News commentator Paul Harvey (February 9, 1981) related a story which took place during the Carter administration. Evidently, daughter Amy Carter needed help with homework. It was Friday and the assignment, a question about the Industrial Revolution, was due on Monday. Neither Amy nor her mother quite understood the question, so mother Rosalyn asked a White House aide to run the question by the Labor Department.
Sunday afternoon a truck pulled up at the White House loaded with a computer printout. Someone assumed the president needed the information urgently, so the Labor Department assigned a team to work all weekend to prepare the documents.
When Rosalyn learned that the research had cost hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars she was horrified! But Amy went ahead and used the information to complete her homework.
On that homework assignment, by the way, Amy got a "C." (Does that say something about the quality of information they gathered?) .
I see a parable here. You and I also possess a "truckload" of information. We have spent a lifetime gathering data about even the smallest aspects of our lives. But, in the end, it's what we DO with all of that information that matters.
My own life can improve significantly if I simply take what I already know and APPLY it. I know how to forgive, for example, yet I am slow to do it. I know how to love, when to be patient and how to share generously. But I don't always do these things.
Most of the time I even know how to be happy. I bet that you do, too. And I also know that if I habitually do those things which I know will bring happiness, I will not be disappointed.
I believe most of us know what to do; we simply have to do what we know! A full and happy life does not result from merely getting more information. It is a product of daily application!
From the book, RICHES OF THE HEART
Last Updated:Sunday, September 22, 2002, 8:22:50 AM