Legacy Youth Ministry Resources

Illustration texts

J.O.Y.

Joy = Jesus first, Others second, and You last.

Joy is a By Product

Some people seek joy but never find it. True joy is found in a proper relationship with God. Never make a goal out of a byproduct.

Optimist and Pessimist on Joy

?The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; the pessimist fears that this is true.?

Murphy and Joy

"I'm paranoid. I do this and I do that. I can buy anything I want. I can have anything I want, but I'm still not happy. I wonder why I'm not happy?" (Eddie Murphy, quoted from "Taking Your Campus for Christ," by Barry St. Clair and Keith Naylor.)

Lewis on Joy

If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he can not imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. ? C.S. Lewis, From the book, Weight of Glory

Einstein on Miracles

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is. I believe in the latter. ? Albert Einstein

Difference Between Neurotics and Joyous

The essential difference between the unhappy, neurotic type person and him of great joy is the difference between get and give. -- Erich Fromm

Goals are Important

?Happiness, wealth and success are by-products of goal-setting; they cannot be the goal themselves.? (John Condry)

Sting on Happiness

Sting, super-successful bassist and songwriter, was asked "What's the most widely held misconception of success?" He responded, "That it brings you happiness. It doesn't, and I don't think anything does. I have massive success and no friends. I would say I have three very close friends. The public tends to imagine that rock stars have millions of friends. I don't." (Kristine McKenna, "Sting: The Rolling Stone Interview," Rolling Stone (September 1983).

Famous People and Misery

Famous singer John Cougar Mellencamp once stated: "When you get older?it's hard to be happy. I never had a full day since I was twenty-one." (Quoted in Dan Peters and Steve Peters, Why Knock Rock? (Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House, 1984), p. 81. Lindsay Buckingham of the classic rock band Fleetwood Mac said, "I'm lonely. My personal life is fairly barren. A house [worth $2 million] full of new furniture doesn't mean a whole lot. It just means you have a nice place to watch TV. But so what? I feel pretty isolated at the moment. I'm sort of like a guy on the top of a hill in a little castle of his own. I hope that won't last forever." (Quoted in Dan Peters and Steve Peters, Why Knock Rock? (Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House, 1984), p. 27.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

>   >>