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WHO ARE YOU CALLING A HYPOCRITE? I always chuckle a little when I must sit through someone's "sermon" on why he/she doesn't ever darken the door of a church. Invariably at the top of the list of reasons given for not attending is something about the church being so full of hypocrites. You know, those people who affect virtues and qualities they don't have ... religious fakes. The humor in this line of argument rests not so much in the fact that I never hear anything original, but rather in the facts surrounding the genesis of the word hypocrite....

TODAY I CHOOSE TO SUCCEED! I am here because of prior choices I have made. My thoughts control my actions. My actions determine my destiny. My destiny is controlled by my choices. Today, I choose to … • Live my life with honor, courage and commitment, • Follow the rules and do my best in all my endeavors, • Perform like a mature and professional military person, • Be honest with myself and not make excuses for my actions • Admit when I’m wrong and be held accountable • Maintain a positive attitude. I am who I am and...

TITLES AND POWER Now I see why powerful people often wear sunglasses--the spotlight blinds them to reality. They suffer from a delusion that power means something. They suffer from the misconception that titles make a difference. They are under the impression that earthly authority will make a heavenly difference. Can I prove my point? Take this quiz: * Name the last ten Heisman trophy winners. * Name the last ten winners of the Miss America contest. * Name eight people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize. * How about the last ten Academy Award winners for best...

THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION During my second month of night school, our professor gave a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?" Obviously this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper leaving the last question blank. Before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count on...

PRECIOUS IN HIS SIGHT Just a children's song remembered from a Sunday School class long ago: "Red and yellow, black and white; they are precious in his sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world." But it expresses a profound truth...one that might change the world if we took it seriously. Sort of like the lesson in the poem a friend sent me yesterday. It's worth more than a second reading. It may reveal ... or remind you... of more truth than you expect! "We pray for the children who put chocolate fingers everywhere, who like to be...

LEADERSHIP AND LISTENING "Listen to what I am saying," Job cried out to his "friends" in the biblical story. "That is all the comfort I ask from you. Give me a chance to speak, and then, when I am through, sneer if you like." Job didn't ask for much. But it was more than these colleagues were prepared to offer. Unfortunately, such encounters are far too frequent -- even among those we would expect to care about what we think or feel. Back in 1989, Admiral Carlisle Trost (then Chief of Naval Operations) asked a group at the Navy's...

FROM ONE MEAN MOM We had the meanest mother in the whole world! While other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs, and toast. When others had a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches. And you can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was different from what other kids had, too. Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times. You'd think we were convicts in a prison. She had to know who our friends were, and what we were doing with them. She insisted that if...

A FEW GOOD WORDS The accuracy of lie detector tests has never been completely decided upon. Although it is inadmissible as evidence in court, even the proponents of lie detector testing agree that it is not always accurate. Among the first lie detectors, considered by some to be the most accurate, was the donkey's tail! That's right, in ancient India, a suspect would be escorted to a darkened room. Only three would be present: the accused, the interrogator, and a donkey. The person being questioned was told that the donkey would bray if his responses were not truthful, and...

AIM HIGH A college professor prepared a final exam for his students. The test questions were divided into three categories, and the students were instructed to choose questions from only one of the categories. The first category of questions was the hardest and worth fifty points. The second, which was easier, was worth forty points. The third, the simplest, was worth thirty points. Upon completion of the test, students who had chosen the hardest fifty-point questions were given As. The students who had chosen the forty-point questions received Bs. Those who had settled for the easiest thirty-pointers were given...

THE LOSER WHO NEVER GAVE UP For "Sparky", school was all but impossible. He failed every subject in the eighth grade. He flunked physics in high school, getting a grade of zero. He also flunked Latin, algebra and English. And his record in sports wasn't any better. Though he did manage to make the school's golf team, he promptly lost the only important match of the season. Oh, there was a consolation match; he lost that too. Throughout his youth, Sparky was awkward socially. It wasn't that the other students disliked him; it's just that no one really cared...

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...