Legacy Youth Ministry Resources

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Making the Undertaker Sorry to See You Die

Dale Carnegie, in his perennial best-seller, How to Win Friends and Influence People, speaks of the great craving inside every person to be appreciated. He says, ?The rare individual who honestly satisfies this heart-hunger will hold people in the palm of his hand, and even the undertaker will be sorry when he dies.?

How Gandhi Treated People

Gandhi incredibly inspired millions of people through his extraordinary leadership. How did he do it? Perhaps a part of his secret lay in his unique ability to see the best in others. As Gandhi biographer Louis Fischer wrote, ?He refused to see the bad in people. He often changed human beings by regarding them not as what they were but as though they were what they wished to be, and as though the good in them was all of them.? (Quoted from The Friendship Factor, by Alan Loy McGinnis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1979, p. 100)

Conversation in Marriage

How much time do husbands and wives spend in conversation each week? In order to find out, one psychologist strapped microphones to couples in order to catch every bit of idle conversation over breakfast, at the store, etc. How much time do you think on average they spent talking to one another? Of the 10,080 minutes in a week, they spent only 17 minutes. This gives us the status of many marriages and the resulting loneliness, even among the married. According to Germaine Greer, ?Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close propinquity with someone who has ceased to communicate.? (The Friendship Factor, by Alan Loy McGinnis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1979, p. 103-104)

Conversation in Marriage

How much time do husbands and wives spend in conversation each week? In order to find out, one psychologist strapped microphones to couples in order to catch every bit of idle conversation over breakfast, at the store, etc. How much time do you think on average they spent talking to one another? Of the 10,080 minutes in a week, they spent only 17 minutes. This gives us the status of many marriages and the resulting loneliness, even among the married. According to Germaine Greer, ?Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close propinquity with someone who has ceased to communicate.? (The Friendship Factor, by Alan Loy McGinnis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1979, p. 103-104)

Social Life Revolutionized

If you want to be liked, like others. If you want to be interesting, be interested. If you want to be loved, love. Alan Loy McGinnis, codirector of Valley Counseling Center in Glandale, California, shares of a woman who hated parties. Before she'd go to a social, she'd tell herself, "Now try hard. Be lively. Say bright things. Talk." But for all her trying, she simply didn't seem to fit in. Then she decided to take an entirely different approach. It changed her into a person that others wanted to be with. You see, her previous approach was all focused on herself - how she came across, how witty she was, trying hard to impress people with herself. Everything changed when she started focusing on others. This is her new approach: "?Now before going to a party, I just tell myself to listen with affection to anyone who talks to me, to be in their shoes when they talk, to try to know them without my mind pressing against theirs, or arguing or changing the subject. My attitude is: "Tell me more." This person is showing me his soul. It is a little dry and meager and full of small talk just now, but presently he will begin to show his true self. Then he will be wonderfully alive." (The Friendship Factor, by Alan Loy McGinnis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1979, pp. 109-110.)

Oglethorpe to Wesley - "I never forgive..."

General Oglethorpe once said to John Wesley, ?I never forgive and I never forget.? To which Wesley responded, ?Then Sir, I hope you never sin.? (The Friendship Factor, by Alan Loy McGinnis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1979, p. 160) (See Matthew 6:15.)

What Motivated Mother Teresa?

Seeing people from a biblical world view, as created in God's image and thus worthy of our compassion, can radically change our attitudes and actions, motivating us to service. Let me introduce you to a woman who clearly saw the image of God in people. Because of this insight, she treated people very differently from others. Her name is Mother Teresa. She's known worldwide for spending her life helping the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta, India. She took the terminally ill off the streets and loved them so that they died with dignity. She bandaged stinking wounds and gave her food to the starving. Inspired by her life of sacrifice for the poor, similar ministries have been established in over 100 countries. She was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. What do you think motivated her to spend her life, not worrying about how people treated her, but serving the less fortunate? (Get their input.) In her own words, "Jesus said, whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do to me. If you give a glass of water in my name, you give it to me. If you receive a little child in my name, you receive me. That is why I want to receive all these unborn children. God's own image is in every single child, no matter what that child is, disabled or beautiful or ugly - it's God's beautiful image created for greater things - to love and be loved." (Mother Teresa, by Navin Chawla, Element Books, Massachusetts, 1992, p. 208) Another time, she told an acquaintance, "If we did not believe that this was the body of Christ, we would never be able to do this work. No amount of money could make us do it. In our wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor, it is Christ we touch in the broken bodies of the starving and destitute. He said, "What you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me." Then she took the interviewer's hand and pressed his thumb and each finger while saying "You - did - it - to - me." (Mother Teresa, by Navin Chawla, Element Books, Massachusetts, 1992, p. 61) How do you think that seeing people as made in God's image motivated Mother Teresa to love the poorest of the poor? How can understanding this truth change our lives?

Low Expectations Bring Pleasant Surprise

When I don't have expectations of others, anything positive they do is a pleasant surprise. (Overheard at a 12 steps meeting.)

Einstein's Failure With Relationships

Lasting harmony with a woman (was) an undertaking in which I twice failed rather disgracefully --Albert Einstein

To Be Loved, Be Lovable

If you would be loved, love and be lovable --Benjamin Franklin

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