EDITORIAL

Lenten Reflections

by Dr. Raphy Tayco

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

When you lose, don’t lose the lesson….

Follow the three R’s:

1. Respect for Self,
2. Respect for Others, and
3. Responsibility for all your Actions.

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.

When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

Spend some time alone every day.

Open your arms to change, but don’t give up your values.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer. And saying NO is sometimes the kindest choice.

Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

Share your know-ledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.

Be gentle with the Earth.

Once a year, go some place you’ve never been before. . .

Remember the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Ask yourself the question
"Would you run?"
after you read this!!!

Imagine this happening to you...

One Sunday morning during a church service; a 2,000 member congre-gation was surprised to see two men enter . . .

Both covered from head to toe in black and carrying submachine guns.

One of the men proclaimed, "Anyone willing to take a bullet for Christ remain where you are."

Immediately, the choir fled...the deacons fled...and most of the congregation fled....

Out of the 2,000 there only remained 20.

The man who had spoken took off his hood... He then looked at the preacher and said, "Okay Pastor, I got rid of all the hypocrites . . .Now you may begin your service. Have a nice day!"

And the two men turned and walked out.

See, too deep not to pass on…

It’s funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world is in the condition it is today. . .

Funny how we believe what the tabloids say...but question what the Bible says...

Funny how everyone wants to go to heaven provided they do not have to believe, think, say, or do anything the Bible says.

Funny how someone can say "I believe in God"... but still Follow Satan (who, by the way, also "believes" in God).

Funny how you can send a thousand ‘funny jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire...but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, you think twice.

Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace...

But the public discussion of Jesus is suppressed in the school and work place.

Rtn. Bing Santamaria forwarded this:

"WISE OLD MAN"

A man of 92 years, short, very well-presented, who takes great care in his appearance, is moving into an old people’s home today.

His wife of 70 has recently died, and he is obliged to leave his home.

After waiting several hours in the retirement home lobby, he gently smiles as he is told that his room is ready.

As he slowly walks to the elevator, using his cane, I describe his small room to him, including the sheet hung at the window which serves as a curtain.

"I like it very much", he says, with the enthusiasm of an 8 year old boy who has just been given a new puppy.

"M. Gagné, you haven’t even seen the room yet, hang on a moment, we are almost there."

" That has nothing to do with it ", he replies.

"Happiness is some-thing I choose in advance. Whether or not I like the room does not depend on the furniture, or the decor – rather it depends on how I decide to see it."

"It is already decided in my mind that I like my room. It is a decision I take every morning when I wake up."

"I can choose. I can spend my day in bed enumerating all the difficulties that I have with the parts of my body that no longer work very well, or I can get up and give thanks to heaven for those parts that are still in working order."

"Every day is a gift, and as long as I can open my eyes, I will focus on the new day, and all the happy memories that I have built up during my life."
"Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw in later life what you have deposited along the way."

So, my advice to you is to deposit all the happiness you can in your bank account of memories.

Thank you for your part in filling my account with happy memories, which I am still continuing to fill…

Remember these simple guidelines for happiness.

1. Free your heart from hate,
2. Free your mind from worry,
3. Live simply,
4. Give more, and
5. Expect less.