Love Is Better Than Money

Loving money and loving people are actually diametrically opposite forces. If you love money, basically you are just loving yourself, because you crave the power and pleasures and comforts that money brings. When you love other people, you are actually choosing to spend yourself, your energy and time, to make someone else's life better. You are giving rather than taking.

At one time or another we have all believed that acquiring money would bring happiness. It never does. The opposite is true: "Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred" (Proverbs 15:17). You will find the greatest satisfactions in your life in the ways in which you have served other people's needs. It's as though they have the keys to your happiness.

When we spend our energy tending to our relationships, including our relationship with God, all of our needs will be met. If you spend your life chasing money, you will end up with nothing. There are no checkbooks in coffins. But you can take the people with you to heaven.

In Christ, love can survive the grave.

Where Will You Be Five Years From Today?

In five years Columbus opened up a whole new world by discovering the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, and North and South America.

In just under five years, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel.

In less than five years, Shakespeare wrote "Hamlet," "Othello," "King Lear," "Macbeth," and five other immortal plays.

In 1961, Julia Child graduated from cooking school with a quirky idea for a TV show. Four years later she won an Emmy as America's Favorite TV Chef.

Fired from their home improvement jobs, Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus created a business model called Home Depot and went public with their idea. Just three years after losing their jobs, their annual sales were $1 billion.

At age 30, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was living in a 500-square foot apartment. Five years later his net worth was $10 billion.

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Five years...260 weeks...1,825 days...2,333,000 minutes. What will you do with it? What could you do with it?

Love Your Enemies

Pray for your haters, ask God to help you love them, and take every opportunity to do them good. Don’t avoid them, and don’t take sneaky swipes at them. One of the wonders of the gospel is that God can make the worst of enemies the best of friends. View this as a massive opportunity to display the power of the gospel.

Even if the person remains hostile, we still have opportunity to enter into the sufferings of Christ (John 15:18-25) and to demonstrate the love of Christ (1 Peter 2:20-23). Let your haters drive you to the Lover.

Discover Your Gifts

Not everyone is self-aware and has a good handle on their own skills, gifts, and talents. There are many individuals who grew up in a household where they received little encouragement or affirmation, and as a result seem at a loss for direction. If you have that kind of background, you need to work extra hard to figure out what your gifts are. Take a personality profile such as DISC or Myers-Briggs. Interview positive friends and family members to see where they think you shine. Spend some time reflecting on past successes. If you're going to focus your thinking in your areas of strength, you need to know what they are.

Focused Thinking

Focused thinking will take you to the next level. No one achieves greatness by becoming a generalist. You don't hone a skill by diluting your attention to its development. The only way to get to the next level is to focus. No matter whether your goal is to increase your level of play, sharpen your business plan, improve your bottom line, develop your subordinates, or solve personal problems, you need to focus.

"The immature mind hops from one thing to another; the mature mind seeks to follow through." - Harry A. Overstreet

Instagram

Hey guys! Follow me on Instagram at blonderaider21 for a peek into my life in pictures :-)

Desiderata

Go placidly amidst the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its shams, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

Failing

When we fail, we often feel a tremendous amount of guilt that can often cripple us. But we learn a very great lesson in grace and trust when God restores us and allows us to rise from our failures. When we rise above them we really understand that it is God who works in us to do good works. It’s a humbling experience, and one that brings a new perspective and a renewed motivation to continue and persevere.

Sonic Boom

Almost like a sonic boom in your spirit, there comes a moment in prayer when you know that God has answered your prayer. In that moment, your frustration and confusion give way to quiet confidence. Your spirit becomes like a sea of glass because you know it's out of your hands and in the almighty hands of God. The natural resistance that was thwarting you turns into supernatural momentum that is propelling you.

Prayer Is the Hub

In the circle of successful living, prayer is the hub that holds the wheel together. Without our contact with God, we are nothing. With it, we are a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor.

Easter Weekend

I grew up in the church, and part of growing up in the church is hearing the same stories over and over. Each year around Easter we’d talk about Jesus’ crucifixion—a dark and brutal story by any standard. But strangely, the crucifixion account never had much punch for me.

After all, we typically read it knowing that with “Friday” comes “Sunday”—that as grim as things seem on Good Friday, the joy of Jesus’ resurrection is just a few days away. It never occurred to me to consider Good Friday as anything but a slight obstacle along the way to the resurrection.

Not long ago, I reread the Gospels with an eye towards putting myself in the place of Jesus’ confused and terrified disciples. At each point in the story, I tried to forget what was going to happen next, instead focusing on what the disciples would have felt, heard, and seen as events unfolded around them. And as I did so, the terrible power of the crucifixion hit me. I found myself with tears in my eyes, reading about Jesus’ death in a way that hadn’t made sense before.

Passion Week begins triumphantly. Jesus rides into the city, everyone pinning their hopes and dreams on him. Steadily the crowds expand and it seems as if Jesus might avoid the terrible events he had hinted at. And then, at the height of it all, Jesus is sold out by Judas and taken away to be falsely accused, cruelly beaten, mocked, and nailed to a cross to die.

It’s not a pleasant image.

But it is the image we are given on Good Friday. It’s demoralizing, distasteful. A mother’s worst nightmare, to see her son falsely accused and punished in the worst way for it.

Take a moment to put yourself in the place of the disciples. Try to imagine the pain of not knowing the end of the story. How does doing so change your perspective on the Easter story as a whole?

The full story of Good Friday is found in Matthew 26-27. Jesus’ final moments on the cross are recorded in Matthew 27:38-50:

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

Faith

True faith celebrates before the miracle happens, as if the miracle has already happened, because you know that God is going to deliver on His promise.

Prayer Circles

Circle the goals God wants you to go after, the promises God wants you to claim, and the dreams God wants you to pursue. Be specific, and circle it in prayer like the Israelites circled Jericho. Keep circling until the walls come tumbling down.

If you don't have a personal definition of success, chances are you will succeed at the wrong thing. You'll get to the end of your life and realize that you spelled success wrong. And if you spell it wrong, you'll get it wrong.

There are higher heights and deeper depths in prayer, and God wants to take you there. He wants to take you places you've never seen before. There are new dimensions. But if you want God to do something new in your life, you can't do the same old thing. It will involve more sacrifice, but if you are willing to go there, you'll realize that you didn't sacrifice anything at all. It will involve more risk, but if you are willing to go there, you'll realize that you didn't risk anything at all.

Make the sacrifice. Take the risk. Draw the circle.

Discovering Your Joy

Being joy filled does not mean that your life is perfect. It means that you emphatically trust God and believe that he has great plans for your life, regardless of what is happening right now.

Joy is an outward sign of inward faith in the promises of God.

Today, I'm especially loving...

...the weather outside. It's sunny and 72 degrees with no wind or humidity. I've come to really appreciate days like this, because the weather in Texas tends to be rather bipolar. It can go from 10 days straight of 100+ degree weather in the summer, to ice storms during the week we get to showcase our amazing new Cowboys Stadium for the Super Bowl :-/

...My Fit Foods. It's a small chain of stores that sells healthy, organic, and gluten-free pre-packaged meals where the protein/carbs/veggies/etc is already measured out into perfect proportions. Since I live alone, it doesn't make much sense to spend hours cooking, and many times I'm in a huge rush, so it's awesome just to be able to pop one in the microwave for about a minute and a half, and voilà! Dinner is done :-) They're also very reasonably priced. I find it to be cheaper than going to the grocery store.

...Go-Gurt. When I was a nanny in college, the boy's mom would keep these in the fridge for snack time, and I would occasionally have one too, so they remind me of him. I still think of him from time to time and hope he's doing well. He was a neat little kid, so I am sure he's prospering wherever he might be these days :-)

...the new friends I'm making at dance class. Chelsea and Crystal are both super sweet, and I hope we stay in touch no matter where this journey we're all on to follow our dream takes us.

...the book The 4:8 Principle by Tommy Newberry. It talks about how to find joy in every moment of your life no matter what circumstances surround you or challenges you face. It's all about how you think. Our minds are flooded with over 50,000 thoughts a day...are yours mostly positive or self-depricating and negative? Very interesting read.

…that today is Sunday! Great time to recharge your soul and prepare for the week ahead!

What are you loving this week?

True Happiness

“The happiness which brings enduring worth to life is not the superficial happiness that is dependent on circumstances. It is the happiness and contentment that fills the soul even in the midst of the most distressing circumstances and the most bitter environment. It is the kind of happiness that grins when things go wrong and smiles through the tears. The happiness for which our souls ache is one undisturbed by success or failure, one which will root deeply inside us and give inward relaxation, peace, and contentment, no matter what the surface problems may be. That kind of happiness stands in need of no outward stimulus.”

- Billy Graham

Change Your Destiny

If you have a strong mind and plant in it a firm resolve, you can change your destiny.

Unrelenting Determination

When you train once, nothing happens. When you force yourself to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then you certainly have developed in more ways than physical. Is it raining? That doesn't matter. Am I tired? That doesn't matter either.

Then willpower will be no problem.

UNRELENTING DETERMINATION.

Our Deepest Fear

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

- Marianne Williamson, author of A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principle of A Course in Miracles

Trust God - A Devo, In His Own Words...

Strive to trust Me in more and more areas of your life. Anything that tends to make you anxious is a growth opportunity. Instead of running away from these challenges, embrace them, eager to gain all the blessings I have hidden in the difficulties. If you believe that I am sovereign over every aspect of your life it is possible to trust Me in all situations. Don't waste energy regretting the way things are or have been. Start at the present moment--accepting things exactly as they are--and search for My way in the midst of those circumstances.

Trust is like a staff you can lean on, as you journey uphill with Me. If you are trusting in Me consistently, the staff will bear as much of your weight as needed. Lean on, trust, and be confident in Me with all your heart and mind.

- Sarah Young, author of Jesus Calling