Inspiration

In September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a History teacher at Valley Heights High School in Port Rowan, Ontario, did something not to be forgotten.

n the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks in her classroom. When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks.

"Ms. Cothren, where are our desks?"

She replied, "You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk."

The basic premise of religion "that if you live a good life, things will go well for you" is wrong. Jesus was the most morally upright person who ever lived, yet He had a life filled with the experience of poverty, rejection, injustice, and even torture."

- Timothy Keller

My grandson, Justus, age 10, and his sister Taylor, age 13, were always teasing each other. One day, Justus was getting "sensitive" about things his sister was saying to him. I reminded him that he had said the same types of things many times in days past.

With quiet reflection, he spoke a gospel truth: "But it doesn't hurt as much coming out of my mouth as it does going into my ears."

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

- Khalil Gibran