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.

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save

A humble servant is glad for his master’s success. Here again our perfect example is Jesus. He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, and thus He brought glory to God. Today let us be alert for opportunities to serve, and be careful lest our ego hinder our commitment. In so doing we will be humble servants ready for tasks great or small, knowing that God will receive the credit.
John Ropp, Dannebrog, NE
Beside the Still Waters, Volume 30, Issue 6.

Manners and moral codes may alter, but not the structures that underlie. Ethics are the invisible scaffolding upon which our actions are built and without which life would be insupportable. Ethical conduct follows an unwritten law that runs in every part of the world, forming a path for all action. Becoming sensitive to its dictates is like acquiring taste, poise, or insight. Its invisible lines run laser-straight from our soul to the object of our consideration. Sensing the dynamic of that tug is like sailing a ship and having to be attentive to the winds and currents that move our vessel.
Ethics uphold the rights, privileges, and identity of every living soul: a maintenance that stretches to include the soul of what we may previously have considered inanimate or lifeless – the land, growing things, animals. Our subtle interrelatedness to all life walks these ethical lines – when we forget that interrelatedness – we sever them. If any action that we undertake warps or threatens to sever the soul-lines of ethical connection, we may be sure that there is something intrinsically wrong with our idea or our approach..
p. 11, Celtic Spirit, Caitlin Matthews.

No relationship is proof against change, whether it be through illness, unhappiness, new ambitions, discontent, or overfamiliarity. In such circumstances, constancy and patience are required, as well as support.
p. 10, The Celtic Spirit, Caitlin Matthews.

The past isn’t dead; it’s not even past.

The quieter we become, the more we can hear.

David Schrock, Rutherford, TN
Beside the Still Waters, Vol. 30, Issue 6