The most beautiful things are not associated with money; they are memories and moments. If you don’t celebrate those, they can pass you by.—Alek Wek
The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.-- Oprah Winfrey Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us. Let’s not be afraid to receive each day’s surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy. It will open a new place in our hearts, a place where we can welcome new friends, and celebrate more fully our shared humanity.—Henri Nouwen We all have life storms, and when we experience rough times, and we recover from them, we should celebrate that we got through them. No matter how bad it may seem, there’s always something beautiful that you can find.—Mattie Stepanek Celebrate yourself... and stay positive! —Khoudia Diop Celebrate what you want to see more of.—Tom Peters I decided if you’re lucky enough to be alive, you should use each birthday to celebrate what your life is about.—Mary Steenburgen I learned from my grandmother, who grew up in devastating war times, how important it is to keep with tradition and celebrate the holidays during tough times.—Marcus Samuelsson Life is too short not to celebrate nice moments!—Jurgen Klopp I want to tell everybody to celebrate every day, to savor the day and be good to yourself, love yourself, and then you can be good to others and be of service to others.—Charlotte Rae
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Quote of the day:
“It has always seemed strange to me… the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.” -- John Steinbeck Think about it: Most people associate honesty with “telling the truth,” but real honesty is “feeling” the truth as well. If you say something one way and feel different inside, then there is no true honesty. It’s somewhat like putting fancy packaging on a poor product. Whenever a person moves from just telling the truth to both telling and really meaning what he says, life immediately responds to that change. By moving toward true honesty, we can create the life responses and breakthroughs to success that we are seeking. Some people believe that by being fully honest we somehow lose in business and life. The truth is, not being fully honest blocks energy. True honesty lets energy flow into our work and life. By Chris Mizrany
My daughter Kristen is a celebrity. Has been since birth. My wife and I follow her every move and document her moods, faces, and actions. We talk about her a lot and share stories about her funny habits or latest tastes. We give her our support and care, and do our best to protect her from harm. She has all our attention, even in the middle of the night, and we get up eager to see what she’ll do in the new day. Her laugh always makes us smile, and her tears spur us to remedy situations. To us, she’s the best. However, Kristen has her moments—mealtime and bedtime struggles, and the occasional touching of forbidden objects, for example. We teach her to speak her requests clearly instead of just yelling, reward her for progress made, and sometimes penalize her for wrongdoing. She’s not perfect by any means, but she’s ours, and we adore her. And you know what? I’m God’s celebrity. Flawed as I am, I bring joy to His Father’s heart. He follows my every move and loves to see what I’ll do next. He sends me encouraging messages through His Word, and protects me when I go out into the big world. He is righteous, and teaches me through my choices and ensuing consequences. By His sacrifice, He’s given me undying love, and He is available to hear my requests at any time, anywhere. The rewards He offers are priceless and eternal, and believe it or not, I’m His favored child. And so are you. In a world filled with ways to stay “close” to those we care about or have an interest in, it’s comforting to know that God needs no social network, no magazine columns, no status check to understand us. He knew us before we were even conceived, and will keep us close to Him forever. We’re special to Him, and He has a plan for us. As my daughter warms my heart every time she calls “Papa!” so is our Father’s heart touched when we call out to Him. No matter whether you feel valued or not, to Him, you’re the best! There are things that we don’t want to happen but have to accept, things we don’t want to know but have to learn, and people we can’t live without but have to let go.—Author Unknown
Grieving is a necessary passage and a difficult transition to finally letting go of sorrow—it is not a permanent rest stop. —Dodinsky When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.—Kahlil Gibran We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.—Kenji Miyazawa Time is a physician that heals every grief.—Diphilus In the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.—Robert Ingersoll All that we can know about those we have loved and lost is that they would wish us to remember them with a more intensified realization of their reality. What is essential does not die but clarifies. The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.—Thornton Wilder Even hundredfold grief is divisible by love.—Terri Guillemets Oh heart, if one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains.—Khalil Gibran While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil.—John Taylor When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.—Author unknown Quote of the day:
"Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.” — James Bryant Conant Think about it: The Art of War, an ancient Chinese text by the military tactician Sun Tzu, gives an overview of how change and innovation occur in societies, businesses, nations, and individuals. It presents the phases in the growth of an idea, project, innovation, organization, or nation, as five stages or “seasons”: metal, water, wood, fire, and earth. In the metal phase at the start, there is discontent. The need for change is apparent, but someone has to get the ball rolling. In the next phase of water, imagination comes into action. We play with possibilities and try to picture what the ideal future for us would look like. We flow and splash around with ideas until we find the best one(s). In the wood stage, we’ve picked the idea to implement and begin to assemble our resources. We build a team and make a plan. At this stage, effort often seems to overshadow results. When we enter the fire phase, our innovation or project breaks out, and we begin to burn. We have to keep the heat and get others interested—spread the fire to others as well. Earth is the last phase before the cycle repeats itself. Once our project is running, we have to make it sustainable and ensure long-term growth without running out of steam. We must fight deterioration with more innovation or we will begin to lose what we’ve gained. Each of us may be at a different season or stage. That’s healthy. Discontent can be helpful to find new directions of growth. Water and new ideas are always needed to keep improving. Wood is needed for structure and putting landing gear on our ideas. Fire is a sign that people are getting something done and giving heat and light. Earth is needed for stability and to build walls of defense against possible setbacks and adversity. When all of these are present, we find ourselves in an ideal place to prosper and bear fruit. By Linda Cross
Heading to the store with my two youngest, I had promised them doughnuts and planned on buying some fruit as well. As I approached the store I saw a familiar beggar sitting by the entrance. Oh no! I thought to myself, Not her again! (She’s the relentless begging type who always asks for more.) She, on the other hand, beamed a big smile upon seeing me approach. She raised one hand in a gesture toward heaven, and rambled in Romanian what I could only make out to be a praise to God. I had helped her before, somewhat reluctantly. I had some dried fruit snacks with me, which I handed her. “Tack, tack!” she said, thanking me in barely audible Swedish. “Kyckling, potatis!” she added, while making a hand gesture to her mouth. I sighed, thinking, Now she wants chicken and potatoes! I should have gone to the other store! I had left my Visa credit card at home and only brought 50 kronor with me (which is the equivalent of $5.50 USD). As I went into the store I reasoned within myself, with an attempted excuse, that even if I wanted to, which I didn’t feel too keen on anyway, I didn’t have enough money on me to buy my desired items and her request. That’s when I heard God’s voice. He doesn’t always come across so strongly, but this time He clearly said, “You’re doing it unto Me!” I knew what He meant. In Matthew 25:40, Jesus says, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” I argued, “But, Lord, I don’t even have enough money on me to buy her chicken!” “Why don’t you check out the price?” came His soft reply. So we did. After the kids had picked their doughnuts and I added two kilos of apples, I found to my surprise that the chicken was on a special offer—one whole chicken for 20 kronor! Wow, that was crazy cheap and no coincidence, I thought. “But there’s just no way I have enough for potatoes!” Again, God’s gentle chiding: “You’re giving to Me!” And the thought hit me that if Jesus were sitting out there in the cold and asked me for chicken and potatoes, would I give Him any less if it was in the power of my hand to give it? By now our average shopping trip had turned into an adventure. I returned the apples and bagged some potatoes; the shop’s scale was out of order and I was unable to estimate if I had enough money to buy them as well. The kids and I stood in line, all three with childlike anticipation. After ringing up the items, the cash register showed 49:90 kronor. Yay, I was elated! We stepped outside and handed her the food with big grins, and her immediate response was, “Schampoo?!” My giving-joy deflated and there was no holding back the irritation I felt at her lack of thankfulness and asking for more. And I made sure she knew it by telling her so. As we kept walking I told Jesus, “You know, if that would have been You, You would have said thank you!” As often happens when I’m in a huff, the Lord lingered with His answer. Later that afternoon, when we were all snuggly at home and I was preparing dinner, one of our Bibles lay open on the kitchen table. Before closing it, my eyes fell on the verse where Jesus tells us to do good and lend to people without expecting to get anything back. It goes on to say, “Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful” (Luke 6:35). There He gave me my answer. But that wasn’t all. Remember I had returned a bag of apples in order to afford to buy the food for the begging woman? My husband came home from work that day with groceries, including four kilos of apples! He told me there had been a good deal, so he bought a bunch. We ended up with twice the amount of apples we had decided to forgo for the sake of the woman’s dinner. (My husband was unaware of our little giveaway adventure.) When you give, Jesus always gives back. It was a small but meaningful token of His faithfulness. God taught me two important lessons that day. First, to “give to him that asks of thee, and to him that would borrow of thee turn not away” (Matthew 5:42). And second, that I should be willing to give, not expecting anything in return, not even a ”thank you” as in this case, but just keep giving anyway, because what I do, I do as unto Jesus, and He’s the guy I love! This poem, credited to Mother Teresa, has become my motto: Do It Anyway People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway. An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.—Sir Winston Churchill
When we know that everything has two sides, let us look at the bright side only.—Mahatma Gandhi There are always flowers for those who want to see them.—Henri Matisse It is always possible to be thankful for what is given rather than to complain about what is not given. One or the other becomes a habit of life.—Elisabeth Elliot If you don’t get everything you want, think of the things you don’t get that you don’t want.—Oscar Wilde It is no use to grumble and complain; It’s just as cheap and easy to rejoice; When God sorts out the weather and sends rain— Why, rain’s my choice. —James Whitcomb Riley The door to happiness swings outward. — Søren Kierkegaard If I had my life to live over, I would try to make more mistakes. I would relax. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would pick more daisies. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones.—Don Herold Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.—Leonardo da Vinci This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.—George Bernard Shaw Happiness is what we make it. Some people are unbelievably cheerful in the midst of difficulty or obstacles; others bemoan the slightest inconvenience. Those who look for the upside of any trouble are the ones who come out ahead in quality of life. And the radiance of their positive attitude sheds light on the paths of others.--Chloe West Quote of the day:
“Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves.” -- Dale Carnegie Think about it: I’ve been watching the TV series The X Factor, in which singers across the United States participate in a huge talent show contest where the winner will be awarded a multimillion-dollar recording contract. For those unfamiliar with the show, in each episode the judges choose who will move on to the next level in the competition, based on talent, of course! But there’s another trait that they’re also looking for. They want someone who will reliably deliver. Of course, performing artists aren’t the only ones who need to be reliable. Coach John Wooden—considered one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time—talks about some of his basketball players who had reliability and what that meant to him. In the book, Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success, he wrote, “Curtis Rowe was one of my most consistent players. Although he wasn’t usually spectacular, he consistently played at a very high level and made it look easy. I could have almost penciled in his stat line before the game began.” Merriam-Webster gives this definition for reliability: “1. Suitable or fit to be relied on: dependable; 2. Giving the same result on successive trials.” Understanding this better has made me realize that the people whom I treasure both in my work and my personal life are those I know I can rely on, whether it’s with deadlines or when I need the comfort of a trustworthy friend. Coach Wooden describes the characteristics of a reliable person in this way: “When we are reliable, others know that they can depend on us. They know that we will make the effort to do our best, whatever the situation might be. They know we won’t run, cower, or become paralyzed by fear. They have learned to count on our consistency and trustworthiness. We’ll still be there making the effort to do our best long after the weaker ones have faded.” Reliable people are treasured wherever they are found. You may love that you can count on a certain best friend to always show up when you need to vent or whatever, but can that someone count on you in the same way? Do you want to be the person that people count on? Do you want an edge in almost any sphere of your life? Try reliability and see what it will do for you. By J. R. Miller
It has been noted that among the poor there is even more neighborliness shown than among the rich. The absence of conventionality makes the life simpler. The poor mingle more freely in their neighborhood life. They share each other’s burdens. They minister to each other’s needs. They nurse each other in sickness and sit with each other in times of sorrow. Their mutual kindness does much to lessen their hardships and to give zest and happiness to their lives. The ministry of kindness is unceasing. It fills all the days and all the nights. In the true home, it begins in pleasant greetings with the first waking moments, and all day goes on in sweet courtesies, in thoughtful attentions, in patience, in quiet self-denials, in obligingness and helpfulness. Out in the world kindness goes everywhere with its good cheer, its gladness of heart, its uplift for those who are discouraged, its strengthening words for those who are weary, its sympathy with sorrow, its interest in lives that are burdened and lonely. Some of us, if we were to try to sum up the total of our usefulness, would name a few great things we have done: a gift of money to some benevolent object, the starting of some good work which has grown into strength, the writing of a book which has done good to many lives, the winning of honor in some service to our community or to our country. But in every worthy life, that which has left really the greatest measure of good has been its ministry of kindness. No record of it has ever been kept. People have not talked about it. It never has been mentioned in the newspapers. We do not even remember it ourselves. But wherever we have gone, day after day, if we have simply been kind to everyone, we have left blessings in the world which in the aggregate mean far more than the few large things we set down as the measure of our usefulness among men! Our Lord’s wonderful picture of the Judgment reveals another phase of the splendor of kindness. He tells us that the little things we do—feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, showing hospitality to the stranger, visiting the sick, and the other nameless ministries of love of which we take no account—if done in the right spirit, are accepted as though they had been actually done to Christ himself! He tells us that the godly will be surprised to know that in their kindly acts they had been ministering to the King, when they supposed they were only doing little things for needy neighbors. This revealing exalts to highest honor the lowliest things of the common days, wrought in love for the Master. The best thing we can do with our love is not to watch for a chance to perform some one fine act that will shine before the world—but to fill all the days and hours with little kindnesses which will make countless hearts nobler, stronger, and happier. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”--Colossians 3:12 (Part 1 was posted last Sunday August 4.) Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but engrave the good things that happen to you in marble. —Unknown
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. —Khalil Gibran Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility, but through greatness of mind. —Aristotle Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. —Helen Keller The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be greater than our suffering. —Ben Okri It is by suffering that human beings become angels. —Victor Hugo Our human compassion binds us the one to the other—not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learned how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future. —Nelson Mandela We should not despair because there is so much suffering, grief, and wrong in the world. Instead, we should do what we can to make things right and encourage others to do the same. —Unknown Anywhere I see suffering, that is where I want to be, doing what I can. —Princess Diana Those who have suffered understand suffering, and therefore extend their hand. —Patti Smith |
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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