Never Missing a Wrong Note

Before Ansel Adams became famous as a landscape photographer, he studied piano and showed some talent.

At one of his first recitals he played Chopin's Nocturne in F Major. "In some strange way," he said, "my right hand started off in F-sharp major while my left hand behaved well in F major. I could not bring them together. I went through the entire nocturne with the hands separated by a half-step.

The next day, someone walked up to him and jokingly commented, "You never missed a wrong note."

Such mistakes are easily overcome. But some mistakes we make in life can have long-lasting serious consequences. With these mistakes, however, the good news is that God's mercy is always available to all who confess their sins and failures and ask for his forgiveness.

Have you forgiven all who have ever hurt you? And have you experienced God's forgiveness? If not, why not do that today.

Digging Up the Past

In 1642 England was caught up in the Civil War with Cromwell and the roundheads. Five years later King Charles the First was captured, tried and sentenced to death. He was executed on January 30, 1649. Fifty-nine men put their signatures to the death warrant.

When Charles II was restored to the throne some eleven years later, he wanted to avenge his father's death. However, by that time, some had died and others were living abroad. They were arrested, taken back to England, and ordered to stand trial.

As for those who had died, the bodies of fifteen signatories, many of whom had been dead for years, were exhumed and then hung on the gallows.

That's exactly what resentment does. It digs up the past. It is caused by nursing grudges and failing to forgive. This is because buried and/or unresolved anger, hurt, grief, bitterness, etc., work like emotional cancer that "rots the bones," destroys relationships, and keeps one bound by the past.

As I've quoted before, "Failing to forgive is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." So get rid of your feelings of hatred unresolved anger and resentment. Don't just pretend to be good.

Dear God,
please deliver me
from the sin of nursing grudges
and holding on to all negative emotions
so that I can become
a happier, healthier person

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer.

I Am the Greatest

"Muhammad Ali is considered the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He won 56 out of his 61 professional fights and knocked out 37 opponents.

His most famous catch phrase was, 'I am the greatest!'

"One day, Ali was seated in an airplane when the flight attendant came up the aisle to make sure that all the passengers had their seat belts fastened. Reaching Ali's seat, she asked him to buckle up.

"'Hmph!' the champ sneered, 'Superman don't need no seat belt!'

"The flight attendant smiled sweetly and replied, 'Superman don't need no airplane, either.'

"Ali fastened his seat belt.

"The greater our success, the greater the risk of us thinking too highly of ourselves."

Shaping Life

Benjamin Franklin said: "Well done is better than well said."

Thomas Jefferson; "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. In other words, the harder I work, the luckier I get!"

Eleanor Roosevelt: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

Albert Einstein: "In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity."

Anonymous: "Leaders are like eagles; they don't flock … you find them one at a time."

Anonymous: "A religion that does nothing, gives nothing, costs nothing, suffers nothing, is worth nothing."

Jacob Riis: "When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it.

Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it--but all that had gone before."

Such are the ways of God in helping to "shape" us into the person He sees we can become.

Dear God
Please give me
a wise, understanding, and listening heart
to learn your ways of grace, truth, wisdom, and love.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayers ..

Delay, Not Denial

The story is told about a lone shipwrecked survivor who landed on a lonely, uninhabited island. He managed to build a simple hut and stock it with items he was able to save from his sinking ship.

He prayed that somehow God would send someone to save him. Day by day he anxiously watched the horizon to hail any passing ships.

He was devastated when his hut caught on fire and he lost all that he had. He felt utterly forsaken by God.

The very next day a ship arrived to rescue him. "We saw your smoke signal," said the captain.

Dear God ..
please help me to trust you ..
even in my darkest hour ..
knowing that my times are in your hands ..

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer ..

Pakistan Independence Day Greetings

Happy Independence Day

Mental Disharmony

If we don't live the life we believe, we will end up unhappily believing the life we live.

Moody Institute of Science experimented to put a special pair of lenses that made everything appear upside down to analyze mental distress! In an experiment the founder of theInstitute, Irwin Moon, wore these glasses every day and night for three weeks, and slept with his eyes covered so that he never looked at anything without wearing these lenses. After three weeks his mind converted everything so things appeared the right side up!

The mind does a similar thing when we live out of harmony with God's directives. For example, the alcoholic denies his alcoholism. The person who
consistently lies, ends up believing his own lies. And criminals often justify what they have done by telling themselves that the people they victimized deserved it!

We do this because if we consistently go against what we know to be right, we get into what is called cognitive dissonance, which, simply put, means mental disharmony. And, not being able to live with this distress, we will change our beliefs to match our behavior. This way we justify whatever it is we want to do.

It's true, if we don't live the life we believe, we will end up unhappily believing the life we live. It's a dangerous course to follow. Another way of saying it is, we end up with a dead conscience and a hardened heart.

Dear God ..

help me never to deny any negative and/ or sinful behavior ..
but be honest with myself and admit it when what I am doing is wrong ..
so that I can always live in a state of mental harmony ..

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer ..

Good Morning

Stay Blessed .. Always ..

Remember

Azee

Being Honest

Make A Difference ..