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I used to be at Moody Bible Institute several times a year to do some radio programs, and I was usually there on a weekend. Now, Moody is right in the heart of Chicago. If you are in the heart of any big city, you've got to think security, especially on the weekend when a lot of things are closed and there's no one working. You don't want people just wandering around your buildings then.
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I don't think Alexander Graham Bell could ever have conceived how much we would use his little invention called the telephone, or how many ways we would think up to use it! You know, some of those magic three-number prefixes that we all know so well; the 800 number, because 800 equals toll free calls, and there's 888, and there are all kinds of them now. We're pretty quick to make that call. Then there are the 900 numbers; the toll rich calls. You really want to be very slow to make those calls. Those 900 numbers can access everything from Santa Claus at Christmastime to party lines for lonely people, to pornography.
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Gym class can be a pretty unfair place in school. You've got your natural athletes, your average athletes, and your basic klutzes, like me, who are all lumped together in the same class. It's tough to get a decent grade if the teacher compares your performances. The natural athletes, of course, are going to play better, score higher, run farther than many others who are trying just as hard. And many a good student has had his grade point dragged down. Not because of a C effort in gym, but because of a C result.
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Motivation—That's the art of getting a person to do something. We're all in the motivating business. You may be motivating people to go somewhere, or to do a job, to correct a weakness in their life, to change their ways, to finish what they start, to do what you want them to do. Motivation comes in a lot of forms. You can inspire people to do it. You can threaten them if they don't do it. You can love them into doing it; put an arm around them and say, "Come on, Buddy." You can help them do it; pitch in and show them how and be willing to do your part.
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I have fond memories of family trips when the kids were younger; the adventure, the togetherness, the planning, the brochures. Did I say "and the waiting"? Yeah, there were times when the kids would be waiting in the car and waiting and waiting. They would ask Mom, "Where is Dad? Why doesn't he come out of that tourist center there?" She would respond with, "Oh, you know he's getting brochures."
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Now, it's hard to lose weight; I know that very well. But the real trick in weight loss is keeping the weight off. Years ago I dropped about 55 pounds. Oh, I didn't drop it; I mean, it went away thankfully a little bit at a time. I found out that it is possible to hang around the level of where you got your weight loss to. Of course, you can't eat grapefruit all the time, or celery, or diet bars for the rest of your life. No. That's the way a lot of people regain what they lost. No, what you've got to do is to learn new ways of eating that fit your metabolism. I call it making friends with your metabolism.
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I picked up a habit while going out to eat with my young children years ago. It's a habit I really don't need to do any more, but I got in the habit of cutting their meat for them. Now, if you're a parent, you know that you get that old knife out before you start on your own dinner and you cut theirs into bite-size chunks. The problem is that I go out to lunch with a lot of businessmen, too, and I kind of have this reflex to cut their meat. But I've never found they really appreciated that. And, you know, the principle of bite-size chunks...well, that's not a bad one. I mean, the best way to tackle a big piece is in little chunks that you can handle.
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I used to be undefeated in Scrabble. I'm sure you're real excited about that. Of course I've never heard of an Olympic Scrabble Tournament, or I would have entered it. But you notice what I said...I used to be undefeated? Yeah.
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Being my wife is a full-time job, and she does a tremendous job of it. In fact, I'm thinking of doubling her pay-I really am. Let's see...two times nothing is...Well, anyway, once in a while we will get so involved in our projects, and she's usually doing them for me, that the laundry will fall a little bit behind. As a result of that, one morning I panicked and I said, "Honey, I don't have any clean shirts!" She said, "You don't have one?" I said, "Well, I have one." She said, "How many are you going to wear today?" That's the kind of practical clarification you get from a wife. See, it is true; I can only wear one at a time. It's nice to have a closet full of shirts, but the fact is, one at a time will do it. I'm okay if I just have today's.
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I'm a newspaper man! No, I'm not a career journalist. I'm a guy who likes his newspaper. But, I have to admit I get frustrated occasionally when it's not there; which means the delivery guy has either goofed up or goofed off. See, there are many reporters all around the world who have worked to collect that news, and then there's this expensive process of getting it all laid out, and edited, and printed. And the products of all that expense and all that effort ends up on the doorstep of one probably paper boy; some guy who's going to deliver it. You know what? If he doesn't deliver it, all that expensive effort doesn't get to me...it never reaches me. You know something? We're all in the delivery business.
