Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 10 – No. 3808 September 20, 2008
Thought for the week: "There comes a special moment in everyone's life, a moment for which that person was born. That special opportunity, when he seizes it, will fulfill his mission—a mission for which he is uniquely qualified. In that moment, he finds greatness. It is his finest hour." – Winston Churchill
"Happiness doesn't depend on what we have, but it does depend on how we feel toward what we have. We can be happy with little and miserable with much." – William Dempster Hoard
"Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Accordingly a genius is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework." – Thomas Edison
"Disgust and resolve are two of the great emotions that lead to change." – Jim Rohn
"He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist." – St. Francis
"Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal." – Earl Nightingale
"He whom you would change you must first love." – Martin Luther King, Jr.
"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." – Jim Elliot
There was a man who loved gold. Then he inherited a fortune. With joy he redecorated his bedroom. He put gold parchment wallpaper up, hung yellow curtains, had a golden colored rug and a yellow bedspread. He even bought some yellow pajamas. But then he got sick and came down with, of all things, yellow jaundice. His wife called the doctor who made a house call and went up to that bedroom for an examination. The doctor stayed up there a long while. When he came down, the wife asked, "How is he?"
"Don't know," said the doctor. "I couldn't find him."
Once upon a time there was a little boy named Sparky. At least that's what his classmates called him. He was given the nickname in honor of a comic strip horse named Spark Plug. Sparky hated the name. But name-calling was the least of his worries.
School was tough for Sparky. His favorite subjects were recess and lunch. He failed every single subject in eighth grade. High school was no better. He flunked algebra, English, Latin, and physics. In fact, to this day he holds the record for the lowest physics marks in his school. Sports weren't much of an improvement. He made the school's golf team, but his poor play ended up costing his team the championship.
Sparky was a loser when it came to friendships, too. No one seemed to notice him. He was astonished if a classmate said hello. Afraid of rejection, he never asked a girl out. Instead, he devoted himself to the one thing he really enjoyed: drawing cartoons. No one thought they were any good, but that didn't stop him. He practiced on binders and scribblers, and by the time he was a senior in high school, he got up the nerve to submit some cartoons to the yearbook staff.
They were rejected.
After graduating from high school, Sparky wrote a letter to Walt Disney Studios inquiring about job opportunities. He received a form letter requesting samples of his artwork. The letter asked him to draw a funny cartoon of "a man repairing a clock by shoveling the springs and gears back inside it." Sparky drew the cartoon and mailed it off with his fingers crossed. He waited anxiously for a reply. Finally it came. Another form letter spelling out rejection.
Sparky was disappointed but not surprised. He had always been a loser. This was just one more loss. Looking in the mirror one day, he smiled with the realization that in a weird sort of way, his life was funny. Almost like a cartoon character. Then a thought hit him. Why not tell his own story? Why not draw cartoons of the misadventures of a little boy loser, a chronic underachiever? He had no idea where his idea would take him.
This boy who failed the eighth grade, the young artist whose work was rejected by his own yearbook, was Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schultz—creator of the Peanuts comic strip and the little boy whose kite never quite flies.
You know him as Charlie Brown.
Callaway, Phil., Laughing Matters. Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, 2005, p. 97-98. Cited on: Answers2Prayer, http://www.answers2prayer.org
I have seen rich and poor people. Those who are successful and unsuccessful. Happy and very sad, unhappy people. I have seen those who have sacrificed everything, in order to be successful in one area of their life. However, I have never met anyone who was happy and satisfied with their life who sold out their core beliefs and values in order to gain fame or fortune.
"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content" (Philippians 4:11). "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee" (Isaiah 26:3).
Random Thoughts on Life by Ray Lammie. Source: Faith Thought of the Day. To subscribe send a blank email to RIL3@aol.com with Subscribe Faith in the subject line.
I've talked before about my dear daughter Abrielle, including the fact that she was born with a disfiguring birthmark called a hemangioma that engulfed her entire nose. The birthmark was removed by Dr. Milton Waner, a brilliant surgeon. She is now a stunningly beautiful girl.
Dr. Waner's work revealed her outer beauty, but the experience of 14 surgeries and dealing with people's reactions to someone who looked different developed an inner beauty in her that you can't miss.
This fine young lady is about to celebrate her Bat mitzvah (a coming of age ceremony for Jewish girls), and I want to share with you a poem I wrote that will be read during the service. It's an invocation many parents can share with their children.
Unlimited
Within you lies unlimited potential.
Unlimited potential for both success and significance.
Unlimited potential for happiness and worthiness.
Within you lies unlimited strength.
Unlimited strength to resist every temptation and overcome every tragedy.
Unlimited strength to control your attitudes and your actions.
Within you lies unlimited love.
Unlimited love to embrace those who are easy to care about and those who are not.
Unlimited love to feel and express gratitude for the world you live in and the people who care about you.
Unlimited love to forgive others and yourself.
Within you lies unlimited courage.
Unlimited courage to believe in yourself despite frustrations and failures.
Unlimited courage to withstand unkind words and unexpected betrayals.
Within you lies unlimited wisdom.
Unlimited wisdom to choose your own path and to choose the right path.
Unlimited wisdom to know the difference between fun and happiness.
Within you lies everything you will ever need to be, and get everything you will ever want.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."1
A friend of mine has trouble with Japanese bonsai trees because she sees tiny trees with great potential inhibited because they have been root-bound by man. Others have trouble seeing animals and birds trapped in cages for the same reason. For example, how do eagles feel in cages in zoos? These magnificent birds, designed to soar to the heights of mountaintops, do they get frustrated? Are they fulfilled?
Too many of us, who were also designed to reach our total God-given human and spiritual potential, are trapped in a cage of our own or of another's making. We fail to resolve the problems in our life that hold us back. True, we may have been wounded in the past, but God wants us to be healed, to be made whole, to be free to fly, and to soar like the eagles.
We have a choice: we can "scratch in the dirt with the turkeys" or we can wait (seek after and hope in) the Lord God and rise up to fly with the eagles to the heights that God envisioned for us to reach.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to wait on you to renew my strength so that, with your help, I will see my God-given life purpose and 'fly' to reach the full potential you have planned for me to achieve. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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