Quote of the day:
“Most of us die with our music unplayed. We should try to step out of our comfort zones and do the things we're capable of.” -- Mary Kay Ash Reflection: Share your talent with the world. Don’t die with your music unplayed like Mary Kay says. There was a man who played piano in a bar. He was a good piano player. People came out just to hear him play. But one night, a patron told him he didn't want to hear him just play anymore. He wanted him to sing a song. The man said, "I don't sing." But the customer was persistent. He told the bartender, "I'm tired of listening to the piano. I want that guy to sing!" The bartender shouted across the room, "Hey buddy! If you want to get paid, sing a song. The patrons are asking you to sing!" So he did. He sang a song. A piano player who had never sung in public did so for the very first time. And nobody had ever heard the song Mona, Mona Lisa sung the way it was sung that night by Nat King Cole! He had talent he was sitting on! He may have lived the rest of his life as a no-name piano player in a no-name bar, but because he was pushed out of his comfort zone to sing, he went on to become one of the best-known entertainers in America. You, too, have skills and abilities. You may not feel as if your 'talent' is particularly great, but it may be better than you think—and with persistence, most skills can be improved! Besides, you may as well have no ability at all if you sit on whatever talent you possess. The better question is not, "What ability do I have that is useful?” It is rather, "How will I use whatever ability I have?" Don’t wait to be pushed out of your comfort zone, that may never happen, but do as Mary Kay says, STEP out of your comfort zone.
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Quote of the day:
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” -- Mark Twain Reflection: Some find themselves in a family, or circle of friends, that will pull them down if they strive to better themselves. They remind me of the story of the crabs. A single crab in a lidless bucket is bound to escape. Yet when more than one share a bucket, none can get out. If one crab elevates itself above all, the others will grab this crab and drag it back down to share the common fate of the rest. Take a lesson from the crabs and don’t let others discourage you. Find people outside the bucket that will pull you up and out. Select friends who stand above petty, unimportant things. Select friends who are interested in positive things, friends who really do want to see you succeed. Find friends who breathe encouragement into your plans and ideals. Quote of the day:
“If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values–that all reality hinges on moral foundations, and that all reality has spiritual control.” -- Martin Luther King Jr. Reflection: What is truth? That age-old question is being asked less and less these days. Some people don’t ask because they’re so wrapped up in satisfying their material needs and desires that they never stop to consider their spiritual needs. Others don’t ask because they’re afraid they won’t like the answer. And some don’t ask because they don’t believe that there is an answer; their inborn hunger for truth has been dulled by skepticism and the notion of “relative morality” that pervades modern thought. But does the truth cease to exist because people don’t seek it or don’t want to acknowledge it? Do God and the spiritual realm cease to exist because so many choose not to believe? Of course not! The truth is the truth, and it’s not contingent on anyone believing it. Even if no one believed, it would remain more real and enduring than the world you experience with your five senses. Quote of the day:
"The mind ought sometimes to be diverted that it may return to better thinking.” — Phaedrus Reflection: Studies show that if you have a problem that you can’t solve, if you give your mind a break the solution comes to you easily. In Elias Howe’s case it came to him in a vision, but taking a walk or as the quote says, just diverting your thoughts works well too. Elias Howe, lived in the mid-1800’s and is credited with inventing the sewing machine. One day, as he was working on the sewing machine project, he became particularly frustrated. He had been working with a regular sewing needle and had tried many different ways to mechanize it, with no success. He decided to take a break from his efforts and sat at the window of his workshop, gazing out in reverie. He later told his wife what happened: As I wandered in my mind, a remarkable scene came to me. I was in a deep jungle and I was in a big, black pot with a roaring fire under it. I was being cooked alive! A warrior came at me with spear raised and ready to thrust. But what I noticed at that moment was some-thing very curious about the spear: It had a hole in its tip. The pivotal discovery in the invention of the sewing machine is that the hole for the thread goes in the tip of the needle, not at its other end, as in a regular needle. This breakthrough had eluded the inventor in his conscious intellectual efforts, but came to him when he gave his mind a rest. What problems are you wrestling with that your mind needs a diversion from? Quote of the day:
"We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson Reflections The following is a fable about what happens to the selfish. A young oak tree was growing tall and strong. It rejoiced when it bore its first crop of acorns. Then one day, it heard the rustling of a nearby bramble bush. "These forest trees are our greatest enemies," railed the bramble. "Look at all the space they take up. Just look at all the nourishment they take from the earth!" Some moss, growing at the foot of the parent-oak said to the bramble, "Oh, but see what beautiful shade they give! How cool and pleasant it is here, and how glad the poor animals are to lie down during the heat of the day, out from the blazing heat of the sun. And see how the birds build their nests among the sturdy branches." The selfish bramble replied, "All I know is they absorb a lot of nourishment, and they spread themselves out as if the world belonged to them. Cut them down, I say, and let us brambles take over." "But you are forgetting all the acorns the trees provide," chirped another voice. "We squirrels love them and so do the pigs. The oaks give them gladly and for nothing." "There, you see," said the bramble. "For nothing! Why should they be giving things for nothing? When it comes to us brambles, we give blackberries, but, in return, we snag all we can with our thorns. I don't believe in giving anything away for nothing." The young oak listened attentively and soon began asking itself, "Yeah, why should I give away my acorns? Why should I shelter all these creatures? What do they ever do for me?" Thereafter, whenever the squirrels and the pigs scampered and rooted for acorns, and whenever the weary cows and deer came to rest beneath the branches, the young oak shook its branches and said, "Go away. You can't share in my acorns or rest in my shade anymore." Slowly, the young oak's sap turned to poison. The mighty oak began to wither from the inside out. The seasons came and went as usual, but the massive oak shrank into itself. The wind whispered and the other trees murmured, "Give, give, or how shall you receive? Bless, or there is no room for blessing." But the oak tree still muttered to itself, "Why should I?" It had rotted by now, to the heartwood, and you can see its shriveled shell whenever you go into that part of the forest. Don’t let the voice of the selfish destroy you. Quote of the day:
“Two men looked out from behind prison bars. One saw mud, the other saw stars.” –Frederick Langbridge Reflection: The first law of perception is that you see what you want to see. Your eyes do the seeing, but it’s your mind that decides what you focus on. So in other words, you see what your mind is looking for. Because of this the cynic and the optimist have never been able to agree on what they see. Because of their different philosophies of life they both see things differently, but which one is right? They both are—because both good and bad are all around us! Just like the quote above, the mud and the stars are both there. The cynic sees exactly what he’s looking for. He sees there’s no hope in the world. On the other hand, the optimist is also right, because he sees what he believes too. He sees the world of hope. Both of them are right. Both of them are actually choosing their experience. And both of them are choosing what they focus on. If we have the choice, why choose unhappiness? I choose to see hope, goodness and love—the stars. I choose to be positive. What do you choose? Quote of the day:
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” — Charles Swindoll Reflection: I read this cute story that illustrates how difficulties can be turned into opportunities. It’s all in how we look at it. An organization in Montana offered a bounty of five thousand dollars for every wolf captured alive. Two hunters decided to head for the hills and make some money capturing wolves. Day and night, they scoured the mountains and forests, searching for their valuable prey. Exhausted after three days of hunting without success, they both fell asleep. During the night, one of the hunters suddenly woke up to find that the two were surrounded by a pack of fifty wolves, their eyes flaming and teeth bared. At once, he called to his friend, “Hey, wake up! We’re gonna be rich!” Sometimes we feel in over our heads in difficulties. They surround us like that pack of wolves preparing to pounce. But perhaps these obstacles are actually opportunities? Quote of the day:
“He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.” --Phillip James Bailey Reflection: I was impressed by this story of a man who just saw a need and did what he could. He definitely lives up to Mr. Bailey’s quote. On a cold, snowy day in Washington D.C., amid the debris of a tragic plane crash in the Potomac River, a real-life hero emerged from obscurity. Flying too low, Air Florida's Flight 90 had crashed into the 14th Street Bridge, catapulting plane, baggage and terrified passengers into the freezing water. A flight attendant was floating in the icy current doing everything she could to stay alive. Someone on shore threw her a rope, but she could not grab it. She went under and popped back up, waving her hands and screaming for help. For a second time she went under, this time for much longer. Wide-eyed, scrambling and gasping for breath, she finally came up for one more attempt to save her life. A shy, unassuming man named Vinnie Skutnick was standing on the bridge watching the tragedy. Believing that he could make a difference, he quickly removed his heavy overcoat, kicked off his boots and dove into the sub-freezing river. Swimming like an Olympian, Skutnick found the flight attendant, lifted her head and shoulders out of the water, and whispered, "You will live." As he pulled her from the river, Skutnick was asked why he risked his life to save the stranger. He replied, "I couldn't save everybody, but I knew I could make a difference to one person." Random acts of kindness do make a significant difference. Quote of the day:
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.” — Buddha Consider: To go along with this great quote here is an old fable: A rodent which tried to gnaw at a nail file gnawed and gnawed and gnawed, until the pile of filings began to grow. He was overjoyed until he discovered that something was terribly wrong. The pile of filings were the remains of his own teeth and not the file. All his gnawing had no effect on the file. He ended up just hurting himself. So is it when we allow ourselves not to forgive. Are you hurting yourself? Is there someone you need to forgive? Quote of the day:
“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson Reflection This story particularly spoke to me. As the Dalai Lama says, “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others.” I don't know about you, but I often forget this. One day, as usually was the case, a young waif (little girl) stood at the street corner begging for food, money or whatever she could get. Now this girl was wearing very tattered clothes; she was dirty and quite disheveled. As it happens, a well-to-do young man passed that corner without giving the girl a second look. But when he returned to his expensive home, his happy and comfortable family, and his well-laden dinner table, his thoughts returned to the young waif, and he became very angry at God for allowing such conditions to exist. He reproached God, saying, "How can you let this happen? Why don't you do something to help this girl?" Then he heard God in the depths of his being respond by saying, "I did. I created you!" What are you doing to help those in need around you? If you have not gone to the Radical Giving Site lately please do. It has some new projects posted as well as inspiring updates from the projects and motivational blog posts of random acts of kindness, testimonies of lives given in service, and more. |
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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