We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and we'll be more content when they are.
After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation,or when we retire.
The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with...and remember that time waits for no one.
So, stop waiting
--until your car or home is paid off
--until you get a new car or home
--until your kids leave the house
--until you go back to school
--until you lose ten pounds
--until you gain ten pounds
--until you finish school
--until you get a divorce
--until you get married
--until you have kids
--until you retire
--until summer
--until spring
--until winter
--until fall
--until you die
There is no better time than right now to be happy.
Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
So -- work like you don't need money,
Love like you've never been hurt,
And dance like no one's watching.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Do You Have a Burning Desire To Succeed?
A long time ago, a great warrior faced a situation, which made it necessary for him to make a decision that would ensure his success on the battlefield. He was about to send his armies against a powerful foe whose men outnumbered his own. He loaded his soldiers and equipment, then gave the order to burn the ships that had carried them.
Addressing his men before the first battle, he said, "you see the boats going up in smoke. That means we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice - we win - or we perish." They WON!!!!
Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win, essential to success.
Addressing his men before the first battle, he said, "you see the boats going up in smoke. That means we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice - we win - or we perish." They WON!!!!
Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win, essential to success.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Am I My Brother's Keeper?
A Simple Lesson:
A rat looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. What food might it contain? He was aghast to discover that it was a rat trap. Retreating to the farmyard the rat proclaimed the warning; "There is a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!"
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Excuse me, Mr. Rat, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."
The rat turned to the pig and told him, "There is a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!"
"I am so very sorry Mr. Rat," sympathized the pig, "but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured that you are in my prayers."
The rat turned to the cow. She said, "Like wow, Mr. Rat. A rat trap. I am in grave danger. Duh?"
So the rat returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's rattrap alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a rattrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife.
The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever. Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.
His wife's sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them the farmer butchered the pig.
The farmer's wife did not get well. She died, and so many people came for her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat.
So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when there is a rat trap in the house, the whole farmyard is at risk.
"Am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9d)
A rat looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. What food might it contain? He was aghast to discover that it was a rat trap. Retreating to the farmyard the rat proclaimed the warning; "There is a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!"
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Excuse me, Mr. Rat, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."
The rat turned to the pig and told him, "There is a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!"
"I am so very sorry Mr. Rat," sympathized the pig, "but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured that you are in my prayers."
The rat turned to the cow. She said, "Like wow, Mr. Rat. A rat trap. I am in grave danger. Duh?"
So the rat returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's rattrap alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a rattrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife.
The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever. Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.
His wife's sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them the farmer butchered the pig.
The farmer's wife did not get well. She died, and so many people came for her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat.
So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when there is a rat trap in the house, the whole farmyard is at risk.
"Am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9d)
Friday, April 14, 2006
The Meaning of Life
"Are there any questions?" An offer that comes at the end of college lectures and long meetings. Said when an audience is not only overdosed with information, but when there is no time left anyhow. At times like that you mostly assuredly do have questions. Like, "Can we leave now?" and "What was this meeting scheduled for anyhow?" and "Where can I get a sandwich?" The gesture is supposed to indicate openness on the part of the speaker, I suppose, but if in fact you do ask a question, both the speaker and the audience will give you drop-dead looks. And some fool -- some earnest idiot -- always asks. And the speaker always answers. By repeating most of what he has already said. But if there was ever a little time left and there was a little silence in response to the invitation, I usually asked the most important question of all: "What is the meaning of life?"
You never know -- somebody may have the answer, and I'd really hate to miss it because I was too socially inhibited to ask. But when I asked, it's was usually taken as a kind of an absurdist move - people laughed and nodded and began to gather up their stuff and the meeting was dismissed on that ridiculous note.
Once, and only once, I asked the question and got a serious answer. One that is with me still. I went to an institute dedicated to Christian understanding and Biblical truth in rural Montana. At the last session on the last morning of a four-day seminar on Christian influence in American culture, led by intellectuals and experts in their fields, the man heading up the seminar, Dr. Alexander Lapagia rose from his chair at the back of the room and walked to the front, where he stood in the bright sunlight of an open window and looked out. We followed his gaze across the river to the iron cross marking a cemetery from the W.W.II era. He turned and made the ritual gesture: "Are there any questions?"
Quiet quilted the room. These four days had generated enough questions for a lifetime, but for now there was only silence. "No questions?" Lapagia swept the room with his eyes. So, I asked. "Dr. Lapagia, what is the meaning of life?" The usual laughter followed, and people stirred to go. Lapagia held up his hand and stilled the room and looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if I was serious, and seeing from my eyes that I was.
"I will answer your question." Taking his wallet out of his hip pocket, he fished into his leather billfold and brought out a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter. And what he said went like this: "When I was a small child in Italy during World War II, we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place. I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one. And by scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine -- into deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find. I kept the little mirror, and as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, however, I grew to understand that this was not just a child's game, but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of the light. But the light of Jesus -- truth, love, understanding, knowledge -- is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it. I was once a broken shard of mirror whom Christ has shaped into a better tool for shining light. I am a fragment of His mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have, I can reflect light into the dark places of this world -- into the black places in the hearts of men -- and Jesus can use me to change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life." And then he took his small mirror and, holding it carefully, caught the bright rays of daylight streaming through the window and reflected them onto my face and onto my hands folded on the desk.
Much of what I experienced in the way of information that summer is gone from memory. But in the wallet of my mind I carry a small round mirror still. I can now "reflect" upon what I learned on the meaning of life. Are there any questions????
-- Author Unknown
You never know -- somebody may have the answer, and I'd really hate to miss it because I was too socially inhibited to ask. But when I asked, it's was usually taken as a kind of an absurdist move - people laughed and nodded and began to gather up their stuff and the meeting was dismissed on that ridiculous note.
Once, and only once, I asked the question and got a serious answer. One that is with me still. I went to an institute dedicated to Christian understanding and Biblical truth in rural Montana. At the last session on the last morning of a four-day seminar on Christian influence in American culture, led by intellectuals and experts in their fields, the man heading up the seminar, Dr. Alexander Lapagia rose from his chair at the back of the room and walked to the front, where he stood in the bright sunlight of an open window and looked out. We followed his gaze across the river to the iron cross marking a cemetery from the W.W.II era. He turned and made the ritual gesture: "Are there any questions?"
Quiet quilted the room. These four days had generated enough questions for a lifetime, but for now there was only silence. "No questions?" Lapagia swept the room with his eyes. So, I asked. "Dr. Lapagia, what is the meaning of life?" The usual laughter followed, and people stirred to go. Lapagia held up his hand and stilled the room and looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if I was serious, and seeing from my eyes that I was.
"I will answer your question." Taking his wallet out of his hip pocket, he fished into his leather billfold and brought out a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter. And what he said went like this: "When I was a small child in Italy during World War II, we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place. I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one. And by scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine -- into deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find. I kept the little mirror, and as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, however, I grew to understand that this was not just a child's game, but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of the light. But the light of Jesus -- truth, love, understanding, knowledge -- is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it. I was once a broken shard of mirror whom Christ has shaped into a better tool for shining light. I am a fragment of His mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have, I can reflect light into the dark places of this world -- into the black places in the hearts of men -- and Jesus can use me to change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life." And then he took his small mirror and, holding it carefully, caught the bright rays of daylight streaming through the window and reflected them onto my face and onto my hands folded on the desk.
Much of what I experienced in the way of information that summer is gone from memory. But in the wallet of my mind I carry a small round mirror still. I can now "reflect" upon what I learned on the meaning of life. Are there any questions????
-- Author Unknown
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
One-liners About God
- Give God what's right -- not what's left.
- Man's way leads to a hopeless end -- God's way leads to an endles hope.
- A lot of kneeling will keep you in good standing.
- He who kneels before God can stand before anyone.
- In the sentence of life, the devil may be a comma--but never let him be the period.
- Don't put a question mark where God puts a period.
- Are you wrinkled with burden? Come to the church for a face-lift.
- When praying, don't give God instructions - just report for duty.
- Don't wait for six strong men to take you to church.
- We don't change God's message -- His message changes us.
- The church is prayer-conditioned.
- When God ordains, He sustains.
- WARNING: Exposure to the Son may prevent burning.
- Plan ahead -- It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.
- Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory position.
- Suffering from truth decay? Brush up on your Bible.
- Exercise daily -- walk with the Lord.
- Never give the devil a ride -- he will always want to drive.
- Nothing else ruins the truth like stretching it.
- Compassion is difficult to give away because it keeps coming back.
- He who angers you controls you.
- Worry is the darkroom in which negatives can develop.
- Give Satan an inch & he'll be a ruler.
- Be ye fishers of men -- you catch them & He'll clean them.
- God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
- Read the Bible -- It will scare the hell out of you.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
A Matter of Priorities
A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, rocks about 2" in* diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.* He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The students laughed. The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. "Now, said the professor, "I want you to recognize that this is your life. The rocks are the important things - your relationship with Jesus your spouse, your children, your health, your family--anything that is so important to you, that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else. The small stuff." "If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out on a date. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal." "Take care of the rocks first - the things that really matter.
"Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.* He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The students laughed. The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. "Now, said the professor, "I want you to recognize that this is your life. The rocks are the important things - your relationship with Jesus your spouse, your children, your health, your family--anything that is so important to you, that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else. The small stuff." "If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out on a date. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal." "Take care of the rocks first - the things that really matter.
"Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
7 "Ups" of Life
1. Wake Up!!
Decide to have a good day.
"Today is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it"
Psalms 118:24
2. Dress Up!!
The best way to dress up is to put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive
way to improve your looks.
"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at
outward appearance; but the Lord looks at the heart" I Samuel 16:7
3. Shut Up!!
Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth,
so maybe He meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking.
"He who guards his lips guards his soul." Proverbs 13:3
"Gossip betrays confidence. Avoid men who talk too much"
Proverbs 20:19
"Listen to advice, accept instruction and in the end, you will be wise"
Proverbs 19:20
4. Stand Up!!...
For what you believe in. Stand for something or you will fall for anything.
"Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap
a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us
do good..." Galatians 6:9-10
5. Look Up!!...
To the Lord.
"I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13
6. Reach Up!!...
For something higher.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own
understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct
your path." Proverbs 3:5-6
7. Lift Up!!...
Your Prayers.
"Do not worry about anything; instead PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING"
Philippians 4:6
Decide to have a good day.
"Today is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it"
Psalms 118:24
2. Dress Up!!
The best way to dress up is to put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive
way to improve your looks.
"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at
outward appearance; but the Lord looks at the heart" I Samuel 16:7
3. Shut Up!!
Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth,
so maybe He meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking.
"He who guards his lips guards his soul." Proverbs 13:3
"Gossip betrays confidence. Avoid men who talk too much"
Proverbs 20:19
"Listen to advice, accept instruction and in the end, you will be wise"
Proverbs 19:20
4. Stand Up!!...
For what you believe in. Stand for something or you will fall for anything.
"Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap
a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us
do good..." Galatians 6:9-10
5. Look Up!!...
To the Lord.
"I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13
6. Reach Up!!...
For something higher.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own
understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct
your path." Proverbs 3:5-6
7. Lift Up!!...
Your Prayers.
"Do not worry about anything; instead PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING"
Philippians 4:6
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