“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work”

Thomas A. Edison

"There is a vast world of work out there in this country, where at least 111 million people are employed in this country alone--many of whom are bored out of their minds. All day long. Not for nothing is their motto TGIF -- 'Thank God It's Friday.' They live for the weekends, when they can go do what they really want to do."

-Richard Nelson Bolles, What Color is Your Parachute?, 1970

(Does this mean he coined the phrase "TGIF"?)

"I base most of my fashion sense on what doesn’t itch.
"―Gilda Radner

Borrowed from Becky:

The Good Confession by Andrew Peterson

"All if know is that I was blind but now I see;
Though I kick and scream, love is leading me;
And every step of the way His grace is making me;
Every breath I breathe, He is saving me;
And I believe.
So when my body's weak and the day is long,
When I feel my faith is all but gone,
I'll remember when I sang this song that I believe:
I believe He is the Christ, Son of the Livng God."

remember: my own words are over at Xanga .

Similarly, it has become abundantly clear in the second half of the twentieths century that Western Man has decided to abolish himself. Having wearied of the struggle to be himself, he has created his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own impotence out of his own erotomania, his own vulnerability out of his own strength; himself blowing the trumpet that brings the walls of his own city tumbling down, and, in a progress of the auto-genocide, convincing himself that he is too numerous, and laboring accordingly with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer in order to be an easier prey for his enemies; until at last, have educated himself into imbecility, and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he keels over, a wary, battered old brontosaurus, and becomes extinct.

Seeing Through the Eye, Malcolm Muggeridge

"What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be."

--Ellen Burstyn, American actress

I leave my own words over at www.xanga.com/madewyn

"Have a great day in the Lord." GFenton

"God provides the wind, but man must raise the sails." ~Saint Augustine

My new favorite scripture from my quiet time this morning:

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me is not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me."

Taaaaaa Daaaaaaaaaaaa!!

Maya Angelou says,

"Surviving is important, but thriving is elegant."

I like that.

Q. What did the Zero say to the Eight?

A. "Nice belt!"

-- Traci Ohren

Stagnation, my dear boy, what is more soul destroying than stagnation?

~~C S Lewis in The Great Divorce

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one.

~C S Lewis

"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil."

~C S Lewis

"Courage: it is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength." -unknown

"War does not determine who is right- only who is left." - Bertrand Russell

You'll find my own words over at www.xanga.com/madewyn

Over and out

"I love the city but the country feeds my soul.... "

Read this post where the quote i found it at....it tugged at my heartstrings.

Remember, I write my own words over at www.xanga.com/madewyn.

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities. - Dr. Seuss

Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good. - Samuel Johnson

From my old college roomie,GGG

This quote made me giggle:

"Have you ever noticed that your imagination can hardly be forced to picture Him as shorter than yourself? "

The Joyful Christian
C.S. Lewis

Peace.

Again....duh...Ann Vaskamp

~Me

I am really having trouble giving credit where credit is due.

Jawan

Peace,
~Mad

"No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are behind us and done, that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards...Accomplished, [tasks] are full of blessing, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us.Undone, [tasks] stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility, and hindering our communion with God.If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it."

Alexander MacLaren (1826-1910) Scottish Preacher

Lord, cause me to do the next thing. So nothing hinders my communion with you. "

Many thanks to Ann Voskamp ( I found this blog through Jawan.)

Well, bacause yesterday's quotes didn't really suit me, I am finding many today.

Thanks to www.qcreport.blogspot.com for this one:

"His dialogue consists of small bits of information cushioned by pillows of pauses and silences. "

Isn't that great?

~Mad

"For in our suffering, not apart from it, Jesus enters our sadness, takes us by the hand,
pulls us gently up to stand, and invites us to dance. We find the way to pray, as the psalmist did, "You have turned my mourning into dancing"(Ps 30:11), because at the center of our grief we can find the grace of God."

(excerpt from Henri Nouwen's "Turn My Mourning Into Dancing")

Thanks to www.audreycaroline.blogspot.com

Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you.

~C. S. Lewis

"The house lights go off and the footlights come on. Even the chattiest stop chattering as they wait in darkness for the curtain to rise. In the orchestra pit, the violin bows are posed. The conductor has raised his baton."
~Frederick Buechner

- or try this one -

"Hope is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
That sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
~Emily Dickenson

Uhm, not very inspired today. Sorry.

"In the morning, I like to meditate a little bit, and have a conversation with my Maker. It's kind of a strange relationship I have with my Maker, because he doesn't want to talk with me until I have my coffee. So I get that out of the way first."

~Tony Rice, guitarist

(I don't know why - I just thought it was cool)

"(They) like me! (They) really, really like me! (sic) ~Sally Field

Lovin' the visits yesterday. I DO love me some quotes. You've encouraged me now!

Here's a long one...so appropriate for me right now.

I'm reading A Beautiful Ache: Finding the God Who Satisfies When Life Does Not
by Leigh McLeroy

(The Ache of Persevering)

“If there were any place better for you than the one in which you find yourself, Divine Love would have placed you there.” ~Charles Spurgeon

She writes, “Life can be so hard that the temptation to quit or coast tempts us sorely. But there’s no joy to be had in stopping short….We keep on believing that God knows what he’s about.”

“I imagine God saying to us, mid-story, “If you can only trust me in this, the ending will be so much finer and more satisfying.” …”At the culmination of our story, Christ will rule and reign. He will wipe away every tear. Every knee will bow to him, and every tongue will call him Lord.”

“I’ll believe that the worst tragedy I could imagine is only the briefest pause in the tale of grace that God whispers in the ears of the sleepy children that he loves.”

Get this book!!

Peace,
~Mad
Remember: Find my OWN little words at www.xanga.com/madewyn