Author unknown

One day, an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget.

As he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said,

“Okay, time for a quiz” and he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouth Mason jar and set it on the table in front of him. He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.

When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?” Everyone in the class yelled, “Yes.”

The time management expert replied, “Really?” He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He then asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?”

By this time the class was on to him. “Probably not,” one of them answered.

“Good!” he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, “Is this jar full?” “No!” the class shouted.

Once again he said, “Good.” Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”

One eager student raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it!”

“No,” the speaker replied, “that’s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”

What are the ‘big rocks’ in your life? Time with your loved ones, your faith, your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching or mentoring others?

Remember to put these big rocks in first or you’ll never get them in at all. So, tonight, or in the morning, when you are reflecting on this story, ask yourself this question: What are the ‘big rocks’ in my life? Then, put those in your jar first.

© Wake Up With the Wolf Show – 93.1 the Wolf – WPAW.  Please share this with your friends!

GARTH BROOKS has announced that he will return to Nashville to perform a benefit concert for flood relief on December 17th at Bridgestone Arena. The announcement was made during a press conference this morning at the State Capitol in Nashville.

Complete ticket information for the general public will be announced Wed., November 3rd at noon Central time (1pm Eastern).

Author unknown

Don’t spoil me. I know quite well that I ought not to have all I ask for, I’m only testing you.

Don’t be afraid to be firm with me. I prefer it, it makes me feel secure.

Don’t let me form bad habits. I have to rely on you to detect them in a early stage.

Don’t make me feel smaller then I am. It only makes me behave stupidly “big”

Don’t correct me in front of people, if you can help it. I`ll take much more notice if you talk quietly with me in private.

Don’t make me feel that my mistakes are sins. It upsets my sense of values.

Don’t protect me from consequences. I need to learn the painful way sometimes.

Don’t be too upset when I say “I hate you”. Sometimes it isn’t you I hate but your power over me.

Don’t take too much notice of my ailments. Sometimes they get me attention I don’t need.

Don’t nag. If you do, I shall have to protect myself by being deaf.

Don’t forget that I cannot explain myself as well as I should like. That’s why I am not always accurate.

Don’t put me off when I ask questions. If you do you’ll find that I stop asking and seek my information elsewhere.

Don’t be inconsistent. That completely confuses me and makes me lose faith in you.

Don’t tell me my fears are silly. They are terribly real and you can do much to reassure me if you try to understand.

Don’t ever suggest that you are perfect or infallible. It gives me too great a shock when I discover that you’re neither.

Don’t ever think that it is beneath your dignity to apologize to me. An honest apology makes me surprisingly warm towards you.

Don’t forget I love experimenting. I couldn’t get along without it, so please put up with it.

Don’t forget how quickly I am growing up. It must be difficult for you to keep pace with me, but please try to.

Don’t forget that I don’t thrive without lots of love and understanding, but I don’t need to tell you that, do I?

Please keep yourself fit and healthy. I need you.

© Wake Up With the Wolf Show – 93.1 the Wolf – WPAW.  Please share this with your friends!

Garth’s scheduled a news conference for 9am Eastern time. Click here to check it out.

Submitted by Wolf Gang member Kaylyn Sluss-Hammack

I feared being alone
Until I learned to like myself.
***************
I feared failure
Until I realized that I only fail when I don’t try.
***************
I feared people’s opinions
Until I learned that people would have opinions about me anyway.
***************
I feared rejection
Until I learned to have faith in myself.
***************
I feared life
Until I experienced its beauty.
***************
I feared the past
Until I realized that It could no longer hurt me.
***************
I feared love
Until it touched my heart, making the darkness fade into endless sunny days.
***************
I feared hate
Until I saw that it was nothing more than ignorance.
***************
I feared ridicule
Until I learned how to laugh at myself.
***************
I feared growing old
Until I realized that I gained wisdom every day.
***************
I feared change,
Until I saw that even the most beautiful butterfly had to undergo a metamorphosis before it could fly.
***************
I feared death
Until I realized that it’s not an end, but a beginning.
***************
I feared to choose
Until I realized that I am chosen by God.

You Choose!

© Wake Up With the Wolf Show – 93.1 the Wolf – WPAW.  Please share this with your friends!

Author unknown

A girl grumbled to her father about her hard life. She didn’t know what she had to do and wanted to give up. She felt tired of fighting and fighting. One problem had been finished, but the other overcame.

Her father, a cook, took her into the kitchen. He poured water into three pans and boiled them. After boiling, in the first pan he put some carrots, in the second he put some eggs and in the last he added coffee. He waited for them for a few minutes, without any words from his mouth.

The girl waited impatiently, confused by what her father did. After approximately 20 minutes, her father turned off the stove, took out the carrots and put them in a bowl. He took the eggs and put them into the bowl. After that, he poured coffee into a cup.

Turning back to his daughter, he asked, “My sweetheart, what do you see?” “Carrots, eggs, and coffee”, she replied.

Her father asked her to close her eyes and touch the carrots. She did, and felt that the carrots were soft. After that he asked her to take the eggs and break them. She found that the eggs were cooked and hard.  At last, the father asked her to smell the coffee. She asked, “What’s the meaning of all this, Father?” He explained that each thing had felt the same unfortunate, boiling water but each reacted differently. The strong and hard carrots became soft and weak after being in the boiling water. The fragile eggs and thin epidermis covering them became hard after cooking. Coffee cores were very unique, but they could change water. “Who are you?” asked her father. “When calamity knocks your door, what is your reaction? Are you carrots, eggs, or coffee?”

© Wake Up With the Wolf Show – 93.1 the Wolf – WPAW.  Please share this with your friends!

Submitted by Wolf Gang member Greg Rice

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man – who is fully dressed each morning by 8:00, shaved perfectly with his hair fashionably combed even though he is legally blind – moved to a nursing home today.

His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.

“I love it,” he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

“Mr. Jones, you haven’t seen the room,” I said.   “Just wait. That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” he replied.

“Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged… it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it… It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice: I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.

“Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away, just for this time in my life.”

Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from it what you’ve put in.  So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories!   Thank you for your part in filling my Memory Bank. I am still depositing.

© Wake Up With the Wolf Show – 93.1 the Wolf – WPAW.  Please share this with your friends!

Submitted by Wolf Gang member Kathy Murphy

We all wonder many, many times over WHY?

Sometimes we wonder, “What did I do to deserve this?” or “Why did God have to do this to me?” Here is a wonderful explanation!

A daughter is telling her Mother how everything is going wrong, she’s failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, “Absolutely Mom, I love your cake.”

“Here, have some cooking oil,” her Mother offers.

“Yuck,” says the daughter.

“How about a couple raw eggs?”

“Gross, Mom!”

“Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?”

“Mom, those are all yucky!”

To which the mother replies: “Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! “

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!

© Wake Up With the Wolf Show – 93.1 the Wolf – WPAW.  Please share this with your friends!

submitted by Wolf Gang member Pam Dunn

When I was a child, my mother used to embroider a great deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed me that she was embroidering.

I told her that it looked like a mess from where I was. As from the underside I watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand, I complained to her that it sure looked messy from where I sat.

She would smile at me, look down and gently say, “My son, you go about your playing for awhile, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side.”

I would wonder why she was using dark threads along with the bright ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my view. A few minutes would pass and then I would hear Mother’s voice say, “Son, come sit on my knee.” I did this, only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or a sunset.

I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy.

Then Mother would say to me, “My son, from underneath it did look messy and jumbled, but you did not realize that there was a pre-drawn plan on the top. It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my side and you will see what I was doing.”

Many times through the years I have looked up to God in heaven and said, “What is going on here? What are you doing?” He has answered, “I am embroidering your life.” I responded, “But it looks like a mess to me down here. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem so dark. Why can’t they all be bright?”

“My child,” a powerful voice from above said, “you go about your business of doing My business, and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on My knee and you will see the plan from My side.”

© Wake Up With the Wolf Show – 93.1 the Wolf – WPAW.  Please share this with your friends!

Army SGT Joey Smith lives in Thomasville. Nearly six years ago he was severely injured at his field office base while serving in Afghanistan. He not only endured massive injuries, but has also undergone numerous surgeries and hospitalizations since then. We’d like you to meet Joey… and then we’re going to ask you to help him. Click here to see his story.

The Wake Up with the Wolf Show is partnering with Homes for Our Troops, which is an organization that builds handicapped-accessible housing for our wounded heroes, one of whom could be your neighbor.  If you are able to donate supplies or labor, call (866) 7-TROOPS or visit www.homesforourtroops.org.  If you’d like to make a monetary donation, just stop by any Bank of America branch and tell them you want to donate to the SGT Joey Smith project.

And from the bottom of our hearts… THANK YOU!