THE 11 RULES OF LIFE

RULE 1.
Life is not fair; get used to it.

RULE 2.
The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you
to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3.
You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school OR
college. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone, until you earn
both.

RULE 4.
If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He
doesn't have tenure.

RULE 5.
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a
different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

RULE 6.
If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your
mistakes, learn from them.

RULE 7.
Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now.
They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and
listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the
rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try
"delousing" the closet in your own room.

RULE 8.
Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has
not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give
you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear
the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

RULE 9.
Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very
few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on
your own time.

RULE 10.
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave
the coffee shop and go to jobs.

RULE 11.
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one. 

LIFE IS A CHAIN OF MOMENTS

Today we have higher buildings and wider highways, but shorter temperaments and narrower points of view.

We spend more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses, but smaller families. We have more compromises, but less time.

We have more knowledge, but less judgment. We have more medicines, but less health.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk much, we love only a little, and we hate too much.

We reached the moon and came back, but we find it troublesome to cross our own street and meet our neighbors. We have conquered the outer space, but not our inner space.

We have higher income, but less morals… These are times with more liberty, but less joy… With much more food, but less nutrition…

These are days in which two salaries come home, but divorces increase. These are times of finer houses, but more broken homes.

That’s why I propose that as of today - You do not keep anything for a special occasion, because every day that you live is a special occasion. Search for knowledge, read more, sit on your front porch and admire the view without paying attention to the needs. Pass more time with your family, eat your favorite food, visit the place you love.

Life is a chain of moments of enjoyment; it isn’t only survival.

Use your crystal goblets.

Do not save your best perfume… use it every time you feel you want it. Take out from your vocabulary phrases like, “one of these days” and “someday”.

Let’s write that letter we thought of writing “one of these days…”

Let’s tell our families and friends how much we love them. Never pass up a chance at adding laughter and joy to your life. Every day, hour, and minute are special because you never know if it will be your last…

If you’re too busy to take some minutes to share this message with someone you love, and you tell yourself that you will share it “one of these days"...

And you know, "one of these days” can be very far away, and you may not be there to see it…

MORE MONDAY THOUGHTS

If you have been reduced to God being your only hope, you are in a good place || Jim Laffoon

God is not a deceiver, that He should offer to support us, and then, when we lean upon Him, should slip away from us || Augustine

Death is the sinner's penalty but the saint 's promotion || Anonymous

Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues || Brother Lawrence

He who breathes into our hearts the heavenly hope, will not deceive or fail us when we press forward to its realization || Anonymous

I choose joy... I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical... the tool of the lazy thinker. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God || Max Lucado

He who breathes into our hearts the heavenly hope, will not deceive or fail us when we press forward to its realization || Anonymous

Hope fills the afflicted soul with such inward joy and consolation, that it can laugh while tears are in the eye, sigh and sing all in a breath; it is called "the rejoicing of hope" (Hebrews 3:6) || William Gurnall

God hasn't given up on you. He can still do great things for you, in you, and through you. God is ready and waiting and able. What about you, and me? || Peter Marshall

Beloved, whatever you are waiting for or believing for, God will not be late. The Lord is the the Healer. He is just. He is the dreamer of dreams and He answers prayers. Be ssured that He will bring that prodigal home..... Don't give up hope and one day you will see the resurrection you have been waiting for, come your way! || Cindy Jacobs

I remember once walking along the beach with a friend. We spoke intensely about our relationship, trying hard to explain ourselves to each other and to understand each other's feelings. We were so preoccupied with our mutual struggle that we didn't notice the magnificent sunset spreading a rich spectrum of colour over the foam-capped waves breaking on the wide, silent beach. Suddenly my friend exclaimed: "Look. look at the sun, look!" He put his arm around my shoulder, and together we gazed at the shimmering ball of fire vanishing gradually below the horizon of the wide ocean. At that moment, we both knew about hope and joy || Anonymous

The sins against hope are despair, as anticipated failure, and presumption, as anticipated fulfilment. In both these cases man seeks to break out of his pilgrim existence and have his life otherwise than from the hand of God || Ferdinand Kerstiens

THOUGHTS FOR YOU TODAY

A Christian may for many days together see neither sun nor star, neither light in God's countenance, nor light in his own heart, though even at that time God darts some beams through those clouds upon the soul; the soul again by a spirit of faith sees some light through those thickest clouds, enough to keep it from utter despair, though not to settle it in peace. In this dark condition, if they do as Paul and his company did, cast an anchor even in the dark night of temptation, and pray still for day, God will appear, and all shall clear up, we shall see light without and light within; the day-star will arise in their hearts || Richard Sibbes

Let this one great, gracious, glorious fact lie in your spirit until it permeates all your thoughts and makes you rejoice even though you are without strength. Rejoice that the Lord Jesus has become your strength and your song - He has become your salvation || Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Hope fills the afflicted soul with such inward joy and consolation, that it can laugh while tears are in the eye, sigh and sing all in a breath; it is called "The rejoicing of hope" (Hebrews 3:6) || William Gurnall

Hope is patiently waiting expectantly for the intangible to become reality || Avery D. Miller

He that lives in hope danceth without music || George Herbert

When you say that a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God || Charles L. Allen

Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all... As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength || Gilbert Keith Chesterton

When God comes down, He removes the immovable difficulties. When God comes down, the impossible becomes reality. God moves on behalf of the one who waits || Anonymous

Where others see but the dawn coming over the hill, I see the soul of God shouting for joy || William Blake

If you feel like you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on! Because God's a God of miracles, and He's holding the other end || Pat Hicks

The best we can hope for in this life is a knothole peek at the shining realities ahead. Yet a glimpse is enough. It's enough to convince our hearts that whatever sufferings and sorrows currently assail us aren't worthy of comparison to that which waits over the horizon || Joni Eareckson Tada

His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour, The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower || William Cowper

If preachers decide to preach about hope, let them preach out of what they themselves hope for || Frederick Buechner

Hope has two beautiful daughters Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are || Augustine