Lifetstyle & Words to Live By....

 

Eight Life Lessons that have Helped
 - by Ed Foreman

• THINK about what you THINK ABOUT… and if you catch yourself thinking about unhappiness, ill health and adversity, "change the channel" and think about what you want to happen!

• When something happens by chance, follow up. Lucky people tend to notice and act on good things that occur by happenstance.

• Believe that good things will happen. Expectations have a way of coming true.

• When bad things happen, look for the bright side; i.e., "what did I learn from that?" or, "how do I keep it from happening again?" Don't dwell on it, move on!

• If the horse dies, dismount. Don't continue to pour money and effort into a lost cause.

• Don't look for love in the wrong places… not just romantic love, but the love of "stuff." Stuff is O.K., but understand the delusion of "I'll be happy when I have this or that… or, when I live over there, or when this happens." Happiness is a state of mind in which our thinking is pleasant most of the time.

• Failure is a CHOICE made by the undisciplined. Failing to meet your objectives, regardless of what they are, is a choice, because something else has been given higher priority. If you fail, it is because you choose to fail.

• You don't "catch" depression and you don't "catch" happiness…you "create" it by the "thoughts" you put into your mind. Carefully choose what you read, listen to, and the people with whom you associate.

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Random thoughts

by Bob Garon

Here are some random thoughts that can make a difference in your life.

You have one life to live. Live each day as if it were the most precious time in your life. Today isn't just another day. It brings you closer by 24 hours to the end of your life. If on the day you are about to die, God were to extend your life by 24 hours, would those additional minutes mean something to you? I'll bet they would? What would you do with them? With whom would you like to spend them? Your banker? Your friend? Your children?

If you wake up each morning thinking that the next 24 hours are a special gift from God to you, there will be special appreciation for this gift of life. There is a good chance that you will spend your day wisely. Perhaps you might even do more acts of kindness than you would otherwise. Perhaps you will love with a greater sense of urgency that will cause your relationships to be transformed for the better.

From the moment of birth, the clock begins to tick away the time remaining to us. This is not a dark negative thought that should make us sad, but a reality that will cause us not to throw away the life given to us in mindless and meaningless ways.

Your work should enrich your spirit. If you are trapped in a job that does not enrich your life, it is time to look for some other work that inspires you. You always have a choice. You may not think so at this time, but if you get into a searching mode, in time you will find a direction in life that enriches your spirit and causes you to eagerly look forward to getting up the next day and going off to work. Do not be afraid to think thoughts that are new to you. All you need is one new direction that can change your life forever.

To fear death accomplishes absolutely nothing. Every living thing on the planet is going to die someday, somewhere, somehow. None including we humans can escape the inevitable.

Still we all have within our being a built-in instinct for survival that we cannot do away with. It will always be there to keep us alert and alive until the Angel of Death comes for us.

We can, however, make a concentrated and determined effort to fight off the fear of death that stalks us. We can control our fear to the best of our ability by understanding and accepting that to fear death will not keep it at bay. On the contrary, to be overly fearful of death can even cause us unnecessary stress and even hasten the end.

To remain peaceful in the warm embrace of God who watches over us should be our prayer. We cannot avoid death, but we can face it with dignity and faith in the Lord.

(pasted from: http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/sep/17/yehey/life/20080917lif5.html)


 

Service

There are three types of Christians who respond to the call of service:
(1) rowboat Christians - they have to be pushed wherever they go;
(2) sailboat Christians - they always go with the wind; and
(3) sailboat Christians - they make up their mind where they ought to go and go there regardless of wind or weather.

A Christian worker is good; a worker for Christ is better; but Christ, in a worker, working out His will through Him, is best of all.

Love

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
                                                     - 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13

 

Faith 
 - Bob Garon

There are days when I wish I had my mother's faith in God. She seemed so serene and so comfortable in it to the very end. I remember when she was dying of cancer. She told me that she knew would never leave the hospital alive, but that she was ready to meet God. It wasn't so much what she said, but HOW she said it that made such an impact on me. She was so calm, so sure of herself, of God's love for her and the inevitability of seeing Him soon and feeling His warm embrace. It was as if she had enough of this world and longed to be with God.

I also recall a conversation I had with a billionaire businessman friend of mine who was also dying of cancer. He was clinging to life and would not go so easily. He said, "I would gladly give away my fortune for another chance at life." It was also HOW he said it that made a lasting impression on me. He was not calm and serene. Fear was written all over his face. If he truly believed in God, it was clear that he was in no hurry to face Him.

Still another story told to me by a priest friend. A fellow priest was in his last moments. Conscious and clear minded, the last words he uttered before dying were, "God, give me more time …" Then, he was gone. Not a very inspiring death.

If those words were reflective of his faith, then one has to wonder. I think that so many of us who profess to have faith and belief in God have more doubts about Him than we care to admit. We want to look comfortable in our faith and so we project an image that seems to reflect that. But the truth is that we have doubts about God, about life after life, about eternity and heaven, etc.

Still, we don't want to talk about our doubts for fear that we will be marked as unbelievers and thereby invite all kinds of negative remarks from our peers.

We need to understand that to have faith and to doubt is not a contradiction. The very nature of God is mysterious. The belief in an after life is also a mystery. And when children ask us, "What's heaven like, we are often at a loss for words."

Faith is believing despite the doubts. It is walking with God even if we are not sure about Him. It is believing when believing is difficult.

When things go wrong

WHEN things go wrong and pain sweeps over us, we remember to call on God. Problem is that often we cannot find Him. This is the complaint of so many believers: "when I need God, I can't seem to find Him . . . it's as if He's hiding from me."

We believers insist on having God when we need Him. God at our fingertips. When that doesn't happen, we get upset with Him and accuse Him of playing games with our feelings. We blame him for hiding from us.

This reminds me of the story of the favorite disciple of a holy man. It seems that he complained to the holy man that it was very difficult in adversity to retain perfect faith in the belief that God provides for every human being. "It actually seems as if God were hiding His face from such an unhappy being," he said.

"It isn't hiding anymore," replied the holy man, "if you know it is hiding."

If you have enough faith to believe that God is there always loving you regardless of what happens, you know that He isn't hiding from you even if He does not grant your every wish and desire; even if He does not shield you from the pain and hurt; and even if things are not at all going your way.

If you have faith you know He's there even if you can't feel His presence. You know He's by your side even if you cannot sense Him. You know He won't abandon you even if it feels like you're all alone. You know He has a plan for you even if everything seems to be so chaotic.

A child was playing hide and seek with another child. He hid himself for some time, but his playmate did not look for Him. The little boy ran to the wise man and complained; "He did not look for me!"

The wise man replied: "This is also God's complaint, that we don't look for Him!"

The trouble with us is we expect God to stand by us and serve us. Like a butler in waiting. We get our roles reversed. It is we who need to stand by and serve Him. We need to seek Him out. It is we who need to stand before God and worship Him and not the other way around. The trouble with us is that we don't know our place. Like the guys who rush into the banquet hall and expect to be seated at the table of honor.

We will find more contentment if we learn to trust more and demand less. We will be more at peace with ourselves if we accept in faith our place in the order of things.
- by Bob Garon
Change Begins with Choice --  by Jim Rohn

Any day we wish; we can discipline ourselves to change it all. Any day we wish; we can open the book that will open our mind to new knowledge. Any day we wish; we can start a new activity. Any day we wish; we can start the process of life change. We can do it immediately, or next week, or next month, or next year.

We can also do nothing. We can pretend rather than perform. And if the idea of having to change ourselves makes us uncomfortable, we can remain as we are. We can choose rest over labor, entertainment over education, delusion over truth, and doubt over confidence. The choices are ours to make. But while we curse the effect, we continue to nourish the cause. As Shakespeare uniquely observed, "The fault is not in the stars, but in ourselves." We created our circumstances by our past choices. We have both the ability and the responsibility to make better choices beginning today. Those who are in search of the good life do not need more answers or more time to think things over to reach better conclusions. They need the truth. They need the whole truth. And they need nothing but the truth.

We cannot allow our errors in judgment, repeated every day, to lead us down the wrong path. We must keep coming back to those basics that make the biggest difference in how our life works out. And then we must make the very choices that will bring life, happiness and joy into our daily lives.

And if I may be so bold to offer my last piece of advice for someone seeking and needing to make changes in their life - If you don't like how things are, change it! You're not a tree. You have the ability to totally transform every area in your life - and it all begins with your very own power of choice.
God doesn't get angry
- by Bob Garon

"He is angry at me", said the distressed woman, "I know he is." I asked her how she knew about it. "Because he isn't answering my prayers," she said with sadness in her eyes that proved the sincerity of her words.

I smiled at her and asked, "Do you think that you can disturb God enough to make Him angry? Do you think that you can upset Him so much that He will actually get angry with you?"

She seemed surprised that I could even ask such questions. Ever since we were young, we were told that if we did not behave, God would be angry at us. He would be sad and we would ruin His day.

We never questioned those "teachings". But that was when we were kids and think like children. Now that we had grown up, we need to think as adults, matured adults.

God does not get angry at you when you go off the straight and narrow path. He doesn't because He is God and if you could get Him angry, you would have power over God. If God gets upset every time somebody sinned, then in a world of six billion people, He would spend all His time being angry. If I can get you upset over me, you are disturbed and I am the cause of your agitation. That is having a measure of power over you.

That cannot happen to God. All of our collective sins cannot get Him angry because He is above all that. He isn't like us humans. He is God, the Almighty, the Master of the Universe. Sometimes we go overboard to puff ourselves up and make ourselves a whole lot more than what we are.

God isn't an emotional wreck whose moods fluctuate depending on how we behave. He is too great to be swayed by our misbehaviors. He is God, the Supreme Being. All-powerful, loving, steady and unchanging, He rules over the vastness of all that is.

He doesn't run around punishing us whenever we walk off and turn our backs on Him. He doesn't have to. We perform a very good job punishing ourselves. Our craziness comes back to haunt us. God does not have to lift a finger to hurt us since we engage in our own self-destructiveness when we stray.

The words "God is good…all the time" apply despite our futile efforts to challenge Him.

(pasted from: http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/mar/05/yehey/life/20080305lif5.html)
The Power of Faith
by Vic Johnson (excerpted from Day by Day with James Allen)

"By the power of faith every enduring work is accomplished. Faith in the Supreme, faith in the overruling Law; faith in your work, and in your power to accomplish that work - here is the rock upon which you must build if you would achieve, if you would stand and not fall." - Path to Prosperity

James Allen makes a pretty bold claim: "By the power of faith every enduring work is accomplished." He doesn't say some enduring works or many enduring works, but EVERY enduring work.

A Duke University research study, among many others, found a link between religious faith and illness prevention, coping and recovery. Those with a strong faith tended to be ill less often and when they were ill tended to recover more quickly. We all know stories of people who experienced some type of miracle in their life because they had the faith all along that they would.

In Think and Grow Rich, the number one success classic of all time, Napoleon Hill wrote the following about the power of faith: "Faith is the "eternal elixir" which gives life, power and action to the impulse of thought! Faith is the starting point of all accumulation of riches! Faith is the basis of all "miracles" and all mysteries which cannot be analyzed by the rules of science! Faith is the only known antidote for Realize that the only things that can keep us from having the kind of faith that Allen and Hill describe are fear, doubt and worry. These are the opposite of faith.

Fear that your car won't start this morning, that you're going to be in the next group of layoffs, that you can't possibly save enough now to ever retire. Doubts that you'll ever own that business you've always wanted, that your children will grow into happy, well adjusted adults. Worry that you won't have enough money to make it until the end of the month, that the medical test is going to come back with bad news. The list goes on and on.

Fear, doubt and worry rob us of a real life and keep us from moving forward. But more than anything, they rob us of faith - and without faith we are powerless.

How do we overcome fear, doubt and worry in order to maintain faith? Hill says that "Repetition of affirmation of orders to your subconscious mind is the only known method of voluntary development of the emotion of faith." In other words, we can literally think and talk ourselves into faith just as easily as we think and talk ourselves into fear, doubt and worry.

And that's worth thinking about.

Reproduced from: http://www.yoursuccessstore.com/ezine/2008/351.htm

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

LOVE and romance will fill the air today, as around a billion Valentine's Day cards - and perhaps an equal number of flowers and boxes of chocolates - will be sent around the world to express warm thoughts and affection for a loved one.

The custom of sending love notes and the giving and exchanging of gifts during Valentine's Day traces its roots to the Roman festival known as Lupercalia, which included the custom of having young Roman men draw lots to determine who among the city's maidens would be their social partners for the subsequent year. The falling in love and eventual marriage of some of these couples were attributed to Cupid and Venus. Christianity later revised the festivity and it became the memorial of a Roman martyr as it highlighted the transcendent dimension of human love. Some legends have it that St. Valentine was either a priest or a bishop of Terni around 269 A.D. who before suffering martyrdom wrote letters in prison expressing Christian love.

The feast of St. Valentine used to be part of the Roman Catholic Church's calendar and was celebrated on February 14. However, in the late 60s, the celebration was taken out from the Catholic calendar as part of the Church's broader effort to remove saints and martyrs viewed by some as being purely legendary in origin.

Over the centuries and despite the mystery that has shrouded the origin of the festivity, Valentine's Day has retained its distinct romantic flavor. From the medieval period to the present age, various customs and practices have been observed to specially mark the day.

In the Philippines, Valentine's Day has become part of contemporary Filipino culture. While this special day is usually associated with lovers and sweethearts, it is also devoted to the expression of love for parents and children, siblings and friends.

In celebrating Valentine's Day this year, let us not lose sight of the very essence of the celebration. Let us help nurture that one element that keeps a family and society together - LOVE. Valentine's Day should serve as a reminder that human love is a manifestation of God's love for every person, and that coupled with respect for the uniqueness of every individual, love is a sure path toward the peace that this world needs.

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all!

(source: Manila Bulletin's Opinion, posted Feb 14, 2008)

 

Write It On Your Heart - - Ron White

"When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord."

Those are the words of Exodus Chapter 34 verse 29. Moses had just come down Mount Sinai for the second time with the Ten Commandments. He had the unique honor of carrying two tablets marked by the force of God to his people. This scripture tell us that the face of Moses was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.

And do you know what?... You too can carry the life changing word of God... but not in your hands. You can carry it in your heart. And if you do, I believe that you will also experience the radiant face that Moses did. While we will never have the chance to carry two stone tablets marked by God, we can carry His letter to us in our hearts.

Psalms Chapter One tells us that the one who meditates upon scripture will prosper in whatever they do. If you take this message to heart, it is the most powerful action you can undertake in the direction of self improvement.

So what does it mean to meditate on the word of God? It simply means to think about it, read it and study it. What better way to meditate on scripture that to memorize it. Imagine having the book of Proverbs, Romans or Psalms memorized word for word. Wouldn't that be remarkable?

Your mind is the greatest computer in the world and is without a doubt easily capable of recalling 100-digit numbers, 100 names and faces and even bible verses. If I asked you to walk around your bedroom and number ten pieces of furniture, could you do that? Of course you could. Then, if I asked you to visualize a heart on your first piece of furniture and joy dishwashing liquid on your second could you do that? Of course you could!

This is how easy scripture memory is. You must have files (your furniture in this instance) and then turn the verse into a picture. In the example I just used, I turn the first two fruits of the spirit listed in Galatians (love and joy) into a picture. If you desire you can turn the other seven into pictures and there you have it -- written on your heart!

Now this is just the "Cliff Notes" version of scripture memory. In my program, 'Write It On Your Heart' I teach you how to build hundreds of files and memorize chapters of scripture word for word.

It is my desire that you take the life-changing word of God and write it on the tablet of your heart. If you do, there is no doubt in my mind that your face will show the radiance not known to you before, and your life will bear the undeniable autograph of someone seeking the heart and mind of our Creator.  

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Ten Commandments of Friendship:

1. Speak to people - there is nothing as nice as a cheerful word of greeting.

2. Smile at people - it takes seventy-two muscules to frown but only fourteen to smile.

3. Call people by name - the sweetest music to anyone's ear is the sound of their own name.

4. Be friendly and helpful - if you would have friends, be friendly.

5. Be cordial - speak and act as if everything you do were a real pleasure.

6. Be genuinely interested in people - you can like everyone if you try.

7. Be generous with praise, cautious with criticism.

8. Be considerate of the feelings of others - it will be appreciated.

9. Be thoughtful of the opinion of others.

10. Be alert to give service - what count most in life is what we do for others!

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