“The proper role of the judiciary is one of interpreting and applying the law, not making it.” – Sandra Day O’Conner
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Thought For the Day: The Proper Role of the Judiciary Is One of Interpreting and Applying the Law, Not Making It
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Apply, Interpet, Judiciary, Law, Not Making It, Proper Role, Sandra Day O'Conner, Thought For the Day
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Each Day Is A Gift
Each Day Is A Gift
by Michael Doyle
Each day, it seems, is a gift received
From God above, or so it is believed
But there is no real proof to be given
So, a little doubt might yet be forgiven.
Prayer doesn't change God, just the man,
And from this, confidence is taken as it can.
Thanksgiving alongside rightminded supplication
Is the fruit of the spirit, right for this nation.
Answers to prayers come in three flavors to savor.
Each of them according to God's plan without favor.
Played out as words as trite as yes, no, and maybe
Sometimes, I fall apart as it continues to slay me.
Twice removed from the beliefs of only yesterday,
I often find myself alone and stumbling along the way
The past is as deep as the evening's passing shadow.
But my faith sometimes hangs out in the shallows.
I find myself fighting the good fight every day.
Wondering why it is that this is the only way,
And wondering what the value is in what we pray
When our Father knows every word that we might say.
Answers to prayers come in three flavors to savor.
Each of them according to God's plan without favor.
Played out as words as trite as yes, no, and maybe
Sometimes, I fall apart as it continues to slay me.
I have seen better people than me taken harshly down.
I have seen the wisest of men made to look the clown.
Where it is, how it is when it is from the very start,
I know with faith that it begins inside my broken heart.
In our attempts at prayer, we learn to patiently exhale,
While God's spirit sometimes smiles as we learn to inhale.
This is not effort but the way that is according to God's plan,
And, after all, I am not an angel, just an ordinary man.
Answers to prayers come in three flavors to savor.
Each of them according to God's plan without favor.
Played out as words as trite as yes, no, and maybe
Sometimes, I fall apart as it continues to slay me.
(c) May 16, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Alone, Answers, Beliefs, Believed, Bible, Change God, Christianity, Confidence, Day, Deep, Doubt, Faith, Fall Apart, Forgiven, Fruit of the Spirit, Gift, God, Good fight, Jesus, Man, Maybe, No, Our Father, Passing Shadow, Poetry and Poems, Prayer, Prayers, Proof, Received, Savor, Shallow, Slay Me, Stumbling, Supplication, The Past, Three Flavors, Twice Removed, Value, Yes, Yesterday
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Thought For the Day: No Matter How Many Mistakes You Make Or How Slow You Progress, You Are Still Way Ahead of Everyone Who Isn’t Trying
“No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.” – Tony Robbins
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Mistakes, No Matter, Progress, Slow, Thought For the Day, Tony Robbins, Try, Way Ahead
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First Principles: My Concern Is Not Whether God Is On Our Side; My Greatest Concern Is To Be On God’s Side, For God Is Always Right
“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” – Abraham Lincoln
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Concern, First Principles, God, God's Side, Our Side, Right
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Moving Me Forward
Moving Me Forward
by Michael Doyle
Like God's only child
I arise feeling wild
As I step out of the shadow
To see where this goes.
Grace takes me by the hand
To help me understand
My precious freedom
Within my Father's kingdom.
I dance on the air,
Feeling as though I haven't a care.
The spirit of the Lord
Keeps moving me forward.
With God's word, it is spoken.
All my chains are broken.
At the sound of God's name,
I am cleansed of my shame.
The spirit of the Lord brings freedom,
And I live the love of His kingdom.
Feeling free and alive forevermore,
My Lord has opened His door.
(c) May 15, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Air, Broken, Care, Chains, Cleansed, Dance, Door, Father's Kingdom, Feeling, Forward, God, God's Name, Goes, Grace, Move, Moving Me Forward, Only Child, Poetry and Poems, Precious Freedom, Shadow, Shame, Spirit of the Lord, Spoken, Understand, Wild, Word
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First Principles: Prayer Steadies One When He Is Walking In Slippery Places – Even If Things Asked For Are Not Given
“Prayer steadies one when he is walking in slippery places – even if things asked for are not given.” – Benjamin Harrison
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Asked, Benjamin Harrison, First Principles, Not Given, Prayer, Slippery Places, Steady, Walk
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Thought For the Day: Just As One Candle Lights Another and Can Light Thousands of Other Candles, So One Heart Illuminates Another Heart and Can Illuminate Thousands of Other Hearts
” Just as one candle lights another and can light thousands of other candles, so one heart illuminates another heart and can illuminate thousands of other hearts.” – Leo Tolstoy
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Candle, Heart, Illuminate, Leo Tolstoy, Light, Thought For the Day, Thousands
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A Spring’s Walk
A Spring's Walk
by Michael Doyle
Someone once said something like a homily
That the worst misfortune is to have been happy.
To have lost this feeling becomes its own misery,
Born in our life as it's tragic inequality.
Once felt, the search begins for a remedy.
Where can be better than the woods, naturally?
There, among the trees, where birds often talk,
It is just the path to get lost within a walk.
The warblers know their songs of compassion,
While the pileated woodpeckers know their fashion.
There's no need to render their notes into words,
The tune is enough without nouns or impeccable verbs.
Walking in mindfulness, finding peace along the way.
This is the best of a breezy, sunny sort of day.
Up in the air are clouds aloft in the sky of blue,
And just as suddenly as you were down, nothing bothers you.
In a splendid woodland, it is easy to find the wonderful.
It is everywhere, all around, in all that is beautiful.
It occurs to me that it is God's brilliant artistry
That I see beside the trails laid out as a floral tapestry.
If only we might learn again to listen as we peek,
We might learn that all animals know how to speak.
It's only that human beings have forgotten to listen,
We would see the world as it is with a clearer vision.
(c) May 14, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged All Animals, Artistry, Beautiful, Birds, Bother, Compassion, Fashion, Feeling, Floral Tapestry, Forgotten, God, Happy, Homily, Listen, Mindfulness, Misery, Misfortune, Natural, Notes, Nouns, Path, Peace, Peek, Pileated Woodpeckers, Poetry and Poems, Remedy, Render, Search, Sky of Blue, Song, Speak, Spring, Sunny, Talk, The Woods, Tragic Inequality, Trails, Trees, Verbs, Vision, Walk, Warbler, Wonderful, Woodland, Words, World
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First Principles: When I Hear of the Destruction of A Species, I Feel Just As If All the Works of Some Great Writer Have Perished
“When I hear of the destruction of a species, I feel just as if all the works of some great writer have perished.” – Theodore Roosevelt, in a Letter to Frank Michler Chapman (February 16, 1899)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged All the Works, Destruction, First Principles, Hear, Perished, Species, Theodore Roosevelt, Writer
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Thought For the Day: Knowing Trees, I Understand the Meaning of Patience. Knowing Grass, I Can Appreciate Persistence
“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.” – Hal Borland
