindness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Laziness ............................ 156
Liberty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Life ................................ 156
Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Mammon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Manners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Maturity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Meddling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Moderation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Obedience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Open-mindedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Opportunity ........................ 162
Patience ............................ 162
Perseverance ........................ 163
Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Contents xv
Pride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Principle ............................ 165
Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Procrastination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Progress ............................ 167
Providence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Purpose ............................ 168
Religion ............................ 168
Reproof ............................ 168
Reputation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Resignation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Retribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Self-denial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Self-esteem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Sharing ............................ 171
Silence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Sin ................................ 172
Sincerity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Slander. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Smile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Sorrow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Sow/Reap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Stewardship ........................ 175
Stubbornness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Success. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Suffering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Tact ................................ 176
Temptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Tongue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Trials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Trouble. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Unselfishness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Victory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
xvi Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Virtue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Wisdom ............................ 182
Witnessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9
Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Worry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
10
Living in the House You Build . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Straining the Musical Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
11
The Scent of Danger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Feeling the Tug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
12
Boiled by Degrees .................... 239
The Speeding Ticket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
14
God Holds the Reins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Lying on your Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
16
Salt Creates Thirst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
The Sandpiper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
17
A Cloud of Smoke .................... 310
Reaching the Heart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
18
The Goose Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
A Tricycle for my Brother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
19
The Christian in the Coal Mine ........ 347
Total Commitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Smile!
The Cavemen
covering their eyes. The fire builder stood next to the fire. “It’s
warm here,” he invited.
“He’s right,” one from behind him announced. “It’s warmer.”
The stranger turned and saw a figure slowly stepping to-
ward the fire. “I can open my eyes now,” she proclaimed.
“I can see.”
“Come closer,” invited the fire builder.
She did. She stepped into the ring of light.
“It’s so warm!” She extended her hands and sighed as her
chill began to pass.
“Come, everyone! Feel the warmth,” she invited.
“Silence, woman!” cried one of the cave dwellers. “Dare you
lead us into your folly? Leave us. Leave us and take your light
with you.”
She turned to the stranger. “Why won’t they come?”
“They choose the chill, for though it’s cold, it’s what they
know. They’d rather be cold than change.”
“And live in the dark?”
“And live in the dark.”
The now-warm woman stood silent, looking first at the
dark, then at the man.
“Will you leave the fire?” he asked.
She paused, then answered, “I cannot. I cannot bear the
cold.” Then she spoke again. “Nor can I bear the thought of
my people in darkness.”
“You don’t have to,” he responded, reaching into the fire and
removing a stick. “Carry this to your people. Tell them the
light is here, and the light is warm. Tell them the light is for all
who desire it.”
And so she took the small flame and stepped into the
shadows.
14 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Giving Again
What, giving again?” I asked in dismay.
“And must I keep giving and giving away?”
“Oh, no,” said the angel, piercing me through,
“Just give till the Father stops giving to you.”
16 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Compliments Count
A Pearl Necklace
Flying Blind
1 Wake Up.
Decide to have a good day. “Today is the day the LORD
hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”—Psalm 118:24
2 Dress Up.
Put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive way to
improve your looks. “The LORD does not look at the
things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appear-
ance; but the LORD looks at the heart.” —I Samuel 16:7
3 Shut Up.
Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two
ears and one mouth, so he must have meant for us to
do twice as much listening as talking. “He who guards
4
his lips guards his soul.”—Proverbs 13:3.
Stand Up.
For what you believe in. Stand for something or you
will fall for anything. “Let us not be weary in doing
good; for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if
we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportu-
nity, let us do good.”—Galatians 6:9-10
5 Look Up.
To the Lord. “I can do everything through Christ who
6
strengthens me.”—Philippians 4:13
Reach Up.
For something higher. “Trust in the LORD with all your
heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In
all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct
your path.”—Proverbs 3:5-6
7 Lift Up.
Your prayers. “Do not worry about anything; instead,
pray about everything.”—Philippians 4:6
2 : Trust in the LORD with all your heart 25
Walking to Scranton
A Father’s Care
A Grandmother’s Promise
A boy was sailing his first toy boat when suddenly the
string dropped from his hand. In spite of his frantic at-
tempts to regain it, the boat was soon far beyond his reach.
He then appealed to his older brother to get it back for him.
Without comment, the bigger boy picked up rocks and began
throwing them just beyond the boat. It seemed to the little
fellow that his brother had paid no attention to his pleas — in
fact, it looked as though he was making matters worse. But
then the lad noticed that the first rock hit the water and set up
a little wave. Each succeeding rock added to the waves that
were bringing the little boat nearer and nearer to shore. The
thing that threatened destruction saved the little boat.
It may seem that disaster follows disaster many times in
our lives, and there is no apparent reason for it. But the waves
that seem to mean complete destruction may in reality bring
us closer to God. The Prophet of old declared, “Behold, God is
my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid.”—Isaiah 12:2
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When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and
her clothing for the lens, but there was no contact lens to be
found. She sat down, despondent, waiting for the rest of the
party to make it up the face of the cliff.
Brenda looked out across range after range of mountains,
thinking of that verse that says, “The eyes of the Lord run to
and fro throughout the whole earth.” She thought, “LORD, you
can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and
you know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me.”
Finally, they walked down the trail to the bottom. At the
bottom there was a new party of climbers just starting up the
face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, “Hey, you guys!
Anybody lose a contact lens?”
Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why
the climber saw it?
An ant was moving slowly across the face of the rock,
carrying the lens on its back!
Brenda told me that her father is a cartoonist. When she told
him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact
lens, he drew a picture of an ant lugging that contact lens with
the words, “Lord, I don’t know why you want me to carry
this thing. I can’t eat it, and it’s awfully heavy. But if this is
what you want me to do, I’ll carry it for you.”
I think it would probably do some of us good to occasion-
ally say, “God, I don’t know why you want me to carry this
load. I can see no good in it and it’s awfully heavy. But if you
want me to carry it, I will.”
God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.
Do not be
3
Wise
in your own
eyes
P ROV E R B S 3 : 7
38 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Final Exam
A Cucumber in a Bottle
“W H E N I was a little boy,” remarked an old man, “some-
body gave me a cucumber in a bottle. The neck of the
bottle was small, and the cucumber so large it wasn’t possible
for it to pass through, and I wondered how it got there. But
3 : Do not be wise in your own eyes 39
out in the garden one day I came upon a bottle slipped over a
little green sprout, and then I understood. The cucumber had
grown in the bottle. And now I often see men with habits that
I wonder any strong, sensible man could form, and then I think
that likely they grew into them when they were young, and
cannot slip out of them now. They are like the cucumber.”
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I N the not too distant past, our railroad trains were equipped
with kerosene lamps, lighted only after the darkness had set
in. Unlike the electric lights on our modern trains, the kero-
sene lamps each had to be individually lighted by the porter.
Sometimes, during the day, a train had to pass through dark
tunnels. Because these periods were comparatively short, the
lamps were not lighted at such times. The people would sit
in the darkness, awaiting the light as the train emerged from
the tunnel.
On one of these train trips, a little girl was running up and
down the length of the train, very much to the dismay of her
mother, who had time and time again asked her to sit down
beside her, so that she would not fall and hurt herself if the
train should suddenly lurch around a curve. However, the
little girl was too busy enjoying herself and did not heed her
mother’s request. Suddenly, the train entered one of these
dark tunnels, plunging from the brightness of noonday into
the darkness of midnight. Everything went quiet; the little
girl’s laughter and the patter of her feet could no longer be
heard. Everyone wondered what had happened to her, until
the train emerged into the light again, when, lo and behold,
there sat the girl on her mother’s lap, her little arms tightly
clasped about her mother’s neck!
How often we, too, are so childish in our pursuits — want-
ing to have our own way — until some trial, some tragedy,
some bereavement, sends us scurrying back to the Father’s
bosom.
A. C. Frey
40 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Acres of Diamonds
T HERE once lived, not far from the River Indus, an ancient
Persian by the name of Al Hafed. Al Hafed owned a very
large farm, with orchards, grain fields, and gardens. He was
a wealthy and contented man: contented because he was
wealthy, and wealthy because he was contented.
One day there visited that old Persian farmer an ancient
Buddhist priest, one of the wise men of the East. He sat down
by the fire and told the old farmer how this world of ours
was made. He said that this world was once a mere bank of
fog, and that the Almighty thrust his finger into this bank
of fog, and began slowly to move his finger around, increas-
ing the speed until at last he whirled this fog into a solid ball
of fire. Then it went rolling through the universe, burning its
way through other banks of fog, and condensed the moisture
without, until it fell in floods of rain upon its hot surface, and
cooled the outer crust. Then the internal fires, bursting out-
ward through the crust, threw up the mountains and hills
and valleys, the plains and prairies of this wonderful world
of ours. If this internal molten mass came bursting out and
cooled very quickly, it became granite; less quickly, copper;
less quickly, silver; less quickly, gold; and after gold, diamonds
were made.
Said the old priest, “A diamond is a congealed drop of sun-
light.” The old priest told Al Hafed that if he had one diamond
the size of his thumb he could purchase the country, and if
he had a mine of diamonds he could place his children upon
thrones through the influence of their great wealth.
Al Hafed heard all about the diamonds, how much they were
worth, and went to his bed that night a poor man. He had not
lost anything, but he was poor because he was discontented,
and discontented because he feared he was poor. He said, “I
want a mine of diamonds,” and he lay awake all night.
Early in the morning, he sought out the priest. “Will you tell
me where I can find diamonds?”
“Diamonds! What do you want with diamonds?”
“Why, I wish to be immensely rich, but I don’t know where
to look.”
3 : Do not be wise in your own eyes 41
“Well, if you will find a river that runs through white sands,
between high mountains, in those white sands you will
always find diamonds.”
“I don’t believe there is any such river.”
“Oh, yes, there are plenty of them. All you have to do is go
and find them, and then you will have them.”
Said Al Hafed, “I will go.”
So he sold his farm, collected his money, left his family in
the charge of a neighbor, and went off in search of diamonds.
He began his search, very properly, at the Mountains of the
Moon. Afterward he came around into Palestine, then wan-
dered on into Europe, and at last, when his money was all
spent and he was in rags, wretchedness, and poverty, he stood
on the shore of that bay at Barcelona, in Spain, when a great
tidal wave came rolling in between the pillars of Hercules.
The poor, afflicted, suffering man could not resist the awful
temptation to cast himself into that incoming tide, and he
sank beneath its foaming crest, never to rise again.
The man who purchased Al Hafed’s farm one day led his
camel into the garden to drink, and as that camel put its nose
into the shallow water of that garden brook, Al Hafed’s suc-
cessor noticed a curious flash of light from the white sands of
the stream. He pulled out a black stone having an eye of light
reflecting all the hues of the rainbow. He took the pebble into
the house and put it on the mantel and then forgot all about it.
A few days later, the same old priest came to visit Al Hafed’s
successor. The moment he entered the drawing-room, he saw
that flash of light on the mantel, and he rushed up to it and
shouted, “Here is a diamond! Has Al Hafed returned?”
“Oh, no, Al Hafed has not returned, and that is not a dia-
mond. That is nothing but a stone we found right out here in
our own garden.”
“But,” said the priest, “I tell you I know a diamond when I
see it. I know positively that this is a diamond.”
Then together they rushed out into the garden and stirred
up the white sands with their fingers, and lo! there came up
other more beautiful gems than the first. Thus was discov-
ered the diamond mine of Golconda, the most magnificent
diamond mine in all the history of mankind, excelling the
42 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
T HERE was once a little girl who knew the way to get
just what she wanted from her daddy. If it was a pair of
skates, or a new hat, she came rushing up to him as he sat in
his easy chair, and nestling in his arms said, “Daddy, I love you
so. You are the best daddy ever. I would just do anything for
you.” Then, sooner or later, when she wanted something very
badly, in the end Daddy would pay. There were other times
when errands were waiting for someone to run them, or when
Daddy was tired and wanted quiet, that his little girl seemed
to forget how much she loved him. Of course, she was just a
thoughtless young lady, and not consciously hypocritical. She
was also quite, quite human. Many of the sons and daughters
of Adam find creeds easier than conduct, promises simpler
than performance, and loving words cheaper than loving
deeds.
A. C. Frey Collection
Sin of Lying
Assembling a Meat-Chopper
The Fork
The letter explained that she was still the best teacher he
ever had. But now his name was a little longer — the letter
was signed, “Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.”
The story doesn’t end there. You see, there was yet another
letter that spring. Teddy said he’d met this girl and was going
to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple
of years before, and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson
might agree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually
reserved for the mother of the groom.
Of course, Mrs. Thompson did.
And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with sev-
eral rhinestones missing. And she made sure she was wearing
the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on
their last Christmas together.
They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs.
Thompson’s ear, “Thank you, Mrs. Thompson, for believing
in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and
showing me that I could make a difference.”
Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back:
“Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught
me that I could make a difference. I didn’t know how to teach
until I met you.”
Summer Trees
S UMMER trees, with all their foliage and fruit, teach us valu-
able lessons. They are so impartial and unselfish. They
never ask one who seeks shade or refreshment whether he is
rich or poor, learned or ignorant, good or bad. As God gives
the sunshine and the rain to all, so the tree blesses all who
approach it.
The Psalmist does well when he likens the righteous unto
trees. Happy indeed are those who know trees intimately as
their friends. One learning the language of trees may hold
sweet and very profitable conversations with them.
A. C. Frey Collection
4 : How blessed is the man who finds wisdom 55
A Pane of Glass
One day an angel gave four men a pane of glass.
a The philosopher took his and made a telescope, so he could
see far into the future.
a The Pharisee made a magnifying glass of his, so he could
magnify the faults of those around him.
a The introvert fashioned a microscope, so he could find the
hidden things that lie deep within his heart.
a The wise man made a mirror.
A Thousand Marbles
P ERHAPS it’s the quiet solitude that comes with being the
first to rise, or maybe it’s the unbounded joy of not hav-
ing to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday
morning are most enjoyable. A few weeks ago, what began as
a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons
that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you
about it.
I settled in my back room with a steaming cup of coffee in
one hand and the morning paper in the other. I turned the dial
to the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to
listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came
across an older-sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and
a golden voice.
He was telling whomever he was talking with something
about “a thousand marbles.” I was intrigued and stopped to
listen to what he had to say. “Well, Tom, it sure sounds like
you’re busy with your job. I’m sure they pay you well, but
it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your fam-
ily so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to
work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too
bad you missed your daughter’s dance recital.” He continued,
“Let me tell you something, Tom — something that has helped
me keep a good perspective on my own priorities.” And
that’s when he began to explain his theory of “a thousand
marbles.”
“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The
average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some
live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about
seventy-five years. I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up
with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average
person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, I’m
getting to the important part.
“It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all
this in any detail,” he went on, “and by that time I had lived
through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to think-
ing that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thou-
sand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought
4 : How blessed is the man who finds wisdom 57
“Now,” she said to them, “I want you to take this home and
bring it back tomorrow with something inside that shows
new life. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Miss Miller,” the children responded enthusiastical-
ly — all except for Jeremy. He listened intently; his eyes never
left her face. He did not even make his usual noises. Had he
understood what she had said about Jesus’ death and resurrec-
tion? Did he understand the assignment? Perhaps she should
call his parents and explain the project to them.
That evening, Doris’s kitchen sink stopped up. She called the
landlord and waited an hour for him to come by and unclog
it. After that, she still had to shop for groceries, iron a blouse,
and prepare a vocabulary test for the next day. She completely
forgot about phoning Jeremy’s parents.
The next morning, 19 children came to school, laughing and
talking as they placed their eggs in the large wicker basket on
Miss Miller’s desk. After they completed their math lesson, it
was time to open the eggs.
In the first egg, Doris found a flower.
“Oh yes, a flower is certainly a sign of new life,” she said.
“When plants peek through the ground, we know that spring
is here.”
A small girl in the first row waved her arm. “That’s my egg,
Miss Miller,” she called out.
The next egg contained a plastic butterfly, which looked
very real. Doris held it up.
“We all know that a caterpillar changes and grows into a
beautiful butterfly. Yes, that’s new life, too.”
Little Judy smiled proudly and said, “Miss Miller, that one
is mine.”
Next, Doris found a rock with moss on it. She explained
that moss, too, showed life.
Billy spoke up from the back of the classroom: “My daddy
helped me,” he beamed.
Then Doris opened the fourth egg. She gasped. The egg was
empty.
Surely it must be Jeremy’s, she thought, and of course, he did
not understand her instructions. If only she had not forgotten
to phone his parents. Because she did not want to embarrass
him, she quietly set the egg aside and reached for another.
62 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Mud Puddles
Look Up
A. C. Frey Collection
5
LORD
will be your
Confidence
P ROV E R B S 3 : 2 6
70 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
I MAGINE you and the Lord Jesus are walking down the road
together. For much of the way, the Lord’s footprints go
along steadily, consistently, rarely varying the pace. But your
footprints are a disorganized stream of zigzags, starts, stops,
turnarounds, circles, departures, and returns.
For much of the way, it seems to go like this, but gradually
your footprints come more in line with the Lord’s. They soon
parallel his consistently. You and Jesus are walking as true
friends! This seems perfect, but then an interesting thing hap-
pens: your footprints, that once etched the sand next to Jesus,
are now walking precisely in his steps. Inside his larger foot-
prints are your smaller ones. You and Jesus are becoming one.
This goes on for many miles, but gradually you notice an-
other change. The footprints inside the large footprints seem
to grow larger. Eventually they disappear altogether. There is
only one set of footprints: they have become one. This goes
on for a long time, but suddenly the second set of footprints
is back. This time it seems even worse! Zigzags all over the
place. Stops. Starts. Gashes in the sand. A variable mess of
prints. You are amazed and shocked. Your dream ends.
Now you pray: “Lord, I understand the first scene with
zigzags and fits. I was a new Christian; I was just learning.
But you walked on through the storm and helped me learn to
walk with you.”
“That is correct,” the LORD responds.
“And when the smaller footprints were inside of yours, I
was actually learning to walk in your steps; I followed you
very closely.”
“Very good. You have understood everything so far.”
“When the smaller footprints grew and filled in yours, I
suppose that I was becoming like you in every way.”
“Precisely.”
“So, Lord, was there a regression or something? The foot-
prints separated, and this time it was worse than at first.”
There is a pause as the Lord answers with a smile in his
voice. “You didn’t know? That was when we danced.”
5 : The LORD will be your confidenc e 71
A Lesson in Heart
Looking Backward
Take me, cried the gold one, I’m shiny and bright,
I’m of great value and I do things just right.
My beauty and luster will outshine the rest
And for someone like you, Master, gold would be best!
True Love
T HE other day a little girl told me she was going to give her
father a pair of slippers on his birthday. “Where will you
get the money?” I asked. She opened her eyes wide and said,
“Why, Father will give me the money.” And I smiled silently as
I thought the dear man would buy his own birthday present.
I was not there when she gave him the slippers. But I sup-
pose when the father came down in the morning, there was
the package between his knife and fork. And the father loved
his little girl for her gift, even though he had had to pay for it.
She had nothing in the world that he had not given her.
A. C. Frey Collection
A. C. Frey Collection
6 : Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due 85
A Two-Fold Blessing
A few miles down the road, the lady saw a small café. She
went in to grab a bite to eat and take the chill off before she
made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy restaurant.
Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was
unfamiliar to her. The place clearly got little business. The
waitress came over to wipe the table and set out clean silver-
ware. She had a sweet smile — even being on her feet all day
couldn’t erase its warmth.
The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months
pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her
attitude. It was obvious that she had to work to support her
family. The old lady wondered how someone who had so
little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered
Bryan.
After the lady finished her meal, and the waitress went to
get change for her hundred dollar bill, the lady slipped right
out the door.
She was gone by the time the waitress came back. The
waitress wondered where the lady could be; then she noticed
something written on the napkin, under which were five
more $100 bills.
There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady
had written: “You don’t owe me anything, I have been there,
too. Somebody once helped me out, the way I’m helping you.
If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do
not let this chain of love end with you.”
Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and
people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day.
That night when she got home from work and climbed into
bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady
had written. How could the lady have known how much she
and her husband needed the help right now?
With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard. She
knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping
next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered, “Every-
thing’s gonna be all right. I love you, Bryan.”
88 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
I Nthe days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a ten-
year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table.
A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. “How much
is an ice cream sundae?” the boy asked. “Fifty cents,” replied
the waitress. The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket
and studied a number of coins in it. “How much is a dish of
plain ice cream?” he inquired. Some people were now waiting
for a table and the waitress was a bit impatient. “Thirty-five
cents,” she said brusquely. The little boy again counted the
coins. “I’ll have the plain ice cream,” he said. The waitress
brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked
away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and
departed. When the waitress came back, she began wiping
down the table and then swallowed hard at what she saw.
There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels
and five pennies — her tip.
Catalysts
So Faithful to Duty
Mistaken Identity
A Missed Opportunity
Guidance
In a Minute
Don’t Walk
A Lesson
Just think about this:
g Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
g Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
g Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant.
g Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
g Name the last six Academy Award winners for best actor
or actress.
g Name the last decade’s World Series winners.
How did you do?
The Point: Many of us don’t remember the headliners of yes-
terday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best
in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achieve-
ments are forgotten.
Apples or Chips
Beauty Tips
g For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
g For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
g For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
g For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through
it once a day.
g For poise, walk with the knowledge that you’ll never walk
alone.
g People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed,
revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anybody.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand you’ll find one at
the end of your arm. As you grow older you will discover that
you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for
helping others.
g The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the fig-
ure she possesses, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty
of a woman is seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway
to her heart, the place where love resides. True beauty in a
woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lov-
ingly gives, the passion that she shows. And the beauty of a
woman only grows with passing years.
Audrey Hepburn
Michelangelo’s Shadow
Part II
O CCASIONALLY you walk into someone’s home and you see
a well-cared for Bible, yet it is so worn from heavy use
that the color of its cover has faded. Raw leather shows at the
corners, yet its pages are neither torn nor wrinkled.
If you should walk into someone’s home and see such a
Bible, pick it up and open it — carefully, please. In it you will
7 : Take hold of instruction; do not let go 115
Carl F. Schrade
December 1989
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 119
Accusations
Clean your fingers before pointing them at someone else.
Some people live in the accusative case — always finding
fault.
If the bad things they say about you are true, mend your
ways. If they’re not true, then forget it and go on doing
what’s right.
Achievement
Great achievements are but the accumulation of conquered
difficulties.
To do just a little bit more and a little bit better is the secret
of achieving excellence.
All of man’s gains are the fruit of venturing.
What counts is not the number of hours you put in, but how
much you put in the hours.
The only way to make sure you are not moving backward
is to move forward.
Genius is not spontaneous combustion; it is a trail of sparks
from a grindstone.
Yesterday’s dreams are today’s achievements and tomor-
row’s history.
Each accomplishment makes the next task easier.
It is of no profit to begin many things and bring none to
an end.
Notice the gain in confidence upon accomplishing a tire-
some labor.
Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishment gives
luster — and more people look at a thing than weigh it.
Actions
One good idea put to use is better than a dozen ideas on a
shelf.
Business is like a wheelbarrow: it stands still until some-
one pushes it.
Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice.
120 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Advice
When giving advice to a destitute person, put your advice
in a sandwich.
Be cautious in giving advice: wise men don’t need it, and
fools don’t heed it.
Be ruled by time, the wisest counselor of all.
A good scare often does more good than advice.
Even a pastor needs a pastor to whom he can go for advice.
The best way to succeed in life is to act on the advice we
give to others.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 121
Aging
It is not how old you are but how you are old.
Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their
beauty: they merely move it from their face to their heart.
As youth grow older, they revert somewhat to the tradi-
tional ways.
It’s only when a man stops learning that he begins to grow
old.
Age is an example of mind over matter: if you don’t mind,
it doesn’t matter.
How to grow old gracefully? Put your life in God’s care
unreservedly.
I’d better not be wasting time, or time is wasting me.
Birthdays are guaranteed age increases.
Ambition
The man who never made a mistake never made anything
worthwhile.
Ambition is a noble comrade but a dangerous master.
Everyone must make his own place in the world — there is
none who will do it for you.
Ninety percent of ambition goes up the chimney.
Anger
People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.
If you have reason to be angry, do not make a spectacle of
yourself.
A show of anger ruins good relations with others.
An insult is like mud — it will brush off much easier when
dry. Wait a little and things will mend more easily.
“A soft answer turns away wrath” is the best system of self-
defense.
You can’t lose your head without losing face.
The root of bitterness is anger kept inside.
122 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Appreciation
Don’t let your parents down — they brought you up.
There is not a more rewarding exercise of the mind than
gratitude.
The world of Nature is a beautiful book, but it is of little use
to him who cannot read it.
All our discontents spring from lack of thankfulness for
what we have.
Be quick to give credit to others, especially to those who
serve unheard and unseen away from the spotlight.
Never look a gift horse in the mouth.
The thankless heart is always an unhappy heart.
Take time to show appreciation — thanks is the frosting on
the cake.
Forget injuries; never forget kindness.
If you confer a benefit, never remember it; if you receive
one, never forget it.
There is no better liberality than that of gratitude and
thankfulness.
It would be nice if we would forget our troubles as easily as
we forget our blessings.
Attitude
Grow antennae, not horns.
If you keep on saying “Things are bad,” you have a good
chance of being a prophet.
Change yourself and your work will seem different.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 123
Bible
There is no better book with which to defend the Bible than
the Bible itself.
I have read many books, but the Bible reads me.
Do not criticize the Bible — let the Bible criticize you.
124 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Boasting
They love least who speak about their love the most.
People who tell others how early they rise in the morning
act like roosters and crow about it.
Boast not when putting the harness on; wait till it comes
off when the work is done.
Budget
The trouble with the budget is, it won’t budge.
If the expense exceeds the income, the upkeep will be the
downfall.
Beware of little expenses. A small leak may sink a big ship.
Appreciate the pennies and the dollars will follow.
Burden
It is not the load that wears us down, it is the way we carry it.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 125
Challenge
Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objection
must first be removed.
No man knows what he can do till he tries.
Obstacles placed in our way often prove whether we truly
wanted something or just thought we did.
Don’t let the failures of yesterday spoil your opportunity to
do better today.
Setbacks pave the way for comebacks.
To a strong man, opposition is a challenge which goads him
on to victory.
Change
The best reformers the world has ever known are those
who began with themselves.
Nothing is permanent but change.
One can’t change a person from the outside. Change comes
from the inside.
Character
Character is what you are when no one is watching.
The character development of a person starts in the crib.
Character is the sum total of all our habits, whether good
or bad.
Money lost, little lost. Reputation lost, more is lost. Cour-
age lost, much is lost. Character lost, all is lost.
Virtue withers away if it has no opposition.
Search others for their virtues, yourself for your vices.
If you want to discover what is in a man, give him power; it
will either make him or break him.
Character is property; it is the noblest of possessions.
126 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Cheerfulness
No one ruined his eyesight by looking at the bright side
of life.
Face the sunshine and the shadows will fall behind you.
Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and
preservers of youthful looks.
Optimism is the cheerful frame of mind that enables you
to sing like a teakettle when you’re up to your chin in hot
water.
T he A B C of a C h r i s t i a n : A l w ay s B e C he e r f ul.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:16
Cheerfulness is the principle ingredient of good health.
Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
That load becomes easy which is cheerfully borne.
Being well-adjusted is doing with a smile what you have to
do anyway.
Cheerfulness is the atmosphere in which all good things
thrive.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 127
Choice
God has never put anyone in a place too small to grow in.
The door to the human heart can be opened only from the
inside.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. It
is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
I can complain because rosebushes have thorns, or I can
rejoice because rosebushes have roses.
Consider the bed you are making for yourself; it’s the bed
you will lie in.
There is a place in the world for every man and a man for
every place. The secret is in securing the right man for the
right place.
If you don’t scale the mountain you can’t see the view.
Love cannot be imposed by force; it must be accepted by
the heart.
What you are to be, you are becoming now.
We are today only what we made ourselves yesterday.
Commitment
The greatness of a man’s accomplishments is the measure
of his commitments.
Where there is a will, there is a way.
Some Christians major in the minor and minor in the major.
When you do not start the day with God, you need not
wonder when it does not end with God.
It does not take a great man to do great things. It just takes
dedication and commitment.
Too many Christians have set aside the sweet by-and-by in
favor of the disappointing here-and-now.
128 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Compassion
To understand is to pardon.
There is no better loan than a sympathetic ear.
Understanding and compassion are needed to have a good
relationship with others.
There are three ways of seeing: seeing with our physical
eye, seeing with our mind, and seeing with our heart.
Men do not care how much you know, unless they know
how much you care.
Don’t touch the wounded heart; rather anoint, bind up and
heal.
Conscience
Conscience is God’s presence in man.
So live, that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot
to the town gossip.
Conscience is that still, small voice that is sometimes too
loud for comfort.
In matters of conscience the law of majority has no place.
Isn’t it odd how people who wrestle with their conscience
often try for two falls out of three?
The thought of the slightest infraction of justice on one’s
part should ring the loudest bells of alarm in the heart and
head of every child of God.
Sensitivity to sin gets desensitized whenever we stifle our
conscience, eventually losing its response to wrongdoing.
Pertinent truth about saintly living may touch a raw nerve.
If it does, be glad and keep it tender: it is a warning sign of
approaching danger.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 129
Consecration
He who is true to God will be true to man.
It takes more than a reel and a rod to make a fisherman,
and it takes more than a Bible and a Sunday suit to make a
Christian.
Consecration means burning the bridges behind you. It is a
way with no return.
Christianity is the only place where surrender brings victory.
A true Christian is as careful how he speaks and lives in his
home as how he acts among the brethren.
To will what God wills, this brings peace.
It will not be easy to brainwash the washed heart.
Lord, may I see you more clearly, love you more dearly, and
follow you more nearly.
Living the Gospel is a full-time job.
Contentment
Be thankful for what you have not.
He that has little and wants less is richer than he that is rich
and wants more.
Contentment consists not in great wealth but in few wants.
True contentment is getting out of any situation what there
is in it.
It is not the greatness of a man’s means that makes him
independent so much as the smallness of his wants.
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which
he can afford to leave alone.
If you don’t like your job, quit; otherwise, shut up.
The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what
you have, and being able to lose all desire for things beyond
your means.
Be content without being smug.
130 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Courage
The man who dares to fight someone stronger has already
won half the battle.
Reality may be a rough road, but escape is a precipice.
Don’t be afraid to take a big step. You cannot cross a chasm
in two small jumps.
The highest degree of courage is seen in those that are fear-
ful but refuse to let fear defeat them.
Courage is the primary human quality; without it, all other
character qualities would fail.
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence
of fear.
Criticism
Be generous with praise, cautious with criticism.
Criticism does not change people; kindness and apprecia-
tion do.
People ask for criticism but they hope to hear praise.
In correcting, point to that which is right more than to that
which is wrong.
It is much easier to be critical than correct.
When rejecting the ideas of another, make sure you reject
only the idea and not the person.
The goal of criticism is to leave the person with the feeling
that he has been helped.
When we must criticize, let it be humbly, in the spirit of
helpfulness — not to boost our own image.
It’s easy to be critical — the real test is to come up with con-
structive alternatives.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 131
Deception
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.
It is an illusion to talk of love and peace while the hands are
holding weapons of destruction.
We may fool others. We may even fool ourselves. But we
can never fool God.
Some people can paint, with their tongues, the foulest
deeds in fairest colors.
All that glitters is not gold.
You may fool all the people some of the time, and some of
the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all
the time.
With how much ease we believe what we wish to believe.
Resentment is hatred dressed in a tuxedo.
Often the chip on a person’s shoulder is “bark.”
If the advertisement or sales pitch seems too good to be
true, then it usually is.
The greater the avowals, the smaller the truth.
Decisions
Don’t jump on the bandwagon until you’ve heard the music.
Decisions are too often made by a guess, a stab in the dark,
or by emotionally-loaded judgments.
Never make a decision when angry.
Defeat
He who seeks fun as an end in itself will find in it an end
of himself.
He who throws dirt only manages to lose ground.
Irritation in the heart of a believer is always an invitation to
the devil to stand by.
132 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Dependency
No man is an island.
No one is rich enough to do without a neighbor.
Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become
independent of it.
There is no such thing as a lone ranger Christian.
Diligence
Work is the yeast that raises the dough.
There may be good fortune in getting a good job, but not
in keeping it.
He who waits upon fortune is never sure of a dinner.
Trifles make perfection; perfection is no trifle.
A second-class effort is a first-class mistake.
The person who wants to work finds a way; the other finds
an excuse.
There is nothing so worthless as an unlocked lock.
Anything that is worth doing is worth doing well.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 133
Discipline
Strength comes from struggle, weakness from ease.
Plan your work and then work your plan.
If I don’t practice one day, I notice it; if two days, my friends
notice it; if three days, the public notices it.
Practice is the best of all instructors.
Meekness is power under control.
Whoever tries for great objectives must suffer something.
A persistently right life is a consistently bright life.
There is no shortcut in developing character and spiritual
muscle — it takes discipline.
As a twig is bent, so will it grow.
Too much time spent in complaining leaves too little time
for doing.
In time, reluctant practice becomes relaxed habit.
No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated,
disciplined.
Duty
In doing what we ought to do we deserve no praise, be-
cause it is our duty.
Always do right. This will gratify some people and aston-
ish the rest.
Ease
He is no man as man should be, who never saw adversity.
All sunshine makes a desert.
There’s nothing harder to stand than rows of days in
leisure spent.
Education
The midnight oil that modern students burn is gasoline.
Children need models more than they need critics.
134 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Efficiency
Don’t tell me how hard you work, show me some of your
accomplishments.
A committee is a group of people who keep minutes and
waste hours.
The quickest way to do many things is to do one thing at
a time.
Beside the noble art of getting things done, there is the
noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life
consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
Precious time should not be wasted over worthless
matters.
The more a person has to do the more he is able to accom-
plish — he has learned to economize his time.
The best way to get rid of unpleasant duties is to discharge
them immediately.
Emotions
The easiest way out of an emotional slump is to begin to
do good, profitable and worthy things that add meaning
to life.
Never attach yourself too closely to anything, in order to
let go if Providence takes it from you.
It is not so much what we say as how we say it.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 135
Empathy
No doctor is a good doctor who has not been sick himself.
He best can pity who has felt the woe.
Patience is mindful of its own imperfections, and sympa-
thetic with the imperfections and shortcomings of others.
He who cannot weep does not know how to still the tears
of others.
Encouragement
Corrections do much, encouragements do more.
A pat on the back often pushes out the chest.
Genuine praise lends a gentle touch to criticism.
A great thing we can give is encouragement.
It is a privilege to give a cheerful word at all times.
When criticizing say “we,” when complimenting say “you.”
Give a criticism in private, a compliment in public.
If defeated, carry no bitterness in your heart. New flowers
of hope will spring forth from the ashes of defeat. There has
never been a hero with no defeats, either before or after the
victory.
The men and women who are lifting the world upward
and onward are those who encourage more than criticize.
Endurance
When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and
hang on.
No one can endure hardness if there is no hardness to en-
dure; no one can overcome without obstacles to overcome.
When things get rough, remember: it’s the rubbing that
brings out the shine.
A tree with the deepest roots is the least likely to topple.
136 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Enthusiasm
Boredom is a disease that erodes initiative and shrivels
personality.
You can make friends easier in a month by being inter-
ested in them, than in ten years trying to get them interested
in you.
Enthusiasm is the match that lights the candle of achievement.
None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Error
It is many times harder to dislodge an error than it is to ac-
cept one.
It is harder to unlearn an error than to learn the truth.
Custom may lead men into error, but it justifies none.
Example
No one knows of your honesty unless you supply some
examples.
It is harder to exemplify values than to teach them.
One of the greatest gifts that man has ever known is moral
courage.
One example is worth a thousand arguments.
A great deal of instruction is negated by a bad example.
Be what you wish others to become.
You can preach a better sermon with your life than with
your lips.
Excuse-making
He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for any-
thing else.
Excuses are a testimony of failure.
Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to
complain about its shortage.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 137
Alibis are like weeds: once you start growing them, they
may become your only crop.
We credit our successes to ourselves, our failures to others.
He who excuses himself accuses himself.
He who complains about boredom gives his own testimony
of his inner emptiness and lack of interest.
Experience
A page of history is worth a volume of logic.
Our growth depends not in how many experiences we
have but how we profit by them.
Life is measured by thoughts and actions, not by time.
Experiences of the past should be guideposts, not hitching
posts.
Some people change their ways when they see the light
— others only when they feel the heat.
Many of our acts are motivated by wishful thinking, only
to show us there is no substitute for disciplined realism.
Don’t judge your friend until you stand in his place.
No wise man ever wished to be younger.
Some experiences cannot be described — they can only
be felt.
A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.
No man’s knowledge in this life can go beyond his experience.
Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches.
Most people don’t believe in a water shortage until their
well runs dry.
Failure
Failure is the path of least resistance.
He who considers too much performs too little.
A failure is a man who has blundered but is not able to cash
in on the experience.
The road to failure is paved with many good intentions.
138 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Faith
Hope is wishing for a thing to come true. Faith is believing
that it will come true.
Great faith can be shown only in great trials.
Faith makes all things possible; love makes all things
easier.
Faith is deaf to doubts, dumb to discouragements, and
blind to impossibilities.
Faith in the promises of God is the heart-beat of a Chris-
tian’s existence.
Faith is the bird singing to greet the dawn while it is
still dark.
Where there is no vision the people perish.
To see God in everything makes life the greatest adventure
there is.
Faith in things unseen requires a simple childlike trust.
Faith is a commitment to God in the everyday things of
life.
True belief is faith in action, otherwise it is only a mental
exercise.
Let not the pressure of everyday life stifle God’s eternal
promises.
Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, faith looks up.
Faith is risking that God’s Word is true after all.
True faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and
receives the impossible.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 139
Falsehood
Always speak the truth and you’ll never worry about your
memory.
A half-truth often does more damage than a lie.
A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies one can
invent.
A lie has no legs to stand on, but it has wings to fly near
and far.
Lies have short legs: people catch up with them.
The bigger the lie, the greater the audience.
Those who think it permissible to tell white lies soon grow
color blind.
He who spins a fish story will be caught in his own net.
There is no such thing as a little white lie, whether big or
small, or only an intentional shading of the truth. Degree
is incidental: even a truth is a lie if told with an intent to
deceive.
Caricatures tend to exaggerate and distort facts.
Partial truths are the adversary’s bait, error is the hook,
and sophistry the line to draw God’s children away from the
foundation of truth.
140 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Family
The family fireside is the best of schools.
Adolescence is the age at which children stop asking ques-
tions because they know all the answers.
The father is the head of the family, the mother is the
heart.
The best investment is time spent on your children.
The greatest aid to adult education is children.
Home is a place that our feet may leave but not our hearts.
He who forgets that he once was a child makes a poor
father.
Parents are persons who spend half their time worrying
how a child will turn out, and the rest of their time when it
will turn in.
Sometime in your life your family will be all that you have
left. Treat them right.
Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.
All parents become apprentices in raising children, from
which they never fully graduate as experts.
Parents should not give an inch and require a yard in return.
The best thing parents can do for their children is to love
each other as a living example.
Charity begins at home. All good deeds should begin under
the home-roof.
It is easy to become a parent, but very difficult to be one.
Only the best behavior is good enough for daily use in the
home.
There is no better place to prove our ability to rule our spirit
than in the home.
Communication and prayer are the nuts and bolts that hold
the family together.
What is done to children, they will do to society.
Time should never be considered more important than the
needs of another.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 141
Faults
Faults are thick where love is thin.
Ten thousand of the greatest faults in our neighbors are
of less consequence to us than one of the smallest faults in
ourselves.
The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.
The other person’s faults, like another’s headlights, appear
more glaring than ours.
Try to find solutions, not faults.
Before you flare up at anyone’s faults, take time to count to
ten — ten of your own faults.
Correct your faults while they are little: it’s easier to pull
seedlings than to chop trees.
Fear
Boldness in most cases is a mask to hide fear.
Fear brings more pain than does the pain it fears.
The anticipation of a task is often harder than the task
itself.
Fear is one of the Devil’s favorite weapons.
Fellowship
Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your
own reputation.
It brings comfort to have companions in whatever happens.
Choose your companions with care — you become what
they are.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Being alone with God is better than being in a crowd
without him.
Tell me with whom you associate and I’ll tell you what
you are.
Beware of clique attitudes that make the less fortunate feel
like social lepers; remember we are all born equal.
142 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Flattery
Some people who slap you on the back are trying to help
you swallow what they just told you.
Fools
The bigger the mouth the greater the vacuum.
There is no fool so great as a knowing fool.
A foolish man does not mince his words; a wise man con-
siders his words.
Fools have their words on their tongues; the wise have
their words in their hearts.
The man who acts as his own lawyer has a fool for a client.
It is part of human nature to think wisely and still act
foolishly.
One can easily wreck in a day or two what builders have
taken a year to do.
A lot of trouble is caused by a narrow mind with a wide
mouth.
Empty trucks make the loudest noise.
Forgiveness
An unforgiving man cannot live in fellowship with a for-
giving God.
To err is human, to forgive is divine.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 143
Fortune
Fortune is like glass: the more it glitters the easier it breaks.
Fortune is easier to get than to keep.
Fortune does not change men, it only unmasks them.
Friendship
Friendship is to be purchased only by friendship.
The only way to have a friend is to be one yourself.
Make it a principle in your life to show your friends how
much they mean to you.
144 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
God
Whatever you love more than God is your idol.
Godlike love never gives up when human nature fails.
Culture without religion lacks depth and direction.
Every sunrise is a message from God, and every sunset his
signature.
The Lord looks down on us, if we look up.
We can never out-love God.
God’s people are often more concerned over their present
circumstances than over God’s ultimate purposes.
God is still in the business of confounding the wisdom and
power of man.
Gossip
Don’t listen to gossip — you may be the next one.
He who tells on others shows his own lack of trust-
worthiness.
A gossip is one who can give you all the details without
knowing any of the facts.
Of tale makers and tale bearers, one is as bad as the other.
No glue can match the stickiness of rumors once they get
a hold.
The difference between gospel and gossip is that the gospel
is good news, while gossip is bad news.
So live, that if anyone speaks ill of you, none will believe it.
Greatness
Life’s great question is not only how did you bear yourself
in defeat, but how did you bear yourself in victory.
Greatness is an aggregation of minutiae.
It is better to take many injuries than to injure others.
146 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Some men work only with their hands, others with their
heads, others with their hearts. A great man works with all
of these.
Turning the cheek means to return good for evil.
The true worth of a man is to be measured by that which
he pursues.
Better to be nobly remembered than nobly born.
They are never alone that are accompanied by noble
thoughts.
The greatest man in the world is not the man who accumu-
lates the most money or the most power; it is not the man
who takes the most out of life — it is the man who gives the
most to life.
No one is a true nobleman by birth; but he is a noble man
who has attained the largeness of character that regards all
men as being born equal, and who loves his neighbor as
himself.
Greed
A miser is a man held captive by his own possessions.
One weakness of our age is the inability to distinguish our
needs from our greeds.
It is not the complexion of the skin, but the complexity
of human selfishness that makes the problems of the world
unsolvable.
Lust is only appeased for a moment — it is never satisfied.
Lust in one form or another is the common sin that plagues
all mankind.
Growth
Personal growth is a continual process. One never gradu-
ates from the school of life.
The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.
Our greatest challenge for growth comes through interact-
ing with other people.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 147
There are people whose bodies have grown but their minds
have not. There are others whose minds have grown but not
their hearts.
We are today what we made ourselves yesterday.
Who errs and mends to God himself commends.
It takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow.
The best teacher is often time.
Reaching maturity is a lifelong process. Never let the time
come when you think you have arrived.
The largest room in the world is the room for improvement.
Life is a grindstone: whether it polishes you up or grinds
you down depends on the stuff you are made of.
You have to do your own growing up, no matter how tall
your grandfather was.
Every circumstance rightly taken is an education.
Every phase of life brings a fresh set of problems and oppor-
tunities to grow in grace and knowledge, into full maturity.
Habits
The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are
too strong to be broken.
Be master of your habits or they will master you.
Habit cannot be tossed out the window — it must be
coaxed down the stairs step by step, one at a time.
Habits are like easy chairs: easy to get into, hard to get out of.
Kick a bad habit before it kicks you.
First we make our habits, then our habits make us.
It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.
Happiness
The way to be happy is to make others happy.
Joy depends not on what is going on around us but what is
going on within us.
148 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Heart
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be
seen nor touched, but are felt in the heart.
Some people can see at a glance what others cannot see
with searchlights and telescopes.
A right heart is better than a correct head.
History
When a nation becomes overly pleasure-seeking, history
has already begun writing its epitaph.
History is an approximate account of the past. Prophecy is
an approximation of the future.
Honesty
Don’t learn the tricks of the trade — learn the trade.
Admitting error clears the score and proves you wiser than
before.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 149
Hope
God’s promises shine brightest in our darkest hour.
It is always darkest just before the dawn.
The blue of heaven is larger than the clouds.
The tide turns at low tide as well as at high.
The night is not forever; the sun is.
Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.
Human Nature
Whether young or old, strong or weak, everyone is infected
with Adam-itis.
The subtle art of saving face will never save the human
race.
It is part of human nature that, whatever wants are sup-
plied to a man who is passive, he will not seek to gain by
active endeavor.
It is part of human nature to esteem that which is distant as
more grand and wonderful than that which is near.
150 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Humility
A thankful heart never thanks himself.
The ear of barley that bears the richest grain always hangs
the lowest.
Humility is making a right estimate of oneself.
To have to eat your own words may prove to be a healthy
diet.
Humility is the basis for all other virtues.
Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not real-
izing that life is made up of many little things.
Where boasting ends, true dignity begins.
Better to be a humble somebody than a proud nobody.
When the world thinks that a man has won, his struggles
then have just begun.
A humble, frank admission of not knowing the answer to a
question opens the admission of light.
He stands tallest who stoops to help others.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 151
Immaturity
A man without moral principles is a being without a back-
bone.
Love built on beauty fails as soon as beauty dies.
You can’t win by trying to even the score.
The man who trims himself to suit everybody will soon
whittle himself away.
The only exercise some people get is jumping to conclusions.
Some people are never at peace unless they are fighting.
A sharp tongue is no indication of a keen mind.
Little minds, like little ships with broad sails, are in great
danger of capsizing if too strong a wind blows upon them.
Whoever holds a suspect guilty without proof is a victim of
his instinct.
The water bubbles where it is shallowest.
Anger, resentment and touchiness are signs of a paltry
person.
Indecision
A wish is a desire without any attempt to attain its end.
There is no more miserable being than the one for whom
nothing is habitual but indecision.
Indecision is a near relative to unhappiness.
He who considers too much will perform too little.
152 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Industriousness
A rolling stone gathers no moss.
Work is the best narcotic.
Work is a good investment and it always pays.
The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the
ability to do it better.
The highest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets for
it, but rather what he becomes by it.
Never be idle; if your hands cannot be employed usefully,
attend to the cultivation of your mind.
Happiness is found in worthwhile activity; it is like run-
ning water, never a stagnant pool.
The person who is able to distinguish between tiredness
and laziness in himself will go far.
Influence
Call people by their name; it is music to their ears.
One cannot be a leader by pushing.
No man is great enough to govern another man without
that other man’s consent.
There is no man so strong that he cannot be won by
gentleness.
Who supplies another with a constructive thought has en-
riched him forever.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Nothing is more powerful than the spoken word, either for
good or for evil.
You cannot kindle other hearts if you don’t have a fire in
your own heart.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 153
Integrity
You cannot drive straight on a twisted lane.
The actions of men are the best interpreters of their
thoughts.
Integrity has no need of rulers.
Our life must be consistent with what we consider to be of
value.
He is not wise who is wise in words only.
The integrity of men is measured by their conduct, not by
their profession.
Following the path of least resistance makes rivers and men
crooked.
Honor is more important than honors.
A clear conscience makes a good pillow.
Intoxication
Alcohol has drowned more people than all the seas combined.
Dignity is one thing that cannot be preserved in alcohol.
Having a drink does not drown a care but waters it to grow
faster.
Much drinking, little thinking.
Wine is a turncoat. First it’s a friend, then a deceiver and in
the end an enemy.
Alcohol kills everything living and preserves that which is
dead.
154 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Judging
Don’t judge a man by his friends only, judge him by his
enemies.
We seldom weigh our neighbors in the same balance with
ourselves.
People can become so critical over and above the point-
ing out of problems, that they begin to judge and impute
motives.
No one should be the judge in his own case.
He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all
he knows, nor judge all he sees.
How easy it is to judge others by their words and deeds,
and ourselves by good motives and intentions.
Keep an argument free of emotion; decide matters on what
is right, not who is right.
He hears but half, who hears one party only.
The absence of evidence does not make a thing true or false,
right or wrong.
Quarrels would not last long if the fault were on one side.
.
Justice
In today’s world, justice has been replaced by “just-us.”
Never twist the facts if you want a matter to be straight-
ened out.
Performing all that justice and righteousness require, with-
out demanding like treatment from others, is a quality of
godliness.
The injuries we do and those we suffer are seldom weighed
on the same scale.
Some people find injustice relatively easy to bear; what
stings is justice.
Kindness
If you must disagree, do so without being disagreeable.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 155
Knowledge
To grow in knowledge is to retain the truths we have, and
to add to our stock.
It is better to learn late than never.
The mind is like the stomach. It is not how much you put in
it that counts, but how much it digests.
Sometimes we learn more from a man’s errors than from
his virtues.
We may be knowledgeable but not necessarily wise.
A man with knowledge who has a closed mind is like an
encyclopedia that was never updated.
A pint of common sense is worth a bushel of learning.
The more we know, the more we see how little we know.
You learn best when you dig it out yourself.
Better to be certain of a little than to misunderstand a lot.
The thirst for knowledge increases ever with its acquisition.
156 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Laziness
A mind unemployed is a life unenjoyed.
The less one has to do, the less time he finds to do it.
Idleness is the holiday which fools take.
Idleness is the workshop of the devil.
Some men are like blisters — they appear after the work is
done.
The only thing you can get without working is hungry.
Oversleeping is no way to make your dreams come true.
It does a man no good to sit up and take notice if he keeps
on sitting.
Those who never worked in their lives live by the sweat of
other people’s brows.
Liberty
Those who deny freedom to others do not deserve it for
themselves.
No one has the right to do as he pleases, except he please
to do right.
Whatever evil may result from the spirit of free inquiry, the
evil of suppression would be far greater.
Liberty is a thing you cannot have unless you are willing
to give it to others.
Life
Talk is cheap until you hire a lawyer.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 157
When you get something for nothing, you just haven’t been
billed for it yet.
Life is not a holiday but an education.
Life can only be understood by looking back, but it must be
lived looking forward.
It takes the whole of life to learn how to live.
Housework is something you do which nobody notices un-
less you don’t do it.
Life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect.
The greatest battles of life are fought in the silent chambers
of the heart.
The safest capital with which to begin life is good health
and sound morals.
The great business of life is to be, to do, to do without, and
to depart.
Every person is worth understanding.
There is happiness and pain in life — and one makes you
able to feel the other more deeply.
Love
Love is like a muscle: if we don’t use it, it atrophies.
Love is friendship set on fire.
Love is a game that all can play and no one loses.
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved
at all.
A wise man values not so much the gift of the lover as the
love of the giver.
Love is not big-headed — it is big-hearted.
Our preoccupation with what we can do for others can dis-
tract us from giving the best gift we have: ourselves.
Love is best explained by actions, so others can see what it
is by what we do.
Love looks through a telescope, not a microscope.
Love with strings attached is self-love.
158 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Mammon
Money can cure hunger but it cannot cure unhappiness.
There is nothing wrong with having money; the trouble
begins when the money has you.
Wealth — whether acquired or inherited — if selfishly
hoarded adds no degree of merit to the possessor.
Money is a good servant but a bad master.
A man is rich according to what he is, not according to
what he has.
The Golden Rule — not the rule of gold — is what leads to
happiness.
If we gather possessions they may soon possess us.
Wealth is a superfluity of what we don’t need.
The dog with the bone is always in danger.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 159
Manners
The greater the courtesy, the greater the man.
Politeness is a small price to pay for the good will and
affection of others.
Life is short, but there is always time for courtesy.
To be humble to superiors is duty; to equals, courtesy; to
inferiors, nobility.
Poise is the art of raising one’s eyebrows instead of raising
the roof.
Ceremonies differ according to countries. True politeness is
everywhere the same.
Be friendly: friendship gives life a delicious flavor.
Politeness is a part of true Christian character, representing
the sentiments of a loving heart.
What’s true of gems is also true of men: a man of greater
polish is esteemed higher than the man with less polish.
Marriage
Success in marriage is much more than finding the right
person. It is a matter of being the right person.
The best possession is a sympathetic spouse.
A marriage without any conflict is almost as inconceivable
as a nation without any crises.
Happy marriages are not achieved by idealism.
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage and half-shut
afterward.
You can bear your own faults — why not the faults of your
spouse?
The difference between a successful marriage and a medio-
cre one consists of leaving three or four things unsaid.
A woman is perturbed by what a man forgets. A man is
perturbed by what a woman remembers.
160 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Maturity
To handle yourself use your head; to handle others use your
heart.
A proper balance between the idealistic and the practical is
a sure way of getting ahead in life.
Difficulties in life are stepping-stones to maturity.
Be tolerant with youth, compassionate with the aged.
Have understanding for the weaknesses of others, and
make allowance for their actions without approving the
same.
One learns to overlook troubles instead of looking into
them.
The first step toward maturity is to learn when, and when
not, to say something. The second step is what, and what
not, to say.
Slow to speak and swift to hear is one of the marks of
maturity.
Let not reason be overcome by emotion, but let emotion be
ruled by reason.
Growing in maturity is a lifetime job.
No life, no growth. No growth, no strength. No strength, no
action. No action, no experience. No experience, no maturity.
Meddling
Those who in quarrels interpose must often wipe a bloody
nose.
Mistakes
The greatest mistake is not to have learned from past
mistakes.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 161
Moderation
The bow too tightly strung is easily broken.
Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl
necklace of all the virtues.
Any noble endeavor is killed by excess.
Obedience
Servanthood and obedience go together like Siamese
twins.
Obedience is the fruit of faith.
One deflection from the right course brings another.
It is a generally-accepted principle that no one is qualified
to rule others who has not himself learned obedience.
Open-mindedness
No man is wise at all times.
Inexperience is what lets a young man do what an older
man says is impossible.
A mature mind is an open mind with an entrance for truth
and better ideas, and an exit for errors and unprofitable
thoughts.
Show me the man who never changes his mind, and I’ll
show you a man who never added to his knowledge.
162 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
The sectarian thinks that he has the sea ladled into his
private pond.
Opportunity
Opportunities multiply as they are seized; they die when
neglected.
The door of Opportunity is marked “push.”
Whatever line of work a man may choose, there is always
an opportunity to reach the top.
A problem is an opportunity in work-clothes.
Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
The pessimist sees a difficulty in every opportunity; the
optimist sees an opportunity in every difficulty.
Patience
There is one quality that always comes to the aid of a man
in times of adversity: Patience.
Patience is the virtue of accepting a disagreeable and pain-
ful situation without becoming bitter.
An effective method for developing patience is listening
without interrupting, and responding with gentleness.
If you press a matter too hard or too often, it may become
self-defeating.
Patience achieves more than force.
To know how to wait is the great secret of success.
God is not finished with the picture of your life yet; he is
still painting.
There is nothing to be gained by answering in haste, but
much to be gained by letting a few nights of sleep pass over it.
Life is hard by the yard but a cinch by the inch.
A slow drizzle for a length of time is more effective in
watering the soil than a cloudburst.
Patience is a bandage for all sores.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 163
Perseverance
Little and often fills the purse.
Life is like riding a bicycle: you don’t fall unless you stop
pedaling.
Failure is but the closed door to success. Try again and you
may open it.
It is important to start right. It is more important to end well.
Don’t be discouraged — it’s often the last key in the bunch
that opens the lock.
A few good deeds is not a yardstick for a man’s character.
He who endures most patiently gives evidence of under-
standing and maturity.
All men have fits and starts to do a noble deed, but many
lack persistency that leads to success.
There are no veterans in God’s army.
Politics
Political promises are those that go in one year and out the
other.
Anything that keeps a politician humble is healthy for
democracy.
Nothing can be politically right that is morally wrong.
Power
Power is not so much what a man can accomplish as what
he can lead others to do.
We have the weakness — God has the strength; thus it be-
comes an unbeatable combination.
Prayer
When we become too glib in prayer we are most likely
talking to ourselves.
Christians who are not praying are playing.
164 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Pride
When nobody around you seems to measure up, it’s time to
measure your yardstick.
It is a very unappetizing diet when you have to eat your
own words.
If the doctors cure, the sun shows it; if they kill, the grave
hides it.
Being willing to receive sometimes takes more grace than
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 165
Principle
Idealism is good only if based on reality.
Adhering to principles, come what may, is not and has
never been characteristic of the majority.
Principle may never be abandoned for any consideration,
but liberty and personal right may be ignored in the interest
of others and to Divine pleasure.
Compromise makes a good umbrella but a poor roof.
What I must do, and not what people think, is all that
concerns me.
To clear a difficulty out of the way, there is no ax like a
good principle.
166 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
The man who stands for a principle must value duty higher
than life.
Any society which does not insist upon respect for all life
must necessarily decay.
Priorities
One of the greatest obstacles to success is man’s inability to
put first things first.
Don’t let the little things of life cause you to miss the boat.
People who maintain their right priorities are the most
fulfilled and confident people.
Always remember: in fundamental things, unity; in less
fundamental things, liberty; and in all things, charity.
Who we are is important, what we are is vital, whose we
are is imperative.
Doing things right is not as important as doing the right
thing.
Problems
Love reduces friction to a fraction.
Every problem has a limited life.
It is one thing to be in a crisis, and another thing to be the
crisis.
The best angle from which to approach any problem is the
tryangle.
Problems are best solved when you treat the causes, not just
the symptoms.
Difficulties strengthen the mind as labor does the body.
The best way to forget your own troubles is to help others
in solving their problems.
Love is the common denominator to solve difficulties
among people.
The best way out of a difficulty is through it.
You will never be the person you can be if all pressure,
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 167
tension and need for discipline are taken out of your life.
Character is not made in a crisis, it is only exhibited.
Procrastination
Procrastinator: one who puts off until tomorrow things he
has already put off until today.
While we consider when to begin, it becomes too late to
do it.
On the street of By-and-By one arrives at the house of Never.
Hard work is often an accumulation of easy things you
didn’t do when you should have.
Procrastination is a thief of time.
Small problems grow into large ones by feeding on procras-
tination.
Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.
Progress
In our haste to deal with the things that are wrong let us
not upset the things that are right.
Progress is never smooth. It has to overcome ignorance,
unbelief and ridicule.
The rung of a ladder was not meant to rest upon, but only
to hold a man’s foot long enough to put the other somewhat
higher.
Progress always involves risk. You can’t steal second base
and keep your foot on first.
Providence
God never closes one door without opening another.
God provides the birds with food, but he does not drop it
into their nest.
168 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Purpose
The great thing in this world is not so much where we
stand as in what direction we are moving.
The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder.
Great men have purposes, others have wishes.
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all
the ways you can, for as long as you can.
Life is a cup to be filled, not drained.
It is better to have little to live on and something to live for,
than to have plenty to live on and nothing to live for.
Life is not the wick or the candle, it is the burning.
The heart of every man is a furnace of smoldering fire,
which when fanned by inspiration bursts into flame.
Religion
Two marks of a Christian: Giving and Forgiving.
Most people are willing to take the Sermon on the Mount
as a flag to sail under, but few will use it as a rudder by which
to steer.
The light that shows us our sin is the light that heals us.
Communion with God must ever hold a higher place than
service for God.
The hardest job for people to do is to move religion from
their throats to their lips.
The church was created for people, not people for the
church.
A living religion is a way of living.
If Christ is kept outside, something is wrong inside.
What Christians need is less theology and more Doxol-
ogy.
Reproof
When rebuking, turn the volume down; speaking softly is
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 169
Reputation
Every day that a man lives, he is building a reputation good
or bad.
If you are highly talented, do not put your superiority on
display.
Real talent need not be advertised.
Recognition cannot be demanded. It commends itself if
there is a worthy cause.
Reputation is a bubble which a man bursts when he tries to
blow it up for himself.
Easier to keep a good reputation than to regain it.
Don’t talk about your accomplishments; let the track
record do the talking.
Resignation
A man must be willing to resign to the inevitable, but first
he must be sure that it is inevitable.
As soon as a person resigns himself to fate, his resignation
is promptly accepted.
Responsibility
The ability to accept responsibility is the measure of a man.
We are morally responsible for every wrong which we have
the power to prevent.
Ability is not worth much without dependability.
Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder
them.
The final test of a man’s ability is responsibility.
170 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Retribution
Nature’s law affirms instead of prohibits. If you violate her
laws, you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and
hangman.
The law that “Every evil deed has its retribution” is beyond
appeal.
The moral laws of God, like all the laws of the Universe,
have built-in self-monitoring qualities, that will bless if not
tampered with and will exact retribution if in any way
violated.
God’s mills grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine.
Our acts — like our own shadows — will follow us, even if
we try to hide from them.
Break God’s law and it will break you.
Self-denial
There are no crown-wearers in heaven who were not cross-
bearers here on earth.
Self-denial and unselfishness are inseparable companions.
Consideration for others can mean taking a wing instead
of a drumstick.
There is nothing truly valuable which can be gotten with-
out pain or labor.
The power of refraining from things gives a man more
strength than the possession of them.
He deserves not the sweet who will not taste the bitter.
Self-esteem
It takes an honest estimate of oneself to have a proper self-
esteem.
The hardest secret for a man to keep is his opinion of himself.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 171
Service
Service never becomes slavery when performed in love.
God does not want your ability — he wants your availability.
Instead of waiting upon the LORD, some Christians want
the LORD to wait on them.
The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your
arm.
What I would do for Christ must needs be done for others.
To serve means to be involved.
Be alert to serve. What counts most in life is what we do
for others.
Sharing
What you keep is lost; what you give is forever yours.
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by
what we give.
We may give without love, but we cannot love without
giving.
Charity gives itself rich; covetousness hoards itself poor.
Do the giving while you are living — then you are knowing
where it is going.
Be aware of someone’s economic needs and share with
them in their wants.
There is a universal law, that the happiest people are those
who are doing the most good for others.
A bell is not a bell until you ring it, a song is not a song until
you sing it, and love is not love until you give it away.
The joy of living is in the giving: it is in the sharing and
giving of self.
172 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Silence
Silence is one of the hardest things to refute.
Not every question deserves an answer.
I have often regretted my spoken word, never my silence.
The best time to hold the tongue is the time when we feel
we must say it or bust.
Silence cannot be misquoted, but it can be misinterpreted.
No echoes return to mock the silent tongue.
Well-timed silence has more eloquence than speech.
One thing about silence is that it can’t be repeated.
Sin
Ill deeds are doubled with evil words.
All evils can be reduced to the common denominator, sin.
Man is the only animal that blushes — or needs to.
Evil often triumphs, but shall never conquer.
No evil is ever so finely spun that it will not show up in the
light of the sun.
All the apples of temptation have worms.
Sincerity
In most situations in life, the consciousness of innocence is
truly our best shield and our firmest security.
One cannot find any rule of conduct to excel simplicity and
sincerity.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 173
Skill
Anything that is worth doing is worth doing well.
The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest
navigator.
When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.
Do what you can with what you have and where you are,
and it will be well with you.
Slipshod methods never produce a master.
Every man’s work is a portrait of himself.
How much you do is important; how well you do it is
decisive.
One of the biggest thrills in life comes from doing a thing
well.
Slander
Slander is worse than killing. Being killed, you die but once.
Being slandered, you may be killed several times.
An injurious truth has no more merit than an injurious lie.
Evil speaking is like a boomerang; even if the tongue
misses the target, it will return to mark and scar him who
propelled it.
You can’t whitewash yourself by blackening others.
You are none the holier for being praised and none the
worse for being blamed.
Hear no ill of a friend nor speak any of an enemy.
Slander is the assassination of another’s character.
Defamation is robbery of another’s good name.
174 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Smile
All people smile in the same language.
Smile at people. It takes 72 muscles to frown and only 14
to smile.
What sunshine is to flowers, your smile is to others.
A smile is a light in the window of the face, showing that
the heart is at home.
A smile costs you nothing, but is worth a great deal to
those who are lifted up by it.
You will never offend a person by returning a smile.
Most smiles are started by another’s smile.
Sorrow
Sorrows which have no vent in tears may make other or-
gans unhappy.
While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates.
Gifts and flowers are a poor substitute to a sorrowing and
suffering person. The gift of your presence, when appropri-
ate, is the best gift that one can give.
Sow/Reap
There was never a person who did anything worth doing,
who did not receive more than he gave.
We become most what we focus upon most.
The person who throws himself away seldom likes the
place he lands.
The most disappointed people are those who get what’s
coming to them.
The seed of wrongdoing may be concealed but the harvest
cannot be.
He who digs a pit for others digs one for himself.
The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 175
Stewardship
Be firm in the things eternal and flexible in the things
temporal.
Those who have most to do, and are willing to work, will
find time to do more.
Sum up at night what you have done by day.
We are not masters of our time, we are only stewards of it.
Time is but once. Waste it and it is gone forever. Invest it
and it has not passed in vain.
Counting time is not as important as making time count.
He that goes to borrowing goes to sorrowing.
Time and words cannot be recalled.
It is not only what we do, but also what we neglect to do,
for which we are accountable.
Stubbornness
Be constant in what is good, beware of being obstinate in
anything.
Constancy is a virtue; obstinacy is an evil.
A dogma, hardened by endless repetition, is difficult to
dissolve.
Nothing is harder to open than a closed mind.
Success
Success consists of getting up just one more time than you
have fallen down.
The door to success swings on the hinges of opposition.
Helping others is the secret of all success — in business, in
the arts, and in the home.
Success or failure is caused more by mental attitudes than
mental capacities.
Itching for what you want doesn’t do much good — you
have to scratch for it.
176 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Suffering
The stars are most bright when darkest the night, and God
is the nearest when life is the dreariest.
The bird with a broken pinion never again soars so high,
but its song is sweeter.
Tact
A diplomat is a man who remembers a woman’s birthday
but never remembers her age.
Tact is the unseen part of what you really think.
Be civil to all, sociable to many, familiar to few, a friend to
one, and an enemy to none.
Tact is the ability to close your mouth before someone else
wants to do it.
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an
enemy.
An ounce of thoughtfulness can ease a ton of heartache.
The ill-timed truth we might have kept, who knows how
sharp it pierced and stung? The word we had not sense to say,
who knows how grandly it would have rung?
Never correct another in public or in the presence of a
bystander.
Give a reproof lovingly, refute an error gently. It is more
effective on the receiver and more gratifying to the giver.
Some people have chronic hoof-in-mouth disease.
How to avoid an argument? State your point, scratch your
head, and then add, “I may be wrong.”
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 177
Temptation
When you flee temptation, don’t leave a forwarding address.
When a man has a pet peeve, it’s remarkable how often he
pets it.
No man is safe from falling into temptation until he has
learned not to dally with temptation.
If you don’t want the fruits of sin, stay out of the Devil’s
orchard.
Tolerance
He is not well-bred who can’t bear ill-breeding in others.
It’s the glory of a man to bypass an offense.
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
If you think the world is all wrong, remember that it con-
tains people like you.
Hunt for the good points in the other person; remember, he
has to do the same for you.
To learn to understand each other is the greatest art in life.
Tolerance comes with age because of the faults we had and
still have but did not fully overcome.
Tongue
To speak kindly does not hurt the tongue.
An ounce of keeping the tongue in check beats a ton of
explanations.
The tongue is the only instrument that gets sharper with
every use.
The secret of a governable tongue is not as much self-con-
trol as it is Christ-control.
Don’t talk about yourself — it will be done when you
leave.
One reason why a dog is such a lovable creature is that his
tail wags instead of his tongue.
178 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Trials
Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for
better things.
God gives us trials equal to our faith, not faith equal to our
trials.
A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor can a man
be perfected without trials.
It is by God’s permitted trials that he works into our
character his divine design.
A storm-weathered tree is stronger and deeper-rooted than
a sheltered one.
The fruit makes the pruning worthwhile.
Afflictions are the rough touches and hard rubs to polish us
for use and for shining.
The Lord sometimes takes us into troubled waters, not to
drown us but to cleanse us.
God’s children are like tea bags: they have to go through
hot water before the aroma becomes more pleasant.
It takes darkness to see the twinkling stars, and it is in the
darkest hours when we appreciate God’s bright promises
most.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 179
Trouble
You can’t keep trouble from coming, but you need not give
it a chair to sit on.
In order to get out of step you don’t need to do anything.
A warm heart, a cool head, and clean hands: an excellent
formula for keeping us out of trouble.
Adversity affects people differently: some become bitter,
others become better.
Trust
God always gives the best to those who leave the choice
with him.
Complete trust in God asks no questions nor complains.
God does not promise smooth sailing, but he does promise
safe arrival.
I know not always the way he leads me, but well do I know
my guide — what have I to fear?
Peace to a Christian is not the absence of trouble, but the
presence of God.
Do the very best you can and leave the outcome to God.
Truth
God’s laws are truths that stand the test of time.
Most people want the truth only if it agrees with them.
Heart and lips should never be at odds.
The naked truth is often so boring that most people cannot
help dressing it up a bit.
The greatest friend of Truth is time, and her constant com-
panion is humility.
180 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Unselfishness
It is impossible to give of ourselves at arm’s length or in
absentia.
The Dead Sea is a dead sea because it continually receives
and never gives.
God looks not on the quality of the gift but on the quality
of the giver.
See what you can do for others, not what they can do for
you.
Unselfishness never comes easy.
To be known is good, to belong is better.
The art of unselfish living is practiced by few and mastered
by even fewer.
Some people give and forgive; others get and forget.
The manner in which it is given is worth more than the gift.
He who is not liberal with what he has, deceives himself
when he thinks he would be liberal if he had more.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 181
Values
You may call that your own which no man can take from
you — your spiritual values.
An ounce of wisdom is worth a ton of wit.
The future belongs to those who love, not to those who hate.
Full often, what you now despise proves better than the
things you prize.
Some are taken up with the immediate so much that they
lose sight of the ultimate.
No pleasure is comparable to standing upon the high
ground of truth.
Woe, if a man is not more than what the tailor and hair
dresser have made him to be.
Victory
The only conquests that are permanent and leave no regrets
are conquests over ourselves.
If there were no difficulties, there would be no victories.
There is a kind of victory in good work done, no matter
how humble.
Forget mistakes. Organize victory out of mistakes.
Every difficulty removed is a step gained.
Fear confronted is the first step to fear dissolved.
Virtue
Virtue debases itself by justifying itself.
He is ill-clothed that is bare of virtues.
Virtue, like a precious perfume, is most fragrant when sub-
mitted to being crushed by trials and testings.
It is more noble to use things and love people than to love
things and use people.
182 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Wisdom
The greatest truths are the simplest ones and so are the
greatest men.
Much wisdom often goes with fewest words.
When a person grows to maturity he becomes wiser — he
talks less but says more.
To know how to use knowledge properly is wisdom.
The doors of Wisdom are never shut to those who seek
Wisdom.
Wisdom is of great value. We pay for it dearly by experience.
Wisdom is a collection of values gained by experiences and
observations, weighing them one against the other.
Every person gets silly ideas, but a clever person suppresses
them.
Be wise in this world but be not worldly-wise.
Wise men are not always silent, but know when to be.
Some people could use some common horse-sense, to
know when to “nay.”
The doorstep to the temple of Wisdom is a knowledge of
our own ignorance.
The Bible is the Fountain of Godly wisdom.
Wisdom is a tree that grows in the heart and whose fruits
appear on the tongue.
Knowledge comes from taking things apart, wisdom from
putting them back together.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 183
Witnessing
The three thicknesses a missionary must have: thickness of
skin, of stomach, and of soles.
Be not only a reflector of Christ, but a radiator.
It is better to be accused of telling the truth than to be ac-
cused of hiding it.
If God’s Word is in your mind, it will also be on your tongue.
We may use the truth as a club to show our strength, but it
will not bring men to God.
To be the salt of the earth, we must sprinkle it out of our
shakers, by giving a witness.
Applying some shoe leather to the gospel will improve our
spiritual life.
Some Christians are Dead Sea Christians: all intake and
no outlet.
If Jesus’ name is worth possessing, then surely it is worth
proclaiming.
Do not preach to others how to behave if you have not
preached it to yourself first.
When presenting the truth do it gently; one does not hang
pictures with a sledgehammer.
It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to compre-
hend the truth, than one intrepid enough to stand up for it in
the face of opposition. There are not many that stand up to
be counted.
184 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Words
What most orators want to give in depth, they give in
length.
Talking is not always communicating.
A word to the speaker: the mind can’t retain what the seat
can’t endure.
Language is the apparel in which your thoughts parade be-
fore the public. Never clothe them in shoddy or vulgar attire.
The more you say, the less people remember.
To many speakers, the clock runs out before he does.
A recipe for a good speech: put in more shortening.
The advantage of writing over speaking is that writing can
be unhurriedly measured and weighed.
One may talk too much on the best of subjects.
Listen more, talk less; no one ever learned anything by
talking.
8 : Watch over your heart with all diligence 185
Worry
Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
Worry is like sitting in a rocking chair: it will keep you oc-
cupied, but it won’t get you anywhere.
Ulcers are caused not so much by what you eat as by what’s
eating you.
We crucify ourselves between two thieves: Regret for yes-
terday and Fear for tomorrow.
You can’t change the past, but you can ruin the present by
worrying about the future.
Some people have their troubles three times: first in antici-
pation, second in the reality, and thirdly living them over in
morbid retrospection.
He who worries about what people think of him would not
worry so much if he only knew how seldom they do.
Brood over your troubles and you may get a perfect hatch.
9
I Love
those
who Love
Me
P ROV E R B S 8 :17
188 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
T HERE was a man and his son who were very wealthy and
loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in
their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit
together and admire these marvelous creations of gifted
human beings.
In time there arose a great conflict among nations and the
son had to go to war. He was very courageous and died in
battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified
and grieved deeply for his beloved only son.
Several months later a young man came to visit the father,
having a large package in his hands. He said, “Sir, you don’t
know me, but I am the soldier your son gave his life to save.
He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety
when a bullet struck him in the heart. He died instantly.
“He often talked about you, and your love for art.” The
young man held out his package. “I know this isn’t much.
I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have
wanted you to have this.”
The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son,
painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the
soldier had captured the personality of his son. The father was
overcome with emotion and his eyes welled up with tears.
When he was finally able to speak he thanked the young
man and offered to pay handsomely for the picture. “Oh, no
sir, I could not accept. I can never repay what your son did for
me. It’s a gift.”
The father immediately hung the portrait over his mantle
in the most prominent place. Every time visitors came he
insisted they see his son’s portrait before he showed them
any of the great works he and his son had collected.
Sometime later the father died. To settle his estate a great
auction was scheduled to dispose of the celebrated collection.
On the given day many prominent people gathered, excited
to see the rare masterpieces and to have an opportunity to
purchase one for their own.
As they assembled in the auction hall they saw on the
platform the soldier’s painting of the son. After all were
9 : I love those who love me 189
Whispers
The man whispered, “God, speak to me,”
and a meadowlark sang.
But the man did not hear.
So the man yelled, “God, speak to me,”
and the thunder rolled across the sky.
But the man did not listen.
The man looked around and said,
“God, let me see you,”
and a star shined brightly.
But the man did not see.
Now the man shouted,
“God, show me a miracle,”
and a life was born.
But the man did not notice.
So the man cried out in despair,
“Touch me, God, and let me know you are there.”
Whereupon God reached down and touched the man.
But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.
Don’t miss out on a blessing because it isn’t packaged
the way that you expect.
Effective Preaching
ing. We have done the best kind of preaching by our very ac-
tions and conduct among our fellow men.”
Are those with whom we come in contact going to listen
to what we say and wonder at our discourteous conduct, our
careless work? Or are they going to remember our Christ-like
deeds and words? “Be thou an example of the believers.”
A. C. Frey Collection
I SRAEL ’S
ancient High Priest, Aaron, during the early part of
the great Day of Atonement, wore his white garments, the
linen garments of sacrifice, as he “offered himself” in the vari-
ous animals that were slain “for the people.” However, at the
close of this day, after having thus faithfully served his God
and the people, he changed to other garments, those of scarlet,
blue, purple and gold — the “garments of glory and beauty.” In
these garments he then came forth and with uplifted hands
pronounced the benediction upon the people.
So the trees minister to us much as Aaron did. During the
Spring and Summer they serve their God and the people in
their garments of service — the green leaves. Their service
is in the beauty with which they delight our eyes as they
bedeck the hillsides; in the shade which they afford from
the heat of the sun; in the fragrance of their blossoms and
their fruitage in due time; in the moisture suspended in the
atmosphere about them; and in the purified oxygen which
they exhale for us. Then comes the Autumn when, having
completed this service on our behalf, they change to their
other garments — the scarlet, blue, purple, and golden-hued
leaves — their “garments of glory and beauty.” With uplifted
hands they stand there, pronouncing the benediction of God
upon all people.
A .C. Frey
192 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
A Box of Kisses
I had been sitting alone in the little chapel for some time,
busy at the organ in preparation for a meeting, and was
about to leave the room, when an old man who had been in
the adjoining reading-room came slowly toward me. Lifting
his face toward mine, he said, “I like music. Won’t you go
back and play a little more for me?” He was eighty-four years
old, as he told me afterward. His body was bent under the
burden of years, and as I seated myself again at the organ he
9 : I love those who love me 193
came and stood beside me, fully ripe, it seemed, for heaven.
He was alive to only one great thought … Jesus, the Savior and
Master! He had been turning the leaves of the Gospel Hymns
while my fingers ran over the keyboard, and presently he laid
the book before me saying, “Play that slowly, and I’ll try to
sing it for you.” Softly and very slowly I followed him, as with
a broken voice, often scarcely audible, he tried to sing.
“Take the name of Jesus with you,
Child of sorrow and of woe;
It will joy and comfort give you;
Take it then, where’er you go.”
It was little more than a whisper song; but as he took up the
words of the chorus a glad smile spread over his face, and his
voice seemed to gather strength from his heart as he looked
rather than sang:
“Precious Name! Oh, how sweet:
Hope of earth and joy of heaven.”
It was true worship: the simple, glad expression of a loving,
loyal heart. Verily, I sat alone with a saint that day, for as the
other verses of the hymn were sung their wondrous meaning
was interpreted by the face of the singer, and the veil seemed
to fall away, revealing to me things unseen.
I had never seen the old man before; it is not likely I shall
ever see him again in the flesh; but his life touched mine
with blessing that day, for he had unconsciously brought the
Master very near. God’s work in the world calls loudly for
consecrated talent, vigorous minds, songful voices, physical
strength, business tact, enterprise, money and time. We realize
this, and perhaps, finding that we have few, if any, of these
things, think that we have nothing that would be “acceptable
in God’s sight.” He wants the best we have, it is true; but even
if the best is very, very poor, it is acceptable to the Father, who
cares more for the love which prompts our service than for
the service itself. There was no music in the old man’s voice;
indeed, it could truthfully be said that he almost had no voice;
but he drew a soul a little nearer to the Savior with what he
had. God owned and blessed his weakness. “If there be first a
willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and
not according to that he hath not.”
194 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
brought out and she held each one. One by one she said,
“Sorry, you’re not the one.”
It was the last cage on this last day in search of the perfect
pup.
The volunteer opened the cage door and the child carefully
picked up the dog and held it close. This time she took a little
longer.
“Mom, that’s it! I found the right puppy! He’s the one! I
know it!” she screamed with joy. Mom, startled by all the
commotion, came running.
“What? Are you sure? How do you know?” she asked.
“It’s the puppy sighs!”
“Yes, it is the same size as all the other puppies you held the
last few weeks,” Mom said.
“No, not ’size’ — ‘sighs.’ When I held him in my arms he
sighed,” she said.
“So?”
“Don’t you remember? When I asked you one day what love
is, you told me “Love depends on the sighs of your heart. The
more you love, the bigger the sighs!”
The two women looked at each other for a moment. Mom
didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. As she stooped down to
hug her child she did a little of both.
“Mom, every time you hold me I sigh. When you and Daddy
come home from work and hug each other, you both sigh. I
knew I would find the right puppy if it sighed when I held it
in my arms,” she said.
Then, holding the puppy up close to her face she said, “Mom,
he loves me. I heard the sighs of his heart.”
Close your eyes for a moment and think about the love that
makes you sigh.
198 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
him. When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly
folded and the little man was out on the porch.
He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus,
haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, “Could I please
come back and stay the next time I have a treatment? I won’t
put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair.”
He paused a moment and then added, “Your children made
me feel at home. Grown-ups are bothered by my face, but
children don’t seem to mind.” I told him he was welcome to
come again.
On his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning.
As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters
I had ever seen. He said he had shucked them that morning
before he left so that they’d be nice and fresh. I knew his bus
left at 4:00 a.m. and I wondered what time he had to get up in
order to do this for us.
In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never
a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from
his garden. Other times we received packages in the mail, always
by special delivery: fish and oysters packed in a box with fresh
young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that
he must walk three miles to mail these, and knowing how little
money he had, made the gifts doubly precious.
When I received these little remembrances, I often thought
of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that
first morning. “Did you keep that awful-looking man last
night? I turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting
up such people!”
Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But oh! if only
they could have known him, perhaps their illnesses would
have been easier to bear. I know our family always will be
grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it
was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with
gratitude to God.
Recently I was visiting a friend who has a greenhouse. As
she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful
one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms.
But to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented,
rusty bucket.
206 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
A Special Person
They say it takes a minute to find a special person,
An hour to appreciate them,
A day to love them,
But a lifetime to forget them.
“Information Please”
my pet chipmunk, that I had caught in the park just the day
before, would eat fruit and nuts.
Then there was the time Petey, our pet canary, died. I called
“Information Please” and told her the sad story. She listened,
then said the usual things grown-ups say to soothe a child. But
I was inconsolable. I asked her, “Why is it that birds should
sing so beautifully and bring joy to all, only to end up as a
heap of feathers on the bottom of a cage?”
She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said qui-
etly, “Paul, always remember that there are other worlds to
sing in.” Somehow I felt better.
Another day I was on the telephone. “Information Please.”
“Information,” said the now familiar voice. “How do you
spell fix?” I asked.
All this took place in a small town in the Pacific Northwest.
When I was nine years old, we moved across the country to
Boston. I missed my friend very much. “Information Please”
belonged in that old wooden box back home and I somehow
never thought of trying the tall, shiny new phone that sat on
the table in the hall. As I grew into my teens, the memories
of those childhood conversations never really left me. Often,
in moments of doubt and perplexity, I would recall the serene
sense of security I had then. I appreciated now how patient,
understanding, and kind she was to have spent her time on a
little boy.
A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put
down in Seattle. I had about half an hour between planes. I
spent 15 minutes or so on the phone with my sister, who lived
there now. Then without thinking what I was doing, I dialed
my hometown operator and said, “Information Please.” Mi-
raculously, I heard the small, clear voice I knew so well.
“Information.”
I hadn’t planned this, but I heard myself saying, “Could you
please tell me how to spell fix?”
There was a long pause. Then came the soft-spoken an-
swer, “I guess your finger must have healed by now.”
I laughed. “So it’s really still you,” I said. “I wonder if you
have any idea how much you meant to me back then?”
“I wonder,” she said, “if you know how much your calls
214 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
meant to me. I never had any children and I used to look for-
ward to your calls.”
I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and
I asked if I could call her again when I came back to visit my
sister.
“Please do,” she said. “Just ask for Sally.”
Three months later I was back in Seattle. A different voice
answered “Information.” I asked for Sally. “Are you a friend?”
she said.
“Yes, a very old friend,” I answered.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this,” she said. “Sally had been
working part-time the last few years because she was sick.
She died five weeks ago.”
Before I could hang up she said, “Wait a minute. Is your
name Paul?”
“Yes.”
“Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down in case
you called. Let me read it to you.” The note said, “Tell him I
still say there are other worlds to sing in. He’ll know what I
mean.”
I thanked her and hung up. I knew what Sally meant.
Never underestimate the impression you unknowingly
may make on others.
One Person
Incompatible Pictures
O NCE upon a time there was a man who lived with his
wife, two small children, and his elderly parents in a tiny
hut. He tried to be patient and gracious, but the noise and
crowded conditions wore him down.
In desperation, he consulted the village wise man. “Do you
have a rooster?” asked the wise man.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Keep the rooster in the hut with your family, and come see
me again next week.”
The next week, the man returned and told the wise elder
that living conditions were worse than ever, with the rooster
crowing and making a mess of the hut. “Do you have a cow?”
asked the wise elder. The man nodded fearfully. “Take your
cow into the hut as well, and come see me in a week.”
Over the next several weeks, the man — on the advice of
the wise elder — made room for a goat, two dogs, and his
brother’s children.
Finally, he could take no more, and in a fit of anger, kicked
out all the animals and guests, leaving only his wife, his chil-
dren, and his parents. The home suddenly seemed spacious
and quiet, and everyone lived happily ever after.
234 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Wounded Nasturtiums
M ANY years ago, dear old Bro. R. H. Hirsh told the story
of a large garden of beautiful nasturtiums — the flowers
whose leaves are like miniature umbrellas. A very heavy hail-
storm broke over this area in Philadelphia. It inflicted much
damage upon the gardens, and particularly on this beautiful
bed of nasturtiums. Relentlessly, the hailstones cut the little
flowers into shreds and ribbons, until the garden was a very
sorry sight to behold. However, after the storm, when peace
and tranquility again prevailed, the air was redolent with such
a fragrance from these “wounded” and “bruised” flowers as it
had never been before!
So with us, our trials and experiences, though very severe,
should make us yet more kind and benevolent, blessing all
those around us. Perfected through suffering!
A. C. Frey
11 : Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge 235
wild duck friends flying overhead, and they would call out to
him. But his attempts to leave were all in vain.
Eventually Wally no longer paid any attention to the wild
ducks flying overhead. He hardly even noticed them. He had,
after all, become a barnyard duck.
Sometimes we get tired of being wild ducks — followers
of Jesus Christ. It’s not always easy to be obedient to God
and to discipline ourselves to hang in there for the long haul.
When we are feeling that way, we are tempted to “fall out of
formation” and to join the barnyard ducks — the world.
But see what happened to Wally? He thought he would just
“check it out” for a while and leave when he wanted to. But he
couldn’t do it. Sin is like that. Sin is a trap, and it has a way of
changing us into people we don’t even want to become.
Eventually, we lose touch with what we really are — the
sons and daughters of the Most High. We become barnyard
ducks.
Drowning in a Canoe
Creosote
Boiled by Degrees
Dear Jack,
Once upon a time I had a daughter. She was six when she
was killed by a car. You guessed it — a speeding driver. After
a fine and three months in jail, the man was free. Free to
hug his daughters. All three of them. I only had one, and I’m
going to have to wait for the resurrection before I can hug
her again. A thousand times I’ve tried to forgive that man. A
thousand times I thought I had. Maybe I did, but I need to do
it again. Even now. Pray for me. And be careful. My son is all
I have left.
Bob
Robby
be all right.
The night for the recital came. The high school gymnasium
was packed with parents, friends and relatives. I put Robby
up last in the program before I was to come up and thank
all the students and play a finishing piece. I thought that any
damage he would do would come at the end of the program
and I could always salvage his poor performance through my
“curtain closer.”
Well, the recital went off without a hitch. The students had
been practicing and it showed. Then Robby came up on stage.
His clothes were wrinkled and his hair looked like he’d run an
eggbeater through it. “Why didn’t he dress up like the other
students?” I thought. “Why didn’t his mother at least make
him comb his hair for this special night?”
Robby pulled out the piano bench, sat down and began to
play. I was surprised when he announced that he had chosen
Mozart’s Concerto #21 in C Major. I was not prepared for what
I heard next.
His fingers were light and nimble on the keys. He went from
pianissimo to fortissimo … from allegro to presto. Never had I
heard Mozart played so well by anyone his age. After six and a
half minutes he ended in a grand crescendo and everyone was
on their feet in wild applause.
Overcome and in tears, I ran up on stage and joyfully put
my arms around Robby. “I’ve never heard you play like that,
Robby! How’d you do it?”
Through the microphone, Robby explained: “Well, Miss
Hondorf … remember I told you my mom was sick? Well
actually she had cancer, and she passed away this morning.
And, well … she was born deaf, so tonight was the first time
she ever heard me play. I wanted to make it special.”
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house that evening. As the
people from Social Services led Robby from the stage to be
placed into foster care, I noticed that even their eyes were red
and puffy and I thought to myself how much richer my life
had been for taking Robby as my pupil.
But that night, Robby was the teacher and I was the pupil.
He taught me the meaning of perseverance and love and be-
lieving in yourself. He taught me to take a chance on someone
even if you don’t know why.
246 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Giving Two-Fold
The Fence
On Peace
h If peace … only had the music and pageantry of war,
there’d be no more wars.—Sophie Kerr
hDear God, Please send to me the spirit of Your peace.
Then send, dear Lord, the spirit of peace from me to all the
world. Amen.—Marianne Williamson
h Great tranquility of heart is his who cares for neither
praise nor blame.—Thomas à Kempis
h He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file
has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large
brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully
suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away
with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, de-
plorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this,
how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to
shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my convic-
tion that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act
of murder. —Albert Einstein
hI keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, har-
mony, health, love and abundance. Then whenever doubt,
anxiety, or fear try to call me, they keep getting a busy signal
and soon they’ll forget my number.—Edith Armstrong
h Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an
end to mankind … War will exist until that distant day when
the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and
prestige that the warrior does today.—John F. Kennedy
hA merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the recon-
ciled one is truly vanquished.—Johan Christoph Schiller
hFear knocked at the door. Faith answered. No one was
there.—Inscription at Hind’s Head Inn in England
hIt is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But
to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is
the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere busi-
ness.—Gandhi
hI keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still
believe that people are really good at heart.—Anne Frank
252 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
13
Heart
is life to the
body
P ROV E R B S 14 : 3 0
256 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
God Thundereth
“R EDEEM the time, because the days are evil.” How do you
view time?
There’s a familiar illustration that likens time to money. We
spend our money, and we spend our time. The only difference
is that we all have different amounts of money to spend, but
we all have the same amount of time. Yet each of us values
time differently, just as we each value money differently.
When you get change at a store do you count the coins or just
put them in your pocket because the change from a dollar is
not worth counting? When you have a few extra minutes, do
you spend them on something worthwhile, or is change back
from an hour not worth redeeming? How much is a few min-
utes worth, anyway?
Here are a few suggestions on how to value even small
amounts of time:
How much is a year worth?
Ask a student who failed a grade.
How much is a month worth?
Ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.
How much is a week worth?
Ask the editor of a weekly newsmagazine.
How much is an hour worth?
Ask two lovers who are waiting to meet.
How much is a minute worth?
Ask a commuter who just missed his train.
How much is a second worth?
Ask a driver who just missed an accident.
How much is a hundredth of a second worth?
Ask an Olympic athlete who just missed the gold medal.
Don’t just miss the gold medal.
Redeem the time.
Walk circumspectly.
13 : A tranquil heart is life to the body 261
O NE day a father and his rich family took his son on a trip
to the country with the purpose of showing him how
poor some people can be. They spent a day and a night on the
farm of a very poor family.
When they got back from their trip the father asked his son,
“How did you like the trip?”
“Very much, Dad!”
“Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked.
“Yeah!”
“And what did you learn?”
The son answered, “I saw that we have a dog at home, and
they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of
the garden, they have a creek that has no end. We have im-
ported lamps in the garden, they have stars. Our patio reaches
to the front yard, they have a whole horizon.” When the little
boy was finishing, his father was speechless.
His son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor
we are!”
Isn’t it true that it all depends on the way you look at things?
If you have love, friends, family, health, good humor and a
positive attitude toward life, you’ve got everything! You can’t
buy any of these things. You can have all the material posses-
sions you can imagine, but if you are poor of spirit, you have
nothing!
flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. Five acres
of flowers!
“But who has done this?” I asked Carolyn. “It’s just one
woman,” Carolyn answered. “She lives on the property.
That’s her home.” Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame
house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that
glory.
We walked up to the house. On the patio we saw a poster:
“Answers to the Questions I Know You are Asking” was the
headline. The first answer was a simple one: “50,000 bulbs,”
it read. The second answer was, “One at a time, by one wom-
an. Two hands, two feet, and very little brain.” The third
answer was, “Began in 1958.”
There it was. The Daffodil Principle. For me that moment
was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman
whom I had never met, who, more than forty-five years
before, had begun one bulb at a time to bring her vision of
beauty and joy to an obscure mountain-top. By planting just
one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman
had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had
created something of ineffable magnificence, beauty, and
inspiration.
The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the great-
est principles of success: learning to move toward our goals
and desires one step at a time — often just one baby-step at a
time — learning to love the doing, learning to use the accu-
mulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with
small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can ac-
complish magnificent things. We can change the world.
“It makes me sad in a way,” I admitted to Carolyn. “What
might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful
goal forty-five years ago and had worked away at it ‘one bulb
at a time’ through all those years. Just think what I might
have been able to achieve!” My daughter summed up the
message of the day in her direct way.
“Start now,” she answered.
266 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Secret of Happiness
I believe that …
Our background and circumstances may have influenced
who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.
Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how
I respond to it. I remain in charge of my attitude.
No matter how good a friend is, they’re going to hurt you
14 : A joyful heart makes a cheerful face 273
every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.
Just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want
them to doesn’t mean they don’t love you with all they
have.
True friendship continues to grow, even over the longest
distance. The same goes for true love.
It’s taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.
You should always leave loved ones with loving words. It
may be the last time you see them.
You can keep going, long after you think you can’t.
We are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.
Either you control your attitude or it controls you.
Heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it
needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.
Money is a lousy way of keeping score.
My best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have
the best time.
Sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you’re
down will be the ones to help you get back up.
Sometimes when I’m angry I have the right to be angry,
but that doesn’t give me the right to be cruel.
It isn’t always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes
you have to learn to forgive yourself.
No matter how badly your heart is broken, the world
doesn’t stop for your grief.
Just because two people argue, it doesn’t mean they don’t
love each other. And just because they don’t argue, it doesn’t
mean they do.
Two people can look at the exact same thing and see some-
thing totally different.
Your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people
who don’t even know you.
Credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human
being.
Even when you think you have no more to give, when a
friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.
Maturity has more to do with what types of experiences
you’ve had and what you’ve learned from them, and less to
do with how many birthdays you’ve celebrated.
274 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
O NCE upon a time two frogs that had been living in com-
fort and ease in a cool pond of water were accidentally
scooped up by a milkman in a bucket of water, which he
poured into his can in order to give his milk more volume
and thereby increase his revenue. The frogs were astonished
to find themselves in an unknown element, in which it was
not possible to support life, and they had to kick vigorously
in order to keep their heads above the milk. One of them,
disheartened by being shut up in the dark, said, “Let’s give
up and go to the bottom; it’s no use kicking any longer.” The
other said, “Oh no, let’s keep kicking as long as we can and
see what the outcome will be. Maybe things will change
soon.” So one frog gave it up and went to the bottom. The
other kept kicking, and when the milkman got to town and
opened his can, behold, the frog had kicked out a lump of
butter large enough to float him and he was sitting on it com-
fortably. Moral: Keep on striving!
A. C. Frey Collection
Words of Wisdom
God didn’t promise days without pain,
laughter without sorrow, sun without rain,
But he did promise strength for the day,
comfort for the tears, and light for the way.
276 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Happiness
Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1 Free your heart from hatred.
2 Free your mind from worries.
3 Live simply.
4 Expect less.
5 Give more.
280 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Choosing Happiness
I was a rainy, humid day: the mother of all bad hair days.
T
I was riding on a bus downtown to go to work. The win-
dows on the bus were covered in condensation so thick you
couldn’t see outside. Everyone was wilting. I was sitting next
to a man in a business suit and didn’t pay much attention
until we both got off at the same stop and walked to the same
newsstand to get a morning paper.
The man running the stand was obviously having a bad
day. He was rude, abrupt and unsmiling as we purchased our
papers, which served only to add more gloom to my day. The
businessman caught my eye and smiled. He then proceeded to
smile brightly, thank the newsstand proprietor for the paper
and for being open on such a morning to make sure we were
able to get our papers. In short, he expressed his appreciation
for something most of us would take for granted.
The man running the newsstand responded only with a
grunt and a sour expression. The businessman then pleasantly
wished him a good day. As we turned away, I asked this
man why he had continued to be pleasant to the newsman
when he obviously didn’t care about and didn’t respond to his
expression of appreciation and friendliness. The businessman
grinned at me and said, “Why would I let someone else con-
trol what I say and what I feel or what kind of day I’m going
to have?”
We then separated to go to our respective work places. To
this day, I don’t know who that businessman was, where he
worked, or anything else about him. I never saw him again,
even though I looked for him on the bus on other days. He
appeared briefly in my life and disappeared just as quickly. I
don’t even remember what he looked like. But I’ve never for-
gotten the words he said or the way his smile seemed like a
shaft of sunlight on a gloomy day. That was a good 25 years
ago, but the impact it had on my life has endured. I never had
a chance to thank him personally, but the way I choose to
look at life as a result of those words is his legacy to me and
my thanks to him.
Our interaction with someone we encounter can impact at
14 : A joyful heart makes a cheerful face 281
Invisible Brains
The Oyster
There once was an oyster
Whose story I tell
Who found that some sand
Had got into his shell.
It was only a grain
But it gave him great pain
For oysters have feelings
Although they’re so plain.
Now, did he berate
The harsh workings of fate
That had brought him
To such a deplorable state?
Did he curse at the government
Cry for election
And claim that the sea should
Have given him protection?
“No,” he said to himself
As he lay on a shell
“Since I cannot remove it
I shall try to improve it.”
Now the years have rolled around
As the years always do
And he came to his ultimate
Destiny — stew.
And the small grain of sand
That had bothered him so
Was a beautiful pearl
All richly aglow.
Now the tale has a moral
For isn’t it grand
What an oyster can do
With a morsel of sand?
What couldn’t we do
If we’d only begin
With some of the things
That get under our skin?
How delightful
15
is a
Timely
Word
P ROV E R B S 15 : 2 3
286 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Angels
pink dress and allowed her wings to spread. She said, “I am. I
am your guardian angel,” with a twinkle in her eye.
I was speechless — certain that I was seeing things.
She said, “For once, you thought of someone other than
yourself. My job here is now done.”
I got to my feet and said, “Wait, why did no one else stop
to help an angel?”
She looked at me, smiled, and said, “You are the only one
that could see me.” And then she disappeared.
A. C. Frey Collection
The Sandpiper
S HE was six years old when I first met her on the beach
near where I live. I drive to this beach, a distance of three
or four miles, whenever the world begins to close in on me.
She was building a sandcastle and looked up at me, her eyes
as blue as the sea.
“Hello,” she said.
I answered with a nod, not really in the mood to bother
with a small child.
“I’m building,” she said.
“I see that. What is it?” I asked, not really caring.
“Oh, I don’t know, I just like the feel of sand.”
That sounds good, I thought, and slipped off my shoes. A
sandpiper glided by.
“That’s a joy,” the child said.
“It’s a what?”
“It’s a joy. My mama says sandpipers come to bring us joy.”
The bird went gliding down the beach. Good-bye joy, I mut-
tered to myself, hello pain, and turned to walk on.
I was depressed, my life seemed completely out of balance.
“What’s your name?” She wouldn’t give up.
“Robert,” I answered. “I’m Robert Peterson.”
“Mine’s Wendy … I’m six.” “Hi, Wendy.” She giggled. “You’re
funny,” she said.
In spite of my gloom, I laughed too and walked on. Her
musical giggle followed me.
“Come again, Mr. P,” she called. “We’ll have another happy
day.”
After a few days of dealing with a group of unruly Boy
Scouts, PTA meetings, and an ailing mother, I needed an-
other trip to the beach. The sun was shining one morning as
I finished washing dishes. I need a sandpiper, I said to myself,
gathering up my coat.
The ever-changing balm of the seashore awaited me. The
breeze was chilly but I strode along, trying to recapture the
serenity I needed.
“Hello, Mr. P,” she said. “Do you want to play?”
“What did you have in mind?” I asked, with a twinge of
annoyance.
15 : How delightful is a timely word 291
Just PUSH!
that which you used to have. Yet you haven’t moved the rock.
But your calling was to be obedient and to exercise your faith
and trust in my wisdom. This you have done. Now, my son,
I will move the rock.”
At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use
our own intellect to decipher what he wants, when actually
what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in him.
By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains, but
know that it is still God who moves mountains.
When everything seems to go wrong
just P.U.S.H.!
When the job gets you down
just P.U.S.H.!
When people don’t react the way you think they should
just P.U.S.H.!
When your money is gone and the bills are due
just P.U.S.H.!
When people just don’t understand you
just P ray
U ntil
S omething
H appens !
Small Results
What if God …
Couldn’t take the time to bless us today because we couldn’t
take the time to thank him yesterday?
Decided to stop leading us tomorrow because we did not
follow him today?
Stopped allowing us to see another flower bloom because we
grumbled when God sent the rain?
Didn’t walk with us today because we failed to recognize it
as his day?
Took away the Bible tomorrow because we would not read it
today?
Took away his message because we failed to listen to his
messenger?
Allowed the door to our Bible study room to be closed because
we did not open the door of our heart?
Stopped loving and caring for us because we failed to love and
care for others?
Would not hear us today because we would not listen to him
yesterday?
Answered our prayers the way we answer his call for
service?
Met our needs the way we give him our lives?
Answer to Prayer
I Asked God …
for a flower,
He gave me a garden.
for a tree,
He gave me a forest.
for a river,
He gave me an ocean.
for a friend,
He gave me you.
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“A Good Run”
N OT long ago I read about a man who had walked all the
way from San Francisco to New York. In recounting his
experiences, he said that the hardest part of the journey was
not in climbing the Rockies, high and hard though they were.
It was not the long, hot trudge over the desert, nor the crossing
of swollen streams and rivers. The thing that almost defeated
him was the sand in his shoes.
The enemies that almost overcome us, almost defeat us, are
not the external hardships through which we have to fight
our way, but little things, like grains of sand, that irritate and
distress us. Our success or our failure is hardly ever deter-
mined by the circumstances of life, but by the spirit in which
we face them. All of us will encounter rough places in our
journey. There are hills of difficulty to be climbed; hot des-
erts of disappointment to be crossed; rivers of opposition to
overcome. We shall make the journey successfully if we have
the right attitude and the right spirit. If we can keep the sand
out of our shoes, we shall walk triumphantly.
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306 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Metamorphosis
Alternate Numbers
For dealing with fear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Psalm 34:7
For security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Psalm 121:3
For assurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mark 8:35
For reassurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Psalm 145:18
All lines to Heaven are open 24 hours a day!
Feed your faith, and doubt will starve to death!
Remember: God answers all knee mail!
16 : The LORD … hears the prayer of the righteous 309
A.S.A.P.
There’s work to do, deadlines to meet,
You’ve got no time to spare;
But as you hurry and scurry —
A.S.A.P. — Always Say A Prayer.
A Cloud of Smoke
sailor, “We just saw your smoke signals, and have come to
rescue you.”
So, too, the great salvation is not for us until all of our
earthly hopes and ambitions have been completely aban-
doned for the greatest of all treasures — that great redemp-
tion in Christ Jesus!
A. C. Frey Collection
Cracked Pots
“W HY didn’t you tell her she was taking more than her
share of room and encroaching upon your rights?”
someone asked of a young girl who was merrily describing
an old woman who had taken a seat beside her in a crowded
railway car, and crammed into the small space a birdcage, a
basket of apples, and bundles numerous and varied. “It wasn’t
worth while to trouble about it; we had such a little way to go
together,” was the reply. What a motto that would be for a life-
journey! So many little annoyances are not worth noticing, so
many small unkindnesses may be passed by silently because
we have “such a little way to go together.”
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318 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
She helped him write the most beautiful letters to his angel,
All the time envisioning that it was she herself
Receiving those very letters.
And so the girl helped him choose the right words,
Buy the right gifts for his angel.
17 : A friend loves at all times 319
Then one day, the most terrible thing imaginable broke loose.
The angel he loved left him for another man,
A richer, more successful man.
The boy was stunned.
He was so hurt he did not speak for days.
The girl went to him.
He cried on her shoulder and she cried with him.
He hurt and so did she.
Beautiful.
This plain, simple girl was beautiful to him.
And he began to fall,
Fall so in love with this beautiful girl.
He knocked.
No one was home.
The next day he found out,
The beautiful girl he loved had a brain aneurysm
That put her into a coma.
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The doctors were grim and the family decided to let her go.
One final time he got to see her.
He held her hand,
He stroked her hair,
And he cried for this beautiful girl.
He cried for he will never see her smile
Or hear her speak his name.
He cried.
But it was too late.
The beautiful girl was buried and the heavens broke out
In a beautiful spring shower, weeping for their loss.
She was the most beautiful girl in the world.
True Love
The Pit
A man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out.
A subjective person came along and said, “I feel for you,
down there.”
An objective person came along and said, “It’s logical that
someone would fall down there.”
A Pharisee said, “Only bad people fall into a pit.”
A mathematician calculated how he fell into the pit.
A news reporter wanted the exclusive story on his pit.
A fundamentalist said, “You deserve it.”
An I.R.S. man asked if he was paying his taxes on the pit.
A self-pity person said, “You haven’t seen anything until
you’ve seen my pit.”
An optimist said, “Things will get better.”
A pessimist said, “Things will get worse.”
Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and
lifted him out of the pit.
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The Shoulder
dear. I only hope that you have enough love and friends that
you will have a shoulder to cry on when you need it.”
Then and there I knew the most important body part is not a
selfish one. It is sympathetic to the pain of others.
A young lady once laid down a book which she had just
finished with the remark that it was the dullest story
she had ever read. Some time later she became engaged to
a young man, and one night she said to him, “I have a book
in my library whose author’s name, even his initials, are pre-
cisely the same as yours. Isn’t that a coincidence?” “I do not
think so,” he replied. “Why not, pray?” “For the simple reason
that I wrote the book.” That night the young lady sat up until
two o’clock reading the book again, and this time it seemed
the most interesting story she had ever read. The once dull
book was now fairly fascinating, because she knew and loved
the author.
So a child of God finds the Bible interesting because
he knows and loves the Author. It is his Father’s message,
addressed to him.
A. C. Frey Collection
If it Doesn’t Rain
A Toddler’s Smile
Written in Stone
Friendship
A collection of sayings
If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hun-
dred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.”
— Winnie-the-Pooh
A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world
walks out.
Strangers are just friends waiting to happen.
Friendship is one mind in two bodies. — Mencius
Friends are God’s way of taking care of us.
If you should die before me, ask if you could bring a
friend. — Stone Temple Pilots
I’ll lean on you and you lean on me and we’ll be
okay. — Dave Matthews Band
T HE next time you see geese heading south for the win-
ter, flying along in a “V” formation, you might consider
what science has discovered as to why they fly that way.
As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird
immediately following.
By flying in a “V” formation, as a group, the flock adds at
least seventy-two percent greater flying range than if each bird
flew on its own.
People who share a common direction and sense of com-
munity can get where they are going more quickly and easily,
because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.
When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the
drag and resistance trying to go it alone, and quickly gets back
into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the
bird in front.
If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in forma-
tion with those who are headed the same way we are.
When the head goose gets tired, it rotates back in the wing,
and another goose flies point.
It is sensible to take turns doing demanding jobs, with
people or with geese flying south.
Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to
keep up their speed.
Finally — and this is important — when a goose gets sick or
is wounded by gunshots and falls out of formation, two other
geese fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help
and protection. They stay with the fallen goose until it is able
to fly or until it dies, and only then do they launch out on their
own, or with another formation, to catch up to their original
group.
If we have the sense of a goose, we can more easily rec-
ognize the potential benefits of collaboration, solidarity and
brotherhood to keep each other strong.
We need each other!
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Barney
Discouraged
Willingly Deaf
A Good Camera
“Likee Speech?”
What Do We Hear?
Total Commitment
Adversity
Blessings thrive in affliction’s soil.
Afflictions are but the shadow of God’s wings.
A man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away
small stones.
If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes.
Adversity may sometimes get a Christian down, but only
on his knees.
Jesus spoke of Christianity as a banquet, but never as a
picnic.
No trouble can come so near that God is not nearer.
The difficulties of life are intended to make us better, not
bitter.
One reason that the school of Christ is so tough is that you
get the test first and the lesson later.
God often digs wells of joy with the spade of sorrow and
adversity.
God’s grace enables us to “face the music” even when we
don’t like the tune.
The darkest clouds often bring the heaviest showers of
blessings.
Jesus is no security against life’s storms, but he is perfect
security in them.
Troubles are not sent to bother us but to better us.
If we had no trials, there would be no triumphs.
A smooth sea never makes a skillful sailor.
When it gets dark enough, you can see the stars.
The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.
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Anger
People who fly off the handle usually make a bad landing.
Losing your temper is no way to get rid of it.
The acid of anger harms the one in whom it is stored more
than the one on whom it is poured.
Beware! Anger is just one letter short of danger.
Anger that answers anger is like a stone cast into a hornets’
nest.
The longer you keep your temper the more it will improve.
Suppress a moment of anger and you prevent a day of
sorrow.
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Aspirations
Be wholly for God if you want to be holy like him.
By making a commitment, it will in turn make you.
Hitch your wagon to a star but hold your horses.
There is a deep tendency in human nature to become what
we imagine ourselves to be.
The degree of vision in a man is the correct measure of that
man.
He who puts God first must of necessity put himself last.
The true test: not, is it wrong, but is it best?
The archer shoots only as high as he aims.
If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.
Only God can satisfy the hungry heart of man.
We aspire by setting up ideals and then going all out to
acquire them.
If you aim at nothing, you’re sure to hit it.
Silence is the atmosphere in which great things are fash-
ioned.
“Average” is as close to the bottom as it is to the top.
Reaching high keeps a man on his toes.
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to
venture a little past them into the impossible.
You will never hit your target if you don’t shoot for it.
Attitude
A “bone of contention” has no place in the body of Christ.
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Awareness
God never makes us conscious of our weaknesses except to
give his strength.
We live on a moving line between the past and the future.
That line is our lifeline.
God can speak only to those who listen.
Experience is the awareness of knowing a lot of things you
should not do!
Nothing is wonderful if it is taken for granted.
A mistake is evidence that at least someone has tried to do
something.
Don’t let your mind become so busy that your heart can’t
respond.
Awareness is realizing that great opportunities are often
disguised as impossible situations.
Bible
Without the Bible, man would be in the midst of a sandy
desert, surrounded on all sides by a dark and impenetrable
horizon.
Many Bibles are “red” only on the edges.
What you bring away from the Bible depends to some
extent on what you bring to it.
More people are troubled by what is plain in the scriptures
than by what is obscure.
The only Bible some people will ever read is the Bible
according to you.
The Bible is a guide book; the way to master it is to let it
master you.
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Christian Living
Our lives are like violins: in the right hands they will give
forth wonderful music.
Live each day as if it were your last — it may be!
Reputation is what men think you are; character is what
God knows you are.
The light of God’s Son in your heart puts his sunshine on
your face.
If we save the candle, there will be no light.
Character is what you are in the dark.
A true Christian is one who is right-side-up in an upside-
down world.
God formed us, sin deformed us, and only God through
Jesus can transform us.
If you are not as close to God as you were, you need not
wonder who moved.
If anyone speaks evil of you, your life should be such that
no one would believe them.
If you would lift others up, you must be on high ground
yourself.
Our critics are the unpaid guardians of our souls.
If a sermon pricks your conscience it must have some good
points.
A shining countenance brightens your example of faith.
Our good advice is sometimes confused by our bad
example.
356 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Christmas
The hinge of history is on the door of Bethlehem’s stable.
Conscience
He won’t listen to his conscience — he doesn’t want advice
from a total stranger.
When we can’t hear God’s directions, it’s time to turn up
the volume of our conscience.
Contentment
Discontentment makes rich men poor, contentment makes
poor men rich.
He who lives content with little, possesses much.
If we cannot find contentment in ourselves, it is useless to
seek it elsewhere.
Be content with what you have, but not with what you
are.
I grumbled because I had no shoes, until I met a man that
had no feet.
Real joy is not common happiness, but rather a zest that
springs from an inner sense of peace even in the face of
conflict.
Criticism
How seldom we weigh our neighbor in the same balance
as ourselves.
He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.
Instead of putting others in their place, put yourself in theirs.
Some of us would rather be ruined by praise than helped
by criticism.
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Devotions
He who has no time for God in the morning is not likely to
encounter him later in the day.
Anyone who only samples God’s word occasionally will
never acquire a taste for it.
Religion should be our steering wheel, not our spare tire.
Double-mindedness
Many people use religion like a bus: they ride it only when
it is going their way.
Many Christians are like pins, pointed in one direction but
headed in another.
Never look back unless that is the way you wish to go.
A person who leads a double life sometimes finishes it in
but half the time.
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick
themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
Enthusiasm
Too many have the truth on ice, rather than on fire.
Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the
world is the triumph of some enthusiasm.
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Failure/Success
Success is often more attitude than aptitude.
Excuses are the nails used to build the house of failures.
Collapse of the Christian life is seldom a blowout, it is
usually a slow leak.
Spiritual success requires consecration without reservation.
The dictionary is the only place where “success” comes
before “work.”
To win is not always success; to lose is not always failure.
Success is often failure wearing a fresh coat of paint.
It is better to try and fail, than to fail to try.
You cannot mend your way with the weak thread of excuses.
There is no failure save in giving up.
Sometimes the best gain is to lose.
A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he
begins to blame somebody else.
Organize victory out of your failures.
Only one person in the whole world can defeat you, and
that is yourself.
If at first you don’t succeed, you are running about average.
In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.
Failure takes endeavor, and endeavor persisted in is never
failure.
Nothing is all wrong: even a clock that has stopped is right
twice a day.
The best way to succeed in life is to act on the advice you
19 : Listen to counsel and accept discipline 359
give to others.
Striving for success without hard work is like trying to
harvest where you have not planted.
There is nothing wrong in making mistakes, but don’t
respond to encores.
Failure is the only opportunity to more intelligently begin
again.
Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising
every time we fall.
Sometimes a noble failure serves the world as faithfully as
a distinguished success.
When you begin to think about defeat, the devil begins to win.
The only failure a man ought to fear is failing to stick to the
purpose he sees is best.
Silence is not always golden, sometimes it is just plain yellow.
Men do not stumble over mountains, but over molehills.
Failure is more often due to a lack of purpose than a lack
of talent.
Failure is found at the end of the path of least persistence.
Nothing is ever a total failure: it can always serve as a bad
example.
You can’t learn without mistakes.
If you have tried and failed, and you need a hand in yours
in the darkness of disappointment, you can count on mine.
Success isn’t how far you got, but the distance you traveled
from where you started.
There are no hopeless situations, there are only men who
have grown hopeless about them.
Two kinds of failures: the man who will do nothing he is
told, and the man who will do nothing else.
He who insists on standing alone will soon buckle from
weak legs.
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to look
for it.
The man who never makes mistakes loses a great many
chances to learn something.
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Faith
When you can’t find a way out, look up.
The word “discouragement” is not found in the dictionary
of faith.
I discredit God’s name when I call him my Father but act
like an orphan.
When fear knocks on your door, send faith to answer it,
and you’ll find that there is no one there.
To wait on the Lord is to put your weight on his promises.
Those who see God’s hand in everything, always leave
everything in his hands.
You can never break God’s promises by leaning too hard
on them.
True faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and
receives the impossible.
Faith that is left unwatered will fade and die.
It is impossible to overdraw your account from faith’s
bank.
Faith is the best antidote for a fearful heart.
Where the Lord puts a period, do not change it to a ques-
tion mark.
Blessed is the man who digs a well from which another
may draw faith.
The eye of faith can always pierce the clouds of affliction
to see the sun beyond.
Faith is the grave of anxious care.
If you don’t scale the mountain, you can’t see the view.
Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible.
If you must doubt, doubt your doubts — never your beliefs.
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Fear
Fear of the past projected into today cancels out the reality
of the present.
Fear manufactures dust and static that causes interference
with good reception.
Fear is often the parent of dishonesty.
The fear of the unknown will keep us chained from prog-
ress and growth.
Self-consciousness often blocks the road on which we
would like to travel.
Self-consciousness sets up a high perimeter fence that
keeps others away.
Fear tosses sand into the workings of a relationship and
results in friction.
To avoid facing danger is to live in hiding with fear.
Fear always distorts our perception and confuses us as to
what is really happening.
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Forgiveness
Christian forgiveness is like the sweetness given forth by
flowers when they are trampled upon.
He who cannot forgive others destroys the bridge over
which he himself must pass.
Christians should seek to remove from their memories the
sins that God has forgiven.
To understand all is to forgive all.
It is only the forgiving who qualify for forgiveness.
God forgives and buries our sins, then posts a sign: “No
digging allowed.”
A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to
forget is a sign of greatness.
Forgiveness is rubbing out another’s mistake instead of
rubbing it in.
A coat of forgiveness cannot be worn over a coat of
resentment.
Friendship
A true friend will put a finger on your faults without rub-
bing them in.
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
Some friends are like your shadow: you see them only
when the sun shines.
The light of friendship is like the light of phosphorus, seen
when all around is dark.
The only safe and sure way to destroy an enemy is to make
him your friend.
A friend is one who knows all about you and still loves you.
Go often to the house of a friend, for weeds choke up the
unused path.
When a friend asks, there is no tomorrow.
The most I can do for my friend is simply to be a friend.
Great friendship is the hyphen between two minds.
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Gentleness
There is nothing as strong as true gentleness or as gentle as
true strength.
It is only imperfection that is not tolerant of what is
imperfect.
God
God often uses the smallest tools to perform the largest
tasks.
God without man is still God; man without God is nothing.
God is great in great things, but he is very great in little
things.
The universe is centered on neither the earth nor the sun.
It is centered on God.
All creation is an outstretched finger pointing to God.
Goodness
A saint is one who makes goodness look attractive.
There’s no limit to how much good you can do if you don’t
care who gets the credit.
Growth
There is precious instruction to be gained in finding we are
wrong.
I’m not what I want to be and I’m not what I should be, but
by God’s grace, I’m not what I used to be.
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Habits
Habit is a man’s best friend or his worst enemy.
Habit is like a cable: we weave a thread of it every day, and
at last we cannot break it.
Habits are first cobwebs, then steel nets.
The best way to break a habit is to drop it.
Happiness
Happiness often depends on the quality of our thoughts.
The best way to keep happiness is to share it.
If you see someone without a smile today, give them one
of yours.
A smile is a universally understood expression.
The only way on earth to multiply happiness is to divide it.
The really happy man is the one who can enjoy the scenery
when he has to take a detour.
Happiness is not mostly pleasure, it is mostly victory.
To be without some of the things you want is indispens-
able to happiness.
The most important thing you wear is a happy countenance.
To be happy ourselves is the most important contribution
we can make to the happiness of others.
Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but the manner in
which you travel.
To be of use in this world is the only way to be happy.
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Helpfulness
Instead of pointing a faultfinding finger, hold out a helping
hand.
When it comes to helping others, some stop at nothing.
Do unto others as if others were you.
There will always be more power in the opened hand than
in the clenched fist.
We become rich through what we give and poor through
what we keep.
The highest kind of giving is done from the bottom of the
heart.
A song coupled with service makes a beautiful sermon.
Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.
God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to
make us comforters.
There is no better exercise for strengthening the heart than
reaching down to lift others up.
You can’t help a man toward the top of the mountain with-
out getting closer to it yourself.
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Honesty, Truthfulness
We should work harder at being what we should be, than at
hiding what we are.
There are no degrees of honesty before God.
Truth is as clear as a bell, but it isn’t always “tolled.”
Beware of believing a half-truth: it may be the wrong half.
Error needs support, truth stands alone.
It is often surprising to find what heights may be obtained
merely by remaining on the level.
The devil has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits
them all.
It is better to suffer for speaking the truth, than that the
truth should suffer for want of speaking it.
Truth is not only violated by falsehood, it is equally slurred
by silence.
The naked truth is not indecent.
Basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what
I am doing.
When you try to make an impression, the chances are that
is the impression you will make.
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Hope
The ladder of hope has nothing to rest on here below, it is
held up from above.
There are no hopeless situations, only people who grow
hopeless about them.
The day of evil reveals to us the value of our glorious hope.
Put off the shadow from the brow; there is no night but
hath its morn.
No one is hopeless whose hope is in God.
A truly poor man is one who has no hope.
Humility
One of the things a man can do that lower animals can’t is
stand up before a crowd and put both feet in his mouth.
The only man who is always right is the one who knows he
also makes mistakes.
Be humble or you’ll stumble!
The taller a bamboo grows, the lower it bends.
The Christian’s highest place is lying low at the feet of
Jesus.
Humility is that low sweet root from which all heavenly
virtues shoot.
We tread life’s upper road when we walk humbly with our
God.
Humility is a strange thing: when you think you have it,
you haven’t.
The tree with the heaviest fruit hangs the lowest.
Those who travel the high road to humility are not troubled
by heavy traffic.
Influence
You are either leaving a mark on the world, or the world is
leaving its mark on you.
368 Deep Waters and a Bubbling Brook
Jealousy
The fires of jealousy burn on, fueled by doubt and distrust,
consuming its possessor.
The jealous man sets before himself a banquet of doubt,
then feeds on its bitter nourishment.
19 : Listen to counsel and accept discipline 369
Judging
We judge ourselves by what we feel we are capable of
doing; others judge us by what we have done.
Judging displaces love.
They condemn, who do not understand.
Kindness
Kindness is the oil that takes the friction out of life.
Christian kindness is love in working clothes.
He who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants
kindness gathers love.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know
how soon it will be too late.
The milk of Christian kindness never sours.
Write injury in the dust, but kindness in stone.
Kindness or tact is the art of making someone feel at home
when you wish they were.
Leadership
If you never stick your neck out, you’ll never get your head
above the crowd.
Some leaders want sheep to shear rather than to care for.
Uprightness of character and tenderness of heart are pre-
requisites for those who would lead others.
He is not fit to lead who has not first learned to obey.
Behold the turtle: he makes progress only when he sticks
his neck out.
Liberty
Liberty is not the right to do as you please, but the freedom
to do as you ought.
To what avails the plow, or sail, or land, or life, if man is
not free?
No man is truly free if he cannot command himself.
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Loneliness
Loneliness was the first thing that God pronounced to be
not good.
People who are lonely usually build walls instead of bridges.
Love
Love is never afraid to give too much.
Unless we run on love, we don’t run well at all!
Giving is the thermometer of love.
We may give without loving, but we cannot love without
giving.
Love can never be wasted, it always brings a big return — if
not in this life, then in the next.
True religion is love in action.
The best gifts are tied with heartstrings.
Love is the oil in the machinery of life.
Love is the communicated caring about the happiness of
others.
Where there is true love, there is no labor.
True love expects no return.
Love cures — it cures those who give it, and it cures those
who receive it.
Love gives freely, it cannot be bought.
We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.
Love that has its limitations will come to that end, but true
love has no end.
No cord or cable can draw so forcibly, or bind so fast, as
love can do with a single thread.
No disguise can long conceal love where it is, nor feign it
where it is not.
Love sees what no eyes see, and hears what no ears hear.
True love always flows outward.
They are the true disciples of Christ, not who know most,
but who love most.
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Patience
Patience is something you greatly admire in the driver
behind you, but not in the one ahead of you.
The secret of patience is doing something else while you
are waiting.
A mother’s patience is like a tube of toothpaste: it’s never
quite gone.
Perseverance
Trying times are the times to keep trying.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
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Prayer, Praise
Prayer releases one from the prison of fear, futility and
ineffectiveness.
A persons on his knees sees more than a philosopher on
tiptoes.
Prayer is the highest use to which speech can be put.
Prayer should be the key to our day and the lock to our
night.
If prayer doesn’t change things, it changes you.
When your knees knock, kneel on them.
The essence of prayer is to open self that God may come in.
Prayer connects us with the heavenly power source of
life.
A Christian usually runs the race best on his knees.
Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the
highest point of view.
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Do not face the day until you have faced God in prayer.
Prayer is an invisible communication line to heaven.
Productive prayer requires earnestness, not eloquence.
You’ll never get a busy signal when calling upon the Lord.
The best way to stand upright is down upon your knees.
The garment of joy that is not hemmed with praise will
soon unravel.
Pride
Only the foolish and the dead never change their minds.
The person who looks up to God will never look down on
others.
You are always in the wrong key when you sing your own
praise.
The bigger a man’s head gets, the easier it is to fill his
shoes.
Swallowing your pride will never give you indigestion.
Some people grow with responsibility, others just swell.
A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small pack-
age.
Be not like the cock who thought the sun rose to hear him
crow.
People put a low estimate on the man who puts too high an
estimate on himself.
The man who toots his horn the loudest is usually in the
fog.
He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.
It’s strange, but a big head is a sign of a small man.
The man who thinks himself a big shot is already in line
to be shot down.
Blowing your own horn leaves you winded for the uphill
climb.
Pride must be swallowed, else it will choke you.
There is nothing so annoying as arguing with a man who
knows what he is talking about.
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Procrastination
There is no resurrection for opportunity that is lost.
If you have a hill to climb, waiting won’t make it smaller.
What a wonderful world it would be if we all did today
what we put off until tomorrow.
Reputation
Think little of what others think of you.
He who steals my purse steals trash; he who steals my
good name takes all.
One thing you can give and still keep is your word.
Righteousness
To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with
men.
Better to want to do right than to be afraid to do wrong.
There is no right way to do a wrong thing.
It is easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.
A recognized fault is well on its way to correction.
Selfishness
Some people work hard, hoard all their money, and when
they are old they are able to buy the things only the young
can enjoy.
Sin
Man’s greatest ecological problem is pollution of the
heart.
The sin that blinds us the most is our own.
Those who begin telling “little white lies” soon find them-
selves colorblind.
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If you don’t want to trade with the devil, stay out of his
workshop.
Neither inflation nor depression affect the wages of sin.
Before our sins can be put behind us, we must face them.
Someone who is green with envy will soon be ripe for
trouble.
The denial of sin is the devil’s chloroform.
To avoid forbidden fruit, stay out of the devil’s orchard.
As a moth gnaws at a garment, so envy consumes a man.
Thankfulness
The greatest sum in addition is to count your blessings.
Gratitude is the memory of the heart.
If we pause to think, we will have cause to thank.
He that enjoys without thanksgiving is robbing the giver.
If you can think of nothing for which to give thanks, you
no doubt have amnesia.
Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past
mercies.
Thoughts
As one thinks in his heart, so is he.
A great many people think they are thinking when they
are merely rearranging their prejudices.
When someone gets lost in thought it’s probably because
it’s unfamiliar territory.
Change your thoughts and you change your world.
Time
You can’t turn back the clock, but you can wind it up again.
By killing time, we often murder opportunity.
Improve your time and time will improve you.
Time spent waiting on God is never wasted.
The sunrise never finds us where the sunset left us.
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Understanding
Those who dare to teach never cease to learn.
LORD, may I always have eyes that I may see and never pass
another’s calvary and think it just a common hill!
Be not disturbed at being misunderstood, be disturbed
rather at not being understanding.
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an
understanding of ourselves.
Understanding is learning what you didn’t even know you
didn’t know.
Knowledge is the raw material on which understanding
feeds.
Wisdom
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what
he cannot lose.
A wise man is often known to change his opinion.
All signs on the road to wisdom read “keep to the right.”
You can often tell a wise man by the things he does not say.
Fools curse their mistakes, the wise profit from them.
Common sense is not a common commodity.
Wisdom is to know what is best worth knowing, and to do
what is best worth doing.
What a fool does in the end, the wise man does in the
beginning.
To admit that I have been in the wrong is but saying that I
am wiser today than I was yesterday.
To a wise man, the more he knows, the more he knows
that he knows very little.
Wisdom consists in knowing what to do with what you
know.
Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise.
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Witness
The greatest hindrance to witnessing is cold feet.
Men may doubt what you say, but they will believe what
you are.
If you have found knowledge, hold it up so others may light
their candles from it.
Words
Gentle words fall lightly, but they have great weight.
When facts are scarce, rumors abound.
To speak ill of others is often a dishonest way of praising
ourselves.
A careless tongue can equally run someone down as can a
motorist.
Gossip is like soft soap: mostly “lye.”
Why do you suppose that God gave us two ears but only
one mouth?
Words of praise, like gold and diamonds, owe their value
to their scarcity.
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Work
Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent
perspiration.
Your work is a reflection of your character: as you are, so
you labor.
Nothing is really work, unless you would rather be doing
something else.
Many people fail to recognize opportunity because it
comes disguised as work.
The armor of God is awkward equipment for one who sits.
The mode by which the inevitable comes to pass is effort.
The reason why most men do not achieve more is because
they do not attempt more.
Weak men wait for opportunities, strong men go out look-
ing for them.
No man who was properly occupied was ever miserable.
If there is a job to be done, ask the busiest person to take
it on.
Have your tools ready and God will find you work.
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The highest reward for man’s toil is not what he gets for it,
but what he becomes by it.
Change your attitude and work will seem different.
Footprints in the sands of time were never made by sitting
down.
The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.
Everything comes to him who waits, if he works while he
waits.
Too many people today quit looking for work as soon as
they find a job.
It is better to wear out than to rust out.
The best way to kill time is to work it to death.
The best way to keep good intentions from dying is to
execute them.
When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.
The man who says it can’t be done should not interrupt the
man who is doing it.
Doing little things with a strong desire makes them great
in God’s sight.
Nothing makes a person more productive than the last
minute.
People who do things that count never stop to count them.
Complete frustration is watching someone else do some-
thing that you just said could not be done.
Too many people are ready to carry the stool when the
piano needs to be moved.
Don’t wait for something to turn up, get a shovel and dig
for it.
Well done is better than well said.
Rust wear out more tools than overuse does.
Ideas are peculiar things: they won’t work unless you do.
No farmer ever plowed a field by turning it over in his mind.
If you want to leave footprints in the sands of time, wear
work boots.
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Worldliness
How empty is a life that is filled only with things.
It is hard to tune in to heaven’s message if our lives are filled
with earthly static.
If your life is a drag, worldly weights are probably to
blame.
The more we are attracted to Christ, the less we are dis-
tracted by the world.
It isn’t the ship in the water, but the water in the ship that
sinks it.
Those who dive into selfish, worldly pleasure always come
up with sand in their mouths, for it is so shallow.
Worry
Worry pulls tomorrow’s clouds over today’s sunshine.
Worry is a burden that a Christian was never meant to
bear.
A large number of us do mountain climbing over molehills.
Worry is unbelief parading in disguise.
You can’t get anywhere today walking in the mire of worry.
The load of tomorrow added to that of today is too heavy
for any mortal being.
Worry is the interest paid on trouble before it is due.
Worry brings on us today the misfortunes that may never
come.
A remedy for worry: Lift the gloom in another’s life.
Worry is like a mental tornado, or like a dog chasing his tail.
To carry anxious care to bed is like trying to sleep with
your backpack on your back.
To worry is not to trust.
I am an old man and have had many troubles, but most of
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