SOME THINGS I WISH I HAD SAID

There are a lot of statements I wish I had been the first to make. Thinking back to my early years of going to church with my parents, I recall some statements by a few of my pastors. Dr. Willis E. Howard was the pastor under whose leadership I accepted Christ as my Savior and was baptized. He was a great preacher and always came into the morning worship wearing a tux. During his sermons, he would frequently ask: "Listen, are you listening? Are you sure you are listening? He later wrote two books entitled:"Are You Listening?" and "Are You Sure You are Listening?"

During my teens, Dr. Fred C. Eastham was our pastor. He was a man's man. He used to say "I'd Rather Be a one legged optimist than a four-legged pessimist."

Charles Wellborn was my pastor at Seventh & James Baptist Church. He was a student at Baylor when that campus experienced a student-led revival that spread to Dallas, Houston, Ft. Worth, Atlanta, Birmingham and other cities across the south. Wellborn once said: "We Baptists are many, but we are not much."

Jim Rohn, one of the great motivational speakers of our day, once made an inspired statement. As he was in a hurry to get to the airport and was caught in traffic, he said the following: "Let's turn this frustration into fascination." He was looking at all the cars causing the delay.

My friend Ed Watkins once told me: "I would rather have influence than power any day."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said: "Freedom and opportunity are not a license to climb upward by pushing other people down."

It is always inspiring to read materials that make an impact on your life. It is interesting that you don't have to have a personal relationship with people who are inspiring. How inspiring Jesus must have been to persuade the first disciples to leave their work and families to follow him. No that is REAL inspiration.