Quote of the day:
“If human beings are perceived as potentials rather than problems, as possessing strengths instead of weaknesses, as unlimited rather than dull and unresponsive, then they thrive and grow to their capabilities.”--Barbara Bush Think about it: I read this story from Peter Story published in the Motivated Magazine that I thought was thought provoking about limiting beliefs. When I was a kid, I saw plenty of goldfish in the houses of my friends, and I remember wondering why so many people would want to keep such small, unexciting creatures as pets. Then one day, when I was about ten years old, I went on a school field trip to a botanical garden that had a pond stocked with fish. One especially large, brilliantly colored fish stood out to me. “What kind of fish is that one?” I asked our guide. “That’s a goldfish,” she replied. I was confused. “Aren’t goldfish supposed to be small?” I asked with a note of 9-year-old sarcasm. “Not at all,” she replied. “Goldfish will grow even larger than these. It really just depends on the size of their environment. They will stay small if kept in a small bowl but grow larger the bigger the area they have to swim in.” How often have I been like a goldfish in a fishbowl? How often have I limited myself and stunted my growth by keeping myself in a small bowl? And worse still, how many times have I put others in a small bowl in my mind? How many times have I written off someone as insignificant or unexciting? How many times have I failed to see others’ potential to grow? How much more could I achieve if I forgot my perceived limitations and dared to swim beyond the boundaries I’ve set for myself? And what would happen if I moved others from their small bowls into the ocean of limitless possibilities? –Adapted from the Motivated magazine. Just imagine a world full of people with that perspective, who truly believe that anything is possible and reach out to claim it. Together we could do astounding things.
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Quote of the day:
“There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.” -- Theodore Roosevelt Think about it: I very much like olives. One day when eating some olives I was thinking about the olive and what it has to go through to become so yummy: First, in order to be fruitful the olive tree has to have both the east wind and the west wind. The east wind is the dry hot wind from the desert. This is a harsh wind. So harsh that it can blow over green grass and make it completely wither in one day. The west wind, on the other hand, comes from the Mediterranean. It brings rain and life. The olive tree needs both of these winds to produce fruit. If you were to pick an olive from the tree and try to eat it this month, its bitterness would make you sick. It is a lengthy process to be cured of bitterness and prepared for usefulness. For the olive to be edible, it has to go through the process that includes: washing, breaking, soaking, sometimes salting, and waiting some more. The final thing about the olive is that it must be crushed in order to extract the oil. However, the crushing isn’t the olive’s end. The crushing is the best way to get what’s most valuable, the oil, out of the olive. The same is true for us. We need both winds of hardship and relief to sweep across our lives if we are to be truly fruitful. The olive is naturally bitter and has to be cured to be useful. If we are to escape the natural bitterness of the human heart we to have to go through a long process of being cured. And finally we also need to be crushed at times to bring out what is most valuable in us. By Philip Lynch
When I first began reading the Bible, a word that captured my attention was “lovingkindness.” I felt very warm inside when I read passages like:
In some modern English translations, expressions such as “steadfast love,” “mercy,” and just plain “love” are used in place of “lovingkindness,” but I miss that word. It seems to encapsulate in a single word what God means most to me. It is the translation of the Hebrew word chased, and it was coined long ago by Miles Coverdale, one of the very first translators of the Bible into English. In the Greek and Latin translations that had preceded Coverdale’s English effort, chased had been translated as eleos and misericordia respectively, the equivalents of the English word “mercy.” Mercy is a wonderful thing, and certainly we can all agree that God is merciful, but Coverdale sensed it had a deeper, more nuanced, meaning; that’s how we ended up with that wonderful word, “lovingkindness.” Obviously, later scholars agreed, as the term was carried over into the other early English translations such as Tyndale’s and the Authorized or King James Version. At a time when love is in the air—or at least on our minds—due to Saint Valentine’s Day, I find it appropriate to recall this wonderful love that God has for us. John captured the very essence of God in that wonderful declaration, “God is love,” but clearly many of the Bible writers who had preceded him by hundreds and even thousands of years had also understood this. Those who knew Him deeply knew that He cared for them with lovingkindness. Those who think of God primarily in the context of the Old Testament picture Him as judgmental, angry, the destroyer of those who dare cross Him. That is a very selective view and disregards the majority of God’s interaction with humanity. God has always loved us. It is in His nature to. Even if He wanted not to, He couldn’t help Himself. He can do anything, of course, except go against His own nature. And so He goes on showering us with lovingkindness, and I for one am glad for that!
Quote of the day:
“There's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” — Scott Adams Think about it: Kindness is a good thing however, in our busy lives it is often easy to overlook the needs of others. Here is an exercise that may help you initiate a chain of kindness and thus a ripple effect that can touch many lives. --Picture yourself in the center of a set of concentric circles. You're in the center, but the focus isn't on you. Within the first circle are your family and closest friends. It's probably easy to identify the needs of at least two or three of these people. Write them down. --Now picture the next circle, your colleagues and acquaintances. Make a note of their names and needs. --Now picture the widest circle, people whom you don't know personally, but whose needs you are aware of, jot down the ones who come to mind and their need. --Take your list and try to do one favor for each circle each week. Each month do the exercise again and make a new list, repeating the process of helping one from each circle and experience the joy it brings into your life, not to mention the difference you are making in the world with the ripple effect you are causing. By Misty Kay
My husband Daniel and I live with our four children on the 13th floor of an apartment building in Taichung City, Taiwan. Needless to say, the elevator is a part of our daily lives. It had been just another normal, busy day, with most of my time and energy spent keeping the kids happy, fed, and out of one another’s hair. We had all been out together, doing what I don’t even remember, and were coming home. We stepped into the empty elevator, and one of the kids pressed the button. The number 13 lit up on the panel, and the doors closed. “Children, your mother and I have an important announcement,” Daniel said in a way that commanded everyone’s attention. I had no idea what this was about. Daniel is a spontaneous man, full of surprises, and I never know what to expect from him. I decided to play along. I moved next to him and put my arm in his to add authority to whatever he was going to say. “Your mother and I want you to know that after fourteen years of marriage, we are still totally and emphatically in love.” The kids laughed a little and asked, “Why is that an important announcement?” Daniel replied that with so many marriage problems in the world and divorce so common, children need to know that their parents love each other. Then he looked our son in the eye and said, “When you get married someday, you need to treat your wife right.” A loud ding announced the thirteenth floor, and the elevator doors opened. When we walked into our apartment, the kids’ chatter was punctuated by little giggles, and Daniel and I slipped into our room to enjoy a private moment together. In 36 seconds between the first and thirteenth floors, Daniel had brought our family closer, put smiles on our faces, taught our son a life lesson, and put warmth in my heart that filled my whole being. “A braid appears to contain only two strands of hair. But herein lies the mystery: What looks like two strands requires a third. The third strand, though not immediately evident, keeps the strands tightly woven. God’s presence, like the third strand in a braid, holds husband and wife together.” —Catherine Paxton
Yvette Gladstone
I’m on my third marriage—a fact that I don’t normally mention in the presence of newly married couples. I’m grateful for my first two marriages because they resulted in several beautiful children, my most precious treasures, but for me the third time has been charmed. When my second marriage ended, I thought that was it, that I was now a single mother and would have to just do the best I could from then on. I was soured on the marriage experience and didn’t expect there to ever be another man in my life, but I was wrong. Every day I see the love of God for me in my dear husband’s eyes. He not only fell in love with and married me, but he also legally adopted five of my children, who were minors at the time. This happened over ten years ago, and we are still very happily married today. What makes our marriage even more unconventional is that he was also married twice before. We don’t understand all the reasons why our lives turned out this way, and truth be told, it is humbling for us to have to admit that we have four failed marriages between us. But if God can love and accept us with all our flaws, weaknesses, and mistakes, isn’t it awesome that He can also send along someone in a flesh-and-blood body who can love and accept us too? Because of our similar pasts, we can better understand each other and share our hearts and thoughts very intimately. We laugh together, cry together, and experience life together so beautifully. At the very beginning of our relationship we determined to keep God at the center of our lives, and we have helped each other stick to that commitment. Daily, we read God’s Word together, pray together, and discuss the various lessons God is teaching us as a couple and individually. We continue to learn from each other, which helps us respect each other deeply. Ours has become a very spiritually satisfying relationship. My advice to newly married couples, as well as those going through a rough time in their marriage or recovering from a broken one is this: God’s love is the genuine “charm” in any marriage. Whether it is discovered the first time around or, as in our case, later, it’s all God’s love, which never disappoints. A Spiritual Exercise
By Abi May In one of her most famous poems, Elizabeth Barrett Browning penned a beautiful declaration of love that started like this: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach. These words are a gentle echo of another expression of love. This time the writer is the apostle Paul, and he is speaking not of love between people, but of the love of God for each of His children: I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.—Romans 8:38–39. God loves you like that? Really? Even with all your faults and failings? Yes! Everyone falls short,1 but God’s love is not diminished by this. Take a few moments to meditate on the following statements about God’s love for you. Don’t try to analyze them; just savor the words and rest in the knowledge that His love for you is unconditional and unending.
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AuthorThe goal of the blog is to provide interesting, motivational, soul feeding material. All to help remind us that God loves us all and wants a personal relationship with each of us and will take care of us in times of trouble. I aspire to be a force for good by providing you with positive input. I encourage you to share the blog with others. Archives
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