In Your Own Words
In school, my English teacher asked the class if they knew what it meant to be persistent. Students nodded, but nobody volunteered an answer. We hadn’t memorized the dictionary definition and were afraid anything we said might be wrong. “If you can’t write the definition and use the word in a sentence,” she said, “you […]
Convince the Unconvinced
A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. Dale Carnegie quoted those words in his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and for good reason. The truism has been stated in different forms for centuries. If the apostle Paul didn’t read Dale Carnegie’s writings, then maybe the Holy Spirit […]
Anticipation
In a story, the place where you visualize yourself determines how deeply you are affected. If you feel like you’re observing the action, your reading experience will be much less moving than it would be if you saw yourself as a participant. Suppose you pick up the newspaper and see the picture of a bad […]
Quiet Time
When I was a kid, I had laryngitis for a few days, which made it impossible to talk. My mother said that was a blessing, but I called it frustrating. I had to write notes to say anything. At another time, I had an infection in both ears, making me feel like I was at […]