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Progress, cf. growth
Mom’s Survival Tips
To my kids who have left home and are on their own, I pass on a list of life lessons:
1. Don’t sweat your every mistake or faux pas. They make up for the things you got away with that nobody knows about.
2. Avoid marrying anyone who deliberately flushes the toilet when you’re taking a shower.
3. When someone tells you that what he’s about to say is “for your own good,” expect the worst.
4. The value of a dog is its constant reminder of how much fun it is to be idiotic.
5. If you are lavishly praised, enjoy the taste but don’t swallow it whole.
6. When a politician says, “Let me make something perfectly clear,” remember that he usually won’t.
7. Your children may leave home, but their stuff will be in your attic and basement forever.
8. If someone says, “I know what I mean, but I just can’t put it into words,” he doesn’t know what he means.
9. Two people cannot operate a TV remote control in the same room at the same time.
10. Don’t waste time trying to be your own best friend. You can’t pat yourself on the back, and it’s unsatisfying to cry on your own shoulder. Find a real friend instead.
Charlotte Johnstone, Family Circle
Quote
- George Bernard Shaw said, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
From Bad Beginnings to Happy Endings, by Ed Young, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publ., 1994), p. 96.
Tools and Technology Can Improve The Harvest
When the pilgrims settled in the United States, they brought their tools from Europe and learned to grow corn from the Indians. Their technology was limited. They dug a hole in the ground, planted an ear of corn, and added fish for fertilizer. By working hard with his hoe, a colonist could grow the equivalent of four bushels of corn a year, or about one bushel for each month in the growing season. By the time of the Civil War, farmers used mules and developed plows and other tools enabling a man to grow the equivalent of a bushel of corn a week or 16 bushels of corn a year. But today, with advanced technology, petrochemical fertilizer, soil analysis, and four-wheel drive tractors, a farmer can grow the equivalent of a bushel of corn for each 10 minutes of the growing season. American farmers grow more corn than the other farmers of the world because of better technology and better tools. The miracle of life in the seed has not changed; farmers can do nothing to change what God has ordered in the growth cycle. But tools and technology can improve the harvest.
154 Steps to Revitalize Your Sunday School, by Elmer Towns (USA: Scripture Press Publ., 1988), pp. 11-12.
The Goal is to Make Progress Every day
When Pablo Casals reached 95, a young reported threw him a question: “Mr. Casals, you are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived. Why do you still practice six hours a day?” And Mr. Casals answered, “Because I think I’m making progress.”
Your goal is to make progress every day of your life.
Dr. Maxwell Maltz, quoted in Bits & Pieces, June 24, 1993, p. 12
First Balloon
On June 4, 1783 at the market square of a French village of Annonay, not far from Paris, a smoky bonfire on a raised platform was fed by wet straw and old wool rages. Tethered above, straining its lines, was a huge taffeta bag 33 feet in diameter. In the presence of “a respectable assembly and a great many other people,” and accompanied by great cheering, the balloon was cut from its moorings and set free to rise majestically into the noon sky. Six thousand feet into the air it went—the first public ascent of a balloon, the first step in the history of human flight. It came to earth several miles away in a field, where it was promptly attacked by pitchfork-waving peasants and torn to pieces as an instrument of evil!
Today in the Word, July 15, 1993
You Study Physics at Your Age
In the course of their conversation at a dinner party, Albert Einstein’s young neighbor asked the white-haired scientist, “What are you actually by profession?” “I devote myself to the study of physics,” Einstein replied. The girl looked at him in astonishment. “You mean to say you study physics at your age?” she exclaimed. “I finished mine a year ago.”
Today in the Word, September 25, 1992
I Could Have Become a Real Painter
The work of Japanese painter Hokusai spanned many years before his death in 1849 at age 89. But toward the end of his life, the artist dismissed as nothing all the work he had done before age 50. It was only after he reached 70 that he felt he was turning out anything worthy of note. On his deathbed Hokusai lamented, “If heaven had granted me five more years, I could have become a real painter.”
Today in the Word, September 16, 1992
Enraptured at His Own Painting
Over 2,000 years ago a young Greek artist named Timanthes studied under a respected tutor. After several years the teacher’s efforts seemed to have paid off when Timanthes painted an exquisite work of art. Unfortunately, he became so enraptured with the painting that he spent days gazing at it. One morning when he arrived to admire his work, he was shocked to find it blotted out with paint. Angry, Timanthes ran to his teacher, who admitted he had destroyed the painting. “I did it for your own good. That painting was retarding your progress. Start again and see if you can do better.”
Timanthes took his teacher’s advice and produced Sacrifice of Iphigenia, which is regarded as one of the finest paintings of antiquity.
Today in the Word, September 2, 1992
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