Weekly Thought – November 3, 2020

Fred prayed diligently all his life. A permanent imprint on the “Smith kids” was made walking past the bedroom and seeing their strong Dad on his knees by the bed. Mary Alice had a private prayer list which she kept next to the bed on the nightstand. They faithfully prayed. This week features a few thoughts of his on prayer.

Honesty with God

In prayer we can get honest. One night a good friend and I were in a scattershooting conversation, covering a variety of topics. Prayer came up and he offered his opinion that it is a waste of time to try to get God to fill a “gimme list.” He seriously doubted the mature faith of those who were always plying God with requests. I tried to redirect his thinking. I believe prayer is more for us than it is for God. I did this by saying prayer was always a great help to me in getting honest when I wanted to be genuinely truthful.

Above my writing desk I hung the picture of a Jewish scholar whom I consider the greatest intellectual integrity of almost anyone I have ever met. As I would write I would glance up at his picture ask evaluate my honesty. I think of prayer much like that. If I believe God hears me, is who He claims to be, and is all-knowing, I must be honest when I talk with Him.

I have made it a practice when considering a business deal to spread it out on my desk and talk to God about it exactly like I talk to another person. No great lights go on, but I do get a sense of singlemindedness, purity of thought, and a stillness of heart when I know I am gut-level honest.

Of course there is a flip side. When I don’t want to be that open, I don’t lay it out on the desk acting like God won’t know. We can’t hide from God. Intellectual integrity reminds me God knows whether I show it to Him or not. For me it is so much better to be honest before Him.

This principle applies to relationships, too, whether family, friendships, or social interactions. Questions in all of these areas can be brought to a very honest conclusion if we learn to use prayer. We must train ourselves to “put it all out on the table” and talk about it with God.

Too many people still use a ritualistic form of prayer which keeps them from having a good, honest conversation with God. I will never forget when I first heard about conversational prayer. I was with Torrey Johnson, who established Youth For Christ. We had been talking and as we prepared to leave he said, “Let’s pray.” He started out by saying, “Lord, you know we’re just a couple of young men here who have been chewing the rag.” At this point I opened up one eye, literally, and looked around because I knew he was talking to somebody and wondered if that person was in the room. I also wondered if the roof would cave in if I ever talked to God like that. I learned to pray in Olde English!

But it is hard to have a completely relaxed, honest conversation with God trying to remember all my Thee and Thou phrases.
At a men’s meeting one participant stood to pray and started, “God, this is Joe. Remember me? I met you last week at the Jones’s house.” THAT is setting the stage for an honest conversation.

This week think about: 1) How often do I try to hide from God? 2) What do I have laying out on the table before God right now? 3) Who needs encouragement in practicing “gut level honest” prayer?

Words of Wisdom: “We must train ourselves to “put it all on the table” and talk about it with God.”

Wisdom from the Word: “He commanded them: “Carry out your duties with respect for the LORD, with honesty, and with pure motives.” (2 Chronicles 19:9 NET Bible)

Weekly Thought – June 16, 2020

Fred always said he taught himself to think and write in telegram style – the most content in the fewest words. That is the reason he wanted his headstone to read: “He stretched others.” Many of his “one-liners,” as he called them became favorites of his consulting clients, speaking audiences, and readers. They were a code language for the Smith family who grew up hearing and quoting them.

Wait To Worry

Once I was speaking to a couples’ Christian conference. A few days afterwards I received a letter from the President of a chocolates company, accompanied by a large box of candy. “Wait to worry” is the finest thing that has ever happened to my wife.

If you come to our house in Cincinnati we will show you a framed white towel hanging on our bedroom wall. Strange thing to do? My friends know I can be odd, but this seemed to take the cake. Here is the story: Mary Alice called the children in for dinner. Our son Fred lagged behind wanting the last minutes of mud play. She, of course, said “Go wash your hands and face and get in here to eat.” Too late she remembered she had hung up sparkling new white towels. She quickly walked down the hall only to find a perfect set of muddy handprints where he had dampened the digits and placed them neatly on the towel. Needless to say, she wasn’t happy!

I decided to hide the towel. Three years later I took the towel to a framing shop and then presented the objet d’art to Mary Alice. You know what happened, don’t you? She began crying and saying, “Aren’t they sweet? Aren’t they sweet?” Three years earlier those weren’t the words she uttered.
There is no amount of money she would take for that framed towels and those muddy handprints.

One of our family sayings has been: “What you worry about today you will laugh about tomorrow.”

Sometimes when things get tense around our house, our children have learned to stop me by saying, “Dad, is this something we will laugh about later?” It usually is. I remind myself to laugh or have high blood pressure.

It is an emotional and mental discipline to step outside the current panic, taking a long range view. I read a study about worry which interested me. One of the findings was 80% of the things we worry about today will not happen, will work out favorably, or be totally forgotten in one year. Doesn’t it make sense to wait to worry?

(Editor’s note: That framed towel hangs today in the home of Fred’s “offender” son in Tyler, Texas.)

This week think about: 1) What am I worrying about that needs to be put in the “wait” column? 2) When have I laughed about something that seemed earth-shattering at the time? 3) How can I model faith and not fear for my family?

Words of Wisdom: “Wait to worry.”

Wisdom from the Word: “And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:27 NET Bible)

Weekly Thought – June 9, 2020

Fred’s ability to ask purposeful questions was widely recognized as part of his uniqueness. He spent very little time in chit chat. When someone came to him with a problem, he quickly began the search for their recognition of the next step.

Thank you for praying faithfully for our work. It is indeed a privilege to invest hours combing through his files, searching for content which can be organized into wisdom nuggets. We appreciate your financial support which underwrites our social media, internet presence, and key people who bring this work to life for you.

Problem Solving

When people come to me with problems, I try to early on get them listing their assets. I am always careful to say it that way, not “tell me about your financial situation.” But invariably people start to tell me about money. Rarely do they ever list others.

I pause them and say, “Let’s stop and go back a little bit. “ Are you alive?” Of course they say, “Yes.” I continue “Well, you look that way to me!”

Then I go through a litany of assets never considered:

“Are you healthy?” “Do you have an education?” “Do you have work or life experience?”

After I get through a complete list of what I call real assets, we move on to the quantitative ones.

My purpose is to break through the cloud which comes with loss, blinding them to the true measure of their situation. I want them to realize the basis for gratitude. Once that occurs I have a foundation to work against their current problems.

But if they keep saying, “Yes, but…” I know my job isn’t finished yet. So, I keep referring back to their list of assets until they move past the “yes, but…” While they stay stuck in that mode, they haven’t moved on to gratitude. In reality, they are still wanting more.

Gratitude is being grateful for what you have, not for what you hope to get. Problem solving begins with an accurate assessment of what we have, then moving on to attack the difficulty. Often, our minds get stuck playing a tape of hopelessness which builds on itself, disabling our mental abilities so needed in problem solving.

Gratitude is a lubricant which can get our mental and emotional gears in correct alignment.

This week think about: 1) How do I use questions with myself and others to begin the problem solving process? 2) What gets me stuck when working through a problem? 3) When is my most fruitful time for thinking?

Words of Wisdom: “If they are stuck in the “yes,but…” mode they haven’t moved on to gratitude.”

Wisdom from the Word: “Who is a wise person? Who knows the solution to a problem? A person’s wisdom brightens his appearance, and softens his harsh countenance.” (Ecclesiastes 8:1 NET Bible)

Weekly Thought – May 12. 2020

Fred had a favorite one-liner: “service is the rent we pay for the space we occupy.” Productivity and contribution were foundational as core values. His definition of a good life would include his life goal of stretching others. This week we explore his thinking on service.

As We Go

We have the responsibility to make life different for those around us.

My friend Dick Halverson was chaplain of the Senate. Dick joined a group of friends who spent 2 or 3 days together with no agenda, just great conversation. It became clear to me Dick’s life was simple: he followed Christ and “went about doing good.”

Christ wasn’t frantic; didn’t follow a hectic schedule, or run from place to place nervously. We never see Him described as someone with an attitude of “I have so much to do, so little time, and I just have to keep on moving.” He just did good wherever He was. Remember when He was on the way to heal Jairus’s daughter and the woman with a serious physical problem stopped Him? He didn’t brush he off, telling her she was a lower priority. He solved her problem then went on. He went about.

I cannot think of a better obituary than to say a person went about doing good, and did good wherever he was. To be a person of good will and eagerness to serve honors the Christ we follow.

Humanly we tend to think about big goods and little goods. If we look at it from a long range perspective those little acts can be seen as seeds which are planted and then grow into something very good. I am convinced those big goods can be mistakenly accomplished by human desire and human energy for wrong reasons. When that occurs, the act shrivels up and bears no fruit.

Our Christian community can be fertile soil for those who strive to be associated with big good. They flit from one project to another, one ministry, one organization to another seeking to dream big for God. Being so focused on good “only God can accomplish,” they lose the miracle of doing good as they go. Clearly I am not discouraging us from joining God where He is working, as Blackaby says, but when the temptation to attach ourselves to only the big name projects makes us ignore the little goods, we have given in to the flesh.

Steve Brown tells a wonderful story about visiting a graveyard looking for hymnist Fanny Crosby’s marker. He couldn’t find it at first, but passed the enormous mausoleum of P.T. Barnum. After searching he found a modest headstone with these words: “Aunt Fanny, she did what she could.”

This week consider: 1) When did I last stop to see a little good I could do? 2) How do I encourage others to make a difference? 3) What can I do to make going about doing good a habit?

Words of Wisdom: “To be a person of good will and eagerness to serve honors the Christ we follow.”

Wisdom from the Word: “So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up.”(Galatians 6:9 NET Bible)

Weekly Thought – May 5, 2020

Fred wrote much about maturity – its elements, and processes. Forgiveness is one of the key factors in mature living.

Forgive Us Our Sins

There is no way to live without violating other people or being violated. The way to even the score is not through revenge. Renowned psychiatrists find that revenge is the most unhealthy of all emotions. From a practical standpoint, I think our human nature is to get revenge, to get even. To move past this and begin the forgiveness work takes divine intervention. From my experience, it isn’t a natural trait.

The Christian faith asserts we must forgive unlike other cultures and religions which teach “an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth.”

Forgiving is part of a process: living in the attitude of forgiveness, accepting the request for forgiveness, and then actually forgiving. I have had people say, “Fred, there are people I will never forgive – never!” Naively, they think withholding forgiveness is the best way to repay the hurt. We know the other person will probably never suffer our lack of forgiveness, but it certainly hurts us.

A business associate feuded with his brother 25 years before I knew him. By this time, he could not even recall the details of the estrangement, but he knew and eagerly told me that forgiveness would never be given. I had no idea of the outcome for the offending brother, but my associate developed ulcerative colitis and died a painful death. But he satisfied his aim of never forgiving.

Forgiveness should be one of those reflex emotions we develop. As soon as we realize it is required, we must discipline ourselves to act quickly. Running away from it, or denying it begins a downward slide for us emotionally, and even physically.

Forgiveness is a deep process, and we can’t just glibly say to somebody “oh, forget it!” Humans don’t forget very easily. Asking someone to forget without forgiveness is unhealthy. We tend to stuff it down into our subconscious. I find that full, true forgiveness doesn’t require forgetting.

Probably, the biggest problem we have is the need to forgive ourselves. A lot of residue of guilt is because after we confess, and receive God’s forgiveness we fail to accept that freedom. Many times I see people who refuse to accept their own humanity. Father Hesburgh, former President of Notre Dame, was given three precepts from his predecessor Father Cavanaugh: be right, be human, be humble. So often when we make mistakes, we hold them against ourselves as if we were not human. Frankly, I have never seen any reason to create a habit of forgiving others quickly, but not affording that to myself. I must be clear – this is not rationalizing. First there must be the admission, confession, and when possible restitution. If I won’t let someone else beat me for a forgiven sin, then I am not going to do that to myself.

This week think about: 1) How well do I handle forgiveness? 2) Who needs my forgiveness? 3) Who taught me the value of true forgiveness?

Words of Wisdom: “Forgiveness should be one of those reflex emotions we develop.”

Wisdom from the Word: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our offenses, according to the riches of his grace.” (Ephesians 1:7 NET Bible)

Weekly Thought – April 28, 2020

Fred always remembered those who were influential in his life. He expressed appreciation for men and women who taught him, prayed for him, and opened doors for him to use his gifts. He never took his opportunities for granted and always gave thanks.

In the last few weeks we have received great encouragement from readers of our emails affectionately known as WTs. Thank you for taking the time to email. Each word of support is gratefully received.

Give Thanks

The longer I live, the more I use gratitude as a measure of maturity. I have a friend who is quite ill with cancer. We have a tradition when we talk. I say, “What are you grateful for?” And she always says “I have much to be grateful for.” Notice she does not say, “I had much to be grateful for” No, she says “I have much.” Even in these days of great illness she doesn’t relegate gratitude to the past – it is always present tense for her.

It is easy for people to give you a list of past experiences which generate gratitude, but sometimes it is difficult to express thankfulness for the current season. We need to be conscious that our greed, discontent, and losses can cause a cloud to cover us, hiding what is current. When we have significant difficulties it may blind us to what we have right before us.

As I have gotten older I find many of my friends joining the “used-ta” club. We get together and they talk about “I used-ta do this; I used-ta do that.” I made a deal with my family I would not gain membership in that one. When we fall into this pattern, we lose focus on the good things going on right now. Yes, there were some great highlights, but as I told Mary Alice early in our marriage, “The Best Is Yet To Be.”

A mature person knows the value of gratitude, but this is more than just saying thanks for specifics. It is developing a gratitude mindset. We probably only recognize a small percentage of what should generate appreciation. I think of those things I was protected from unknowingly; those things that were provided without any notice; those times when I was totally unaware… these constrain me to cultivate a lifestyle of gratitude.

Billy Graham once told me of two amazements: his selection by God and his preservation by God. Both are so vast that we could never understand the specifics. Therefore, we need to develop a grateful attitude which allows us to walk in thankfulness day by day.

A side thought: When I think about gratitude it occurs to me to ask the question: “Do we pray to fill our tool box, or our toy box?” Are we more grateful for toys than tools?

This week think about: 1) How currently grateful am I? 2) What triggers my gratitude? 3) Who models gratitude well?

Words of Wisdom: “The longer I live, the more I use gratitude as a measure of maturity.”

Wisdom from the Word: “The LORD strengthens and protects me; I trust in him with all my heart. I am rescued and my heart is full of joy; I will sing to him in gratitude.” (Psalms 28:7 NET Bible)

Weekly Thought – March 3, 2020

Fred clarified his thinking by putting his thoughts in writing… a lesson taught him in his twenties. Each year we repost what he called his “personal creed.” We hope it gives you an opportunity to consider your own “credo.”

My Personal Creed

Purpose: To determine what I will become. I will become the sum of my choices, and decisions. The Creed should guide and identify exceptions.

I WILL:

1. I will respect truth by searching for it and accepting it from any source.
2. I will look for the essence of matters as the elegance of life…as Einstein wanted to think God’s thoughts after Him. “For all else is detail.” In problems I will look for the key facts like a logger looks for the key log.
3. I will endeavor to pray honestly about any subject assuming God already knows.
4. I will expect nothing but what I earn, but will accept gifts gratefully.
5. The most valuable thing I can own is myself. Thereby I can contribute my uniqueness to life. I will concentrate on my uniqueness rather than what I like to do or what I would be paid the most to do. If my uniqueness is lost, then there has been no compelling reason for my having lived. I will have failed to contribute my piece to the jigsaw puzzle.
6. I will limit extensive self-knowledge to my most productive strengths and destructive weaknesses.
7. I will construct concepts for my thinking and actions so as to minimize large mistakes and give consistency to my living.
8. I will relax in the sovereignty of God. Service will be expressions of respect and love, not ingratiation.
9. The large issues of life will be decided by faith based on Biblical authority.
10. I will respect money, but as a means and never an end.
11. I will endeavor to accept my rightful responsibility, not because I like it but because it is right, realizing that my acts affect others, and that both good and bad have ripple effects.
12. I will accept human imperfection as a reality but never as an excuse or rationalization.
13. My life will be a confluence from many profitable and interesting areas of life so as to continually broaden my base.

I WILL NOT:

1. I will not build any unreal image which enslaves me or alienates me from others.
2. I will not sacrifice my old age, but, rather adopt a refinishing method good for all periods in turning experience into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom. I will live so that “the best is yet to be” by attention to maturity, health, relations, and capital.
3. I will not sacrifice these things for business success: a) self-respect b) health c) family d) relation with God.

Think carefully about these points this week: 1) How would I construct my own personal creed? 2) What are the essentials and non-negotiables? 3) What are my I WILLs, but more importantly, my I WILL NOTs?

Words of Wisdom: “The large issues of life will be decided by faith based on Biblical authority.”

Wisdom from the Word: “and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32 NET Bible)

Weekly Thought – February 4, 2020

Fred spoke with insight, wisdom, and elegance. His ability to think was a God-given gift which he treated as a stewardship. In January, 1981 he spoke to an unnamed group in Dallas. The entire speech is powerful, but too lengthy for these brief messages. We hope these snippets stimulate your thinking.

Ultimate Goals

Recently I met an old and prosperous friend who wanted to relive earlier times. Once an active layman, he is now inactive. I asked him if he remembered the verse, “When it is day I long for the night and when it is night I long for the day.” He became quiet and then barely audible said, “Fred, that’s me.”

He needs to reorder his life. Like too many, when given the choice of filling the soul or the pocketbook… he grabbed the cash. His poor soul had been on a stringent diet.

A pastor friend told me of the large industrialist, who owned his town, but was seldom seen and never appeared in church. When he was near death he called the pastor and asked him to visit. “When I came to America I heard there was a pot of gold at the rainbow and I went in search of it. I found the gold, but lost the rainbow.”

In East Texas I first learned of pine beetles. I saw them on the trees and thought they were alive. They looked completely natural, but when I took a closer look, they were hollow. Often I have to remember how possible it is to become hollow while looking alive. The inside seems to go before the outside.

It isn’t easy to keep the inside renewed for sometimes life seems to be a lot of activity and very little being… too much slant and not enough balance. We use up the inside in maintaining the outside.

I truly wish I could help the many bored, frantic, angry, even violent and meaningless people who cross my path – people who need to laugh, to love unselfishly… those who need relief from a social life that has become rote and empty. I see executives whose business life is their only life. We live with family life fractured and scratchy… the home little more than a transfer station. Some of us have let our bodies become little more than clothes racks or display mannequins. We need to help each other on the constant internal renewal of spirit worthy of respect, attention, and affection.

Recently, the President of a large financial institution called “just to visit.” I enjoy those calls. As we talked, I sensed the pace was almost frenetic so I asked, “How are you keeping your head together?” “Work, work, work” was his answer. I highly value work, but there should also be the mystical awe of life.

Malcolm Muggeridge defines life as a mystery to be illuminated not a problem to be solved. When true awe disappears, life becomes boring and repetitive. In America (and particularly in Dallas) I fear we substitute acquisition and entertainment for genuine awe. As a poor kid in the slums of North Nashville I spent hours on the curb looking up at the stars – in genuine awe and amazement. I probably haven’t had many times with better feelings of the bigness of the world and its Creator.

Part of awe is gratitude. I have a dear atheist friend in the oil business who returned from an extremely successful venture in Australia. “Fred, one of the most frustrating aspects of being an atheist is having no God to thank when things go well and you know you are blessed beyond what you deserve. In those times it would be satisfying to have a God.”

Real meaning in life is filling the soul, finding the right perspective, and saying thank you.

This week carefully consider: 1) Have I sacrificed the rainbow for the pot of gold? 2) How healthy am I on the inside despite how good I look on the outside? 3) What triggers gratitude right now?

Words of Wisdom: “We use up the inside in maintaining the outside.”

Wisdom from the Word: “Such trials show the proven character of your faith, which is much more valuable than gold – gold that is tested by fire, even though it is passing away – and will bring praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:8 NET Bible)

Weekly Thought – January 7, 2020

Fred, in his thinking on maturity, spoke and wrote about mental health. He once said, “I give a testimony rather than a medical thesis about mental health.” He used his own perspective as a traveler, not a theoretician.

Plans for 2020 begin with conversations among team members about goals for the year and campus activity. For the next two years we will be drilling down deeper with conversations among selected students and BWFLI teams. It is interesting to see the focus go from contact with 1000s to concentrated attention to 10s. The broad brush approach certainly introduced us, but the almost one on one interaction and engagement allows us to bring Fred’s principles into closer focus. THANK YOU for your participation with us through team membership, prayer, words of encouragement, and financial support. The work goes on and we eagerly anticipate 2020.

Getting Our Heads Together

Our desire for mental health is at the heart of the matter. Christ, at the pool of Siloam, asked the man “Do you want to be well?” I used to think this had to be the most useless question in the Bible. Who wouldn’t want to be well? But the more I dealt with people the more I realized not only was that not useless – it was essential to the man’s getting well.

As we look at our plan for mental health we must ask ourselves, “Do I want to be well?” If so, then simple, consistent discipline is required. A note, I am not talking about mental disease which should be handled professionally. I am writing to those who want to construct a strategy for emotional wellness as part of their general life plan. I have several good friends who serve their psychiatric patients well.
Let’s look at an exercise as we begin our conversation.

Take a card or piece of paper; draw a line from top to bottom creating two columns. On the left, write down those emotions you must discipline in order to stay mentally healthy. On the right, write the ones you recognize bring you mental discomfort or even sickness. After doing this, take a good look at both lists. The appropriate response is to create the discipline, as much as possible, to build the healthy emotions into our daily living. Part of this is to understand how they work. For example, gratitude is high on my list for desirable emotions. In order to cultivate thankfulness I try to understand exactly what it looks like when I am practicing it. I create a pattern which grows into a habit, and eventually a lifestyle. But it begins by identifying it as helpful and healthy, then purposing to build it into my life.

No two of us will have identical lists. For example, one person may have fear as an unhealthy, undesirable emotion, but only see it as a distraction from mature growth. Another, who lists fear will be paralyzed by it and unable to make progress while in its grip.

After careful study of the strength building emotions, prioritize them. Some people devise a plan and then wear themselves out trying to master each and every aspect of their “healthy person” ideal. Make a plan for enhancing the value of the good emotions. Of course, they all overlap to some degree. A grateful person will undoubtedly show kindness. And, a forgiving person will be one of grace. But determine the primary emotions.

One last word – spend little or no time trying to correct the negative emotions… that is a waste of time and energy. Let the good drive out the bad through its own momentum.

This week think about: 1) In this new year what emotions do I want to emphasize? 2) How interested am I in analyzing my own mental health? 3) Who is a good role model for me in my high priority emotions?

Words of Wisdom: “The desire to be well is essential to getting well.”

Wisdom from the Word: “When Jesus saw him lying there and when he realized that the man had been disabled a long time already, he said to him, “Do you want to become well?” (John 5:6 NET Bible)

Weekly Thought – December 31, 2019

Fred prepared every New Year’s Eve for the next day… not by partying, or even stocking up on black-eyed peas. He got his paperwork in order to spend the next day doing his yearly personal audit. Establishing priorities constituted a large part of his analysis.

May your looking back over 2019 give you opportunities to praise the goodness of God. And may your hopes for 2020 be grounded in His faithfulness.

The Responsibility of Priorities

Andrew Carnegie once asked a consultant, “What can you do for me about time control?” The consultant said, “I’ll make one suggestion, and you send me a check for what you think its worth. Here is my suggestion: Write down on a piece of paper what you have to do in order of priority. Start with number one and complete it before you move on through the list.” Reportedly, Carnegie tried it for a few weeks and sent him a check for $10,000. That was big money in those days!

I constantly find people trying to accomplish their work as if they were eating dinner at a smorgasbord. They don’t prioritize, nor do they complete anything – they just graze. They don’t practice good time management. An executive asked me, “Fred, how in the world do you turn down people who want to play golf with you?” Honestly, that question never entered my mind. My time is as much mine as is my money. If I don’t let everybody else spend my money, I’m not going to let them spend my time.

For example, I was traveling with the president of a subsidiary company. Every time we stopped at an airport, or sat down for a minute he’d grab a great stack of magazines and begin reading. I asked, “Do you like to read?” His answer surprised me. “No, I hate to read.” “But every time I am with you, you spend the time reading. Why do you do that?” His answer: “The President of the parent company sends me these magazines.” I asked, “What would happen if you’d walk into his office and say, ‘Hey, Boss, you want me to make money or read magazines? I’m willing to do either one, but I can’t read all these magazines and do my job, too.’” I went on to speculate, I will guarantee the boss would laugh and say, “Throw those magazines in the waste basket. I sent them to you because I thought they were too current to throw away.”

A friend of mine works for a CEO who is influenced by book referrals from consultants. When the CEO returns from a conference he immediately issues memos requiring all direct reports to read the latest “hot title.” A man came in to see me who wrote a book and brought me a copy – a big, thick book. He said, “I’ll call you in a week and see what you think about my book. I don’t read books just because someone gives them to me. I only read what I am currently studying. Your book costs $10.90. Since I am a slow reader, it would take me two days to read it. That means I’d be making about $5.45 reading your book. I think my time is worth more than that.”

I have a right and responsibility to establish the priorities which will enable me to best use my God-given gifts.

This week think about: 1) How serious am I about my priorities? 2) Who needs encouragement in wise time management? 3) When am I most challenged to ignore my priorities?

Words of Wisdom: “My time is as much mine as is my money. If I don’t let everybody else spend my money, I’m not going to let them spend my time.”

Wisdom from the Word: “Whatever you are doing, work at it with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not for people.” (Colossians 3:23 NET Bible)