There’s children on the street using guns and knives Taking drugs and each other’s lives Killing each other with knives and forks Calling each other names like ‘dork’.
Don’t let it get to you. Let the
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A recent Newsweek magazine article begins with this headline, “A Christian by Any Other Name,” exploring the shift that many people have made regarding what we call ourselves… Christian (old school) vs Christ-follower (new school). The article states:
Christian definitions used not to matter so much. People used to be Methodists or Lutherans, Episcopalians or Baptists. Each denomination had its own culture, its own jokes. A Congregationalist friend once defined himself to me this way: “We’re the ones who fold up the chairs after church to make room for the basketball court.”
Outsiders could—and did—make assumptions about their neighbors’ personal habits and politics based on denomination. The United Church of Christ was left-wing. The Southern Baptists leaned to the right. Methodists, Episcopalians and Lutherans fell somewhere in between.
Then, in the 1980s, as nondenominational churches became the fastest-growing segment of American Christianity, a number of Christians cast off their labels. But with this freedom came a challenge: what should this new generation call itself? What do you call yourself…?
Interesting comparison isn’t it.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most.
We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Think About It…
So did you thank someone today? Maybe you started the day asking people to do something before you thanked them for what they have already done. Maybe you told the first people you saw, something nice. I got to work this morning and tried something fun…
First person, “Hey I want to tell you something, you are a driving force here, everyone looks to you because you know how these should be, and you make things happen.” You can imagine the positive reaction that got.
Second person, “I want you to know you are magnificent. You are like the rudder of a ship, you guide this facility to success. If it was not for you to keep everything running the doctors and nurses would not be able to perform their healing mission for these patients.” Again, you can imagine the positive reaction. Later in the day second person tells third person, “John always inspires me in the mornings”, or something really close to that.
What prompted me to do this. Well, I don’t really know. I did not plan it more than a minute before I spoke to person one, and person two was right after person one. The thought behind it I think, was more self serving then other serving. It goes back to something I try to practice; “Stay so busy giving recognition that you don’t need any for yourself.” I’m still trying to make that work but I have not given up yet. I imagine it takes a lot of daily recognition giving before you don’t need any, but slowly as I practice I can see it happening. As people recognize you as a recognition giver they like to return the favor, and there is the difficulty.
Do you give recognition because it is truly deserved, or because you want it in return. I guess it really does not matter as long as you mean it and it is for the right reason. So just keep doing it and prove me wrong, or right.
However, the real point of this is Gratitude. Do you show it, give it, live it? Do you know people who say the right thing at the right time? Go out of their way to help or show they care? How about just simple things, do you show gratitude? show that you are grateful? If not, here are some wonderful quotes to help you understand this better, and I’m grateful that you take the time to read these…
“Thank God–every morning when you get up–that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you a hundred virtues which the idle never know.”
~ Charles Kingsley ~
“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.”
~ Unknown ~
“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
~ Marcel Proust ~
“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.
These are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.”
~ Joseph Addison ~
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
~ Melody Beattie ~
“Blessed are those that can give without remembering and receive without forgetting.”
~ Author Unknown ~
“If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.”
~ Rabbi Harold Kushner ~
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”
~ Epictetus ~
“The sun was shining in my eyes, and I could barely see
To do the necessary task that was allotted me.
Resentment of the vivid glow, I started to complain–
When all at once upon the air I heard the blindman’s cane.”
~ Earl Musselman ~
“There is a calmness to a life lived in Gratitude, a quiet joy.”
~ Ralph H. Blum ~ ( American Author )
“You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.”
~ Sarah Ban Breathnach ~
Simple Abundance
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy ~
“A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.”
~ Joseph Addison ~
“To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.”
~ Johannes A. Gaertner ~
“To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude.”
~ Albert Schweitzer ~
“Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement – and we will make the goal.”
~ Jerome P. Fleishman ~
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”
~ Cicero ~
“Every time we remember to say “thank you”, we experience nothing less than heaven on earth.”
~ Sarah Ban Breathnach ~
“Gratitude is something of which none of us can give too much. For on the smiles, the thanks we give, our little gestures of appreciation, our neighbors build their philosophy of life.”
~ A. J. Cronin ~
“Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.”
~ Seneca ~
“True thanksgiving means that we need to thank God for what He has done for us, and not to tell Him what we have done for Him.”
~ George R. Hendrick ~
“Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.”
~ Henry Ward Beecher ~
“Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude.
Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness.
Thankfulness may consist merely of words.
Gratitude is shown in acts.”
~ David O. McKay ~
“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”
~ Meister Eckhardt ~
Be Thankful
Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don’t know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
Because it means you’ve made a difference.
It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.
GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.
~ Author Unknown ~
OK, I know it is a far, far stretch of the imagination, and I’m not sure where this came from as it was given to me without credit so here without further delay…
If God perceived work like many today, this might be what the book of Genesis looked like:
In the beginning, it was nine o’clock, so God had to get to work. He filled out a requisition to separate light from darkness. He considered making starts to beautify the night, and planets to fill the skies, but thought it sounded like too much work; and besides, “that’s not my job.” So he decided to knock off early and call it a day. And he looked at what he had done and he said, “It’ll have to do.”
On the second day God seperated waters from the dry land. And he made the dry land flat, plain and functional, so that behold, the whole earth looked like Idaho. He thought about making mountains and valleys and glaciers and jungles and forests, be he decided it would not be worth the effort. And he looked at what he had done that day and said, “It’ll have to do.”
And God made a pigeon to fly in the air, and a carp to swim in the waters, and a cat to creep upon dry ground. And God thought about making millions of other species of all sizes and shapes and colors, be he couldn’t drum up any enthusiasm for any other animals – in fact, he was not too crazy about the cat. But it was almost time for the late show so he looked at what he had done, and said, “It’ll have to do.”
And at the end of the week God was seriously burned out. So he breathed a big sigh of relief and said, “Thank Me, it’s Friday.”
I don’t know if that really is what an average person would do. I think most people would try a little harder and of course, God really is not anything like this so take it a little tongue-in-cheek and just give some thought about what you would do in his place.
Would you put in 100% or more effort, make everything so that you could call it “Good” and be proud? Or would you cut a little off here, and there, you know, a little lower quality, a little less effort…
Everything you set out to do, make it the best you can give. Put all your effort into it. Don’t settle for second best, and life won’t give you second best.
Some people are never free from troubles, mainly because they keep their minds attuned to worry. They don’t realize that the mind attracts what it dwells on.
Worry serves no useful purpose and can have a serious adverse effect upon your mental as well as your physical health. Charles Mayo, who with his brother William founded the famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said, “I have never known a man who died from overwork, but many who died from doubt.” Because worry is directed at some vague, uncertain threat, it is difficult to deal with it logically.
The best way to get rid of your worries is to take positive action to eliminate their source. When you develop a plan for dealing constructively with problems and get to work implementing your plan, you will no longer be troubled by worries. Negative thoughts always yield the right of way to a determined person in pursuit of a positive plan of action.
Please enjoy this great article by Napoleon Hill.
A Man’s Mental Attitude
by Napoleon Hill
A man’s mental attitude in respect to defeat is the factor of major importance in determining whether he rides with the tides of fortune on the success side of the River of Life or is swept to the failure side by circumstances of misfortune.
The circumstances which separate failure from success often are so slight that their real cause is overlooked. Often they exist entirely in the mental attitude with which one meets temporary defeat. The man with a positive mental attitude reacts to defeat in a spirit of determination not to accept it. The man with a negative mental attitude reacts to defeat in a spirit of hopeless acceptance.
The man who maintains a positive mental attitude may have anything in life upon which he may set his heart, so long as it does not conflict with the laws of God and the rights of his fellowmen. He probably will experience many defeats, but he will not surrender to defeat. He will convert it into a stepping stone from which he will rise to higher and higher areas of achievement.
The subject of a positive mental attitude is so important that it not only claimed first position in the list of the twelve riches of life, but it had to be included as an important part of the principle on pleasing personality, and has been mentioned in practically every principle of this course.
A positive mental attitude is an essential part of the key which unlocks the door to the solution of all personal problems. It is the magic quality of this key which enables it to attract success as surely as an electro-magnet attracts iron filings.
The whole secret of the formula by which you may turn defeat into as asset lives in your ability to maintain a positive mental attitude despite your defeat.
This is no man-made rule. It is a part of the imponderable phenomena of nature through which man has been provided with the privilege of drawing upon that power known as faith. Faith and a positive mental attitude are twin brothers! Where one is found, there also will be the other. The two are inseparable. Faith is a power which cannot be analyzed by science, yet it is the greatest power available to mankind.
And the strangest of its qualities exists in the fact that it is free, equally available to the humblest person or the greatest. Recognize this truth and you will be well on your way toward the great estate of Happy Valley.
Source: PMA Science of Success. Pgs. 396 & 397.