Morningside Devotionals

A  View on Vocaroo >>   I'm selfish, most of you who know me know that I grew up without brothers or sisters, but in a good family. In a non-nuclear family , I never knew my father, who left when I was 2 years old and evidently never looked back that I'm aware of.  But I had a great family, had a mom;  gramma, a couple of uncles;  who helped raise me, but I was raised as an individual amongst adults. And so as a result, my outlook was very  "me"-istic and in today's culture, a meistic outlook, fits in real well, because today's culture is all meme meme.  And I don't mean that, as in me-me's ;meme has been social media, I mean, that, as in a very heightened sense of me, almost narcissistic to the point of being a phobia in our culture. I actually know, ladies 25 to 35 years old, whose entire concept of who they want anything to do with, is, who makes them feel the best, who makes them happiest consequently their very difficult to deal with ...

View on Vocaroo >>   The idea of tact is often more easily expressed than being tactful itself. Tact is explained in many different ways, but it actually is an ability to allow people to do the things that they most naturally would like to do anyway, allow people to make the choices that they need to make in order to satisfactorily, live out their lives with as much dignity as possible; with as much respect as possible with as much favorability as possible; amongst each other.  And that's a difficult thing because all of us are so different and all of us are so devoted to our differences. Even though we'd like to think that we're not. That in the instance of an individual who is so tightly wound to their own perception of who they must be; with regard to other people around them. Tact is a trait that is really appreciated when it's applied, but very difficult sometimes to master.  When we were in the military, it was said the tact is the ability to get soldie...

View on Vocaroo >>   Loyalty is a trait that we believe that we understand because loyalty is something that we believe that we can easily see. And that we can render into a believable category in our minds, as we think about what it means to have the characteristic of loyalty.  But loyalty may not be exactly what we think most of the time. For example, when a person is with someone everyday day in Day Out, 24/7 is that loyalty or is that presence? Does presence merit loyalty?  Here's a simple contention to consider. Loyalty is the characteristic of an individual being by your side; when being by your side is going to cost them. Now loyalty is also the characteristic of remaining in your way of teaching or in the master's way of teaching when that's going to have a cost ascribed to it. Otherwise, it isn't necessarily loyalty so much as it might be merely a relationship. A loving relationship, a friendship, a loving friendship, a kind relationship that exist...

View on Vocaroo >>   Any fool can know. The point is to understand. -Albert Einstein.   Knowledge is power. -Sir France's Bacon.   An investment in knowledge, always pays the best interest. -Benjamin Franklin   If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it. -Unknown?   So we have a lot of sayings about knowledge. We have a lot of knowledge about knowledge, and you probably believe that you understand what knowledge is?  So one of the things that we want to try to understand is that knowledge is not just something that you possess inherently, and naturally, but that knowledge is one of those attributes that can be enhanced through a process of education, knowledge is not just retention. Knowledge is not just the ability to spew back out what you have taken in; there is some mysterious aspect to knowledge that has to do with its use; its application?  And then there is a thing about knowledge that is visionary....

View on Vocaroo >>   Justice, well, we could try to define justice. We could think about justice as the absence of injustice. That's always an interesting way to think about things. The opposite of dark is the presence of light? That in a totally dark room lighting, just a small candle, takes all of the total darkness out. However darkness has a power to it. In a totally dark room, you and I both know that, that little candle's light; yes, it shines bright down in that corner. But it does not light up and illuminate the whole room.  Justice is not a concept. Although it is an idea and a concept; justice is a result. Justice is the action that takes place and is a result of what is happening in the life. So justice is an outcome, and justice is also the input to achieve that outcome. Justice is not as easily understood, nor defined as we might believe. We have certain paradigms in our minds that we believe define justice, and therefore, we believe and think th...

View on Vocaroo >>   First Kings, chapter 3 verses 16 through 28. Tells the story that one day, 2 women came to king Solomon, and one of them said your majesty, this woman, and I live in the same house not long ago. My baby was born at home in 3 days later, her baby was born. Nobody else was there with us one night while we were all asleep. She rolled over on her baby and he died. Then while I was still asleep, she got up and took my son out of my bed, she put him in her bed, then she put her dead baby next to me in the morning, when I got up to feed my son, I saw that he was dead. But when I looked at him in the light, I knew he wasn't my son, the other woman shouted, he was your son, my baby is alive. The dead baby is yours, the first woman yelled mine is alive. They argued back-and-forth in front of Solomon, and finally, he said, both of you say this live baby is yours someone bring me a sword. A sword was brought in Solomon, ordered. Cut the baby in half that way...

View on Vocaroo >>   Integrity is one of those words that everyone thinks that they understand what it means and they probably basically do. And that they would define it, as don't ever lie. However, there's a lot more to integrity than that.   Because in the considerations of what it means to have a leader who has bearing, courage decisiveness, dependability, endurance, enthusiasm, who has this quality of initiative. Then, there is integrity, but there's also a sense of justice, a sense of judgment, knowledge, loyalty, tact and unselfishness.   But integrity is the prime factor when you're talking about, who, what, when where, how or why of any event that takes place in a person's life, and any information concerning that event, no matter what the event is, the event can be as simple as a family dinner well, who's going to be involved? In it, where's it going to be? When's it going to take place? What are we having to eat? And why are we hav...