Illustrations 8

At a 20-year class reunion, two guys hadn't seen each other since graduation. One was fat and the other extremely skinny. The large guy slapped skinny on the back and said, "From the looks of you, there must have been a famine in the land."

"Americans are killing themselves with knives . . . and forks . . .and spoons!" --Paul Harvey

Junior watched as his father finished eating a heavy meal, and then loosened his belt. "Look Mom! Dad has just moved his decimal point over two places!"

As a high school basketball coach, John Wooden created a "thank you" rule for his players. Every time a player scored, he was required to acknowledge the person on the team who had assisted. Some of the players thought this rule would take too much time away from the game. However, Wooden explained to his team that a simple gesture like a nod, a thumbs-up, or a wink would take them less than a second.

Wooden believed that if you didn't show your appreciation to others, they would have no way of knowing their contributions were recognized. And without recognition, people start to pull back--both from performing and from cooperating with others. Encouragement is a key element of teamwork and success. --Bits & Pieces, August 2007

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." --Sir Winston Churchill

Envy always gripes when others are blessed. (Kent Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2004, 61)

“The probability of life arising by chance is the same probability as throwing a six on a dice five million consecutive times.” --Sir Fred Hoyle, astronomer and mathematician (1915-2001)

In kindergarten, we're taught that a frog turning into a prince is a fairy tale. In college, we’re taught that a frog turning into a prince is science.

"Anyone who examines the complexity of the human body and doesn't see intelligent design...is unintelligent." --Unknown

Excellence

Do It Right The First Time

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"--John Wooden, basketball coach

Cheap, Quick, and Good

The following sign was posted in a farm equipment repair shop:
"We do three types of jobs--Cheap, Quick, and Good. You can have any two. A good quick job won't be cheap. A good job cheap won't be quick. A cheap job quick won't be good." (Reader's Digest, February 1994, p.127)

Separating the Best from the Average

"If you want to know what separates the best from the average, and the excellent from the mediocre, it is working just as hard at what you have to do as what you like to do." --Kent Crockett

Kent Crockett's Sermon Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com

$2 Haircuts

Two hair cutting salons were in serious competition with each other, each cutting their prices to attract business. Finally, one salon put a sign: "Haircuts--Only $2!"

Not to be outdone, the other salon put up a sign that read: "We repair $2 haircuts!"

Kent Crockett's Sermon Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com

Is Bigger Better?

"Bigger isn't better. Better is better." --Rick Warren

The Definition of Excellence

"Excellence is taking every assignment seriously for the glory of God." --Kent Crockett

Most of us know Babe Ruth set a record with 714 home runs in his baseball career. But few remember he struck out 1,330 times on the way to that record. Most people know Jonas Salk discovered the polio vaccine, but few realize he had to fail two hundred times before he found the right one.

Nearly everyone who watches professional basketball agrees Michael Jordan is one of the greatest players of all time. But most people don't realize he failed to make the basketball team his sophomore year in high school. He didn't quit playing because of one failure.

Henry Ford went bankrupt five times before he finally succeeded. Thomas Edison failed over ten thousand times in his attempts to find the correct filament for the light bulb. When an aide urged him to quit after several hundred failures, he replied, "Why quit now? We know of at least a hundred things that won't work."

Learning from our failures is part of the process of being successful. None of these people could have accomplished what they did if they had listened to the fear of failure. (Kent Crockett, The 911 Handbook, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003, 69)

"Your organization (or personal life) will never get better unless you are willing to admit that there is something wrong with it." --Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf