ADVICE

"The trouble with good advice is that it usually interferes with your plans." - Traditional

This morning, I will attempt to do something different, but equally impacting. As the heading suggests, it's going to be a compendium of advice. A traditional proverb says, "Good advice is what your own children disregard, but save to give to their children." How revealing. At work, never bring your boss a problem without some solution: you're getting paid to think, not to whine. Long hours don't mean anything; results count, not effort. Write down ideas; they get lost like good pens.

Always ensure you arrive work thirty minutes before your boss. Help other people at work, when you can - what goes around comes around. Don't take 'sick-days' unless you're truly sick.

FRANCH LOESCH

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." - Winston Churchill

In the prohibition years, Capone's rule was absolute. The local and state police and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation were afraid to oppose him. But single handedly, Frank Loesch, as a Christian layman organized the Chicago Crime Commission, a group of citizens who were determined to take Mr. Capone to court and put him away. Loesch wasn't a very imposing looking man, but in Chicago he was a living legend. He was the man who had stood up to Al Capone. During the months that the Crime Commission met, Frank Loesch's life was in constant danger. There were threats on the lives of his family and friends. But he never wavered. Ultimately he won the case against Capone and was the instrument for removing this blight from the city of Chicago. Frank Loesch had risked his life to live out

AFFIRMATION

"To give someone a blessing is the most significant affirmation we can offer." - Henri Nouwen 

Andor Foldes first recollection was at seven: his father kissed and thanked him for helping in the garden. Foldes remembers it decades later, as though it were yesterday. Again at sixteen, while in Budapest. Foldes already a skilled pianist at the time, was asked by Emil von Sauer to play for him. Foldes obliged the master. When he finished, Sauer walked over to him and kissed him on the forehead. "My son," he said, "when I was your age I became a student of Liszt. He kissed me on the forehead after my first lesson, saying, 'Take good care of this kiss -- it comes from Beethoven, who gave it me after hearing me play.' I have waited for years to pass on this sacred heritage, but now I feel you deserve it."

I wish there were some way to effectively communicate the incredible blessing which affirming

ADVERSITY

"I'll say this for adversity: people seem to be able to stand it, and that's more than I can say for prosperity." - Kin Hubbard 

Malcolm Muggeridge said in Homemade, July 1990, that "Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness."

Quite thought provoking you'll agree. It's a known fact that, it's easier remembering and relating with adversity than it is, to relate to success. For instance, you remember a heartbreak better, and what lessons were in it for you as a person, than you do a friendly smile from a stranger in a bus. Listen, adversity often provides us with opportunities: adversity can promote our

HE SAID, BUT HE'S SAYING

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." - Socrates 

Have you ever wondered, or tried to imagine what avenues God can chose to bless people? Or do you wonder if He's loving enough to even bless anyone just like that - out of the blues - in ways, mostly assumed to be 'not right.' You should've heard the expression, "Better lucky than good." The following story certainly exemplifies that thinking. Wisdom would have done something different with that $20 bill, and would have not won that million dollars.

Hubert Tang had not purchased a lottery ticket in ten years. But he decided to, when he found a twenty dollar bill lying on the street - so he buys two scratch-off tickets. While still standing just outside the store, he scratched them, and turning to a friend who was with him said, "I think I just won a million dollars!" And he did. Many people, they wouldn't have even picked