The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. – William Wordsworth

So much of life are the seemingly trivial choices.

Be kind or be brusque?

Be positive or join in the grumbling?

Be loving or be selfish?

Be patient or push to get your way?

Be empathetic or think only of yourself?

I sure hope the goal is not to be perfect, but to do a little better today than I did yesterday.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar. – William Wordsworth

I liked this mental picture.

Stooping down to gain wisdom.

Admitting that we don’t know everything is the beginning of learning.

In fact, that might be the hardest part.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it. – Winston Churchill

Maybe the reason you feel all that wind in your face is so that you can rise higher.

Embrace the struggle.

Dig deep and let it push you higher.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Gus: Phil? Like the groundhog Phil? Phil: Yeah, like the groundhog Phil. Gus: Look out for your shadow there, buddy.

The movie is funny, but it’s also a favorite because it goes a little deeper than that.

A guy lives the same day over and over again.

He tries all kinds of different things to figure out things (life).

He tries the hedonistic, do what you want all day long life and ends up empty.

He tries manipulating others to get what he wants and ends up empty.

He gives up and spends the day depressed and without hope.

He finally tries love, service, humility and authenticity. And it works.

Maybe we can take a short cut. We don’t have an unlimited number of days like Phil does in the movie, so let’s not waste any on the stuff that doesn’t work. Let’s skip to the good stuff.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/wBl2QGAIx1s?si=2XqkvF-XOv9VpCXx

As I get older, “the power of love” has taken on a different meaning.

I think of it now as the power to help us in one of life’s biggest challenges (the biggest?) – letting go of my own selfish desires and pride.

The power of love comes in changing our hearts to think of another before ourselves.

To put someone else’s goals and ambitions ahead of ours.

To put the happiness of someone else as a higher priority than our own.

When we are able to love in this manner and kill our own selfishness we truly blossom.

We are at our best and our happiest when we love in this fashion.

Make it a great day.

Jake

In spite of unseasonable wind, snow

and unexpected weather of all sorts –

a gardener still plants.

And tends what they have planted …

believing that Spring will come.

– Mary Anne Radmacher

On a cold, snowy and blowy morning this quote seemed appropriate.

Faith. We all must take certain things with faith.

That spring will come.

That our efforts will pay off.

That if we keep it up it will be worth it.

It’s easy to lose faith in something.

Any time we work towards something bigger for our lives, we must work in faith.

Faith that it will all work out in the end.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Make friends with people who want the best for you. – Jordan Peterson    

This is rule number three of his 12 Rules for Life.

I like this book because all the rules seem so simple, but he illustrates how easily so many of us go off the path.

Making friends is important. We were all built for community. Seems pretty straightforward.

But it’s easy to make friends with the wrong crowd.

To make friends with those who would use us for their benefits instead of ours.

To make friends with people who are heading the wrong way and will gladly take us with them.

To make friends with the goal of becoming popular or cool instead of looking for substance and character.

If you want to figure out how to do this – read the book!

But a good first step would be to be on the look out.

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – Short cut idea on this one – church would be a great place to find these kinds of people. No perfect people there but at least there’s a good chance they are trying to head in a good direction.

What do you hang on the walls of your mind? – Eve Arnold

I heard Erik once describe Instagram as "just like when you were a kid and you had posters on your wall in your room". Or something like that. That also may be a little telling as to how old we are…

In a similar way – what we allow in our feeds ends up feeding our minds.

It’s easy to get all flibber flabbered about the algorithms and the social media companies about how they control what we see and attempt to influence us.

But in the end, we are in control.

We choose what to focus on.

We choose how much time we spend being influenced.

We control the gate at the entrance of our mind (our eyes).

Choose wisely what you hang on the walls of your mind.

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – there is plenty of good stuff to hang on those walls!

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected. – George Washington

Doing the right thing is its own reward.

For whatever reason we have been given the opportunity to make choices.

Sometimes it feels like freedom.

Sometimes it feels like an opportunity for hedonism.

Sometimes it feels like a prison.

On the whole, most of the time, making good choices leaves us happier.

Not all the time. Sometimes not right away. Sometimes good choices make us feel worse (in the short run).

It’s not a perfect system where the results are always immediate and obvious. One plus one doesn’t always equal two.

But if you are willing to do the right thing most of the time, most of the time you’ll end up better off.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/cyVzjoj96vs?si=vtA09RZhAw5YYsDc

I know I’ve sent this one out a few times over the years.

This time I reminded of the truth that you are worth it.

You are worth all those New Year’s resolutions you made.

You are worth the hard work to become better.

Your unique makeup is on purpose and with a purpose.

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – God thinks you are worth it too. He looked out over all of history and all the future and decided to send His Son to die on the cross for your sins so that he could spend eternity with you. Even if you miss on all your other goals and plans for life if you can accept this free gift you will know joy and peace beyond words.