This video is worth 2o minutes of your time.
Super Model, Cameron Russel walked up stage, apologizes for the dress she is wearing, covers up on stage and says,”Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I am a model” Please share it with your daughter, sister or friend who is dying to be like the girls on the glossy mag
Here is the advice Mr Washington recently gave to a group of young actors:
True desire, in the heart, for anything good, is God’s proof to you, sent before hand, to indicate that it is yours already. That dream that you have to be anything you want to be, is God’s proof to you that you already have it. Claim it!
Dreams without goals remain dreams, just dreams, and ultimately fuels disappointment. Dreams without, minute goals, hourly goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, yearly goal, remain dreams, and ultimately fuels disappointment.
Goals on the road to achievement cannot be achieved without discipline and consistency. Between Goals and achievement are discipline and consistency.
I pray that you all put your shoes way under the bed at night so that you have to get on your knees in the morning to get it. And while you are down there, thank God for grace and mercy and understanding. We all fall short of the glory of God.
If you just start thinking of all the things you have to say thank you for. We all have the gift to go out and touch someone. Understand that gift, protect that gift and Treasure it.
I have been blessed to make millions of dollars but I can’t take it with me and neither can you, so it not how much you have, but what you do with what you have that counts. And we all have different gifts: some have money, some have love, and some have patience. Use it, share it that is what counts, not what you are riding in or what you are flying in. Please, please watch the VIDEO
Jack took a long look at his speedometer before slowing down: 73 in a 55 zone. Fourth time in as many months. How could a guy get caught so often?
When his car had slowed to 10 miles an hour, Jack pulled over, but only partially. Let the cop worry about the potential traffic hazard. Maybe some other car will tweak his backside with a mirror.
The cop was stepping out of his car, the big pad in hand. Bob? Bob from Church? Jack sunk farther into his trench coat. This was worse than the coming ticket. A Christian cop catching a guy from his own church. A guy who happened to be a little eager to get home after a long day at the office. A guy he was about to play golf with tomorrow.
Jumping out of the car, he approached a man he saw every Sunday, a man he’d never seen in uniform.
“Hi, Bob. Fancy meeting you like this.”
“Hello, Jack.” No smile.
“Guess you caught me red-handed in a rush to see my wife and kids.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Bob seemed uncertain. Good.
“I’ve seen some long days at the office lately. I’m afraid I bent the rules a bit-just this once.”
Jack toed at a pebble on the pavement.
“Diane said something about roast beef and potatoes tonight. Know what I mean?”
“I know what you mean. I also know that you have a reputation in our precinct.”
Ouch. This was not going in the right direction. Time to change tactics.
“What’d you clock me at?”
“Seventy. Would you sit back in your car please?”
“Now wait a minute here, Bob. I checked as soon as I saw you. I was barely nudging 65.”
The lie seemed to come easier with every ticket.
“Please, Jack, get in the car.”
Flustered, Jack hunched himself through the still-open door. Slamming it shut, he stared at the dash board. He was in no rush to open the window. The minutes ticked by. Bob scribbled away on the pad. Why hadn’t he asked for a driver’s license? Whatever the reason, it would be a month of Sundays before Jack ever sat near this cop again.
A tap on the door jerked his head to the left. There was Bob, a folded paper in hand.
Jack rolled down the window a mere two inches, just enough room for Bob to pass him the slip.
“Thanks.” Jack could not quite keep the sneer out of his voice.
Bob returned to his police car without a word.
Jack watched his retreat in the mirror. Jack unfolded the sheet of paper. How much was this one going to cost? Wait a minute. What was this? Some kind of joke? Certainly not a ticket.
Jack began to read:
“Dear Jack, Once upon a time I had a daughter. She was six when killed by a car. You guessed it-a speeding driver. A fine and three months in jail, and the man was free. Free to hug his daughters. All three of them. I only had one, and I’m going to have to wait until Heaven before I can ever hug her again. A thousand times I’ve tried to forgive that man.
A thousand times I thought I had. Maybe I did, but I need to do it again. Even now. Pray for me. And be careful. My son is all I have left. “Bob”
Jack turned around in time to see Bob’s car pull away and head down the road. Jack watched until it disappeared. A full 15 minutes later, he, too, pulled away and drove slowly home, praying for forgiveness and hugging a surprised wife and kids when he arrived.
Life is precious. Handle with care.
In Tolstoy’s beautiful story, Where Love is, God Is, there is the story of an old cobbler who hears a voice in his sleep one night. The voice tells him that on the very next day the Lord Jesus will visit him. Next morning, he begins his work in a spirit of high expectation as he eagerly awaits the coming of the Lord. But the only visitors he has that day are people in distress. First, there is an emaciated old beggar with a rattling tubercular cough. The old cobbler takes him in, warms him by the fire and gives him food. Next comes a half frozen, thinly clad woman carrying her hungry baby in her arms. She needs food and clothing and the old cobbler obliges. Then an old apple-woman comes. She is terribly upset because a boy has tried to steal her apples. The cobbler knows the boy and he is able to bring the two together and reconcile them. This day has not turned out as expected, but the cobbler has not forgotten the promise of the Lord’s visit. Tired now, he falls asleep in his chair and he hears the same voice from the previous night, ‘I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and you ministered to me’.
A man found a cocoon of the emperor moth and took it home to watch it emerge. One day a small opening appeared, and for several hours the moth struggled, but couldn’t seem to force its body past a certain point
Deciding something was wrong, the man took a pair of scissors and snipped the, remaining bit of cocoon. The moth emerged easily, its body large and swollen, the wings small and shrivelled.
He expected that in a few hours the wings would spread out in their natural beauty, but they did not. Instead of developing into a creature free to fly, the moth spent its life dragging around a swollen body and shrivelled wings.
The constricting cocoon and the struggle necessary to pass through the tiny opening are God’s way of forcing fluid from the body into the wings. The “merciful” snip was, in reality, cruel. Sometimes the struggle is exactly what we need. Parents who make life too easy for their children make life too hard for them as adult
An incident transpired when Muhammad Ali’s daughters arrived at his home wearing clothes that were quite revealing.
Here is the story as told by one of his daughters:
“When we finally arrived, the chauffeur escorted my younger sister, Laila, and me up to my father’s suite. As usual, he was hiding behind the door waiting to scare us. We exchanged as many hugs and kisses as we could possibly give in one day.
My father took a good look at us. Then he sat me down on his lap and said something that I will never forget. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Hana, everything that God made valuable in the world is covered and hard to get to.
Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground, covered and protected.
Where do you find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the ocean, covered up and protected in a beautiful shell.
Where do you find gold? Way down in the mine, covered over with layers and layers of rock. You’ve got to work hard to get to them.”
He looked at me with serious eyes. “Your body is sacred. You’re far more precious than diamonds and pearls, and you should be covered too.”
From the book: More Than A Hero: Muhammad Ali’s Life Lessons Through His Daughter’s Eyes.
Mother Teresa of India recently told the following story.
A few weeks ago two young people came to our house and gave me quite a sum of money to feed the poor. In Calcutta we cook for 9,000 people every day. The two of them wished their money to be used to feed these hungry people. I then asked them, “Where did you get that much money?”
And they answered, “Two days ago we were married. Before our wedding we decided that we would not spend any money on special wedding clothes, nor would we have a wedding banquet. We wanted the money we would spend on these things to go to the poor.”
For high caste Hindus, to act like this was a scandal. Their friends and relatives found it unthinkable that a couple from such outstanding families should get married without bridal gowns and a proper wedding feast.
So Mother Teresa asked them, “Why did you give me all this money?”
And they gave her this surprising answer, “We love one another so much that we wanted to make a special sacrifice for each other at the very start of our married life “
NO CHURCH SEASON is closer to my heart than Lent. Lent is derived from the Anglo Saxon word “lenctem,” meaning “spring.” The word reflects the lengthening of days as we move from winter towards summer. Lent is the 40 days (excluding Sundays) between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Traditionally it has been a time of fasting commemorative of Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the wilderness following his baptism. Lent also recalls the 40 days that Elijah and Moses both spent with God, as well as the 40 years that Israel spent wandering in the desert.
Lent is the perfect season of the year for solitude and self-reflection. As we spiritually journey into the desert, Lent is a time to re-examine our boundary lines and get realigned, set in right relationship with God and the world around us. I would like to suggest a Lenten path to travel as the days grow longer and Easter approaches, the path of simplicity.
Simplicity is not about poverty, or a renunciation of possessions, or a set of “dos” or “don’ts.” Rather, simplicity is a spiritual discipline that re-orients one’s life by deliberately organizing it around a central purpose.
Adhering to a focused center reduces the fractured nature of our lives. Our priorities become aligned to the focus of our lives, and the way we live out our simplicity in terms of our time, energy, and money becomes a reflection of our inner beliefs. On the most basic level, simplicity means being honest and sincere with ourselves about our faith and what really matters most to us.
To walk the path of simplicity we must believe that God calls us to it. Lent invites us to journey in the way of Jesus by learning more about his way and applying it in our lives.
In the coming 40 days of Lent, allow Christ’s light to shine more brightly in your life and lead you into a path of simplicity that helps you re-orient your life toward God in Christ.
Lying
In the area of lying, most men do alright when it comes to blatantly fabricating pieces of information. But it is the more insidious lying that is harder to master. In our looks, in our tone, in what parts of a story we leave in and what parts we leave out, we may still be being dishonest. I often hear someone say, “No I didn’t lie to him. I just didn’t tell him everything that happened.” This is still a lie.
Lying is easy to rationalize, especially when telling the truth will bring upon us negative consequences. But we must strive for complete honesty. If you start telling small lies, it becomes easier to rationalize the bigger ones. And if you are almost always honest, and yet are caught but once in a lie, people will question both your past actions and your future remarks. You integrity and trustworthiness will have been effectively shot.
But what about lies to preserve people’s feelings?
This is the age old question. What do you say when your wife asks you if she looks fat in something, and she does? How about if she gets a horrendous haircut and she wants to know if you like it? If you are breaking up with a woman and it’s because she is annoying or shallow, should you tell her the truth?
Telling these “white lies” present sticky judgment calls. The right answer varies from situation to situation. A certain amount of white lying is necessary to maneuver at home, in society, and in the workplace. But in general I recommend erring on the side of honesty. I personally tend to be honest to a fault. Sometimes it gets me trouble, but generally it has won me the respect of my peers. The problem with telling white lies is that while they may flatter a person in the short term, they hurt the person in the long term. Take the example of the bad haircut. If everyone tells a woman that it looks fantastic, she will keep on getting the same horrendous haircut. If you tell a woman you are breaking up with that “its not you, its me,” when it really is her, you deprive that woman of a chance for evaluating how she might change that flaw. But I can say unequivocally that if you wife asks you if she looks fat, you should always answer no. Even if she begs you to be honest. It is a trap.
Finally, it should be noted that some people use the cloak of honesty as an excuse to deliver callous and cutting remarks. When questioned they say, “Well, I am just being honest!” That may be true, but there is often no need to pipe in if your opinion is not expressly solicited. Use sound judgment and be a gentleman
An African fable written in a contemporary style
Authors-choice: Hope & Revival 