Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by T. D. Jakes, from his book,  Don't Drop the Mic  (p. 26). FaithWorks, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) That is so true. J. D. says, " You are a result of who you listen to most often, engage with consistently, and spend time around socially! Who are you listening to? And did you ever realize that simply listening to them and dialoging consistently with them is programming you even after you walk away?" He goes on, "Sitting in counsel with those who communicate the way we wish we could can often improve our speaking styles. This sharpening can ultimately improve your economic bottom line, result in invitations to new opportunities, and enhance the number and quality of your relationships. Just as dogs hear high-pitched whistles that fall silent on human ears, our communication style will attract some and be ignored by others. All the more reason to be heard by those whose success you wish to emulate!" He the...

A thought by T. D. Jakes, from his book, Don't Drop the Mic  (p. 5). FaithWorks, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And that is so true. T. D. says, " We had no vaccine or distribution plans for vaccinations. No one knew what to do, where to turn, or exactly what to believe. A reporter interviewing me from a well-known conservative station asked how I prayed for our nation. Another journalist from a liberal news outlet engaging me on the pandemic asked if I would pray for our nation and our world on the spot. "Feeling a responsibility to use my platform to combat the contagion, I invited doctors, scientists, medical experts, and the surgeon general from our state to address my online viewers with critical information about how to prevent the spread of the virus and how to proceed if they had been exposed or were experiencing symptoms. I also asked psychologists, counselors, and therapists to advise us on how to maintain our mental ...

A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 65). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) This is so important to understand and live out. Zig says, " Responding is positive; reacting is negative. Think of the word reactionary . What image does it bring to mind? It’s someone with his heels dug in, someone in a defensive posture, someone who strikes back. But a responder is one who engages, one who takes the offense, someone who reaches out rather than striking back." He goes on, "Responders don’t have their heads in the sand, living in denial. They recognize the seriousness of some of life’s events, but they see them as things that simply alter their course, not close it down. Everyone knows that life is not lived in a straight line from womb to tomb. Life is a series of adjustments, always keeping the goal in view. Something negative happens? Fine, we’ll respond by believing there is a divine purpose ...

  A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 64). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Yes it is but the but is very important. Zig says, " But the greatest races in life are not those where we run, skate, sprint, throw, or sell more than the next guy. Those are circumstances—some wins, some losses—that serve as mile markers to tell us how we’re progressing in the real race: that of developing the kind of character that will produce the 'better than good' life." He goes on, "It’s a mistaken notion to believe that happy people are those who experience one success or victory after another while unhappy people experience just the opposite. Research shows that happy people and unhappy people tend to have very similar experiences in life. The difference is perspective: unhappy people spend more time thinking about life’s unpleasant events; they become introspective and self-centered in their th...

A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 57). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) So very true. Zig says, "Think what the world might miss based on what you’re filling your mind with. We pore over the newspaper every day like it has the secrets to life in it. Most people would say they aren’t inspired to be a better person by reading the paper, yet they do it. They’d also say they are inspired to reach greater heights by reading the Bible and other great books—but they rarely do. Why do we spend more time reading what won’t help us than reading what will? "I read the paper nearly every day because it provides information that helps me in my work (stories, facts, trends, and the like). But I don’t read it at the expense of reading and studying my Bible. I read each daily so I know what both sides are up to!" He goes on, "I love the story of the Eskimo who used to pit his lead sled dogs agai...

A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 55). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And that is what we need and want, isn't it? Zig says, "The pen has always been mightier than the sword and can move people to action like nothing else. In my Sunday school class there was a young woman who was struggling with several critical issues in her life. She told me later how a few simple things I said in that class—'Failure is an event, not a person'; 'Yesterday really did end last night'; 'God not only permits U-turns in life, He encourages them'—opened up whole new vistas of possibility for her. Simple words, profound impact. He goes on, "If words have that big an impact on our lives, why don’t we work harder to fill our minds with the most profound words we can? The Bible says we ought to dwell on (think and meditate on) things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of g...

  A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 50). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And it is our choice. Zig says, " Is it wrong to say, 'I’m doing better than good' all the time? Is that disingenuous? Absolutely not! Through the prophet Joel in the Old Testament, God called His people to prepare for battle, telling them, 'Let the weak say, '"I am a mighty man"'" (Joel 3:10). Is it wrong for one who is weak to say he is strong? Not if he has every expectation of becoming strong, which the people of God did when they had God on their side in battle. That’s exactly how I look at life—that God is on my side when I live my life in a way that honors and pleases Him." He goes on, "When Jesus said, 'With God all things are possible' (Matthew 19:26), that means things are 'better than good.' When the apostle Paul says, 'I can do all things through...

  A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 45). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Now that sounds like a great idea. Zig says, " Next to love, laughter has been described as the second most powerful emotion we can express. It has been said that laughter is like internal jogging—it stimulates the respiratory system, oxygenates the body, relaxes tense muscles, and releases pleasure-producing chemicals in the brain. You cannot laugh and be mad, laugh and be tense, laugh and be stressed. Laughter is low calorie, caffeine free, and has no salt, preservatives, or additives. It’s 100 percent natural and one-size-fits-all." He goes on, "Laughter is truly God’s gift to humankind. You can get high on laughter but never overdose. Laughter is contagious—once it starts, little can be done to stop it. Laughter never felt bad, committed a crime, started a war, or broke up a relationship. Laughter is sha...

  A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 43). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) So that would be a good thing to find out what it is, wouldn't it? Zig says, " I don’t mean the fear of tornadoes or black cats or roller coasters. I mean the fears that lurk inside each of us that keep us from launching ourselves into the great adventure called life! We fear failure, of course—perhaps most of all. But we also fear losing the security of our own inhibitions. We fear losing control, and we fear the future. We fear living with the tension that exists between what we know and what we don’t know—the security of the present versus the insecurity of the future. Some people just can’t handle the unknown, so they remain bottled up, confined to the reality of the past instead of the potential of the future. Life is often like having one foot on the dock and the other foot on a boat that is leaving. W...

  A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 39). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) That is so true. Zig explains, " By that I mean some things in life are absolutely right and some things are absolutely wrong. There is black and white in life, and as soon as you agree with that you can relieve yourself of the stress that comes from trying to decide right and wrong every time a new situation arises. Our society today is buying into the idea that there are no universal truths—that what is right for me may not be right for you. That may be true when it comes to picking out the color shirt we’re going to wear or car we’re going to buy, but it’s not true when it comes to honesty and integrity." He goes on, "To point out the fallacy of relativism and its disastrous results, in public seminars I always ask this question: 'How many of you would hire an accountant or a treasurer who admitted that h...

  A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 38). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And that is so true. Zig says, " Bonnie St. John Deane was a participant in the Paralympics. She was a one-legged skier who was competing against another one-legged skier. The other skier went first, and in the final run she fell. Bonnie confidently told her associates that she knew she was going to win because she wasn’t going to fall. But she did fall and the other skier won. Bonnie’s friends tried to console her by saying, 'She was just a faster skier than you are.' To this Bonnie adamantly responded, 'No, she is not a faster skier. She just got up faster than I did.' " Zig goes on, "I’ve never heard of anybody going all the way through life and not getting knocked down. Some people never get up and some get up so slowly it takes years and a lifetime of anger and bitterness before they recover...

A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 34). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) So give me more. Zig says,  "The thief I see robbing more people of their passion than anything else is stress—stress in all its forms." He later says, ". . . I used to see on bumper stickers a few years back: 'Life is hard. Then you die.' It’s true—life is full of stress. It takes someone deluded or in denial to believe that it’s not. Therefore, the question is not 'How do we avoid stress-producing situations?' but 'How do we learn to live without succumbing to stress?' And more specifically, in terms of the message of this book, 'How do we keep stress from stealing our passion?' He goes on, "I read a lengthy article in Reader’s Digest once that documented that 90 percent of all doctor’s visits can be attributed, directly or indirectly, to stress. Stress suppresses the body’s ...

A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 30). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And this is very true. Zig says, " The power of the imagination is one of the greatest untapped resources in the human tool kit. It’s amazing that mental images have such power—but they do." He goes on, "One of the things that spurred me on as a rookie speaker was my imagination. I pictured myself speaking before crowds of thousands of people, knocking them dead with my humor and wisdom and humbly receiving their standing ovations. That didn’t happen overnight, but I never allowed that picture to be erased from my mind. And eventually, everything I had imagined, and then some, became reality. "Bruce Barton made an interesting observation: 'I do not like the phrase ' "Never cross a bridge until you come to it." ' It is used by too many men as a cloak for mental laziness. The world is owne...

A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 27). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) It really is. Zig says, " You and I have three kinds of resources given to us by God that we can invest in whatever we choose: time, talent, and treasure. God doesn’t come down and dictate to us every morning how we are to use our time, apply our talents and abilities, and spend our money. From our human point of view, He leaves those choices to us. But I can tell you this: the more of your time, talent, and treasure you invest in your passion, the more you will fight for it, defend it, and protect it from everyone and everything that would attempt to steal it from you." He goes on, "Let’s say your passion is to own your own flower shop someday. Right now, you’re not involved with flowers except as a hobby and impressing your neighbors with your gorgeous gardens every spring. But the children have left the nest an...

A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 23). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) So what is that? Zig says, " It’s continually simmering beneath the surface, waiting for the right stimulus to cause it to boil over into world-changing action." He goes on, "I believe inspiration is the fuel of passion. If you think of passion as the flame that burns white hot in the heart of every person, inspiration is the fuel that keeps that flame alive. "Often I meet people in whom the fire of passion seems to have gone out. You can see it in their eyes—there’s no spark or life! It’s like someone came along and flipped off the passion switch while they weren’t looking. The big mistake is thinking that regaining passion is a passive event—something we just have to wait for until we’re moved once more to become passionate about life. Not so! Passion is a flame that has to be fed in order to keep it burnin...

  A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book,  Better Than Good   (p. 18). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And that is so true. Zig says, "Some people have passion that rarely is exercised beyond the bounds of their own experience. They get great satisfaction and enjoyment from that which is their pursuit. But it remains a self-indulgent passion, if you will." He goes on, "There are others whose passion is to change the world with that which they dream about. Debbie Macomber didn’t just want to write. She wanted to write stories that were wholesome and edifying; stories parents could give their children to read and feel good about; stories that would remind older readers of the classic fiction of past generations. In other words, she wanted to use her passion to write to make a contribution to families just like her own. So that’s what she did. She wrote and wrote, mailed off proposal after proposal, weathered re...

A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book, Better Than Good   (p. 10). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And there is a problem with that. Zig says, "When a student with an average IQ performs magnificent feats in the academic world, give passion the credit. When you see an athlete with only average ability accomplish herculean tasks, give passion the credit. When you see a parent provide for his or her children despite physical or educational handicaps and roadblocks—obstacles that would stop an ordinary person in his or her tracks—give passion the credit." He goes on, "American independence was won because of the passion of our founding fathers. Every religious revival has had passion as its source. The American civil rights movement was fueled by the passion of Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders. Passion deserves far more credit than the records of history provide." He continues, "I bel...

A thought by John Bevere, from his book,  Your God-Given Potential  (p. 40). Messenger International, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) That is a good question. What's the answer? John says, " They are the 'seen' parts and necessary, but according to the Word of God, they are not the most important." He goes on, "My friend Stan. . . has a gift of reaching people in the business world, as well as making and giving finances. His gift seems less valuable than a platform gift, and with our established church culture, it’s nonverbally communicated this way. What’s been the typical underlying message in the church? 'Those on the platform are the chosen ones who really have a calling on their life.' "Think about it. If someone says, 'He or she has a calling on his or her life,' everyone immediately assumes it is the call of a pastor, worship leader, youth leader, Christian author, missionary, and so fort...

A thought by John Bevere, from his book,  Your God-Given Potential  (p. 19). Messenger International, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Okay, what do you mean? John says, " That may sound irreverent if you have put all your life achievements in the basket of 'God’s sovereignty.' I assure you, however, it is not irreverent nor does this statement take anything away from the sovereignty of God. It is a testimony of His trust in us, and His desire for His sons and daughters to exercise the free will He’s given us." He then gives this scripture, "Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life. If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit." (Proverbs 9:11–12) "He goes on, "This truth is so encouraging and powerful! What does it mean to multiply your days ? It can’t mean to lengthen your life; this is already covered by the statement, '. . . and add years to your life.' It can’t mean any...

A thought by John Bevere, from his book, Your God-Given Potential  (p. 14). Messenger International, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) This so true. A doer! John says, " But let me emphasize up front that who we are in Christ Jesus is paramount to what we do, for anything we do should be an outflow of who we are." He goes on, "It is easy to shy away from the 'to-do something' aspect, as it relieves us from any pressure of laboring to build the kingdom. The sad reality is, though, that it’s our labor that energizes us. Jesus says, 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work' (John 4:34 NKJV). He also says, 'As the Father has sent Me, I also send you' (John 20:21 NKJV). Putting His two statements together, we clearly see that our food is to do and finish the will of Jesus who sends us. Food is what strengthens us. If we don’t eat, we become weak and are good for very little. "L...

  A thought by Max Lucado, from his book,  Begin Again   (p. 75). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) That is so true isn't it? Max says, " Boss demands more hours, doctor requires more tests, spouse wants more attention, church needs more volunteers—everyone wants more. Before long you are out of gas. Heaven has an ample supply of energy. But how do you make the connection? How do you put God’s gas in your tank?" He goes on, "Here is my suggestion. Fill your tank with the promises of God. One student of Scripture spent a year and a half attempting to tally the number of promises God has made to humanity. He came up with 7,487 promises! 1 God’s promises are pine trees in the Rocky Mountains of Scripture: abundant, unbending, and perennial. . . You’ll go further on a full tank of his love." Later he says: "Do critics define your identity? No, because God said, 'Let us make human beings in our image...