Feb 22 2009
Dear Friends and Readers,
I have decided to suspend updating this Blog — TrueQuotes.
I will be putting my efforts into my other Blog: God Family Crafts
It is my hope that you will visit God Family Crafts often, and also, that you will make plentiful use of the archives here at TrueQuotes.
Please check back from time-to-time and see if I have posted any special notices, and…
in the mean time - see you at God Family Crafts.
Peace be with you,
Ann
Jan 07 2009
The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get
the urge to throw a snowball.
– Doug Larson
Well, if this is all I need for assurance that I am not getting too old, too fast, then I’m okay.
The sticky snowman snow, that my young daughter has been asking for, is finally here. As we pushed the Christmas Tree our the door today, in came a bit of snow. We scooped it up, and sure enough it stuck together. Within moments, she had thrown the snowball, as befits her age.
When I am outside with some of my older children, I have to say that the urge catches me too. Or perhaps it is my husband who get the snowball — up near the collar is always good.
I began wondering if there are other childish signs, whose grasp upon us, show that we are not aging too fast. What about climbing a tree? Sound good to me.
Jan 03 2009
If men would consider not so much wherein they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feelings.
Joseph Addison
What do you want? If you were to dig into the depths of your heart, I believe you would find what many others find in their own hearts: a wish for peace and an end to suffering due to war, safety and loving treatment for all children. enough food and other essentials for all people, a desire for all to know the peace afforded by our Creator for all mankind.
Addison points out that if we focus on our areas of agreement we could live and exist in much harmony. If we were in harmony, many of our difference might also fade away.
Our human nature tends us toward the disagreements. If we put on our Godly nature, we could so much easier fulfill the charitable nature for which we were created.
Dec 23 2008
In every child who is born under no matter what circumstances and of no matter what parents, the potentiality of the human race is born again, and in him, too, once more, and each of us, our terrific responsibility toward human life: toward the utmost idea of goodness, of the horror of terrorism, and of God.
– James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
As we approach Christmas, with Christmas Eve only a day away, we consider Agee’s thought on the value and potential of each and every child. Agee talks about each child born, but I like to think this is true of each child ever conceived; that the rest of the human race has a vested interest in this child.
Society depends upon the new life of each child, a responsibility to see this child through to maturity, a process that lasts from the moment of conception until the moment of our natural death.
We owe these children, all children, the freedom from fear, we must teach them about goodness, and yes, we must teach them about God.
Children are born with only two natural fears — fear of loud noises and fear of falling. All of the others are fears that are developed as the child experiences life, day after day. In a perfect world, the two innate fears would be put to rest, and no other fears develop. A child should have no fear of people, of war or harm.
Can each of us as individuals make a difference in the lives of these chldren? Yes, we can give them hope for that is what sums up the three things mentioned by Agee goodness, freedom from terror, and God.
Dec 19 2008
Duty is ours, results are God’s
– John Quincy Adams
Wow, does that take a weight off my shoulders! In many areas of life, the outcome depends upon the choices of others. As a mother, I can raise my children the best I know how — that is my duty. Then I can rest. The results are God’s, says Adams.
Well, rest is not exactly what I am supposed to do. I am, most likely, expected to go on to my next duty, and again leave the results to God.
This quote brings to mind something said by Mother Theresa of Calcutta. “We are called upon not to be successful but to be faithful.”
The peace that this realization can bring is overwhelmeing. We cannot control it all! Nor should we try. Here we have it in the words of two great people - a statesman and a saint of our time.
Dec 05 2008
Friends are born, not made.
–Henry Adams
There have been times when I have been sad for my children when they each went through a phase of teenage loneliness. At that time, they each claimed that they were the only member of the “No Friends Club”. We’ve all been there — lonely and wondering if we will ever have a friend again.
Deep in my heart, I mourn for these friends. children who were supposed to be born as friends for my children, but were aborted before birth.
No matter how hard you try to make a friend, there is something to be said for Adams’ comment. Friends are born to be friends with another specific person. In the scenario I mentioned, their destinies were inturrupted. I wish, for everyone’s sake, they had not been.
Nov 25 2008
You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. ~Franklin P. Jones
I’m not sure who Franklin P. Jones is or was, but he sure hit the nail on the head. Children, a gift from God, bring much joy. They bring hope for a bright future, they bring fulfillment to a marriage and a family. But one thing they don’t pack in thier arrival bags is an extra dose of patience for thier parents.
How many times can one count to ten, or even count to five, waiting for results. How many times can one say “put a jacket on, close the door, stop teasing your sister…finish your homework?” So, apparently this is where we learn one of the many things from chldren - we learn just how many time we can say it.
Thanks, kids, for teaching me….
Nov 20 2008
A mother who is really a mother is never free.
– Unknown
Some may say this isn’t true, but it would never be a mother who claims it untrue. A mother, from the moment of the birth of her child, and often long before that, loves her child and knows it is forever. She knows that her child’s entire life, whether it is the happy times or the trials, will be shared deeply in her heart.
Even in the animal world, a mother knows it is forever. Maybe it only is the very beginning of life that the animal mother is present to her child in a physical sense. But getting that child off to a good start is the mother’s way of being there forever.
