Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

Woody Hayes, the former football coach of Ohio State once spoke to a service club in Memphis, Tennessee. In his speech he gave what he considered to be football’s three great lessons: “When you get knocked down, you get up and go again. When you go again, you go as a team. And there is nothing that comes easy that’s worth a dime. I never saw a footba...

Great men are born out of hardship. If you read enough biographies you will get to thinking that there can’t be a great man except he who suffers. God knows that you can’t develop strong men in easy places. The man who has never had his faith tested doesn’t know whether he has faith. God wants to make you and me into men like Christ and he allows us...

There are some things in life that are priceless. Money cannot buy them and poverty cannot take them away. One of these is a virtuous woman. Proverbs 31:10-31 describes such a lady. The writer asks, “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.” Rich indeed is the man who has a virtuous wife. Fortunate beyond measure is the child who h...

1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; 2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; 3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according t...

Nothing in our lives is more important than our thoughts. Writer Ralph Waldo Emerson once explained, “Sow a thought and you reap an act, sow an act and you reap a habit, sow a habit and you reap a character.” Every person’s character is ultimately shaped by his thoughts. The Bible says the same thing in another way: “For as a man thinketh in hi...

I loved the 2010 movie “True Grit.” For one thing, I liked the music, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.” But the main reason was the acting of then fourteen-year-old Hailee Steinfeld who played the part of Mattie Ross. When they started filming, Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon used a lot of curse words. So, little Hailee started a “bad boy ja...

The old proverb says, “It’s an ill wind that blows no good.”  When the storm winds of life blow your way, when trouble comes, when you experience suffering, look for the good in all of it. It is not always easy to see, of course. When Winston Churchill, the man who led England safely through World War II, was then defeated in the election of 19...

Laura Drummond, who taught at St. Edwards University in Austin, was a police officer on the streets of Austin for nine years to pay her way through school. After graduation she wrote a book entitled, Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You.   In an interview about the book she was asked, “What did you learn from your years as a police officer?&rd...

The last battle of the Civil War was fought March 12-13, 1865 near Brownsville in Cameron County, Texas. Ironically it was fought more than a month after the South had surrendered and the war was over.   The Texans won the battle, but 118 men lost their lives. The men invested all they had – their courage, their skill, their blood, and their futures &...