This list picks up from Volume I. 51. Read something substantive every day. 52. Become a problem solver, not a problem reactor. 53. Acknowledge your aches and pains, but do not yield to them. 54. Quantity is seldom more important than quality. 55. Education is more for living than making a living. 56. Dust since you must, so start the day with dusting off the mind and soul. 57. Persons young and old should put the body in motion on virtually every opportunity. 58. Recall your best memories, so to permit experiences live again. 59. In experience make memories worth remembering. 60. Do not be offended at the losses of this life in growing old – soon fringe benefits will be so much better. 61. Be assured your questions will ultimately be answered. 62. Believe there is a sure and good will of God that will prevail. 63. Hope is like living in the future heaven – in the present. 64. One should be pleased that he or she lived in his or her own era. 65. Personal problems are similar to that they have always been, and so are solutions. 66. Most offenses are manufactured in the minds of the offended. 67. Blessed are those who know the difference between the deliberate and the accidental. 68. Civilization is largely advanced in appreciation. 69. Know the difference between a question mark and a period in a conversation. 70. Most human jams are made from forbidden fruit. 71. When in prayer, don’t bother to give God instructions. 72. Human teachers grade on the curve: God on the cross. 73. Peace between persons does not begin with a hug or kiss, but with a smile. 74. We begin to understand ourselves when we find out what it takes to discourage us. 75. If God is my co-pilot, I need to swap seats. 76. Whatever angers us tends to control us. 77. God is often anonymous, and we have a word for it – coincidence. 78. Don’t fret about death – it only happens once. 79. Mankind’s greatest experiences are not found in seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, or touching. 80. Part of knowing oneself is revealed in analyzing what stimulates a person to be anything. 81. The loneliest persons are, in general, least proficient in their language, or they avoid using what they do know. 82. It is true that sometimes drinking a cup of coffee can settle a problem, but the problem wasn’t significant. 83. Defriended by a former friend should never be cause for losing the memory of the friendship when it lived. 84. Prayer is not wishing, but conversation with God about life affairs and his will in them. 85. Trust others until they break your trust, but even then reluctantly. 86. Failure in life is often caused by little sins. 87. Big sins sometimes stimulate repentance, while little sins tend to grow. 88. Loving children helps us develop our life values. 89. Rules are easier to follow if you call them guidelines. 90. Leave your legitimate absolutes with God, so to be more gracious to sinners. 91. Prayer beats worry in every dimension of life. 92. Whether in biology or adoption, family love and respect makes a person better in all. 93. Activism is possible without hatred, so engage it well if for the good of others. 94. Learn the difference between reasons and excuses. 95. Love your enemies, it messes up their heads. 95. Learn how to be ministered unto as well as to minister. 96. It is the duty of the wise to educate more than disagree. 97. Faith in God deals with and covers the most important issues in life. 98. If on the first try you fail, be sure to check out the directions before you try again. 99. To fret over anything is to lose precious time. 100. Learn early in life that all proverbs do not work all the time, but enough do to make their manufacture rewarding. . . . It ought to be remembered that persons often have proverbs that would serve them well if they were somewhat faithful in practicing them. Proverbs become, for many, a short-cut to discipline.
The proverb is a road sign to follow some action or concept that if put in a more sophisticated concept does not motivate quite as well. It is sometimes convenient to let this or that one proverb drop, but keep respect for it. We ought to make our proverbs carefully and loathe to breaking them, except for good reason. That means we must know what reason is. Ol’ Scotty learned a lot about what a good man ought to be and do when he recalled his wife’s favorite proverb: If It’s Doubtful It’s Dirty. She applied it to everything from laundry to life. While examining a shirt collar to decide whether it would pass for another day’s wear Scotty would hear his wife in her beautiful Scottish brogue shout at him: Scotty, put it in the wash. If it’s doubtful it’s dirty. Seems like an excellent proverb for much we find in life. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020