Happy Blessed Chinese New Year!
Wishing you & your family a great start to the New Year!
*Do Not Look Back / Pu Yao Hui Tou Kan*
alldabest ! GOD BLESS !! ORA Et. Labora !
Monday, January 26, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
What Are Your Hands Saying?
January 23, 2009
Today @ This is the way...
Hello readers, Life is easier with our fists unclenched.
Clyde and Dee Kilough
What Are Your Hands Saying?
A unique part of the human body is the hand. With the hand we can reach out to help, we can express an emotion, we can greet people and we can give and take things. Indira Gandhi was quoted as saying, “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.”
Her observation describes the difficulty that people and nations have in solving problems when anger, hatred or the desires to hurt and fight are present. A clenched fist is for fighting. The one who has this stance is not ready to negotiate and talk–they are ready to fight.
A woman of great value is one who uses her hands wisely. Proverbs 31:19-20 tells of hands that work well and are ready to help the needy. Hands that express friendship and respect say as much as a hundred words ever could.
Further Reading:
In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
Proverbs 31:19-20
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Faster Than a Speeding Rumor
January 21, 2009
Today @ This is the way...
Dear readers,
It’s much safer to walk in the light of truth.
Clyde and Dee Kilough
Faster Than a Speeding Rumor
Washington, D.C., is said to be the only city in the world where sound travels faster than the speed of light. Rumors and gossip have a speed all of their own—the especially destructive ones reaching speeds that boggle belief. Good rumors, on the other hand, take longer to travel from one place to the other.
Humans seem to yearn for gossip, even if they know that what they hear is untrue. No good comes from passing on rumor or gossip (though evil certainly can, as we read in Ecclesiastes 10:20). It is better to bring things into the light of truth than to conceal them in the darkness of rumor.
Further Reading:
My Name Is Gossip
Do not revile the king even in your thoughts,
or curse the rich in your bedroom,
because a bird in the sky may carry your words,
and a bird on the wing may report what you say.
Ecclesiastes 10:20
Monday, January 19, 2009
Enemy Number One
January 19, 2009
Today @ This is the way...
Dear friends,
You can be a better you—we all can.
Clyde and Dee Kilough
Enemy Number One
Once we reach adulthood and are able to make decisions on our own, we have a responsibility to search out hindrances to a happy life that may lie in our way. Enemy number one (for almost everyone) stares back at us from an unlikely hiding place—the mirror.
We choose what to do and where to be. We choose to remain in sorrow and self-pity or search for an escape. The first place to look for the source of any woes we may have is within ourselves.
Paul encouraged people to examine and test themselves (2 Corinthians 13:5). This is easier said than done. None of us wants to find the warts and bumps we carry, so they go ignored and untreated.
It is easier to blame other people, circumstances or things for our woes. That never brings a solution—it is like discarding the mirror.
Rather than do that, our first response should be to take a good, long, honest look in that mirror and be willing to change the flaws we see—otherwise, our enemy wins.
Further Reading:
Friday, January 16, 2009
All Things in Moderation
January 16, 2009
Today @ This is the way...
Dear readers,
Let us not forget the value of temperance.
Clyde and Dee Kilough
All Things in Moderation
Obesity is a problem in the Western world. Unhappiness is also a problem there. Our societies seem to be rushing to and fro seeking contentment while giving in to every supposed pleasure. The result is what Adam C. Powell Jr. termed “a world of contented bodies and discontented minds.”
Giving in to all our wishes does lead to discontentment in time. Solomon had a thousand wives and did not find one that made him happy (Ecclesiastes 7:28). More is not always better—especially in the areas of food and entertainment.
Contentment includes both a healthy body and a healthy mind. Excess does not lead to happiness. In our search for meaning and joy in life, we can often unwittingly add new troubles. Obesity is often one of our own making. There may be physical reasons and causes, but we should seek help to correct them.
Happiness is a direction we can choose by being “temperate in all things” (1 Corinthians 9:25).
Further Reading:
Keys to a Long, Happy Life
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Obstinacy: Not a Virtue
January 14, 2009
Today @ This is the way...
Greetings friends,
”Stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry,” Samuel said (1 Samuel 15:23).
Clyde and Dee Kilough
Obstinacy: Not a Virtue
Some hold extreme points of view in religion, business or politics. Their points of view, however, in one sense are not as objectionable as the fact that extremists are often unwilling to hear the other side.
We all arrive at certain points of view, and the path there may include errors that will be corrected in time. The real problem arises when a person takes a stance so strong that other information is not even considered. Those with new facts or information are viewed as enemies.
“A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart” (Proverbs 18:2). Closed-minded arguments are often a mask for foolishness.
Further Reading:
Becoming More Like God
For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has rejected you as king."
1 Samuel 15:23
A fool finds no pleasure in understanding
but delights in airing his own opinions.
Proverbs 18:2
Iniquity – great injustice or unfairness
Obstinate – refusing to change your mind or stop what you are doing / hard to deal with
Virtue – behavior showing high moral standards / a good or useful quality
Stance – the way in which someone stands / an attitude or standpoint
Rebellion – an act of rebelling / opposition to authority or control
Divination – the use of supernatural means to find out about the future or the unknown
Arrogance – behaving in an unpleasant way because you think that you are better than other people
Airing – expressing an opinion or complaint publicly
Monday, January 5, 2009
Is Nothing Certain?
January 5, 2009
Today @ This is the way...
Hello dear readers,
God does not change—all else does.
Clyde and Dee Kilough
Is Nothing Certain?
Life teaches us that everything changes—including ourselves. Our bodies age, ocean waves lap at the shores, forever changing them, and nothing stays exactly the same.
While it’s true that there is no such thing as total security on this earth, Jesus spoke about laying up “treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20). Here we see that the most important treasures lie beyond this world—in perfect security.
When we search for opportunities in this life and grasp those that become available, we place ourselves in a position of security that does not depend on hoarding what we have. But the greatest security of all is to be pleasing to God—for our future depends more on Him than on life itself. Of that we can be certain.
Further Reading:
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