Stepping Stones to Success

 

Many achievements in life have come from a setback, an accident, or some kind of crisis or even suffering. For instance, the first cars had to be started by cranking the motor by hand. At times the engine would "kick" back the crank handle. This happened to Charles Kettering and it broke his arm.

"There must be a safer way to start cars than this," Kettering reasoned and he went on to invent self-starters for cars.

Jacob Schick was prospecting for gold where the temperature fell to 40 degrees below zero. He had a hard time trying to shave with a blade without sufficient hot water—so he invented the first electric shaver.

Eugene O'Neill had no specific goal or aim in life until he became ill and had to go to hospital. While lying flat on his back he began to write his plays.

So, when things go wrong in your life and you experience a major setback, lose your job, or have an accident, not always, but perhaps God has something for you to learn, or something else he wants you to do. The important thing is to be open to what God is saying.

True, disasters happen because we live in a broken, sinful world. Sometimes, however, a disaster is "God's wake-up call" to teach us an important lesson, to help us grow, or to lead us in a different direction.

Most of us God leads through his Word, our circumstances, and through a "still small voice" within that gives us a sense of what God wants us to do.

Dear God

help me

to see/ hear/ learn

what you are saying

to me in every adverse circumstance

I may experience,

as I truly want to be what you want me to be

and to do what you want me to do.

 

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz.

Show Me—Don't Tell Me

 

A boy came home from school one day with a note from his teacher saying she had to punish him for swearing. His father took him aside and said, "Well, son, what about it?"

The boy replied, "I have nothing to say, Dad. I deserved it. She heard me say what I said and called me into her office."

"Then what happened?"

"Well, she asked me where I had heard such language. But I didn't give you away, Dad. I blamed it on the parrot."

Need I say more except to say that the heart of all effective teaching is "show me don't tell me." That is, we need to model what we want our children to learn, to become, and to do!

Dear God

please help me

to model

for my children

and others

the kind of person

you want me to be

so that others seeing

what you have done

in my life

will want the same

for themselves.

 

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz. 

Teachable

Seeing is not always believing. Old beliefs as well as old habits die hard. For centuries people believed Aristotle's opinion that the heavier an object, the faster it would fall to earth.

I am not an engineer but according to a report I read, in 1589 Galileo challenged Aristotle's teaching. He invited learned professors to the base of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Galileo went to the top of the tower and at exactly the same moment pushed off a ten-pound and a one-pound weight.

Both landed at the same instant, but the professors still wouldn't believe what they saw. They insisted Aristotle was right.

To move ahead in life and to grow—intellectually, emotionally and spiritually—it is important that we examine all our beliefs, test them, hold to the true and discard the false. Admittedly, this is much easier said than done, but done it must be if we are to keep learning and growing. Unless we are open to and willing to change, we get set in our ways and cease to grow.

Dear God

please confront me

with every issue in my life

I need to be aware of,

help me to be teachable,

and give me the courage

to make necessary changes

in my life where needed.

 

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz.

The Power of Holding Hands

We all have areas of weaknesses so we all need the support of a few friends with whom we feel safe, who won't judge, condemn or reject us, and will love and accept us as we are. None of us can make it on our own. We were created for relationships. We all need each other.

One reason we fall is because we try to make it on our own. God never meant for us to go it alone. We all need each other for support, and as long as we admit our needs, confess our areas of weaknesses, and keep holding hands, we're not likely to fall because we help hold each other up.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."

Dear God

please give me

a few friends

who know me

as I am

and love me still

—friends

with whom

I can share

openly

and honestly,

laugh,

cry,

work,

and play

and friends

who will hold me up

when I feel

too down

to be able to stand up

on my own.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz.

I Believe ...

Beliefs from Azhar Abbas

If Tomorrow Never Comes

Tips for Leaders

On an occasion following a great victory Napoleon was asked how he made his army cross the Alps and he replied, "One does not make an army cross the Alps; one leads it across."

Whether a boss, a parent, a teacher, or a friend, the most effective way to lead others, to teach others, to motivate others, to train our children and/ or to influence others is by example; that is, by who we are, by what we do, and most of all by how much we care about them. In other words, we need to model what we want others to learn and do. We need to lead the way, not by being demanding or controlling, but by showing through both our caring and our doing—by example not by telling.

Furthermore, "People don't care how much we know until they know how much we care," and as Carl Jung stated, "Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other."

Dear God
please help me
to teach others
your ways,
not by my telling them how
but by showing them how by my example.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz ...

Purpose in Suffering

Jeris E. Bragan wrote about an old violin maker who chose the wood for his instruments from the north side of the trees because this was the side that faced the fiercest windstorms. When the storms raged the trees groaned under the lashings but this is what gave them their strength. As the violin maker said, "They are simply learning to be violins."

Dear God …

    Like the trees of the forest,
    may I find nourishment
    in rain as well as sunshine,
    bend with the winds of misfortune
    without breaking;
    give of myself to others
    to provide shade from the blistering heat,
    grow old gracefully and not
    become rigid or unbending;
    and above all
    may I keep reaching ever upwards
    towards heaven and to God.

                                   – Dick Innes

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz ...  

Dark Night of the Soul

William Cowper, poet, who lived from 1731-1800 in England, apparently suffered from fits of melancholy and frequent attacks of spiritual despair which led to two suicide attempts.

On one of these occasions, during a time of deep despair and a dark night of the soul on a foggy night he set out from his home in London with the intention of jumping into the River Thames to end his life.

He got hopelessly lost in the fog and wandered blind for some time. Eventually, lost and confused, he walked into a home to get out of the fog. And the home he walked into? It was his own.

He sat down and penned the words of the beloved hymn:

    God moves in a mysterious way
    His wonders to perform;
    He plants his footsteps in the sea,
    And rides upon the storm.

    Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
    The clouds ye so much dread
    Are big with mercy, and shall break
    In blessings on your head.

Dear reader, if you are going through a dark night of the soul right now and it feels that God is far away, be assured he is standing in the shadows and as he knows about every sparrow he knows all about you and he cares.

When we commit and trust our life to God every day, "Weeping may endure for the night, but joy will come in the morning"—even if it is eventually!

Dear God
in my despair
let me
not grow weary
in trusting you
but renew my faith
and use my present pain
to make me
a better
stronger person
so I can comfort others
as they struggle
through their journey
of despair
and
pain

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz ...