1. Cautiousness vs. Rashness Knowing how important right timing is in accomplishing right actions.

2. Look before you leap. Look before you leap Wherever you land may determine your future.

3. Timing is very important to get what you want from life. Doing the right thing at the right time brings a good outcome. Be cautious.

4. Some people want to do it all at once. Every step is important.

5. Caution requires great character. Attentiveness Alertness Contentment Determination Discretion Discernment Faith Flexibility Gentleness Obedience Patience Self control Wisdom Tolerance

6. Rules for cautiousness: 1) Don’t try to cross any bridge until you are sure that there is one there. 2) Never jump on thin ice. 3) Don’t spit in the wind. 4) Don’t pull the mask off the old lone ranger. 5) Be careful picking friends, and even more changing them. 6) Never jump to conclusions. 7) Always take plenty of time to make a snap decision.

7. Definition for cautious: Attentive to examine probable effects and consequences of acts so as to avoid danger. Some would say that this is common sense. But there are far less cautious people in the world today. Rash means: overhasty in decision, action or speech. Think before you decide, act, or speak, and you would be practicing the character quality of Cautiousness. Making rash decisions will lead you to this.

8. Caution is a weapon against foolishness Cautiousness preserves time by wasting none. Speaks little, but says a lot. Hears much, but takes in little Sees all, but only takes in what is needed.

9. Life is endless and eternal. Each cautious step counts. If we wait for the moment when the wheel turns, we don’t ever have to be upside down. Time is going by, what are we doing with it.

10. Sometimes we think that we are being too cautious, and other times we just want things right now or we give up. Let’s talk about the Chinese bamboo tree. The Chinese plant the seed, water and fertilize it, but nothing happens. The second year they water and fertilize it, still nothing happens. The third and fourth years that they water and fertilize it, nothing happens still. But in the fifth year they water and fertilize the seed something happens. Sometime during the season in a period of about six weeks, the Chinese bamboo grows to a rough height of ninety feet. Question: did the bamboo grow ninety feet in five years or six weeks? Acting upon the premises that the tree was going to grow and watering it and fertilizing it at the right times, accomplished a ninety foot tree. It also accomplished a group of people that were cautious and not rash in dealing with the crop.

11. We all have our bamboo tree experience. We had to be cautious in what we did to make sure that the outcome was going to be safe. Test: Group exercise List ten things that a family should consider before jumping in to buy a house. List ten things that a couple should consider before getting married. List five things we should consider before starting a business. List five character qualities that would help you to be more cautious.

12. Cautiousness can build a home. Rashness can destroy it.

13. Story of the month Madeline Rockwell wrote the following story for readers digest: My Grandmother was a ball of fire, while Grandpa was cautious and deliberate. One night they were awakened by a commotion in the chicken house. Grandma sprang out of bed, ran to the chicken house and found the cause of the racket, a large black snake. Having nothing to dispatch it with, she clamped her bare foot down on it’s head. There she stood, until Grandpa finally arrived, a good fifteen minutes later. He was fully dressed, and even his pocket watch was in place. “Well,” he said cheerfully to my disheveled and enraged Grandma. “If I’d known you had him, I wouldn’t have hurried so.”

14. Cautiousness can build greater character and higher goals. Before James Garfield became president of the United States, he was principle of Hiram College in Ohio. A father once asked him if a particular course of study couldn’t be simplified so that his son could go through by a shorter route. “Certainly,” replied Garfield. “But it all depends upon what you want to make of your boy. When God wants to make an oak tree, he takes a hundred years. When he wants to make a squash, he requires only three months.” Cautiousness is a character quality that we can not afford to be without. We can take the time to be an oak, or we can come and go in one short season. What you do now, effects tomorrow.