Thursday, September 3, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Motivation doesn't last
After a speech one day, Zig Ziglar was approached by someone in the audience who said: "Zig, it was a great speech, but... motivation doesn't last."
Zig said, "Bathing doesn't either. That's why I recommend it daily!"
I hope you enjoy and appreciate my efforts to inspire and encourage you in this blog and my other blogs. This story summarizes my reason for hosting these blogs.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Age is irrelevant. Attitude is everything.
NOT TOO EARLY; NEVER TOO LATE!
"Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years." (Genesis 18:11)
"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young." (1 Timothy 4:12)
Age isn't related to important achievements. Maturity, yes. Attitude, absolutely. Skill and intelligence, of course. But not age.
Benjamin Franklin, already a successful publisher, inventor, diplomat and signer of the Declaration of Independence, led the convention that drafted the Constitution of the United States. He was eighty-four. A few years earlier, about the time Franklin was signing the Declaration, Mozart was living in Salzburg, having just completed all five of his violin concertos, each one a masterpiece. He was twenty. Age had no bearing on that summer of significant moments.
Some time ago I interviewed a young man seeking a job. At nineteen he lacked spirit, the fire within—if there had ever been one—just an ember. The same day I spoke to a new friend, age eighty-seven, whose voice was alive, eyes shining, energy directed toward what was next. Age is irrelevant. Attitude is everything. Trying, not giving up, caring enough to use the resources we've been given—these are the things that matter.
So William Gladstone at eighty-five was prime minister of England and the world's leading statesman. At seventeen Elizabeth Barrett (Browning) published a volume of serious poetry. Galileo was dictating records of his latest discoveries about the rotation of planets (and hiding them in his mattress in order to avoid punishment as a heretic) when he was seventy-eight. Michelangelo began painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in his early thirties. Insight, determination and genius are not limited by age.
Martin Luther was thirty-four when he walked to the door of the castle church in Wittenburg, Germany and posted there the ideas for change he wanted to debate with Church leaders. Abraham, founder of the Hebrew nation at the age of one hundred, might have smiled at how one so young could do something so important while Timothy, at twenty-six the leader of one of the largest Christian churches of the first century, might have wondered what had taken Martin so long.
Beethoven had composed a prodigious quantity of music by the time of his death at fifty-six, while Grandma Moses, the famous 20th century folk artist, didn't take up painting until she was seventy-five. Golf prodigy Michelle Wie turned professional at fifteen, the same summer as my father-in-law, age ninety, made his first hole-in-one.
We're not too young to do something significant. And we're never too old.
- Dr. Michael A. Halleen
"Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years." (Genesis 18:11)
"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young." (1 Timothy 4:12)
Age isn't related to important achievements. Maturity, yes. Attitude, absolutely. Skill and intelligence, of course. But not age.
Benjamin Franklin, already a successful publisher, inventor, diplomat and signer of the Declaration of Independence, led the convention that drafted the Constitution of the United States. He was eighty-four. A few years earlier, about the time Franklin was signing the Declaration, Mozart was living in Salzburg, having just completed all five of his violin concertos, each one a masterpiece. He was twenty. Age had no bearing on that summer of significant moments.
Some time ago I interviewed a young man seeking a job. At nineteen he lacked spirit, the fire within—if there had ever been one—just an ember. The same day I spoke to a new friend, age eighty-seven, whose voice was alive, eyes shining, energy directed toward what was next. Age is irrelevant. Attitude is everything. Trying, not giving up, caring enough to use the resources we've been given—these are the things that matter.
So William Gladstone at eighty-five was prime minister of England and the world's leading statesman. At seventeen Elizabeth Barrett (Browning) published a volume of serious poetry. Galileo was dictating records of his latest discoveries about the rotation of planets (and hiding them in his mattress in order to avoid punishment as a heretic) when he was seventy-eight. Michelangelo began painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in his early thirties. Insight, determination and genius are not limited by age.
Martin Luther was thirty-four when he walked to the door of the castle church in Wittenburg, Germany and posted there the ideas for change he wanted to debate with Church leaders. Abraham, founder of the Hebrew nation at the age of one hundred, might have smiled at how one so young could do something so important while Timothy, at twenty-six the leader of one of the largest Christian churches of the first century, might have wondered what had taken Martin so long.
Beethoven had composed a prodigious quantity of music by the time of his death at fifty-six, while Grandma Moses, the famous 20th century folk artist, didn't take up painting until she was seventy-five. Golf prodigy Michelle Wie turned professional at fifteen, the same summer as my father-in-law, age ninety, made his first hole-in-one.
We're not too young to do something significant. And we're never too old.
- Dr. Michael A. Halleen
Friday, March 28, 2008
Self-Pity
Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it,
we can never do anything wise in this world.
we can never do anything wise in this world.
- Helen Keller
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Always in the Presence of God
We are always in the presence of God. There is never a nonsacred moment! His presence never diminishes. Our awareness of His presence may falter, but the reality of His presence never changes.
...
...
- Max Lucado
Monday, February 25, 2008
Advice for the Discontented
You are where you are right now because God wants you there. You may be happy about your current circumstances or you may be miserable. Most likely you are somewhere in between. It doesn’t matter. You are where you are at this moment because God wants you there. How do I know that? Because if God wanted you somewhere else, you’d be somewhere [else], and when he does want you somewhere else, that’s where you will be. If God is God, that must be true.
- Ray Pritchard
Sunday, February 24, 2008
The next time you feel like God can’t use you, just remember...
Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
John the Baptist ate bugs
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer… and
Lazarus was dead!
No more excuses now. God can use you to your full potential. Besides you aren’t the message, you are just the messenger. - anonymous
The power of the Church is not a parade of flawless people, but of a flawless Christ who embraces our flaws. The Church is not made up of the whole people, rather of the broken people who find wholeness in a Christ who was broken for us. - Mike Yaconelli
The grace of God is the mending glue for broken hearts. - unknown
God sees with utter clarity who we are. He is undeceived as to our warts and wickedness. But when God looks at us that is not all He sees. He also sees who we are intended to be, who we will one day become. - John Ortberg
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
John the Baptist ate bugs
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer… and
Lazarus was dead!
No more excuses now. God can use you to your full potential. Besides you aren’t the message, you are just the messenger. - anonymous
The power of the Church is not a parade of flawless people, but of a flawless Christ who embraces our flaws. The Church is not made up of the whole people, rather of the broken people who find wholeness in a Christ who was broken for us. - Mike Yaconelli
The grace of God is the mending glue for broken hearts. - unknown
God sees with utter clarity who we are. He is undeceived as to our warts and wickedness. But when God looks at us that is not all He sees. He also sees who we are intended to be, who we will one day become. - John Ortberg
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