To Touch a Life

Have you discovered the power for good that you possess?  You do possess that power, and I hope you keep reading.

In my job as a banker I have the unique opportunity to help improve an individual’s financial picture.  It can be through a loan or a savings or checking account. 

My friend Chuck runs a Christian bookstore in Spartanburg, South Carolina.  He and his staff touch lives every single day by offering products that change lives. 

My engineer friend Bob, in Nashville, Tennessee, touches lives through his craft.  He brings an immense amount of joy to people who go out and buy or down-load the recordings he has engineered. He is a master craftsman and he touches millions of lives.  Yes MILLIONS!

My wife touches lives through her piano teaching.  Oh, she teaches notes and rhythms, lines and spaces, and she offers way more than that.  She has become guardian/counselor for many of her students when they come and share their troubles and angst.  And more than a few parents step over the parent/teacher threshold and their relationships go deeper than one might imagine.  She touches lives and I’m proud of her.

I don’t know how to do life any other way than to try and befriend some of the people who cross my path.  You see, they are more than a stranger on the street, or a reader of my posts.

They are FRIENDS.  And with a few of them, we do the lunch thing, we laugh, we joke, we meet and eat on occasion. 

I want to touch a few lives as I travel along on this sphere.  I want to encourage a few with weary steps.  I want to touch gobs of people.

I want to touch a life.

Will you join me? 

Who is around you that you can touch?  Who needs your smile, your encouraging word, your gift of friendship?

You are in your sphere – your world of influence for more reasons than you may realize.  Perhaps today or this week is your time to go beyond the “Hi, how are you” and touch a life in a significant way.

Perhaps!

Morning Notes Blog Site

Words of Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

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They Aren't Coming Back

They are gone and they aren’t coming back.  Did you hear? 

Yes, they are gone.

~John F Kennedy

~Ronald Regan

~Mother Theresa

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

~Winston Churchill

~Henry David Thoreau

~Mark Twain

~Madame Curie

~Victor Frankl

(And we could add millions of influential, life-as-we-know-it giants of mind and moral fiber who have also passed on.)

Yes, they are gone.  Their voices are silenced, except through books and videos, recordings and examples.

They have left quite a void.  There is a gap that needs filling. 

Is it, perhaps, your turn and my turn to step up and fill the gap?  Is it our turn to do whatever we can to turn this world in a new and good direction?

Is it our turn?  And are we ready?

There are still many discoveries yet to be made.

There are cures yet to be unlocked for dreaded illnesses.

There are volumes of books yet to be written that will change mankind for good.

They aren’t coming back, you know.

So, who is going to fill in the gap? 

Will you take a swipe at it? 

Will you step up and try to do some good in this world?

We need leaders like never before.  We need men and women of integrity, of strong moral courage, of determination, of accurate thinking.  We need men and women who see the difference between politics and poppycock.

We need statesmen and women.  And we need the next wave of leaders in every industry, in every government in the land, in every religion, in every university, in every business. 

We need people of moral responsibility, of sound mind, of strong heart.

Many great individuals have fallen and they can’t get up.  They are done in.

The gap is wide.  

The need is great.  

The time is now.

Who will step up?

Morning Notes Blog Site

Words of Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

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Who Has Pushed You Lately

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about some people who have pushed me in my lifetime.  These are not bad individuals – they are good, even great men and women.  Let me tell you about a few.

Mr. Seay was my high school typing teacher.  He was eccentric, with odd ways, but he taught me typing.  Do you realize how much I use this skill EVERY DAY?  I touch a keyboard every day of my life – 24/7. 

He drilled into us the keyboard – a s d f ; l k j and on and on.  Thank you, Mr. Seay.

Mrs. Jones, my sixth-grade teacher, read an excerpt from a paper we had to write for our English class.  She READ two sentences from my paper, out loud, and made a very favorable comment about my writing.  She pushed me that day, in ways I could never understand until now.  What a great thing.

Jim Tharp & Bob Rist are two of my all-time favorite bosses.  They taught me some critical leadership skills and ways of managing people under their charge.  I’ve never forgotten them.

Two band directors who inspired me were Clifford Fuller and Howard Laurie.  They inspired me to pursue a musical career and saw some potential in me when I couldn’t see it for myself.  Thank you, gentlemen.

Jim VanHook was a college professor whom I tried my best to emulate, AND he taught me a relationship skill that I have never forgotten – “Love the people.”  I distinctly remember the day he planted that seed of an idea into my mind and heart.  Thank you, Jim.

Who has pushed you?  Who has taught you a skill, or said an appropriately timed word at the precise moment you needed it the most?  Who has given you a chance to prove yourself in a dream that you always wanted to pursue.

These are the heroes of our lives who have pushed us. 

Now, perhaps it is time for all of us to go and do likewise.

That is all for now.

Morning Notes Blog Site

Words of Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

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