Every Step Counts

There once was a young boy with a very bad temper. The boy's father wanted to teach him a lesson, so he gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper he must hammer a nail into their wooden fence.

On the first day of this lesson, the little boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. As expected the son was really mad about the whole thing!

Over the course of the next few weeks, the little boy began to control his temper, so the number of nails that were hammered into the fence dramatically decreased. It wasn't long before the little boy discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Then, the day finally came when the little boy didn't lose his temper even once, and he became so proud of himself, he couldn't wait to tell his father.

Pleased, his father suggested that he now pull out one nail for each day that he could hold his temper.

Several weeks went by and the day finally came when the young boy was able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. Very gently, the father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.

"You have done very well, my son," he smiled, "but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same."  The little boy listened carefully as his father continued to speak.

" When you say things in anger, they leave permanent scars just like these. And no matter how many times you say you're sorry, the wounds will still be there."

Your Presence

It’s said that the greatest gift you can give to someone is your time. When you give someone your time, you give them a portion of your life that you will never get back. I mean, you can make more money, but you can't make more time. Your time is your life and that’s why it’s the greatest gift you can afford to give freely. It is not enough to just say family or relationship is important; we must prove it by investing time in them.

My little experience in life has taught me that actually there's no such thing as being “too busy”. If you really want something, you'll make time for it; People will always make time for the things they consider important or priority. Get me right, it’s a good thing to be hardworking, and so are the ants. The big question is ‘what do you prioritize?’ your family?  career? friends? or all of them? A brilliant mind once said that "it’s not what you do for your children, but what you've taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings". Steven Covey {American educator, author, businessman, keynote speaker} summarizes "the key is not to prioritize what is on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities."

The weekend is here with us, my challenge to you is to “create” an hour or so with a young mind. Probably your son, daughter, niece, nephew, sister, or brother, or all of them {the better} over the weekend…give them your time; share your time with them. Mentor them, share values with them; become a miracle…to just one. As blessed Teresa once said, “ the meaning of true love is 'give until it hurts' ”

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Steve Jobs, Myles Monroe,  Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, etc…”

Finally, they say door of opportunity is always marked "PUSH" …..help the world spell the word LOVE as..............>>>> TIME.

The Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly with a small opening appearing on it. He sat and watched the small life for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further. 

After a long wait, the man decided to help the butterfly. Taking a pair of scissors, the man snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon and the butterfly emerged easily. However, on close scrutiny, he noted that the butterfly had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. 

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.
Hours passed, neither of the expected happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shrunken wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the ‘restricting cocoon’ and the ‘struggle’ required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Final Thoughts;
God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, or sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly! 

Coffee Cups Lesson

A Group of friends, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups…..And then began envying each other’s cups.

Matthew 6:25 (AMP) Therefore I tell you, stop being [a]perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing?

It’s amazing how many of us chase after the fancy cup and focus all our attention there forgetting that what we are really after is the coffee in the cup. We stress ourselves because our colleague has a better looking cup forgetting that the same coffee goes into whichever cup and the taste of the coffee is not affected by the cup. As you stress yourself because you desire a better car, a better paying job, a bigger house, a better smart phone and all these other things that we chase after, remember there is someone stuck in hospital and all they are praying for is LIFE!
Jesus came that we may have life…that’s the key thing because without life all these other things that we run after have no value. Reminds me of the story of a rich lady who was in the titanic when it was sinking. She run to her room to grab something before jumping onto the life boat…she left all her expensive jewelry and the thing that she saw value in was…oranges…food to sustain life.

Are you alive today? Remember, life is the coffee, all these other things. The money big house fancy car and all are just but the cups…tools to use for what God has called us to do. They do not define who you are or change the quality of life you have.

Like the bumper sticker on one fancy car said….”Don’t let the car fool you, my real treasure is in heaven!”
Don’t focus so much on the cup that you fail to enjoy the coffee. Make the best of what you have….enjoy your coffee

No Free Lunch

In microeconomics, the scarcity principle (“No-Free-Lunch Principle”) simply implies that although we have boundless needs and wants, the resources available to use are limited. Consequently, having more of one thing means having less of another (opportunity cost). As a result, no solution therefore offers a 'short cut'.

We live in a world of finite time and resources. In Ephesians 5: 15-17, God calls us to make the most of every opportunity. This is a call to ‘intentionality’ and ‘purpose’ in all that we do. Understanding the economic principle behind “no free lunch” can help us be better stewards of all of our resources, and the choices we make between competing alternatives for our time, talent, and money.

What is important for us to understand is that each and every choice involves a cost. All choices involve costs, every single one. Nothing is free, nothing is without sacrifice. There is no free lunch.

As Christians, we must steward all of our resources with precision and diligence. This is what Ephesians 5: 15-17 encourages us to do – to be careful how we live, and make the most of competing opportunities. We do not have the luxury of whimsy. To be salt and light as God has called us, we must realize that even the small daily decisions that seem easy or trivial require thoughtfulness and grace.

I pray that each of us remembers this concept when thinking through our daily choices, and also that we seek God’s guidance, presence, and wisdom in all that we do.

Day One...

A 24 year old boy seeing out from the train’s window shouted…“Dad, look the trees are going behind!” Dad smiled and a young couple sitting nearby, looked at the 24 year old’s childish behavior with pity, suddenly he again exclaimed…“Dad, look the clouds are running with us!”

The couple couldn’t resist and said to the old man…“Why don’t you take your son to a good doctor?” The old man smiled and said…“I did and we are just coming from the hospital, my son was blind from birth, he just got his eyes today.

Moral:
Every single person has a story. Don’t judge people before you truly know them. The truth might surprise you.

The Blacksmith

A story is told of a blacksmith who gave his heart to God.Though hardworking in his living, still he was not prospering materially. In fact, it seemed that from the time of his conversion, more trouble, affliction and loss were unrelenting than ever before. Everything seemed to be going wrong.

One day, a friend who was not a Christian stopped at the blacksmith's shop to talk to him. Sympathizing with him in some of his trials, the friend said. "It seems strange to me that so many afflictions should come to you just at the time when you have become a deep Christian. Of course, I don't want to weaken your faith in God or anything like that. But here you are, with God's help and guidance, and yet things seem to be getting steadily worse. I can't help wondering why?"

The blacksmith did not answer immediately, but finally, he said, "You see here the raw iron which I have to make into horse's shoes. You know what I do with it? I take a piece and heat it in the fire until it is red, almost white with the heat. Then I hammer it unmercifully, to shape it as I know it should be shaped. Then I plunge it into a pail of cold water to temper it. Then I heat it again and hammer it some more. And this I do until it is finished."
"But sometimes I find a piece of iron that won't stand up under this treatment. The heat and the hammering and the cold water are too much for it. I don't know why it fails in the process, but I know it will never make a good horse's shoe."

He pointed to a heap of scrap iron that was near the door of his shop. "When I get a piece that cannot take the shape and temper, I throw it out on the scrap heap. It will never be good for anything."

He went on, "I know that God has been holding me in the fires of afflictions and I have felt His hammer upon me. But I don't mind, if only He can bring me to what I should be. And so, in all these hard things my prayer is simply this: Try me in any way you wish Lord, only don't throw me on the scrap heap."

Verdict:
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4)