If only people could be patient, God had his plan.
p. 24, Four Spirits, Sena Jeter Naslund

Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.
Beside the Still Waters, Volume 30, Issue 4

Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement.
Unknown, Old Farmer’s Almanac 2025 Planner.

God’s message is in our hearts and souls, and God uses the power of the Spirit to bring it to the forefront of our hearts and minds.
p. 121, All the Good – A Wesleyan Way of Christmas.

True love does not injure, rather, it upholds the good of the beloved before itself.
p. 23, The Celtic Spirit, Caitlin Matthews

Hanging on to what is behind us will never help us reach what is before us.
Daniel Stauffer, Ephrata, PA
Beside the Still Waters, vol. 30, issue 6

Ill-report and scandal are like forest fires, sweeping through a circle of acquaintance faster than the wind. For anyone, regardless of prominence or anonymity in the world, the assault of scandal is the most difficult to parry or refute. When the rights of livelihood or marriage or parenthood are stripped away as a result of a false report, the injustice rankles to the core.

Every person alive has a responsibility to those in his shared circle in life. If by one unregarded word of ours we can cause pain or hurt unjustly, if we endanger the public esteem of someone without warrant, we are no better than the army’s assailant who mugs people on the street. To steal someone’s good name is theft, however we wrap it up. scandal flourishes only because there are willing ears to receive it. If we close our ears to unjust gossip and restrain our tongues from passing it on, its muddy outpourings will cease to foul our lives.
p. 19, The Celtic Spirit, Caitlin Matthews.

Practicing the means of grace is similar to tending a garden. The gardener prepares the soil, distributes water, plants seeds, and daily supports the seeds through germination, growth, and fruit. However the gardener does not have the power to create the seed, sunlight, or water, or to cause it to grow or produce fruit. The gardener participates in the cultivation of the growth and fruit. However, the miracle of the seed, its growth, and its fruit comes from God. In this way gardening is similar to practicing the means of grace.
p. 38, All the Good – A Wesleyan Way of Christmas, courtesy Gordons Chapel United Methodist Church.

The grand thing in the world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.

Nothing will work unless you do.