Witnessing
Welcome blessed child
May you taste world’s endless gifts—
Vision awakens

Trusting
Eyes find breath of peace
Embracing each precious day—
Experience counts

Growing
Remembering youth
Innocent times of learning—
Treasures of friendship

Welcome blessed child
May you taste world’s endless gifts—
Vision awakens

Eyes find breath of peace
Embracing each precious day—
Experience counts

Remembering youth
Innocent times of learning—
Treasures of friendship


No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.
Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) was the 30th President of the United States, who served from 1923 to 1929.

The Bible instructs–and experience teaches–that praising God results in our burdens being lifted and our joys being multiplied.
From Psalm 138:1-3: “I give You thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing Your praise; I bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness, for You have exalted Your name and Your word above everything. On the day I called, You answered me; You increased my strength of soul.”

Time is no fast-hurrying stream, but a sportful sunlit ocean.
Experience is the grand spiritual Doctor.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was a Scottish-born essayist, historian, and philosopher. He was a leading writer of the Victorian era.

Sunset frames day’s end
Horizon returns light
Spirit shutters wind
Dreams ready to take flight
Beyond nightly moon
Every hour, beaming bright
Peace transcends below
Full of joyous delight
Distant, twinkling star
Suspended, flying kite
Hope gathers above
Darkness sparkles, all white
Breath of wayward cloud
Blocking out moon’s eyesight
Gentle breeze exhales
Skies brighten, rest of night
Final hour’s countdown
Horizon preps rewrite
Plot thickens again
Sunrise swaps out moonlight


All genuine education comes about through experience.
Hunger not to have, but to be.
John Dewey (1859-1952) was an American philosopher and educational reformer. A native of Vermont, he was born in Burlington.

Personal Bible study is the best way to sink your roots deeply into the faith. You’ll be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in season.
From Psalm 1:2-3: “But their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.”
David Jeremiah (born 1941) is an American pastor and Christian author.

I embrace emerging experience. I participate in discovery. I am a butterfly. I am not a butterfly collector. I want the experience of the butterfly.
Wisdom is having things right in your life and knowing why.
William Stafford (1914-1993) was an American poet.

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.
Experience enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Franklin P. Jones (1908-1980) was an American writer and humorist. He became well-known for his witty and insightful reflections about life.

Experience teaches us when to wait and when to move forward.
Sometimes, the darkest part of the morning is just before dawn.
Janette Oke (born 1935) is a Canadian writer of inspirational fiction.