"How are your words?"

On a table in my office, I display something rather unique that a friend gave me. It’s a wooden block, with the letter “F” carved in it. This wooden block is the type used many decades ago on printing presses, the kind that had to be fit in by hand, rolled with ink, and then paper pressed on it.

I keep this block displayed to remind me everyday of the importance of words—the weight they carry with others, the meanings they can share, and the lives that are changed by writing and speaking words. I must give full consideration to the importance of my words. I’m reminded by this letter block that not so long ago, it was a time-consuming task to print a book, a newspaper, or anything for that matter. Today, words are shared with a key stroke.

Words help and hurt, hug and harass, hold and harangue. I keep this letter block on display to remind me to choose my words very carefully.

Ask God to help you choose your words at home, at school, at work, and at play as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living today.

"What do you reflect?"

I sat at my desk, working on my next book, Listen to Life Like a Child. I got to a sentence where I needed just the right word, and coudn’t think of it. So I took my hands off the keyboard, and looked away from the computer screen.

Just then I noticed a pink-colored light on the wall. Where was this light coming from? I looked around for what it could be. I noticed that the morning sunlight was pouring in the window by the desk. So I figured that something must be reflecting the sunlight. I looked around for something pink and couldn’t find anything.

But then I noticed a paperweight on the desk. The Salvation Army gave it to me for speaking at a volunteer appreciation banquet. I had never noticed before, but its top has a reddish tint. The sunlight reflected off of it and onto the wall.

In the same way, you have no light of your own. But you can reflect God’s light into a dark world and let them just see the light, not you, as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

"Whats on your table?"

One Christmas, my aunt gave a vase to my brother and a vase to me. They looked just look alike and came from my grandparents’ home. Here’s what her note with the vase said: “This vase is one of a pair, just as you’re one of two brothers. Now just because they’re a pair doesn’t mean they have to be identical. Each one has its beauty marks, bumps and flaws, just as you do. But they were made to be together or to work together, just as you were. And no matter where each vase goes, he always knows he has a brother somewhere…

“Let this vase remind you of family, and most importantly, of being a sibling. There are few bonds in this world as tight or as tough to keep together. As your grandfather said, ‘Sometimes you’ve got to treat each other like strangers. You know, with good manners and respect, the way you’d treat somebody you don’t know.’” She concluded with, “But most of all, love one another all you can.”

That vase is on a table in our family room where I see it everyday, and remember to thank God for my brother, and my aunt.

"Are you connected?"

I was working outside on our farm, doing some winter clean-up, when I noticed a cable overhead that crossed the road.

I followed the cable to a pole on our side of the road, found it coming down the pole, but then it just stopped. It was cut off. It didn’t connect to anything or go anywhere. It just quit on the side of the pole.

Well, by this time I was curious. So I crossed the road, following the cable to a pole over there. The cable ran down the pole, came to about waist high on me, and stopped. That’s right, like the other side, it was just cut off. It wasn’t connected to the pedestal that was only a few feet away. It just quit on the side of the pole.

That cable has no current purpose because it’s cut off. Is life like that for you sometimes? You feel cut off, like you have no current purpose? And you wonder, “Why am I here?”

You can discover your life purpose by connecting with God. God is just a few feet away. Just open your heart and get connected as you listen to life today.

"Are you as young as you used to be?"

The other day I was talking with someone about wearing bifocals. “Well,” she said, “You’re not as young as you used to be!”

I thought about that and decided that not just middle-aged guys with bifocals can say that. My 13-year-old daughter can say that and so can my 4-year-old nephew. But too often we use this thought of not being as young as we used to be as an excuse for not doing or stopping making a life.

Then I remembered that architect Frank Lloyd Wright began his most prolific work at 69. Michelangelo was 71 when appointed as chief architect of St. Peter’s in Rome. Thomas Edison was still inventing in his eighties. Gandhi was 60 when he led a two-hundred mile march against the British salt tax.

You know, if these guys can do what they did at their ages, maybe your best years are ahead of you. As long as God gives you breath and life, God has a plan for you, a plan for you to prosper. So listen to life today for what God has to say as you make a life, not just a living.