Thursday, December 30, 2010

More "Overnight" Success Stories

Dr. Seuss's first children's book was rejected by twenty-three publishers.  The twenty-fourth publisher sold siz million copies.

After having been rejected by both Hewlett-Packard and Atari, Apple Computers had first year sales of $2.5 million - a huge amount at that time.

Vince Lombardi didn't become a head coach in the NFL until he was forty Seven.

During their first year in business, the Coca-cola company sold only 400 Cokes.

In his first 3 years in the automobile business, Henry Ford went bankrupt twice.

Inventor Chester Carlson pounded the pavement and knocked on doors for years before he could find backers for his Xerox Photocopying Machine.

In 1902, the poetry editor of the Atlantic Monthly returned the poems of a twenty-eight year old poet with the following note: "Our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse." But Robert Frost persevered and became one of our nations most beloved poets.

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.

The lesson is to remember that we need to "keep on keeping on" to be successful.  We only fail when we give up.

Lessons from Crayons

We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are
pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are
different colors....but they all have to learn to live in
the same box."
~Author unknown but greatly appreciated

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Harvard or Stanford

A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment into the president of Harvard's outer office.  
The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods country folks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge. She frowned. "We want to see the president, "the man said softly. "He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped. "We'll wait," the lady replied.  

For hours, the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn't. The secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though 
she knew she would regret it.
  
"Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they'll leave," she told him. He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, but he detested having these two people in faded gingham and a threadbare suit cluttering his office.  
The president, stern-faced with dignity, strutted toward the couple. The lady told him, "We had a son that attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard, and was very happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him somewhere on campus.

The president wasn't touched, as most people would be.  Instead he was shocked, and said so. "Madam," he said gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery." 

"Oh, no”  the lady explained quickly, “we don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would give a building to Harvard.” The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building!! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical plant at Harvard!"  

For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. He could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a university? Why don't we just start our own?" Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. 

Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, CA where they established the University that bears their name...a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about. 

The lesson here is not to judge others on appearances.  Our preconceived ideas about what "rich",  "good" , "intelligent" or even "evil"  looks like may be wrong and we could be very surprised by reality.

Do vs Try

Do or do not...there is no try.

~Yoda

Monday, December 27, 2010

The Art of Communication

The real art of communication is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
~ Dorothy Nevill

Body Language

When it comes to body language, there are some who have better vocabularies than others.
~ Doug Larson

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Use Your Talents

In ancient times, a talent was a unit of money, which is how it is used in this story.  But the story holds just as true when a talent is defined as “an individual ability”.
The master of a wealthy estate was preparing for a long journey to a far away country.  Before his departure, he entrusted a portion of his wealth to three of his servants.  To the first he gave five talents.  To the second he gave two talents, and to the final servant he gave one talent. Each was instructed to use what they had been given.
A year later the master returned to his estate and called his servants together to see how they had done.
The servant given five talents had invested wisely and had doubled his talents, so he now possessed ten.  “Well done” said the master. “Because you used what I gave you, I will give you more.”
The second servant had used his talents to help the village people.  Again the master was please and said “Because you used what I gave you, I will give you more.”
When the master asked the third servant how he had done, he replied  “you only gave me one talent and I was careful not to misuse it.  In fact, I put it in a safe place while you were gone and never touched it.  Here it is, good as new.”
The master was furious and yelled “ How dare you not use what I gave you?” then he took the talent away from the servant and gave it to the one who had ten.
The lesson is that we have to use the talents that we are given in order to grow and gain more.  If we do not use our abilities, we may very well lose them.

Identify Yourself

One of the most courageous things you can do is identify yourself, know who you are, what you believe in, and where you want to go. 

~Sheila Murray Bethel

The Little Voice of Courage

Courage doesn't always roar.  Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow. 

~Mary Anne Radmacher

Saturday, December 25, 2010

The Pencil

There was a man who earned his living by making pencils and selling them in boxes to people. 

Just before he put each one into a box, the pencil maker took the pencil and spoke to it.

"There are 5 things you need to know before I send you out into the world"  he told each pencil.  "Always remember them so that you can become the best pencil you can be."

The pencil maker imparted his lessons so that the pencil understood and promised to remember. The pencil went into the box with purpose in its heart and into the world to make a difference.

These were the five things the pencil maker shared:

One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in Someone's hand.

Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you'll need it to become better.

Three: You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.

Four: The most important part of you will always be what's inside.

Five: On every surface you are used on, you must leave your mark. No matter what the conditions are, you must continue to write.

The lessons for us here are parallel:
  1. We we can do great things when we follow the guidance we are given.
  2. Not everything will be easy, but it will be worth it.
  3. We all get second chances.
  4. What we are inside-our values, thoughts, dreams- that is what really matters.
  5. No matter how hard life seems, never give up. Use your life to make a difference.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

It's How We See It...

One day a father and his rich family took his son to a trip to the country with the purpose of showing him how poor people can be. He wanted him to understand how blessed they were.

They spent a day and a night on the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son, "What did you think of the trip?"

"It was great Dad!" the son replied.

"Did you understand now, how poor people can be?" the father asked.

"Oh yeah!" said the son.

"And what did you learn?" asked the father.

The son answered, "I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden, but they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden, but they have the sky lit with the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard, but they have a field and the whole horizon."  On and on the boy went listing all the thing the family "had". He finished saying "Thanks Dad for showing me how rich they are and poor we really are!"

The lesson here reminds us how powerful perspective can be.  What one person see's as poor another see's as rich.  All we need to do is shift our perspective and realize what riches we have in our lives.

Monday, December 20, 2010

The Hut

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but it seemed hopeless.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

But one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened - everything was lost. He was stunned with grief and anger.

"God, how could you do this to me?" he cried.

Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him.

"How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers.

"We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

The lesson is that it's easy to get discouraged when things appear to be going badly; especially when they seem to go from bad to worse. But sometimes it takes the destruction of what we have to get what we really need.

Feelings

Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others ,including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so all went to their boats and left.

Love wanted to persevere until the last possible moment. When the island was almost sinking, Love decided to ask for help. Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat. Love said, "Richness, can you take me with you?" Richness answered, "No, I can't. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you."

Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel, "Vanity, please help me!" "I can't help you Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat." Vanity answered.

Sadness was close by so Love asked for help, "Sadness, let me go with you." "Oh....Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!"

Happiness passed by Love too, but she was so happy that she did not even hear when Love called her!

Suddenly, there was a voice, "Come Love, I will take you." It was an elder. Love felt so blessed and overjoyed that he even forgot to ask the elder his name. When they arrived at dry land, the elder went his own way.

Love realizing how much he owed the elder and asked Knowledge, another elder, "Who helped me?" "It was Time," Knowledge answered. "Time?" asked Love. "But why did Time help me?" Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, "Because, only Time is capable of understanding how great Love is."

One lesson from this parable is clearly evident -but another is how our emotions can conflict with one another to cause problems, such as getting off the sinking island.  However, with time, we can overcome our emotional challenges as well as other challenges we face.
One les

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Rejection and Success

Richard Hooker spent 17 years writing a humorous war story.  Twenty-one publishers rejected it before William Morrow finally bought it. You may have seen Mr. Hooker's work, either when you grew up, or on TV Land in re-runs, it's a show called M.A.S.H.

Eighteen publishers turned down Richard Bach.  He finally persueded MacMillian to publish just 7,500 copies of his book. Today, millions of copies have been sold and his book is considered a spirituality classic; you've probably heard of Jonathon Livingston Seagull.

The lesson to remember is that between them, these authors faced 39 rejections but they didn't give up.  Persistance pays off.

Up or Down

When you are surrounded by people who are sad, unhappy, or negative, you have two choices in life.  You can let them pull you down into the muck and mire of misery, or you can use enthusiasm, a positive attitude, a smile, and love to pull them up.  Up or down...it's up to you.

The Window

Two men who were both very ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window.

The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

And every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn't hear the band - he could see it in his mind's eye as the man by the window described it with words. Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the world outside. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it for himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.
She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."

The lesson we are reminded of is that we don't always see with our eyes; it's what we see with our hearts and our minds that can inspire ourselves and others. 

Crutches or Wings?

In times of trouble, some people buy crutches, others grow wings.

anonymous

Itzhak Perlman

Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. To watch him walk across the stage one step at a time, painfully and slowly, is an unforgettable sight. He walks until he reaches his chair and then he sits down.  Slowly he puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs, tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Finally he bends down, picks up his violin, places it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.
In general, audiences are used to this process. They sit quietly while he makes his way across the stage and they remain silent while he undoes the braces on his legs. They simply wait until he is ready to play.
On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, made his way on stage and picked up his violin to play at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City but something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars of the piece they were playing, one of the strings on his violin broke. Everyone in the audience heard it snap loudly.
It was evident to everyone in the audience what Itzhak Perlman was going to have to do. He would have to get up, put the braces on again, pick up the crutches, limp his way off stage and either find another violin or find another string for this one. 
But he didn't do that at all. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again. The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. He played with passion and power and clarity of purpose.
Those who know music well know that it is impossible to play a piece from a symphony with just three strings. But on that night, Itzhak Perlman refused to know it. The audience watched him modulating, changing, recomposing the piece in his head as he continued to play. It has been said that at one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before.
When the piece was finished, silence filled the room. Then people began to applaud.  They rose and cheered from every seat in the house.
Itzhak Perlman smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, and raised his bow to quiet the audience.  He commented in a quiet way "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left."
The lesson is that when we are faced with adversity and challenges, we don't have to give up.  Instead, we can become "the artist of our lives" and create something with what we have, rather than bemoan what we have lost or what we desire.

Friday, December 17, 2010

How Heavy is A Glass of Water?

A teacher stood in front of his class with a full glass of water and held it up high. "How heavy is this glass of water?" he asked. Classmembers called out a bunch of answers that ranged from 20g to 500g.

The teacher responded to the class saying "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. You see, if I hold this glass up for just a minute, it doesn't feel heavy and it's not a problem. If I hold it up for an hour, it feels a heavier, and I'll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it  up for a full day, it feels like lead and my arm will have spasms!"

"In each case, the glass of water actually weighs the same, even though the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels."


The lesson is that stress in our lives is like the weight of the glass of water; it's relative to how long we hold onto it. 

When stress occurs, if we deal with it quickly, it's not a problem.  But the longer we hold onto our stresses, the heavier they become. Some situations and stresses are beyond our control and we cannot make them disappear.  But just as with a glass of water, we can choose to put the stress down for a while (sleep, exercise, meditation, talking to others, or through whatever means works for you)  and rest before holding the stress again.

When we are rested, it's always easier to manage stress.

The Baby Giraffe

A baby giraffe falls 10 feet from its mother's womb and usually lands on its back. Within seconds it rolls over and tucks its legs under its body. From this position it considers the world for the first time and shakes off the last bits
of the birthing fluid from its eyes and ears.


Then the mother giraffe rudely introduces its baby to the reality of life.
  
The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. 
Then she positions herself directly over her calf. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heels.  


When it doesn't get up, the violent process is repeated over and over 
again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired, 
the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts.


Finally, the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs. Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up.

In the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes; if the mother didn't teach her calf to get up quickly and be with the herd, the baby would be lost.

The lesson is that we all need tough love at times to grow.  It may come from a parent, a coach, a friend, or even a stranger.  Someone who pushes us to what feels like our breaking point, only to help us  survive and become stronger, better versions of ourselves.  

Potatoes and a Plastic Bag

A high-school teacher told all of her students to bring a clear plastic bag and a sack of potatoes to school for a project. The next day, students were told to think about the people in their life who they they were angry at; all of the people who they refuse to forgive for whatever the person may have done. For each person thought of they chose a potato and wrote on it the name  of the person they were angry at and the date their anger with them began. They put the named and dated potatoes it in the plastic bag. Some of their bags were quite heavy.

Students were told to carry this bag with them everywhere for one week, putting it beside their bed at night, on the car seat when driving, next to their desk at work, etc.   By lugging this bag around with it became clear how heavy and what a burden their anger was.  They had to pay attention to it all the time so as not forget it and leave it somewhere.

Over the course of the week, the condition of the potatoes deteriorated to a nasty smelly slime. This made carrying the bag around very unpleasant.  Pretty quickly, the students realized they wanted to get rid of the potatoes.  

The lesson here is to recognize the price we pay for keeping our anger and negativity - it is very heavy and it stinks- literally! We often think of forgiveness as something we give to the other person, but in reality, when we lighten our load by letting go of our anger,  we realize that forgiveness is for ourselves!

What You Sow, You Reap

Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
Charles Reade

Doing, Being, and Becoming

Life's not about expecting, hoping and wishing, it's about doing, being and becoming.
Mike Dooley

Take Action!

Lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.
Anthony Robbins

Thoughts vs Actions

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.
Emily P. Bissell

Callahan's Attitude Control


In 1982 Steven Callahan was crossing the Atlantic alone in his sailboat when it struck something and sank. He was out of the shipping lanes and floating alone in an inflatable life raft. He didn’t have many supplies left and his chances at survival were dwindling.  But when three fishermen found him seventy-six days later (the longest anyone has survived a shipwreck on a life raft alone), he was alive – granted he was skinnier than he was when he started, but alive.


He kept himself going when all hope seemed lost, when there seemed no point in continuing the struggle. He was starved, dehydrated and thoroughly exhausted. Giving up would have seemed the only sane option. But he didn’t.  In his book, Adrift, this is what he wrote: "I tell myself I can handle it. Compared to what others have been through, I'm fortunate. I tell myself these things over and over, building up fortitude..."

Wow – talk about attitude control!


The lesson here is that no matter how bad our circumstances others have been through much worse. It may be hard to do, but if we stop and realize how lucky we are and what we do have, it keeps us sane-even in the midst of crisis. So whatever you're going through, tell yourself you can handle it. Tell it to yourself over and over; use positive affirmations about your situation. It will help you get through the rough spots with a little more strength and peace.
He had only three pounds of food and eight pints of water, a solar still and a makeshift spear.  When his raft sprung a leak, he was able to keep it afloat and fix the leak, pumping up the raft continually for 33 more days until his rescue. During his two-plus months at sea, Callahan traveled approximately 1,800 miles and survived shark attacks.

The Butterfly

One day a child found a cocoon of a butterfly. He watched it each day until finally a small opening appeared.   Fascinated by what was about to happen, the boy sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It looked like it had gone as as far as it could go.

The boy decided to help the butterfly, so he ran home and got a pair of scissors, ran back and carefully snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The boy continued to watch the butterfly with anticipation.  He expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, and that the body would contract to its normal size. But neither of those things happened! Instead, the the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.

In his haste to help the butterfly, what the boy didn't understand was how natured worked.  The restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it was free from the cocoon.

The lesson for us is that sometimes, struggles are what we need in life to help us grow. If we went through life wihtout obstacles, we would not be as strong as what we could have been.
And we could never fly...


The Retiring Carpenter

 An older carpenter who had worked for a home building construction company for many years was ready to retire.  He went to the owner and sat down with him to tell him of his plans to retire and enjoy life with his family. The owner tried to talk him out of it because the carpenter had been with him so long and was his best and most reliable employee. He thanked the owner, but told him that although he would miss the paycheck, it was time to move into another stage in life.

The owner was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but as time went on, it was easy to see that the carpenter’s heart was not in his work.  He resorted to shoddy workmanship and took shortcuts and even used inferior materials. It was a sad way to end a long-term career.

When the carpenter finished his work the owner came to inspect the house.  He walked up and instead, he handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "it's my gift to you and your wife in appreciation for all your years of dedicated work."

The carpenter was shocked!  If only he had known that he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.

The lesson here is that we often do the same thing. We build our lives, a day at a time, and sometimes, we put shoddy workmanship, or take shortcuts, putting in less than our best efforts.  Suddenly, with a shock we realize we that this is IT! This is the life we have to live. If we could do it over, we'd do it much differently, but we cannot go back.

It’s been said that life is a do-it-yourself project; your attitudes and the choices you make today, build the "house" you live in tomorrow.  Build wisely!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Clyde the Donkey

One day a farmer went out to look for his donkey clyde.  He couldn't find him, but as he walked his land, he heard the donkey braying and realized the donkey had fallen into an old abandoned well. T

The farmer was so distraught - he had not way to get his beloved donkey Clyde out of the well. He decided the only humane thing to do was to bury poor Clyde so he wouldn't suffer for long.

He went and got a shovel and slowly started to shovel dirt into the well.  He kept at it for what seemed like hours.  Suddenly, he could hear Clyde's braying getting louder. He thought he must be imagining it because he knew that soon his poor donkey would be gone.  But  as he shoveled, the braying continued to get louder.

Finally the farmer peeked down into the well, and was astounded by what he saw. Clyde was halfway up the well!  He wasn't sure what was happening, so this time, he watched as he threw a shovelful of dirt into the well.  As it landed on Clydes back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and stomp it down a step up on the new layer of dirt to build himself a path out of the well.

The lesson in this for all us is that there will always be times when it feels like life is shovelling dirt on you - sometimes all kinds of dirt.  They is to shake it off, stomp it down, and use it as a layer on your path out of the well you are in. 

Parenting Challenges

After He created Heaven and Earth, God created Adam and Eve.  The first thing He did was tell them them the things they were not to do. "Don't," said God.

"Don't what?" replied Adam.

"Don't eat the forbidden fruit," God repeated.

"Forbidden fruit? We've got forbidden fruit? Hey, Eve, look... we've got forbidden fruit!"

"No way!" exclaimed Eve.

"No kidding!"

"Don't eat that fruit!" said God.

"Why?" asked both.

"Because I'm your Father and I said so!" said God, and he wondered what He had started.

A little while later God checked in and sure enough, there they were having an apple break.  As any parent who was disobeyed would be, He was angry. "Didn't I tell you not to eat that fruit?" the First Parent asked.

"Uh huh," Adam replied.

"Then why did you?"

"I dunno," Eve answered.

"She started it!" Adam said.

"Did not!"

"Did so!"

"Did not!" And so on.

Having had it with the two of them, God's "punished" Adam and Eve by giving them children of their own. Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.


There is a powerful lesson for parents in this story we've told so many times.  If you have found parenting to be a challenge, don't get beat yourself up.  If you have persistently and lovingly given your children rules, guidance and wisdom but they haven't always taken it, don't be too hard on yourself. Think about it this way instead - if God had trouble with His children, why do you think it would be easy for you?

The Value of a Stamp

What is the value of a stamp?  Not its price (which is always changing) but its function or its usefulness? In reality, a stamp is nothing more than a small scrap of paper with some adhesive on the back of it.  So what give it its value?

The money we pay for the stamp is not really for the stamp itself, but for the service we get. Without a stamp on an envelope, a letter doesn't get too far. The stamps value is that it provides service and sticks with the envelope from the moment it leave it starts its journey until it reaches its destination.

The lesson here is that many people could learn a lot if they decided to be like a stamp-start something and stick with it until they reach the goal or end result.

A Hidden Fortune


A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled up clay and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man so he took the bag out of the cave with him.

As he strolled along the beach, to pass the time, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could throw. He didn't think much about it until he dropped one of the balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone. Excited the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar valuable treasure.

He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left, and then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he just threw it away.

It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and all we see is the external clay covering. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.  We may think of that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we if we take the time to look past the exterior, we can often find amazing treasures inside each person.  

86,400

Imagine having a bank account that is credited each morning with $86,400. It does not carry a balance over from day to day.  You cannot keep a cash balance because at the end of the day whatever part of the amount you failed to use during the day is cancelled.
What would you do?
Why you would draw out every single cent of course!
It’s interesting that with money, this concept is so clear. Yet we all have an account like this. Its name is TIME. Every morning, you receive a credit of 86,400 seconds. Every night, whatever of this amount you have failed to invest and put to good use is written off, as a loss. This account carries over no balance and doesn't allow any overdrafts either.
Each day opens a new account for you and each night the remaining balance is zeroed out.
Every day’s deposits are yours to spend as you choose – spend them wisely. 

The $20 Bill

A teacher began her class in the college lecture hall by holding up a $20 bill. The hall was filled with almost 200 students.  She asked them "Who would like this $20 bill?" Almost every hand was raised. She said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you, but first, let me do this." Then she crumpled the twenty dollar bill up. Now she asked, "Who still wants it?" The hands were all still in the air.
She went on and asked "what if I do this?" And she dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with her shoe. Then she picked it up.  The twenty was now crumpled and dirty.
"Now who still wants this $20?" Still the hands were the air.
"You have all learned a valuable lesson today. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. I could crumple it, drop it, step on it, and you still saw the value."
"There are many times in our lives when we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the challenges we face and the decisions we make. At times, we feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened to you, you will never lose your value: dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who love and care about you."
The worth and value of your life is not about what you do or what was done to you but rather about the essence of who you are. You have value just being you.