Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 16 – No. 3814 September 20, 2014
Thought for the week: "Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones." – Phillips Brooks
Accept the fact that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue!
Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.
If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty, and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.
Hugging is healthy; it helps the body's immunity system, it keeps you healthier, it cures depression, it reduces stress, it induces sleep, it's invigorating, and rejuvenating, it has no unpleasant side effects, and hugging is nothing less than a miracle drug.
Hugging is all natural: it is organic, naturally sweet, no pesticides, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients, and is 100 percent wholesome.
Hugging is practically perfect: there are no moveable parts, no batteries to wear out, no periodic checkups, low energy consumption, high energy yield, insulation proof, non-fattening, no monthly payments, no insurance requirements, theft-proof, non-taxable, non-polluting, and, of course, fully returnable.
Reach for the stars. Pursue goals beyond your grasp. These are good life strategies. We never know how much we can accomplish until we try.
But what happens when we're told we must reach the stars or suffer consequences?
A common workplace strategy to spur employee achievement is to set aggressive productivity objectives that, like mechanical rabbits that lead racing greyhounds, are usually beyond reach. Benignly called "stretch goals" by those who set them, the idea is to generate maximum effort. A salesperson who's expected to increase sales by 10 percent may only achieve a six-percent gain, but that's still pretty good.
But there's a downside to this clever management technique. For one thing, it generates unhealthy stress and low morale when employees catch on to the game and resent being manipulated like racing dogs. For another, unrealistic stretch goals overemphasize short-term performance and encourage employees to conceal, ignore, and defer problems. Finally, some employees will simply cheat to make the numbers.
Organizational audits conducted by Josephson Institute reveal that a high percentage of employees who are pressured to achieve ever-escalating numerical goals manipulate numbers and distort reports. A significant number outright lie.
Pressure is no excuse for cheating, but it's a frequent cause. Those who play the stretch-goal game are accountable for the predictable side effects of relentlessly pursuing numbers, especially if they don't place even greater emphasis on honesty and integrity.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.... But as for me [Joshua] and my household, we will serve the LORD."1
"His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'"2
As a teen I was fortunate to be a member of a small, but very active church. In our youth group we were very much challenged to serve God with our life. Almost half of our group ended up in full-time Christian ministry. In one family the oldest brother chose to become a missionary and faithfully served God until he retired; of his two sisters, one dropped out of church but did reasonably well in the business world; the other sister not only dropped out of church, but became involved in an illicit relationship which ended in disaster. She started drinking heavily, and sadly, today in her retirement years has become an alcoholic having made shipwreck of her life.
Three friends—three different choices! One will certainly go to a positive heavenly reward. I'm not sure how the other two will fare.
The reality is that at the end of life's journey every person will be required to give an account of his or her life to either Jesus Christ or God. God's Word, the Bible, says: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."3
So, if we want to receive a good report when we give a personal account to the Lord, we need to make that our choice here and now, and to make any changes that are necessary, for we become the sum total of all the choices we have made in the past—and will become the sum total of these and all the choices we make in the future. As Brian Tracy reminds us: "It's choice, not chance that determines our destiny."
No matter what our past, the good news is that we can choose right now to start making productive choices, and do so at the beginning of every day so these choices will determine our ultimate destiny.
Let us remember too, that, as Winston Churchill said, "We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give." Albert Schweitzer agrees. He said, "I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."
For the Christian our highest service is to serve God—and we serve Him by serving our fellow man. In the words of another, "Our greatest legacy will be those who live eternally in heaven because of our efforts," and Billy Graham said, "I am convinced the greatest act of love we can ever perform for people is to tell them about God's love for them in Christ."
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, my choice today is to love and serve You all the days of my life. Please make me usable and use me today and every day to be and effective witness for Jesus by helping me to be 'as Jesus' in some way to every life I touch and do this always for Your glory. So help me God. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus's name, amen."
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