Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Ray Johnston (2014-05-13) from his book, The Hope Quotient:  Measure It. Raise It. You'll Never Be the Same. (p.81). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) It is so easy isn’t it to let our yesterday’s control us? But Ray says, “Grace frees us from the chains of the past.”   And then he goes on, “Vision fuels us to reach something better out ahead. Grace helps us change tracks from what was to what could be. Vision supplies the energy to reach the great destination at a distance down the tracks.” He continues, “Some people get freed but not fueled . For some, the hurts and disappointments of the past no longer hold them, yet they meander through life, not too excited about anything. “Other people are fueled but not freed . They have great ideas and a strong passion to see them take shape, but remembering their pasts keeps them anchored in place.” He then says, “When someone finally focuses on

A thought by Ray Johnston (2014-05-13) from his book, The Hope Quotient: Measure It. Raise It. You'll Never Be the Same. (p.79). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Now that is a good thought.   Ray says, “It’s not where you start— it’s what you become.”   I understand what start means but what about this become thing?   He says, “When a parent focuses on what a child can become, that parent becomes far more encouraged and far more encouraging. When leaders in a business focus on what it can become, rather than on its failures, those leaders can carve out an exciting new future for the company.” He gives a business illustration, “Back in 2002, a slumping Reuters recorded losses of almost 500 million pounds, prompting its CEO to describe the company as ‘fighting for survival.’ Only one year later, however, it recorded profits of almost 500 million pounds. How did the leadership manage this astonishing turnaround? T

A thought by Ray Johnston (2014-05-13) from his book, The Hope Quotient:  Measure It. Raise It. You'll Never Be the Same. (p.79). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) That is a very good thought/question.   Ray says, “Robert Fulghum wrote some of my favorite books, including All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (which, unfortunately, I read after spending thousands of dollars on graduate school). One time when I heard him speak, he said, ‘Find any group of children and ask them how many can sing, and what happens? Every hand goes up. I ask, “What can you sing?” and they answer, “Everything!” “What if you don’t know the words?” “We’ll make them up!” Find any group of kids, ask them, “How many of you can draw?” and everybody’s hand goes up.’” Ray then says, “But what happens when you ask that same group of kids the same questions twenty-five years later? How many can sing? Almost none of them. How man

A thought by Ray Johnston (2014-05-13) from his book, The Hope Quotient:  Measure It. Raise It. You'll Never Be the Same. (p.75). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Here is that word again, the word focus.    Keep reading if you want to come alive. Earlier Ray said, “Show me a person who wishes he was in better shape physically but is focused on what his life is like right now, and he is probably discouraged. Yet all kinds of possibilities emerge the minute he focuses on what he could become in the future. Everything changes when we ask the question, ‘Am I able to see things not as they are right now but in terms of what they can become?’ “’I will make you become fishers of men,’ Jesus said, and by following through on His word, He changed, is changing, and will change the world. Forever.” Ray later says, “It is never sudden or easy, but the road away from destructive directions always starts by getting some

A thought by Ray Johnston (2014-05-13) from his book, The Hope Quotient: Measure It. Raise It. You'll Never Be the Same. (p.64). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) There are two words in that thought that have a way to control our view of life.   One we can’t control and the other we can.   One word is circumstances and the other is expectations.   We can’t control our circumstances but we can control our expectations. Ray says, “Most of us are waiting on a change of circumstances, but what we really need is a change in perspective.” He goes on, “We see this principle all over the Bible. Jerusalem was a disaster. What’s worse, nothing had gotten better for ninety-two years. Nehemiah showed up there, in a city that had a scorecard that looked like this: Years since the city wall was destroyed – 92. Years the people were stuck there – 92. Years of failure – 92. Years of broken dreams – 92. “For ninety-two years