prior commitments

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
I know that I haven't posted about this book in awhile. I obviously wasn't trying to fulfill the challenge at the beginning of the book (to read through the book in 40 days). It was one among several books that I was trying to read at the same time, and this one made it to the back burner while I finished up some of the others.

So I picked it up again today, and since my students are taking a test right now, I thought that I would make a quick post about it. (previous posts can be found here and here.) I read it early this morning and this one paragraph just jumped out at me:

Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you make. Your commitments can develop you or they can destroy you, but either way,they will define you. Tell me what you are committed to, and I'll tell you what you will be in twenty years. We become whatever we are committed to.
--Rick Warren

I don't know about you, but when I read something that impacts me, it usually impacts me in two ways. I hate to admit it publicly, but I usually think about how this affects other people first. I wish that I was the type of person that would always begin by evaluating myself first, but I just don't.

Just consider all of the things that people can be committed to. There are the big things like money, fame, fortune, and so on, but there are also the more subtle things like a commitment to feel good, or a commitment to have fun. These types of commitments could remain hidden for years, but don't be mistaken, they are just as destructive.

But just when I think that I have figured out what is wrong with everyone else in the world, the eyes start to turn inward, and inevitably the question is asked, "what are you committed to?"

Rick Warrens words are sobering when you really consider them: "We become whatever we are committed to." We could all go down the list of things that others have committed themselves to. We could line up the tombstones of people who have wasted their lives being committed to these worthless things. But can you ask yourself the question, "what are you committed to?"

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The Seed and The Soil of Education (New Learning Project Part 1)

(This is my entry for the first part of my project for my New Learning course that I am taking.) Introduction Corn Fields in Illinois I have lived the majority of my life in the Midwest: mid-state Illinois to be specific. Where I live, farming is everywhere. My grandparents and great-grandparents on both sides of my family were farmers. My dad grew up on a farm and owned farmland, well into my own adulthood. But, even if it wasn’t in the family, I still would have been surrounded by farming. You can’t go more than a mile outside of my city’s limits without encountering miles and miles of fields. Most of our highways, and even interstates, are located between acres of farmland.

This too shall pass...

Gam zeh ya'avor (Hebrew) "This Too Shall Pass" Welcome! According to Google Analytics, this is by far the most visited post that I have ever written. If someone comes here from a search engine, most of the time they are looking for " this too shall pass quote " or simply " this too shall pass " on Google or one of the other search engines. I am sure that most of the time visitors are looking for the originations of this quote, but I have to wonder, why is this quote on people's minds? Why are they pondering the passing of events? Here is my thought: It is probably because most of us have realized that the adult life is much harder than we ever imagined it to be. There is more pain and more sorrow than we had ever imagined as children, but we have learned that time keeps ticking. And as time continues to flow things pass. In fact, even the really big things and the really hard things will still pass. If you are here because you are thinking ...

The Minnesota Crime Commission wrote:

Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it: his bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toys, his uncle's watch, or whatever. Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He's dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills. This means that all children, not just certain children but all children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free reign to their impulsive actions to satisfy each want, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist.

HARMLESS THOUGHTS

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