It's summer time. Students have graduated from high school and many of them are about to set out on the adventure of a lifetime – college.
Although it has been many years ago, I can remember my first year of college as if it was yesterday. I remember being so excited to depart my comfortable state of Ohio to attend Florida State University.
Success is a reflection of your commitment to excellence.
As the young Lion looks at his reflection in the river bed, a rumbling voice from the heavens bellows, "Look inside yourself, Simba. You are more than you have become." It is the voice of Mufasa talking to his son in The Lion King. Remember that?
Just as water reflects your image as you gaze into it, when you look inside yourself, you see who you really are – personal reflection is an internal mirror.
My dad always had cantaloupe-size calves. He was a hairy man except for his shoulders which were hairless. I never knew why until later in his life.
The mystery was solved when he shared this story of one of his early jobs when he returned to New York from Italy at the age of fourteen.
He was given a job delivering ice near Lexington Avenue. This was in pre-refrigeration days around 1928 when people used ice boxes in their homes. He was assigned to all the top floors of the apartment buildings.
After a recent visit to Washington, DC it struck me that all the war memorials were really memorials about courage.
Taking a stand, for anything, requires courage. Courage is knowing what’s right and then acting on it.
During the Nazi occupation of his country in WWII, King Christian X of Denmark noticed a Nazi flag flying over a Danish public building. He immediately called the German commandant, demanding that the flag be taken down at once. The commandant refused. “Then a soldier will go and take it down,” said the king.
Recently, I got stuck at LaGuardia airport in New York due to weather that grounded many flights. The timing of my arrival into LaGuardia and my next flight out put me in a bit of a pickle so I spent the night in the airport terminal. At 11:00 pm the terminals close and all overnighters must sit in a small food court until the airport reopens in six hours.
I was recently reminded of the simple childhood prayers that my family and I said every night and before each meal.
At bedtime, we would pray:
Now the night has gone away, Jesus Savior hear me pray.
Asking Thee to watch and keep and to send me quiet sleep.
Jesus, Savior, wash away all that has gone wrong today.
Help me every day to be kind and gentle, more like Thee.
Let me end your week by sharing an quote by William Arthur Ward. I saw it on a magnet used to decorate my daughter's school locker back when she started 6th grade – a huge event in the life of a tween!
