By Mike Riley

The story is told of a farmer who one day decided to plow the south forty acres in his field. However, his tractor needed oil, so he started for the barn to get it, but on the way, he noticed that the pigs hadn’t been fed.

As he neared the corncrib, he saw a pile of sacks which reminded him that the potatoes were sprouting. On the way to the potato pit, he passed the woodpile and remembered that the kitchen stove was burning low and needed wood.

By Mike Riley

In the stress filled moments of our lives, having no visible means for encouraging strength, our desperate hands often clutch for that intangible called, “hope.” Hope tells us to press on when everything else tells us to give up. Where would we be, what would we do, without hope?

By Mike Riley

A reporter once asked President Herbert Hoover, “Mr. President, how do you handle criticism? Do you ever get agitated or tense?” “No,” President Hoover replied, seemingly surprised at the question, “of course not.”

 By Mike Riley

Do you remember how as children we used to play like we were something that we were not? We’d say, “Let’s play like we’re cowboys,” or “Let’s play like we’re firemen,” or “Let’s play like we’re policemen.”