Enthusiastic Ideas

INSTRUCTION (APRIL 9) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/instruction-april-9/ "Learn from others what to pursue and what to avoid, and let your teachers be the lives of others" (Dionysius Cato). IT’S A SIMPLE THING, BUT IT’S HARD TO ADOPT: THE WILLINGNESS TO BE INSTRUCTED. If any instruction needs to take place, it’s more satisfying to our pride to be the instructor rather than the instruct...

GODLINESS (APRIL 8) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/godliness-april-8/ "The difference between worldliness and godliness is a renewed mind" (Erwin W. Lutzer). IF IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES, AND THEY CLEARLY DO, THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL OF ALL OUR IDEAS IS THE IDEA OF GOD. Once we choose how we’re going to deal with this idea, a very different kind of life begins to unfold than any that would...

FAIRNESS (APRIL 7) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/fairness-april-7/ "Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us" (Eric Hoffer). FAIRNESS CAN’T BE SEPARATED FROM PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. It would be unfair of me, for example, to blame you for something that was my responsibility. In fairness, I can’t ask you to accept any more responsibility than is actu...

CONSTITUTION (APRIL 6) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com "[Our nature] is constituted for the practice of what is good" (Mencius). IF MOST NATIONS HAVE A CONSTITUTION, SO DO EACH OF US PERSONALLY. In its most literal sense, the word “constitution” means the composition of a thing, and when it’s used in reference to a human being, it usually means that person’s physical makeup, as in the ph...

CONSCIENCE (APRIL 5) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/conscience-april-5/ "Conscience is the impulse to do right because it is right, regardless of personal ends" (Margaret C. Graham). NOT A DAY GOES BY THAT OUR CONSCIENCE DOESN’T TEST US. Some of the tests are big while others are little, but the question is always the same: “Will we do what our conscience tells us is right, or will we d...

EXPEDIENCY (APRIL 4) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/expediency-april-4/ "No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency" (Theodore Roosevelt). The word “expediency” is unusual in that it’s often used in two different senses, one negative and the other positive. In addition to their denotation or explicit meaning, many words also have a connotation, a more indirect meaning...

PEACEFULNESS (APRIL 3) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/peacefulness-april-3/ "In our rough-and-rugged individualism, we think of gentleness as weakness, being soft, and virtually spineless. Not so! . . . Gentleness includes such enviable qualities as having strength under control, being calm and peaceful when surrounded by a heated atmosphere, emitting a soothing effect on those who may...

ANTICIPATION (APRIL 2) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/anticipation-april-2/ "There is something new every day if you look for it" (Hannah Hurnard). ONE OF OUR MOST REMARKABLE ENDOWMENTS IS THE ABILITY TO FORETASTE PLEASURE. The literal meaning of “anticipate” is to “take before,” and we have it within us to look ahead (at least a little) and take enjoyment from our experiences before th...

AMUSEMENT (APRIL 1) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/amusement-april-1/ "Anyone without a sense of humor is at the mercy of everyone else" (William Rotsler). ON THIS DAY EVERY YEAR, PRACTICAL JOKES ARE TRADITIONALLY ACCEPTED AND EVEN ENCOURAGED. Today of all days, “anyone without a sense of humor is at the mercy of everyone else.” Some of us need more than one such day a year. We take our...

JUSTICE (MARCH 31) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/justice-march-31/ "The just hand is a precious ointment" (Latin Proverb). ONLY THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN TREATED WITH SERIOUS INJUSTICE CAN FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT A “PRECIOUS OINTMENT” JUSTICE IS. Frankly, there aren’t many things in life more valuable than the simple treasure of fairness. And no matter who we are, we would do well to examine o...

EAGERNESS (MARCH 30) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/eagerness-march-30/ "We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about" (Charles Kingsley). RUNNING OUT TO MEET LIFE EAGERLY IS A WISE AND BENEFICIAL CHOICE. Whatever we do, we do it better when we do it eagerly rather than reluctantly....

MORALE (MARCH 29) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/morale-march-29/ "Morale is faith in the person at the top" (Familiar Saying). IN MOST OF THE GROUPS THAT WE’RE MEMBERS OF, GREAT THINGS DEPEND ON THE MORALE OF THE GROUP. If those who make up a group are collectively discouraged, depressed, negligent, and unwilling to work, it’s not likely that good things are going to result. But if the...

APPRECIATION (MARCH 28) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/appreciation-march-28/ It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it a home, A heap o’ sun an’ shadder, an’ ye sometimes have t’ roam Afore ye really ’preciate the things ye lef’ behind, An’ hunger fer ’em somehow, with ’em allus on yer mind. (Edgar Albert Guest) IT’S SAD HOW LITTLE WE APPRECIATE SOME THINGS UNTIL WE’VE EITHER LOS...

EXPECTATION (MARCH 27) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/expectation-march-27/ "Expect people to be better than they are; it helps them to become better. But don’t be disappointed when they are not; it helps them to keep trying" (Merry Browne). OUR EXPECTATIONS ARE POWERFUL FORCES THAT ACT ON OTHER PEOPLE’S LIVES. High expectations pull people upward; low expectations drag them downward. I...

FASCINATION (MARCH 26) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com "Youth, large, lusty, loving — youth, full of grace, force, fascination, do you know that old age may come after you with equal grace, force, fascination?" (Walt Whitman). NO MATTER WHO WE ARE OR HOW FAR ALONG WE MAY BE ON LIFE’S PATHWAY, FASCINATION SHOULD CHARACTERIZE US. We should, on the one hand, be people who enjoy being fascin...

EFFICIENCY (MARCH 25) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/efficiency-march-25/ "There can be no economy where there is no efficiency" (Benjamin Disraeli). BY DEFINITION, EFFICIENCY REDUCES WASTE, AND FOR THAT REASON, IT’S AN ESSENTIAL HABIT TO ACQUIRE. When our resources are scarce, it’s obviously important to minimize waste, but when they’re abundant, as they are for many of us in the moder...

CHOICE (MARCH 24) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/choice-march-24/ "You choose, you live the consequences. Every yes, no, maybe, creates the school you call your personal experience" (Richard Bach). EACH TIME WE MAKE A CHOICE, TAKING ONE FORK IN THE ROAD AND NOT THE OTHER, AN INTERESTING THING HAPPENS. On the one hand, our lives expand . As we move forward along the path we’ve chosen, ne...

POLITENESS (MARCH 23) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/politeness-march-23/ "Manners are the happy way of doing things" (Ralph Waldo Emerson). IF SOMETHING MAY BE DONE IN MORE THAN ONE WAY, POLITENESS MEANS CHOOSING THE MORE GRACIOUS WAY. Nearly everything we do has an impact on those who have dealings with us, and being polite is a way to make that impact as pleasant as possible. For ins...

EXAMINATION (MARCH 22) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/examination-march-22/ "Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it" (François de La Rochefoucauld). MANY OF LIFE’S REGRETS COME FROM NOT LOOKING AT THINGS CAREFULLY ENOUGH. It frequently happens that we acquire possessions or become involved in activities that bring us mo...

SEASONS (MARCH 21) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/seasons-march-21/ Sing a song of seasons! Something bright in all! (Robert Louis Stevenson) JUST AS THE YEAR FALLS INTO FOUR NATURAL DIVISIONS — SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, AND WINTER — IT’S GOOD FOR US TO LEAD LIVES THAT ARE “SEASONAL.” Nowadays many of us are cut off from any significant contact with nature and its recurring periods, and i...

POTENTIAL (MARCH 20) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/potential-march-20/ "There are admirable potentialities in every human being" (André Gide). POTENTIAL HAS TO DO WITH POSSIBILITIES. It means we can grow, develop, and learn to use powers that are only latent within us right now. And the fact is, every human being has some potential. Improvement is always possible in the way we live and...

ENHANCEMENT (MARCH 19) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/enhancement-march-19/ "Good is all that serves life, evil is all that serves death. Good is reverence for life . . .  and all that enhances life. Evil is all that stifles life, narrows it down, cuts it to pieces" (Erich Fromm). ALMOST NOTHING GETS BETTER BY ITSELF. To the contrary, most things deteriorate unless someone does somethin...

QUIETNESS (MARCH 18) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/quietness-march-18/ "True silence is the rest of the mind and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment" (William Penn). OUR NEED FOR QUIETNESS SEEMS TO INCREASE WITH EACH PASSING DAY. It’s a loud world we live in, in more ways than one, and we can’t endure loudness without some moments of relief. Torturer...

ADVICE (MARCH 17) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/advice-march-17/ "Four eyes see better than two" (Old Saying). IT’S A FOOLISH PERSON INDEED WHO DOESN’T APPRECIATE THE VALUE OF ADVICE. When we’re faced with a decision-making situation, none of us can see everything that would be profitable to see. We need the supplementary vision that comes from other eyes, and to the extent that we let...

PONDERING (MARCH 16) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/pondering-march-16/ "First ponder, then dare" (Helmuth von Moltke). IT’S TRUE THAT MOST OF US NEED TO BE MORE ADVENTURESOME, BUT IT’S ALSO TRUE THAT WE NEED TO PONDER OUR DEEDS BEFORE WE DO THEM. As von Moltke says, the correct order of action is “First ponder, then dare.” And the more consequential the dare, the more profound should b...