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PRAYERS FOR ISRAEL Maschil of David, when he was in the cave; a Prayer. With my voice I cry unto HaShem; with my voice I make supplication unto HaShem. I pour out my complaint before Him, I declare before Him my trouble; When my spirit fainteth within me--Thou knowest my path--in the way wherein I walk have they hidden a snare for me. Look on my right hand, and see, for there is no man that knoweth me; I have no way to flee; no man careth for my soul. I have cried unto Thee, O HaShem; I have...

PRAYING FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP! CELEBRATING THE SUCCESS OF OTHERS "Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's success." -Oscar Wilde It is natural and understandable to feel pangs of envy when we see someone else get promoted while we may have not been; or to see someone else get a NAM and we were not recognized for our hard work. It is human. Life is full of many disappointments large and small, and it is tough to accept that others may enjoy greater fortune when we...

CONFLICTING LOYALTIES An interviewer once asked the late Senator Sam Ervin, Jr. how he had developed such insight into human behavior. "I had a good teacher, Henry Horace Williams," replied Ervin. "He said the things that try people's souls do not consist of choosing between good and evil. The thing that tries a person's soul is having to choose between conflicting loyalties." Ervin went on to say that understanding that concept had not only helped him make better decisions, but to judge other people more fairly as well. Sometimes unwise choices were simply the result of misplaced loyalty. "A...

GOD'S PERFECTION In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school career, while others can be main-streamed into conventional schools. At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, "Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything God does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and...

GESTURES OF LOVE Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love . . . and weep with them who weep. —Romans 12:10,15 Cards...hundreds and hundreds of cards. Our mail carrier must have thought we were going for a world record. They came by the stack—day after day after day. It was just one of the many ways we knew that people cared for us as our family endured the painful first weeks after our teenage daughter Melissa died in a car accident. But it wasn't just the cards that provided assurance of loving support...food came in so fast...

CHANGE FOR BETTER SERVICE Have you ever noticed that the typewriter keyboard places the most frequently used keys far apart from each other? The purpose of this arrangement was to slow down the typing speed. Keys on the machines of the 1800s used to jam if the typist went too fast. About 40 years ago, the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard was developed. On this keyboard, the most frequently used keys were in the home row, and the right hand did 56 percent more work than the left. Typists using this keyboard could increase their speed up to five times without...

ON A GOOD DAY Our worth is tested every day. We are given the choice of being nice to people or uncharitable. We are given the choice of doing our work as well as we can or of goofing off. Some days it seems the tests are harder than on others, but every day brings with it some kind of test. Even the really good days! To have everything go wonderfully for us, to feel like a million dollars, to have one of those days when nothing and nobody can upset us, they are days when we might think...

YOU ARE SPECIAL "I don't know why I was even born," the young sailor confided! "I'm ugly. I'm not talented. I've never been what you would call smart. I don't really have any friends. And I can't seem to do anything right. I feel like I've spent my whole life letting people down. Sometimes I wonder if even God could love me!" That conversation took place more than a decade ago, but I still remember it as if it were yesterday. That one and a lot of others over the years with the same message: "I'm no good; I'm...

CATCHING A SECOND WIND Cross country runners and other long distance runners have all relied on a "second wind" to finish their race; the longer the race the more "second winds" will be required. This physiological wind source is a timely aid in propelling an exhausted runner onward to the finish. The phenomenon of the "second wind" has a spiritual principle, too. When the purposes of God seem too distant to continue, God provides a "second wind" to propel his people onward to finish the cause in which they are engaged. Indeed: "They that wait upon the Lord shall...

DON'T GIVE UP Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. — Galatians 6:9 KJV Do you ever feel like giving up? Perhaps you’re discouraged about your finances or you’re facing problems with your health, your marriage, or your children. Sometimes problems seem so overwhelming that the road ahead seems too steep to climb. We all go through these times. I’ve wanted to give up and quit many times through the years. But when I realized I had nothing interesting to go back to, I determined to keep...

COPPERMAN While walking through San Francisco's Union Square recently I ran into Copperman. He is a street entertainer, a young actor in copper paint from head to toe, who sits motionless as people walk by on the busy street. Many stop, awe-struck to see this statue-like man. You cannot even see him breathing. People leave contributions in his copper pot in appreciation for this fine "performance". Copperman sits for 25 minutes at a time and then takes a break. During the break he is quite animated and eagerly shares his story with his audience. He told us that it...

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus going on before; Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; Forward into battle see His banners go. Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus going on before. At the sign of triumph Satan's host doth flee; On then, Christian soldiers, on to victory. Hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise; Brothers lift your voices proud your anthems raise. Like a mighty army moves the church of God; Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod; We...

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE Good morning this rainy Sunday! This morning someone asked me, "How do you like the lousy weather, Chaplain?" I thought a moment about the fact that my uniform was wet, my car had trouble starting, and about all those poor people stuck in the wall of traffic that inevitably occurs when 58 gets drenched. Then later I thought, how would we exist without the rain which makes all life on our planet possible? I remembered the old prayer in my prayer book, a blessing to God for the gift of wind and rain. There is an...

YOU'RE THE ONE Les tells the story proudly now, with an ending that few would have ever predicted when he was in high school. He remembers the turning point as though it were yesterday. Just a chance encounter and an offhand comment... but it changed his life forever. He had slipped quietly into the back of a classroom to wait for a friend that day. The last thing he wanted was to be noticed, but the teacher asked him to go to the board and work out a problem. Les pointed out that he wasn't a student in that...

OBSTACLES "For a long time it had seemed to me that my life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in my way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles WERE my life." Fr. Alfred D Souza

EXAMPLE The most valuable gift you can give another is a good example. "For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you." (John: 13:15) In his autobiography, Armand Hammer, known as much for his humanitarian efforts as for being chairman and CEO of Occidental Petroleum, an advisor to presidents from Roosevelt to Reagan, and an industrialist, reveals the roots of his giving spirit: "My father had become a prominent and greatly loved figure in the area. . .It was an almost ecstatic experience for me to ride with him when he...

YOU WILL NEVER BE SORRY FOR: ...thinking before speaking, ...hearing before judging, ...forgiving your enemies, ...being candid and frank, ...helping a fallen friend, ...being honest in your work, ...standing by your principles, ...blocking your ears to gossip, ...being courteous and kind. Unknown br>

KEEPING THE FAITH The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions. But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stung with grief and...

MOVING BEYOND CAPE BOJADOR The early Portuguese explorers believed that the oceans were impassable below Cape Bojador, a point on the West African coast. When sailors set aside their fears and moved past Cape Bojador, they found that their fears were groundless, that their limitations were imaginary. We all have our own Cape Bojador. We fear things that we need not fear. We draw boundaries around areas of our lives and decide that we can't go past them. Since we believe these false paradigms, we will stay within their artificial boundaries and lose whatever experiences we might have found...

AND THIS TOO SHALL PASS An Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which would be true and appropriate in all times and in all situations. They presented him with the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction! Abraham Lincoln in an address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society in Milwaukee - 30 September 1859