Meaningful Mondays - Arrows Out

The Two Hands of Freedom - Receiving with Gratitude. Passing Forward with Purpose.

I asked Warren Buffett what he considered the keys to his success. He shared three keys that reflect humility, gratitude, and stewardship.

“We don’t simply inherit freedom. We become stewards of it.”
– Lee Brower

The Unfinished Promise... America wasn't finished in 1776, it was launched

The Unfinished Promise… America wasn’t finished in 1776, it was launched.

The Founding Fathers gave us the possibility of America. Whether that possibility continues to grow… depends on what you and I choose to do today. This Independence Day, don’t just celebrate freedom—participate in it. The possibilities envisioned by those who came before us won’t be realized by spectators. They will be realized by people like you and me, choosing every day to live with faith, character, courage, gratitude, and personal responsibility. That’s how possibility becomes legacy.

“The enemy of Freedom is arriving.”
– Lee Brower

“Possibility is God’s gift to us. Stewardship is our gift back.”
– Lee Brower

The Declaration of Independence declared possibility.
The Constitution organized possibility.
Every generation is invited to enlarge possibility.

I Bet Your Kids Didn't Know This About Butterflies - The Miracle of Butterflies - Repost from Aug. 2016

Reposted on June 23, 2026: – The Miracle of Butterflies

Repost:

In the coming weeks, you are going to hear more about the miracle of butterflies, including something else your kids don’t know.  To kick it off, listen to this Meaningful Monday almost 10 years ago and let me know what you think.
 – Lee Brower

What can we learn about the change of a caterpillar into a butterfly?

Quote to remember: “If you don’t pet it, it won’t follow you home.”

Reposted on June 23, 2026: – The Miracle of Butterflies

You Are More Than What You Have Become

“The people who believed in you before you believed in yourself weren’t wrong. They were just early.”
 — Lee Brower

“Drifting, without aim or purpose, is the first cause of failure.”

“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”
 — Viktor Frankl

“The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become — because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people you and I were intended to be.”
 — C.S.Lewis

Teddy Bear? or Mama?

Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child.

What if a child’s emotional needs become more dependent on a device than a parent?

“Am I giving my children and grandchildren more conveniences—or more opportunities?”

“Confidence is not taught. It is discovered one uncomfortable experience at a time.”
– Lee Brower

“The goal of parenting is not lifelong dependence; it is lifelong capability rooted in character.”
– Lee Brower

Two Jordans

“Calmness is the rarest quality in human life. It is the poise of a great nature in harmony with itself and its ideals.”
– William George Jordan

“The strongest leaders are not those who control the storm, but those who remain steady enough to steady others.
– Lee Brower

“Gratitude is the trim tab that turns calmness into influence.”
– Lee Brower

People don’t need leaders who can predict every storm. They need leaders who can remain steady when nobody else is. Imagine a spouse who remains steady during financial uncertainty. Imagine a parent who remains steady when a child is struggling. Imagine a CEO who remains steady when markets are volatile. Imagine a community leader who remains steady amid contention. Their calmness becomes contagious. Not because they have all the answers. Because they create enough calmness for others to think clearly.

Who Paid for the Life You're Living?

“A grateful nation is not measured by what it remembers once a year… but by how it chooses to live every day.”
– Lee Brower

“The greatest way to honor sacrifice is to create a future worthy of it.”
– Lee Brower

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”
– Ronald Regan

“The best storehouse of truth is the generations of the past.”
– Gordon B. Hinckley

“When sacrifice is forgotten, entitlement grows. When sacrifice is remembered, gratitude grows.”
– Lee Brower

Blue Angel Gratitude

“Gratitude does not remove pain. It gives pain purpose.”
– Lee Brower

“When we are grateful to God in our circumstances, we can experience gentle peace in the midst of tribulation.”
– Henry B. Eyring

“Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life.”
– Rumi

Enduring Enthusiasm

“Few things are worse than running in the wrong way enthusiastically.”
— Lee Brower

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Circles, 1841

Emerson was right. But here’s what he didn’t say. “It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth.”
— Arthur Balfour, 1900

Nearly sixty years later, Balfour named the problem. Enthusiasm without truth isn’t a gift — it’s a counterfeit. And counterfeits don’t just misinform. They crowd out the real signal.

The ancient Greeks called it en theos — God within. A quiet, persistent pull toward what you were made for. Not performed. Not manufactured. Received.

Which means the most dangerous thing we can do to someone we love is layer our enthusiasm on top of theirs — and drown out the voice already speaking inside them.

“Hype seeks applause. Enduring Enthusiasm develops people.”
— Lee Brower

This week’s Monday Morning Message is about learning to tell the difference — and asking an Empowering Question you may have never thought to ask before.

The Elevator The Spoon and 2 Thank You's

"You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."
- Marcus Aurelius

"Conflict may visit us without permission... but contention only stays when we invite it."
- Lee Brower

Conflict is inevitable. Contention is a choice.