One Ordinary Perspective

The last iPhone I bought came beautifully packaged. The designers over at Apple really knew what they were doing when they decided to make opening their product box a joyful experience. Every step of opening it was a moment of discovery. Once I got the lid off and held the device in my hand, I wanted to turn it on and start playing with the thing but I resisted so I could read the setup instructions. Once I went through each step-by-beautifully-designed-step, my phone was on, connected to the internet, held my contacts and emails and I was ready to take on life. Ever wonder why we're not issued a step-by-beautifully-designed-step instruction manual on the day we're born? Sure, we have parents, teachers, trusted friends, and religious leaders who we believe speak for God on our behalf, and others whom we confide in and listen to. We have holy scripture and inspired men and women who impart the wisdom of the ages to help guide our decisions, and all those can also act as in

By Mark A. Tenney Well, here we are, at the beginning of another New Year. 2017 is in the rear view mirror and we’re all anticipating what this new set of 12 months will bring. In the time-honored tradition, we begin the year feeling some desire to take another look at what we’ll do with all this time and potential out in front of us. We set goals, with the best of intentions of achieving them. We’ll work hard and persevere, we tell ourselves, and it’ll be awesome when we achieve what we set out to do. The problem is that when February rolls around, we’ve either not started, or lost our enthusiasm, or we just didn’t have the time, or whatever. Our goals remain unfulfilled for yet another year. Will this be the result again this year and every one from now on? Or, will this year be different? Everyone knows that each person comes into this world with unlimited potential. Yet, somewhere along the path of growing up, we lose the belief that we can be anyt