Wisdom for Breakfast

By Ed MUrrell

Wisdom for Breakfast will encourage and uplift readers while sharing valuable bible-based life lessons, cautions and motivations on many subjects such as money, relationships, education, and getting and keeping a positive outlook on life. Great teaching for all wanting to enjoy the wonderful journey down "the road of life."

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Harbor Press
• Release date: Jan 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386459088

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Wisdom for Breakfast

Wisdom for Breakfast

Ed Murrell

Copyright © 2017 by Ed Murrell.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Murrell/New Harbor Press

558 E. Castle Pines Pkwy, STE B-4117

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www.NewHarborPress.com

Ordering Information:Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the Special Sales Department at the address above.

Wisdom for Breakfast/ Ed Murrell -- 1st ed.

To my wonderful parents, Charles and Mary Murrell:

For the faithful lives you lived, the wonderful parents you were, and still are in many ways, and the wisdom you shared, I dedicate this book to you.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

New Start in a New Year

Springtime at the Breakfast Assembly

A Summer of Wisdom

Wisdom on Fall Mornings

Breakfast with a Side of Wisdom on Cold Mornings

It’s Been a Pleasure

State Capitals

Books by Ed Murrell

Preface

I have written other books on wisdom, encouragement and hope. Those books consist of short stories, devotional pieces, poetry, memorable quips and sayings, based primarily on the Bible. Wisdom for Breakfast is much the same, but with a little something extra. New stories, poetry, and sayings are all here once again, but this time they are delivered by a fictional character named General George S. Grumpy Taylor. The introduction will explain this in more detail.

So, while you, hopefully, gain some wisdom as you read, you will also be entertained by General Taylor and his friends at the morning breakfast assembly at Camp Staghorn.

Introduction

Thank you for selecting Wisdom for Breakfast to add to your thoughts and your library as you travel down the road of life. I hope the ideas, tips, lessons and encouragements you find here will help make your travels a little safer, a little lighter, and, ultimately, a little more rewarding.

All of the wisdom in this book is delivered by General George S. Grumpy Taylor. His life’s journey and his many years of studying the Word of God more than adequately qualify him to speak on many subjects.

His sayings are in no particular order. You never know from day to day what’s going to happen next in life, and you will never know from saying to saying what’s going to come up next in this book. Expect surprises along the way.

There are three types of quotations in this book: straight quotes, Good morning quotations, and conversations. All carry the same weight.

General Taylor, who retired from the Army in 1999, delivers his short messages from a small podium standing on a ten by ten, two step high, carpeted platform, to those assembled for breakfast at Camp Staghorn; an independent, seventy-five room, all DOD branch retreat facility located in a heavily wooded area about ninety miles northwest of Houston, Texas.

Breakfast is served from six o’clock to seven-fifteen, every morning of the year. Everyone staying in the retreat is invited, along with all of the inhabitants of the nearby communities. Attendance ranges from fifty to one hundred-fifty, swelling to over two hundred every now and then. Local Pastors rotate opening the breakfast with a short prayer. An invited speaker closes breakfast with a short motivational speech.

The morning breakfast assembly has been a mainstay of Camp Staghorn for twenty-five years. General Taylor is the assemblies’ twenty-fifth closing speaker. The previous speakers were very good, but none of them were asked to return beyond their one year terms. After the following Thoughts for the Day were delivered by General Taylor, he was asked to return for a second term.

Have fun and grow your wisdom.

Ed Murrell

CHAPTER 1

New Start in a

New Year

Lieutenant Joseph Logan:

"Attention!

Happy New Year, everyone.

This morning, we are honored to welcome General George S. Taylor to Camp Staghorn. General Taylor will be our closing speaker here at the breakfast assembly every morning for the next twelve months.

I’ve heard the General speak on several occasions and can tell you that he makes his points quickly. When General Taylor steps up here to speak, be ready to listen and be ready to think. Be careful about sitting up front as the General sometimes picks someone in the room, usually up here near the podium, to talk over his points with. Heads up, he is known to many as General ‘Grumpy’ Taylor. You have been warned.

Please welcome General George S. Taylor."

Applause

General George S. Grumpy Taylor:

"Thank you, Lieutenant Logan.

Good morning, everyone.

Happy New Year!

It is an honor and a blessing to have this opportunity to be with you every morning at the breakfast assembly here at Camp Staghorn.

I have a few things that I would like to talk to you about over the course of this year. Listen to them. Learn from them. Take this opportunity to grow in wisdom by learning a few of the things I have learned in my 76 years on this earth, and in my 55 years studying God’s Word. It is my hope that at least one of you will be helped by at least one of the ideas I am going to relate. If that happens, I will consider my time here a success.

I will talk about sex, money, politics, religion, bad habits and good ones, being over-worked and under-appreciated, baseball, and a host of other topics I think you will find very interesting.

I believe in God! I love God! And I try to live by what He has taught me. Most of my thoughts for the day will come directly from what I have learned from the Bible.

Speaking of the Bible, I encourage you to read it every day. I consider it the source of true wisdom; the fast track to growing wise as you head down, what I like to call, the road of life.

Please pardon a nonsensical comment or two along the way. There will be a few. I can’t help myself. Sometimes I just like to be unpredictable. And sometimes nonsense can help make sense out of things. See if you don’t think that is true after the first month or so. Don’t worry about confusing biblical with non-biblical thoughts. You will know when I am being nonsensical.

I don’t know how the previous speakers have done things, but here is how I will close the assembly every morning: No matter the topic, I will make my points quickly and with as few wasted words as possible. Some days I will be up here speaking for less than a minute. A speech of ten minutes would be, for me, an oration of grand proportion. You’ll probably not have to endure anything like that, at least not very often. There will be no introduction before I step up here after today. I will walk up to the podium, say what I have to say, and then I will dismiss you and the breakfast assembly will be over. Take what I say and think about it as you go through the day. The point of these brief morning talks is for all of us to grow in wisdom.

This morning, as we start the New Year, I have just this brief message for you: On the road of life, New Year’s Day is a good time to clean the windshield.

Think about that and all that it implies as you go through the day, today.

Have a blessed day. I will see you tomorrow morning.

You are dismissed!"

"Good morning!

I hope all of you enjoyed ringing in the New Year, yesterday. I had an especially blessed time, starting my work here, and meeting many of you. I feel like I have already made a few friends. Thank you for your kindness. I look forward to meeting more of you today and in the days ahead.

I will be out front after the assembly on most mornings. Please come by and say hello. I don’t bite and I trust none of you do, either. Or, if you do, I trust that you have had all of your shots. HA!

Now here is our thought for the day; the second day of this brand new year. Take this thought and carry it with you for the rest of the year. Let it motivate you to get the most out of your time. Here it is: There is no bench in life. If you’re alive and can function at all, you’re in the game. Now get out there and play to the best of your ability.

God bless each and every one of you.

You are dismissed!"

Sometimes all you can do about a thing is pull off the road a minute, furrow your brow, shake your head, whisper a little prayer, check your direction and get back out on the road again.

Every American should make a new year’s resolution to talk less, eat less, spend less, and look for God more. Oh, yes, and stop cursing.

"Good morning.

I am still quite new here, so I really wouldn’t know, but Lieutenant Logan has informed me that we have a lot of new faces in here this morning. Welcome. I am glad you are here at Camp Staghorn. Enjoy your stay.

Here is my thought for the day. Please pardon its difficult nature, but take the thought and consider it in light of the current circumstances of your life.

Here it is: A lot of people are in prison right now even though they have never committed a ‘crime’. It is a personal prison that is terribly confining. Sentences run for years, decades and even for life. Appeals fall on deaf ears. This horrible prison is called DEBT! It’s a rough place to be. A truly wise person knows his or her financial limitations and lives within them to stay away from debt.

I’ll talk more about money in the days ahead.

Have a debt-free day!

You are dismissed!"

When you come across a complainer, run away as fast as you can. Their’s is a terrible disease and very contagious. A wise person does not complain much and does not listen to chronic complainers.

"Good morning.

Do you see this gray hair of mine? You get that by living a while and experiencing a lot of different things in life; some good, some not so good. This morning, I want to share something with you that I have done over the last fifty-five years that has helped me deal with those not so good experiences.

Here it is: For best results in life, read in your Bible every day. Just take a few minutes and read a chapter or two, or three. I think it’s best to do this in the morning, before you start your day. Then you can think about what you read as you go through the day. I think it’s amazing what this simple discipline can do for your physical, spiritual, mental and emotional well-being. It sure has helped me in all of those areas.

Have a blessed day out there today.

You are dismissed!"

On the road of life, let your yes be yes, your no be no and your ‘not sure’ be ‘not sure’ because sometimes we just are not sure.

"Good morning!

Whoever dropped that plate full of food a little while ago, I am sorry that happened to you, but it did give me a great lead-in to the thought for the day: Some days are T-bone