Recent research in the field of medicine has shown that a specific perception of significance, uniqueness, and being needed on a job or by a family has a significant effect in reducing the risk to cancer, strokes, heart attack, hypertension, and other diseases. This perception also increases the probability of recovering. So even at the most basic level of our resistance to illness and disease and our motivation to live comes the direct need to believe that we play a contributing role in the lives of people who matter to us.

H. Stephen Glenn with Jane Nelsen
Raising Children For Success
pp. 89

The greatest single cause of what's ailing America, in my opinion, is the "irresponsible obsession with immediate sensual gratification."

Denis Waitley
Seeds of Greatness
pp. 83

I became somewhat excited at my son's high school football games. One night, when he made a particularly good tackle, I punched the person next to me and loudly proclaimed, "that's my son who made that tackle." "I know," she replied quietly, "He's my son too."

Lyle Clark (Indianapolis, Ind.)
Laughter, The Best Medicine
PP. 75

We ourselves. . . have some victories to win. We can help righteousness to win over sin, faith over doubt, and knowledge over ignorance.

Sterling W. Sill
The Best of Sterling W. Sill
pp. 79

A man describes his wife on a camping trip: "When she screams, I never know whether to grab my rifle or a fly swatter.

Bette McElroy
Reader's Digest
August 1971, pp. 161

If you want to be successful, as a wise man once told me, "Get good; get better; be the best." One of the most important self-management responsibilities that you take on is that of becoming very good at what you do.

Brian Tracy
Nightingale-Conant's Insight
No.114, pp. 18

Psychologists have found that personal development and growth aren't just transitions that teens go through. They are a lifelong process. Passing through our 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond, we move through different phases, whether we are aware of them or not.

Martin Groder, MD
Bottom Line Personal
Dec. 15, 1996, pp. 9

How do you make the secret of getting things done a part of your life? By habit. And you develop habit through repetition. "Sow an action and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny." said the great psychologist and philosopher William James. He was saying that you are what your habits make you. And you can choose your habits.

Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone
Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude
pp. 108

When people believe that life is meaningful and that they have a mission to accomplish, they are strongly motivated to commit all their inner mind/body resources to help them fight illness.

Herbert Benson, MD
Bottom Line Tomorrow
April 1997, pp. 3

One of the greatest gifts anyone can make to his fellowmen is a sincere good example, for more than almost any other thing we need to see before us is a real live model of righteousness.

Sterling W. Sill
The Best of Sterling W. Sill
pp. 77

My father-in-law, a nationally known psychologist, has successfully reared a family of five. My husband and I in turn have six small children. One holiday we were visiting our in-laws, along with an army of cousins, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, small nieces and nephews, and the home was a beehive of activity. Suddenly Rebekah, our five-year-old, came running excitedly to the table where the adults were chatting over coffee and announced that George, our three-year-old, had locked himself in the upstairs bathroom.

There was an immediate look of concern on the faces of all the adult parents. "Don't be alarmed, "my father-in-law said reassuringly. "There are two more bathrooms downstairs."

Arlene C. Crane
Reader's Digest
August 1971, pp. 140

Humor is an incredible, although often overlooked, tool at times when we feel like crying. "If you can find humor in anything," says comedian Bill Cosby, "you can survive it."

Allen Klein
The Healing Power of Humor
pp. 3

The pain in your life comes from many places. Sometimes its source is mundane--an egg drops to the floor and it breaks. Other times its source is profound--we receive a Dear John or a Dear Jane letter and our heart breaks. Whatever our hurt, there is a big difference between pain and suffering. Our pain may not cease, but humor can minimize our suffering by giving us power in what appears to be a powerless situation.

Allen Klein
The Healing Power of Humor
Prologue, pp. xxi

The quality of a person's life will be determined by the depth of his commitment to excellence, no matter what the chosen field.

Vince Lombardi
Nightingale-Conant's Insight
No. 114, pp. 18

Proactive people make love a verb. Love is something you do: the sacrifices you make, the giving of self, like a mother bringing a newborn into the world. If you want to study love, study those who sacrifice for others, even for people who offend or do not love in return.

Stephen R. Covey
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
pp. 80

New Life and New Hope

The coming of spring is a change we anticipate and welcome. After a cold winter, we rejoice in longer days and warmer temperatures. And as the snow begins to melt, we watch for splashes of color and for those first brave blossoms. But perhaps it’s more than good weather we’re looking forward to—it’s the abundance of new life and new hope offered in spring.

Somehow, the hope of spring can make it easier to believe in unseen realities. Yet even in spring we may grapple with discouragement, despair, or anguish of soul. Like Job of old, we may sincerely wonder, “If a man die, shall he live again?” At such times, when we need new hope, when we yearn for the nurture of charity, we might find seedlings of faith in our own souls.

Almost in an instant, the trials of life can strip away the superficial and help us discover who we really are and what we really believe. C. S. Lewis said: “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it? . . . Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief.” Sometimes only in the winters of our lives can we truly appreciate and believe in the miracles of spring. Like children who run through grassy fields in search of hidden eggs, adults too can search and find new life and new hope as we turn our hearts to God.

Music & the Spoken Word
Delivered On: March 23rd 2008
Delivered By: Lloyd D. ewell