Messages of the Moment

July 25, 2009 at 4:09 pm (Messages of the Moment)

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                                    Rev. E. Anderson

HOW TO DEVELOP SELF-DISCIPLINE
by Rick Warren

“God did not give us a spirit that makes us afraid but a spirit of power and love and self-control” – 2 Timothy 1:7 (NCV)

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God wants you to develop a self-discipline that pushes you to do things, even as others are giving up.

Over the years, I’ve observed six key expressions of self-discipline:

People with self-discipline master their moods. They live by their commitments, not their emotions. People who do the right thing even when they don’t feel like it accomplish most of what gets done in the world! “A man without self-control is as defenceless as a city with broken-down walls” – Proverbs 25:28 LB.

People with self-discipline watch their words. They put their minds in gear before opening their mouths. “He who guards his lips guards his life” – Proverbs 13:3 NIV.

People with self-discipline restrain their reactions. How much can you take before you lose your cool? “If you are sensible, you will control your temper. When someone wrongs you, it is a great virtue to ignore it” – Proverbs 19:11 GNT.

People with self-discipline stick to their schedule. If you don’t determine how you will spend your time you can be sure that others will decide for you! “Live life, then, with a due sense of responsibility … Make the best use of your time” – Ephesians 5:15–16 PH.

People with self-discipline manage their money. They learn to live on less than what they make and they invest the difference. The value of a budget is that it tells your money where you want it to go rather than wondering where it went! “The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets” – Proverbs 21:20 LB.

People with self-discipline maintain their health. That way they can accomplish more and enjoy their achievements. “Every one of you should learn to control his body, keeping it pure and treating it with respect” – 1 Thessalonians 4:4 PH.

The disciplines you establish today will determine your success tomorrow. But it takes more than just willpower for lasting self-discipline. It takes a power greater than yourself: “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and self-control” – 2 Timothy 1:7 NLT/NCV.

The more I accept God’s control over my life, the more self-control he gives me!

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A Time to Laugh

July 25, 2009 at 4:02 pm (Time to Laugh)

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                                  Rev. E. Anderson

GOOD SENSE

An eccentric philosophy professor gave a one question final exam after a semester dealing with a broad array of topics.  The class was already seated and ready to go when the professor picked up his chair, plopped it on his desk and wrote on the board: “Using everything we have learned this semester, prove that this chair does not exist.”

Fingers flew, erasers erased, notebooks were filled in furious fashion.  Some students wrote over 30 pages in one hour attempting to refute the existence of the chair.  One member of the class however, was up and finished in less than a minute.

Weeks later when the grades were posted, the rest of the group wondered how he could have gotten an A when he had barely written anything at all.  His answer consisted of two words: “What chair?”

 GARBAGE

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. 

My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches!  The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy.  And I mean, he was really friendly.

So I asked, “Why did you just do that?  That guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!”

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, “The Law of the Garbage Truck.”

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks.  They run around full of garbage — frustration, anger, disappointment.  As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they’ll dump it on you. 

Don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. 

Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day.  Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don’t.

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

[forwarded by Amelia Lanning]

today’s thoughts:

Always be yourself because the people that matter don’t mind, and the ones who mind, don’t matter.

 Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without.

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Children’s Page

July 25, 2009 at 3:55 pm (Kids Stories)

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                                       Rev. E. Anderson

CREATING SOMETHINGN NEW OUT OF ASHES

Some years ago Alexander Woolcott described a scene in a New York hospital where a grief-stricken mother sat in the hospital lounge in stunned silence, tears streaming down her cheeks. She had just lost her only child and she was gazing blindly into space while the head nurse talked to her, simply because it was the duty of the head nurse to talk in such circumstances.

“Did Mrs. Norris notice the shabby little boy sitting in the hall just next to her daughter’s room?”

No, Mrs. Norris had not noticed him.

“There,” continued the head nurse, “there is a case. That little boy’s mother is a young French woman who was brought in a week ago by ambulance from their shabby one-room apartment to which they had gravitated when they came to this country scarcely three months ago. They had lost all their people in the old country and knew nobody here. The two only had only each other. Every day that lad has come and sat there from sunup to sundown in the vain hope that she would awaken and speak to him. Now, he has no home at all!”

Mrs. Norris was listening now. So the nurse went on, “Fifteen minutes ago that little mother died, dropped off like a pebble in the boundless ocean, and now it is my duty to go out and tell that little fellow that, at the age of seven, he is all alone in the world”.

The head nurse paused, then turned plaintively to Mrs. Norris, “I don’t suppose” she said hesitantly, “I don’t suppose that you would go out and tell him for me”.

What happened in the next few moments is something that you remember forever. Mrs. Norris stood up, dried her tears, went out and put her arms around the lad and led that homeless child off to her childless home, and in the darkness they both knew they had become lights to each other!

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