Hands Speak

Hands often speak where voices can't.

Selfies

The word of the year was "selfies."

It shows the narcissism of some in using social media.

We lose focus on things that matter most - focus on others.

Being self-abosrbed stunts personal spiritual growth.

Service increases the opportunity for personal revelation.

Focus on self impedes revelation.

- Talk by Paul V. Johnson -

Finding Ourselves through Service

"We are able to find ourselves through serving because there is so much more to find."

Perfect Day

You cannot live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. ~John Wooden

Audrey Hepburn's Beauty Tips

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived,  reclaimed, and redeemed; Never throw out anybody.

Remember, If you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the  figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!

Sam Levenson 

Note:

Contrary to what some may think, Audrey Hepburn did not write this beautiful poem, Sam Levenson did. Levenson wrote "Time Tested Beauty Tips" for his grandchild, and it just so happened to be one of Audrey's favorite poems. She read it to her children on the very last Christmas Eve she spent with us here on Earth.

No arms

"I saw a statue of Christ without any arms. I thought what a shame until I read the inscription below - the only hands I need are yours."

The Good Samaritan - India Style

Service

We gain more substance to our souls as we serve.

Notable Quotables - when there are too many for separate entries

"In difficulty, I look up."

"He who has no faith experiences the full range of pain to satisfy the demands of justice." - Bruce R. McKonkie

"Hard to explain, but not difficult to feel."

"Never let an earthly circumstance disable you spiritually."

Voicemail quote - "Please hold through the silence."

Service - be not spectators, but be participants.

Execute Innovation

Quote on Goodness

“It is no easy task to be good. For in everything it is no easy task to find the middle. … Anyone can get angry—that is easy—or give or spend money; but to do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for everyone, nor is it easy; wherefore goodness is both rare and laudable and noble. (“Man and Man: The Social Philosophers,” The World’s Great Thinkers, vol. II, ed. Saxe Cummins and Robert N. Linscott, New York: Random House, 1947, p. 352a.)

Quiet Service

‎"All but a prophetic few must go about God's work in very quiet, very unspectacular ways. And as you labor to know Him, and to know that He knows you; as you invest your time- and your inconvenience- in quiet, unassuming service, you will indeed find that 'his angels have charge concerning thee: and in their hands they... shall bear thee up.'"

- Elder Jeffrey R Holland -

Quote - Service

The Spirit of Service “If I'm attentive to what's going on inside of me when I'm helping, 1 find that I'm always helping someone who's not as strong as 1 am, who is needier than 1 am. People feel this inequality. When we help we inadvertently take away from people more than we could ever give them; we may diminish their self-esteem, their sense of worth, integrity and wholeness. When 1 help 1 am very aware of my own strength. But we don't serve with our strength, we serve with ourselves. . . .Helping incurs debt. When you help someone they owe you one. But serving, like healing, is mutual. There is no debt. 1 am as served as the person 1 am serving. When 1 help 1 have a feeling of satisfaction. When 1 serve 1 have a feeling of gratitude.”
"Serving is also very different from fixing. When 1 fix a person 1 perceive them as broken, and their brokenness requires me to act. When 1 fix 1 do not see the wholeness in the other person or trust the integrity of the life in them. When 1 serve 1 see and trust that wholeness.. .Fixing is a form of judgment. All judgment creates distance, a disconnection, an experience of difference.. .We can only serve that to which we are profoundly connected, that which we are willing to touch. This is Mother Teresa's basic message. We serve life not because it is broken but because it is holy.

"I think 1 would go so far as to say that fixing and helping may often be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul. They may look similar if you're watching from the outside, but the inner experience is different. The outcome is often different too.. .Lastly, fixing and helping are the basis of curing, but not of healing.. .Only service heals."

"In the Service of Life, " Rachel Naomi Remen, Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco