Know the Difference

“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” – Abraham Lincoln

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” – Reinhold Niebuhr

What can we effectively affect? What can be impacted by our effort and energy? What we can do to make a difference? a real one – not the busy work of worry, anxiety and distress. True discernment. Clarity.

“The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things – the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.” – Charles Grosvenor Osgood