Keep Your Goal Before Your Eyes
Imagine your ideal life—how would it be different than what your life is like today? Spend a few quiet minutes thinking on this, and you’ll find the key areas where you’re ready to set a goal. Make your goal bigger that what you think you can do, in order to stretch you and challenge you. This exercise can be inspiring, motivating, and exciting, but soon comes the hard part of getting it done!
Can You Keep Going?
You can achieve the big goals that are currently out of reach, and the path there is simpler and more straightforward that you think. But one thing is required: consistent right action. Take a physical example: losing weight. In order to drop that ten pounds, all you have to do is lose half a pound a day for twenty days. How? Increase your energy output and reduce your calorie intake—it really is as simple as that. But, here’s the hard part—on day three, when you’re hungry and your body is sore, will you continue with the consistent right action of eating healthy and exercise, or will you take a break and let your goals fade into memory?
The Slight Edge Principle
Setting goals is important. But alone, the activity of setting a goal may not bring you what you want. Once you set a goal, you must commit to it, and keep the goal in front of your eyes. Like many principles of success, this important step is easy to do. But easy to do is also easy not to do, and oftentimes we skip this important step, to our own peril.
How to Keep the Goal in Mind
What does it mean to keep a goal before your eyes? Well, first it means that your goal must be written down. Have a number and a date (for example, run a mile in seven minutes by December 15, 2013) so you have a clear idea where you are going. Next, find a way to bring your goal to the front of your mind every day. Some helpful ideas here include writing your goal and taping it to you bathroom mirror. Some people ask others to help keep them on track towards their goals by checking in with them every few days, or even pursuing a similar goal at the same time. One idea that I found strange at first was to actually speak your goals out loud every day. What at first felt very silly became a valuable tool in training my mind to see and take action toward my goals every day. Whatever method you want to use, the main key is to keep your mind on your goal.
Your Mind Working for You
Your mind is an amazing thing, and if you take the time to focus it on your goals, you will be astounded how it starts seeing opportunities around you every day. Stay committed, stay steady, and start down the path toward living the thriving life that’s waiting for you!
The Right Fuel
If you want to feel good, live healthy, and have lots of energy, what should you do? It won’t surprise you to hear that one of the most important keys to getting this result is your nutrition. If you put good things in, you’ll get good results. But the hard part is, what are the right things, and how can you know which plan or philosophy to follow?
Expert, really?
It seems that about one out of every five people walking down the street considers himself to be a “nutrition expert.” People say things like, “everyone knows you can’t eat after 8 pm or you’ll get fat,” or “too much salt will cause you problems.” The problem is, as in the examples, there is little if any evidence to support these claims. Ideas that fall in the “everyone knows that….” category are often inaccurate, and are believed by the masses simply because they are often repeated.
So, what are we getting at here? First, before you take advice, particularly nutrition advice, examine the credibility of the person talking. Are they fit and in good health? If not, ask them to stop sharing their ideas. Further, once you’ve established credibility of the one offering advice, ask him to provide sources to back up the ideas he recommends. He himself may be believing certain things based on what others have said, rather that based on research and critical thinking.
Delicious and Beneficial
Ok, finally on to the meat of the matter. 😀 Below I have my personal “nutrition manifesto.” This is how I eat, giving my body the good fuel it needs without having to live in a nutrition bubble. While it may not be earth-shattering (vegetables and fruits are good for you), I think it strikes a great balance between practical and beneficial. Here are the results it’s given me:
Height: 6’0″ Weight: 173# Waist: 32″ BMI: 23 Body fat: 10% Blood Pressure: 118/70 Cholesterol: 137 HDL: 47 Chol/HDL: 2.9 Glucose: 84 Hemoglobin: 15.9 Pulse: 58 Max deadlift: 405# Max pullups without stopping: 38 Run 2.3 miles: 15 min Max squat: 345# If the person giving you advice has better numbers, disregard my recommendations and follow him.
Nutrition Manifesto
Most important, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Get as many fruits and vegetables of different colors as you can*. Eat plenty of meat of various types to get enough protein. Fish is good, eat plenty of it; also nuts, seeds, and eggs. Drink milk, it’s amazing. Have healthy convenient food (e.g. meal bars from ThriveMart) on hand so you don’t end up in McDonalds. You need carbs, so don’t fear grains, but recognize man doesn’t live on bread alone. Drink coffee excessively, drink wine sparingly.
*If you’re not getting 2 servings of each color each day, you will benefit from a plant-based supplement like DoubleX—which though not as good as eating the fruits and vegetables themselves—provides these essential nutrients to your body so they can be absorbed, as contrasted with a synthetic vitamin. See ThriveMart for this and other great products to help you live healthy!
http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthy-kitchen-11/dairy-truths
http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/milk-really-healthy-you
Reaching New Heights Together
Imagine being healthier and fitter than you’ve ever been in your life. How great would it feel to look the way you want and have a habit of taking good care of your body? Well today, we’re launching a tool that will help you do just that.
We’ve just added a resource to the recently redesigned ThriveFit page that will help you get plugged into this great community. By connecting with each other, we can spur each other on and encourage everyone to reach new heights and achieve the results we all want. Check out this free resource today by choosing ThriveFit from the top menu and selecting Results. Or, just add totalthriver.com/results to your favorite places (or subscribe via rss). Be sure to register yourself as a user and share your successes with us!
Is Success Once Success?
One day, a little boy decided he wanted to learn to ride a bike. He found his dad and asked him all about how bicycles worked. His dad told him all about the history of bicycles, the parts that make up a bicycle, and the technique required to ride one.
Victory! Or Is It?
The boy and his dad began working diligently on learning to ride the bike. As the boy practiced, he gradually improved, until one afternoon, his dad released his grip on the back of the seat and the boy rode under his own power for a full block. Happy and proud, both man and son returned home and parked the bike in the garage. The bike stayed in it’s spot in the garage all night. The next day, the bike also stayed in its place. So too the third day, fourth day, and fifth day. In fact, the bike stayed put for weeks, followed by months, and then years. The boy never again took the bike out for a ride, though he walked past it nearly every day. Now the question: did this boy learn to ride a bike?
Technically, the boy learned all about the bike. And once, he did manage to ride it a ways. But did he benefit? Did anyone benefit?
Assimilate It
You see, you and I are often like that foolish boy. We undertake a worthy venture, like eating healthier, beginning a fitness regimen, or connecting with God in Scripture and prayer, but we fail to continue and create a permanent habit. In so doing, we miss out on the benefit of the venture, just as the boy missed out on the joys and benefits of bicycling around his neighborhood.
Today’s the Day!
Can you think of something you know you should be doing, something perhaps that you’ve even successfully done on occasion, but that you’ve never gotten consistent with? What benefits would you enjoy if you made this behavior a permanent habit in your life? It could be that the only thing separating you from the greater level of success or achievement that you desire is the simple consistent application of something you already know how to do! Will you take the steps today to make a new habit for your own success? Make a commitment, let someone know about it, and enjoy your journey to the top!
To Whom Do You Go?
Can you think of a time when you faced a tough decision and were unsure of the proper course? When posed with two different options and can only choose one, how do you sort out the best way to go? I believe that the first step is to recognize the value in seeking council. This is natural, isn’t it? To tell people around what’s going on in your life in order to hear their perspective? But all too often, I think we apply this good principle of seeking council in a way that may actually hinder us.
What to Do?
Let’s take a common and tangible example of a difficult decision. Imagine that you own and drive a car that is near the end of its life and not worth too much. One morning when you attempt to start the car, you get some scary noises and a whole lot of white smoke. Later that day you get the call from your mechanic: you need a between $800 and $1,500 of work done. Now, you’re not sure that your car is worth much more than $2,500 once it’s all fixed, and you’re not sure if it’s worth it to pay for the repairs or not.
Seeking Feedback
What would you do in this situation? If you’re like most people, you’d probably tell your car story to the nearest 10 people who’ll listen. Invariably, many of these people will offer advice, and certainly it will be well intentioned. If you’re thinking of the principle mentioned above, that gaining the perspective of others can be valuable in making decisions, you’re probably happy to get all the feedback. But there’s one key issue we’ve skipped over that makes the difference between the advice you get yielding you a good situation or a problem on top of your problem.
Qualifications test
The key is the determination of adviser qualification. Or, put more simply, does the person offering advice know what he’s talking about? Take a basic idea like the following for instance. Taking financial advice from broke people is unwise. Think about that for a second. Now try this one: taking marriage advice from a person with an unhealthy marriage is unwise. Seriously, think about it!
Now, while this may seem so simple and obvious, it’s been my experience (personally, I assure you, as well as by watching others do this) that we often fail to apply such a basic filter before giving people’s suggestions credibility. Our car repair example above is quite a common case of this illogical behavior. One will ask everyone around him what to do about the car, and he’ll hear many people say, “oh, just trade it in and get a new car! You’ll save the money on repairs, and paying a little interest is no big deal. In fact, have you considered a lease? Then you could have a really cool car right now!” All too often, we’ll not only accept these ideas, but will actually factor them into our decision making process and let them influence our choice. But what is the financial position of the advisers here? Do they own their own cars? Do they have an effective budgeting system in place and are they on track for retirement? Often, No! They do not!
To Become a Winner, Follow Winners
So, here’s the bottom line. Does the person offering advice have what I want? If it’s financial advice I’m seeking, do they have a financial life that I’d like to have? If it’s spiritual advice, so they have the walk with the Lord that I want? If it’s fitness and nutrition advice, do they have the physique and energy levels I want? Run your advisers through this simple filter first, and you’ve avoid many behaviors that lead to the terrible place called average.
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Keep It Interesting and Avoid Plateaus
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Some fitness programs out there give a month’s worth of workouts; others may even go up to 90 days. But what do you do then? Rest a week and do it again? One big problem with that: you’re asking for a plateau.
No Endless Loop
One of the key reasons that a program like ThriveFit is superior to many of the month-long of 90-day DVD sets is that not only does it come with 200 workouts (which should last you about a year), but once you reach the end, you’ll have the tools to create more workouts for yourself. Once you understand the philosophy of varied programming using functional movements, the sky’s the limit for the number of unique combinations you can create. This makes your workout more enjoyable and less monotonous but also minimizes your propensity for plateaus.
Apply the Principle
A personal example of this happened to me recently in my 1-rep max squat. Several months ago, I had plateaued at a squat of 315 pounds. Traditional programming would have led me to simply keep doing squats week after week. Instead, I intentionally built for myself workouts involving squats, but sometimes back squats, sometimes front squats, and sometimes thrusters. Not only that, I also varied how many reps of squats I’d do and whether to do them heavy or light. Examples of these types of workouts would include:
1. Three rounds for time of
2. As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes of:
- 5 squats 255#
- 25 pushups
- 15 box jumps 24″
3. For time:
With this type of programming, I was able to train my squatting muscles without repeating the exact same movement in the same way week after week. As a result, when I retested my max squat last week, I found I had jumped from my previous max of 315 pounds all the way up to 345! While this won’t get me anywhere near the Olympics, it was a huge gain for me and a big victory in an exercise I’ve struggled with for some time.
Try It Yourself!
I hope you’ll take a moment to check out the ThriveFit page and learn the philosophy and techniques. I look forward to hearing about your success reaching new heights by mixing things up!
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Set the Right Goals, and Don’t Forget to Execute!
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Believe it or not, we’re coming up on the second quarter of 2013—have you set your goals yet? If you had set goals for 2013, are you progressing toward them? If you’re like many people, you may have let these aspirations move to the back burner. Today we’ll look at whether these goals should move to the front burner or off the stove completely. For those that do belong on your front burner, how can you keep your focus on them and ensure that they’re reached?
What’s the Problem?
There are a few major reasons why a goal you set early in the year will fade into the background after a few weeks or months. One reason could be that the goal was not something you truly want or value. Sometimes it can be difficult to really drill down to the things we really want. In fact, focusing on ourselves only can result in blurry vision. Instead, recognize that your Creator God made you in a particular way; individually and different than anyone else. What strengths and passions has He placed in you, and what purpose does He want to use you to accomplish?
Translate the Long Term to What to Do Today
Another common reason that we discard our goals relates to lack of detailed planning and accountability. Instead of setting general goals and stopping there, translate your goals into weekly activities and execute them consistently.
Seven Key Areas
The following six-step process provides a simple overview of how to set the right goals and adopt the habits that will lead you to reach them. Use these steps as guidelines to build a specific process that works for you. This method can be applied to reach success in any area of life, and we recommend using it for eack of the following areas:
• Career
• Fitness
• Personal Development
• Spiritual
• Family
• Financial
• Social
The six steps toward setting and executing worthwhile goals are as follows:
Step 1 – Figure out what you want. Peace? Financial security? Influence? Travel? Strong relationships? Missions? Taking care of family? Be specific. What would your life look like if you inherited $200 million today and also learned that you have only 5 years to live?
Step 2 – Find people who have what you want and listen to them; protect your mind from people [who don’t have what you want] who want to give you advice. Does your brother-in-law have financial success? If not, don’t take his financial advice.
Step 3 – Based on what you want (step 1) develop big, 5-yr goals. Figure out the goals you’ll need to hit this year to reach these big goals. Then, figure out the goals you’ll need to hit this month to hit the annual goals.
Step 4 – Plan out daily activities that will lead you to your monthly goals. Work with an experienced mentor [from step 2] to insure you choose the right activities.
Step 5 – Put your daily activities into your calendar, and stick to your calendar
Step 6 – Forget about the goals and focus on executing this day’s activities. Report how you did to your mentor. If you completed today’s activities, be happy with that.
Focus on things you can control—your activity. Focusing on results instead of activities you can control can be frustrating. Use your mentor to determine the right activities, do them consistently, and results will come.
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Team ThriveFit in the CrossFit Open
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Several members of the ThriveFit community are competing in the Open Competition for the CrossFit games. See our results so far below–it’s been a fierce battle so far and will only heat up from here!
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What’s the thread?
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What’s TotalThriver.com all about? Perhaps you noticed last week the feature of the ThriveFit training program and took a moment to learn how an Olympic lift can help you get in great shape and look and feel better. Maybe you scrolled down to see the previous week’s post about eternity and what God has planned for His children. After that, you clicked the ThriveWealthy tab on the top menu and downloaded the free cashflow planning tool, including instructions for getting your finances in order. Are these topics related? What connects these seemingly unrelated ideas?
You’re not an ice-cube tray
The threads that connect these aspects of life are at the very core of our mission here at TotalThriver. A prevalent notion in our culture today is the idea that we exist as individuals with different compartments, which are separate and distinct from each other. For example, a man may delude himself by thinking, “Sure, I’m harsh and unsympathetic at work, and sometimes I take advantage of my employees, but that has nothing to do with my relationship with my wife and kids. Who I am at work is not who I am at home.”
Contrast this with the wisdom of God’s Word. In Proverbs 23, we read:
6 Do not eat the bread of a selfish man,
Or desire his delicacies;
7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is.
He says to you, “Eat and drink!”
But his heart is not with you.
This is a teaching given throughout the Bible–that the heart is where our behavior and actions originate. Similarly, Jesus said in Luke 6:45 that:
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
Address the real problem
All of us want to thrive in life–and particularly those of you who’ve come to this site to find tools and resources to do just that. But the first step in moving forward is to recognize that our “less than thriving” behaviors in the various aspects of our lives are rooted in our heart. The man who mistreats his employees has a heart problem. And this problem of the heart will manifest itself everywhere in his life.
To insist that poor behavior in one area in life has nothing to do with other areas of life is dangerous because it refuses to recognize the real connections within your own person. And without clear understanding of the cause of a problem, no true change can be made.
What are your “unseen connections?”
Take a moment to consider personally, “what aspects of my life have I been neglecting?” If your life is a wheel made up of five spokes (physical, financial, spiritual, relational, career), which spoke is deficient and giving you a wobbly wheel?
Try to seek out the connections between parts of life where you aren’t thriving and the negative effects that they produce in other areas of your life. Do you hate your job? Do you then come home angry and fight with your spouse? Or perhaps you’ve not exercised in months, and notice that you just don’t have the energy level to care for your family that you once did. By identifying the negative results that you most dislike and connecting them to their causes, you’ll find the motivation to make the investments of time and energy needed to thrive in one area, bringing success in both areas.
The bonus
That’s what’s so great about starting to understand how these areas relate–you improve the area that needs improvement, but you get a bonus in other areas. The clearest example of this is the area of fitness. When you spend time exercising your body properly, you’ll notice an improvement to your physique. But you get a bonus benefit in your work life, as you have better energy levels and can be more productive. And you’ll likely notice an improved relationship with your spouse, as your frustrations have been taken out on a barbell instead of your lover!
The connections between these areas of life are complex and seemingly infinite. Some, like the examples above, can be understood and generalized. Others are known by God alone. Yet as we understand more and more that our behavior and the results of our behavior stem from the heart, we work to thrive in each area to the satisfaction of ourselves and the glory of our Maker.
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Fill Your Toolbox
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As you probably have noticed, most of the time here at TotalThriver, we typically feature an article each week to share ideas or concepts about how you can thrive in your fitness, finances, or faith. I hope these articles encourage you to think and reflect on the various issues and take action based on new knowledge or understanding. However, most of the how is usually left to you. Today, we’ll try to remedy this by getting a bit further into the details!
Find the Perfect Fit for You
If you’ve never taken the opportunity to look over the ThriveFit page previously, let me encourage you to go there now and check out the first five workouts of our recommended program. Click the link above or the ThriveFit tab at the top of the homepage. All workouts are conveniently split into three difficulty levels, so no matter your current fitness level, we have the perfect fit for you!
Hot Off the Press
For those that have seen the ThriveFit program in months past, we have a great new addition for you: demonstrations and descriptions of some of the most important movements in the ThriveFit program. Check out the Exercise Demos page here, and spend a few minutes learning a new movement–I promise each one will challenge you in a useful and different way, helping you to become a more rounded athlete and person.
One Movement to Improve Your Entire Body
In particular, today I’d like to highlight a brand new addition to the exercise demo page: the snatch. This powerful and complex movement can unlock new levels of fitness and strength for you, and though it’s difficult to master, the reward is great. Incidentally, the video used in this demonstration was recorded just a few days ago, and came due to my competing in the 2013 CrossFit Open. If you’d like to see the entire workout in context, feel free to check out my athlete profile page or watch my complete video here.
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Why a Watch?
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When you visit the ThriveFit page, you may notice that an unusual piece of equipment is required for nearly all of the workouts recommended there: a stopwatch. Unlike many workouts that you’ll see people doing in your local gym, our regimen involves completing a certain number of repetitions during a discrete period of time. Is there a good reason for working out this way? What are the advantages and benefits? In today’s article, we’ll answer these questions and unpack how this strategy can help you reach your fitness and physique goals!
Better Challenge, Better Results
Most ThriveFit workouts take a form like the following: with a continuously running stopwatch, complete three rounds of: 15 pushups, 20 lunges, 30 jump rope jumps. Your goal is to complete all the reps in as little time as possible. One of the beauties of this method is that whether you’re very fit or a complete beginner, this workout can challenge you. The fitter you are, the lower your time will be, but as long as you’re pushing yourself as hard as you can, you’ll be worn out by the last rep. And if you’re super fit, you can always adjust the workout up by adding more rounds.
Intensity Through Competition
A second benefit of keeping track of the time it takes you to complete a workout is that it promotes competition. This competition could be between (1) you and a friend, or (2) you and yourself.
In previous articles, we’ve explored the many ways that having a training partner helps push you to greater heights and keeps you motivated and accountable. By committing to a program like ThriveFit with a friend, you have the added benefit of being able to compete for the fastest time. If you and your friend have a fitness disparity, you can even adjust the workouts up or down for one of the partners to cause a close finish every time. For example, perhaps the workout for the day is: as many rounds in possible of: 8 clean and jerks 115#, 15 pushups. If one training partner is a little stronger, he may use 135# while his partner stays with the recommended 115#.
A Worthy Competitor
Even if you aren’t able to find a workout partner right away, timing your workouts allows you to compete with yourself. As you progress through the ThriveFit workout plan, keep track of your scores and times in a notebook or a spreadsheet. Them, make sure to go through the list from time to time and recomplete workouts that you’ve done previously. You’ll have your old time in mind while you’re doing the workout, which will push you to move faster and leave your old records in the dust!
Not only do your previous times help you push yourself harder and faster, but you’ll also have a clear basis for tracking your progress. As your times go down and your loads go up, you’ll feel a strong sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Depending on your fitness goals, you may be tracking things like your weight and body fat percentage already, but an even more test of how you’re doing is to track how long it takes you to do 3 rounds of: 15 snatches 95#, 15 pull-ups!
Improve In Multiple Ways
And finally, keeping time while you complete an entire workout turns a strength-only scheme of exercises into a strength, endurance, and stamina challenge. Most people’s workout program involves doing 10 reps of bench press, stand around for 5 minutes, 10 more reps, stand around more, 10 reps, etc. Not only are they wasting lots of time getting through a workout, but that rest between sets allows them to catch their breath each time. Conversely, the ThriveFit workouts keep your body moving constantly, resulting in a challenge to your cardiovascular system as well as your muscular strength and stamina. Incidentally, this is a good reason to keep your rest periods short in the cases where you can’t complete a full ThriveFit workout without stopping. Keep your rest periods to just a few seconds if you must take them, and get back in and knock out a few more reps. Having shorter, more frequent rests will give you a shorter time and a better challenge than taking longer, less-frequent rests.
Our Network is for You
Today we’ve shown just a few of the many benefits associated with working out with a timer. By timing the entire workout, you promote competition between yourself and others (or at least yourself and yourself), you have a means of tracking your progress, and you get to challenge your body more completely, which ultimately leads you to reaching your fitness goals more effectively. Be sure to let us know how you’re doing along the way by sharing comments on the ThriveFit workout pages! Happy training!
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Small Changes for Big Results
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We’re just about to begin the second week of the new year—how are you doing on your goals so far? If you’re like most of us, this week it will be harder than last week to stick with your new habits. As the excitement of pursuing a better or healthier life wears off, we all are very tempted to revert back into old ways that are familiar. How can we head this tendency off at the pass?
This Is Hard
I find it helpful to recognize that creating a new habit or doing what you’ve never done before is difficult. Take fitness for example: it may not seem like a very tall order to work out for 15 minutes for 4 or more days per week, but especially if you’re accustomed to 0 workouts per week normally, the new habit will be a challenge to acquire.
Hard, but Temporarily So
After recognizing that maintaining a new habit it difficult, it’s also important to recognize that it won’t always be so hard to maintain. After you breech the 30-day mark, you’re essentially built a new routine and continuing with it is much easier. So, when it’s hard to choose the apple over the slice of cake on day 18, be encouraged by remembering that your good habit of healthy eating will soon be much easier.
Keep Your Eye On What Matters
Thirdly, you’ll do best to focus on being consistent with the habit instead of demanding perfection of yourself every day. For example, if your new habit is to get fitter, focus on getting to the gym for a workout at least 3 times per week. Even if you don’t have a killer workout every time, you’re reinforcing the good habit of getting to the gym. Later, once you own the habit, you can focus on getting the most out of each minute you’re at the gym.
Find an Encourager
And finally, seek accountability from winners in your life. If you’d like to become more regular with your Bible devotions, find a godly friend and ask if he would be willing to meet with you once a week and let you share what you’ve learned in your devotions that week. The coming meeting will help motivate you to spend time in the Word each day so that you have something to share at the meeting. A great friend like this can be a great encouragement too in those times when you fall or fail—helping to pick you back up and help you get back on your good track.
Let’s Go Together
Good habits are hard to acquire, but once acquired, they can take us to extraordinary places. Never underestimate what 20 minutes per day can do to improve your life when it’s toward a valuable purpose and repeated consistently for a lifetime. Let’s make 2013 the beginning of your thriving life!
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Your Body Isn’t Yours
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Most of the time, when people hear the word stewardship, they think they’re about to hear a sermon about how the pastor wants them to give more money to the church. If this is your understanding of this term, prepare to hit the reset button. Stewardship means to manage well something that’s in our possession, but doesn’t really belong to us.
Stay at My Place!
Think of a time where a friend has let you borrow his car, or spend a weekend at his lakehouse. How did you treat his stuff? If you’re a good friend, you took great care to use your friend’s property well, avoided damaging it, and cleaned up when you were finished.
In much the same way, it is important that we recognize that we are not truly owners of our life, money, or even the body we have. These and all things are gifts from our Heavenly Father, to be used for His glory (see 1 Corinthians 6:12-20).
Need Motivation?
Understanding the concept of stewardship in regard to our physical body has a radical effect on one’s desire to begin and maintain a fitness regimen. Instead of sitting on the couch thinking, “which sounds more fun, an intense 20 minute workout or watching another episode of Lost? Hmm… I think I’ll just forget the workout today,” a person who understands stewardship feels compelled to care for his body through proper exercise. Just as you make time to change the oil in your car to avoid engine seizure, you are inherently motivated to maintain your physical body to honor and serve the One who entrusted it to you.
Start Today
Make fitness a priority in your life today by clicking the ThriveFit tab above. You’ll find recommended workouts for all fitness levels and many other resources to assist you in your fitness journey. Here’s to a fitter and healthier 2013!!
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The Key to Getting Fit
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Merry Christmas to all you TotalThrivers out there! I’m sure that like me, many of you ate enough food in the past few days to feed a small army! Some people feel bad after such a spree of overeating, leading them to seek out resources like our ThriveFit page to shed a few pounds and get back into shape. It’s a good idea to work toward better health, but often these resolutions to “do better” fade after a few weeks or months, and instead of looking and feeling better, the person will feel even more like a failure for their lack of follow-through. If you have the desire to live healthier, take advantage of the fire you have now by applying the most significant key to success in fitness or any other area of life: adopting new habits.
Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day
Our natural inclination after a week-long (or month-long) spree of overeating and inactivity is to overcorrect. We think that to even out the 1000 calorie dinner yesterday, we should break our year-long fast of jogging by running 5 miles. We take the high enthusiasm to get fit and convert it into a short burst of high activity. But we tend to neglect a few important steps.
The Big Challenge: Change
First, we fail to recognize that adopting a fitness routine involves one of the most difficult things there is: changing a person’s habits. This is particularly difficult to do when the person who needs changing is you! One big mistake at this point is that we try to accomplish this feat alone. Accountability is absolutely essential to get into and stay with the routine of working out regularly, week after week. Find a friend who is passionate about fitness. Preferably, this person already has the habit of keeping fit, but another newbie is ok too if they’re really serious about getting in shape. Decide how often and for what duration you will both commit to working out, and identify the specific times you’ll workout each week and how you’ll communicate your plans and results.
Write it Down
This leads right into the second necessary step for getting and staying fit: setting goals and writing them down. Make sure your goals are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. For example, you’d ideally want to sit down with your ThriveFit partner and lay out something like the following:
We’re committing to working out 4 times per week for 30 minutes. We’ll meet on Mondays at 7:00 pm at John’s house, Wednesdays at 7:00 am at Peter’s house, and on Thursdays we’ll meet over lunch for a run or bodyweight-only type workout. Each Friday afternoon, we’ll email each other to figure out a workout to be done Saturday (each on our own) and we’ll send text messages to each other on Saturday to verify when the workout is complete and to share scores.
Between now and January 1, John’s goal is to reduce his one-mile run time below 7:00 minutes and lose 10 pounds. During the same period, Peter’s goal is to increase his 5-rep maximum of deadlifts above 225 pounds and to trim 3 inches from his waist.
Instant Feedback
Notice how this is a specific plan with set dates and times and clear markers to shoot at. The reason this is such an important step is that it gives you a standard to measure yourself against for immediate feedback should you start to falter. Without this plan, you’ll tend to let your fitness regimen slip little by little as the days go by, until you are left back where you started, and with a vague sense of dissatisfaction with yourself. With clear goals and a specific schedule to reach them, you’ll know immediately when you’re getting off course. In addition to that, the goal or dream that you’ve identified will help motivate you on the days when you don’t feel like working out.
Let Us Help!
Remember, changing habits is hard, and our aim is to create good long-term habits for a fit life. Don’t kill yourself on the first day such that you can’t move tomorrow. Keep your focus on identifying and executing healthy and sustainable habits. To support the new demands on your body, you will also do well to consider your diet and supplement choices. Our ThriveMart store has a wide array of meal bars and shakes, sport drinks, and plant-based vitamins and supplements to promote your health, recovery, and weight-loss as you take the journey to a healthy life. Just comment on our facebook page or send us a message and we’ll help you identify the right product for you.
And as always, be sure to check back with us each week for motivation and encouragement along the way—we’re here to help you thrive!
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Why Not Machines?
By admin
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Here at TotalThriver, we’re always emphasizing bodyweight exercises and barbell lifts. Why don’t we ever suggest using those machines that fill the typical “fitness center?” In today’s post, we’ll take a look at where these recommendations come from.
What Are You Aiming At?
Why did you first decide to adopt a fitness regimen? To look better? To be able to climb a flight of stairs without getting winded? Or perhaps to improve your performance in your favorite sport? The great thing about bodyweight workouts and free weight workouts is that they are ideal for every one of these things. The fundamental reason for this is that when you lift your bodyweight or pick up a barbell with correct form, you’re using your body as a complete system, with each muscle automatically being used in proportion to how your body was designed to function.
Avoid Huge Biceps and Tiny Calves
Not surprisingly, by training your body in this way, you’ll naturally develop a proportional look. Unlike in bodybuilding, where you isolate muscles using machines and pulleys, a bodyweight and free weight regimen involves compound lifts. For example, to take a barbell from the ground to your chest, then up over your head, you must use your calves, hamstrings, quads, abs, back, chest and shoulders. By doing this lift within a circuit, as recommended in the ThriveFit program, you’ll also challenge your heart and lungs. Over time, this will build you into a versatile and proportional athlete, capable of physical feats you won’t believe.
Move Your Friend’s Piano
In addition to working large muscle groups proportionally, bodyweight and free weight lifting strengthens all the small stabilizers throughout your body. For example, in the “press,” you take a barbell in the standing position, and push it up over your head. This movement not only strengthens the entire shoulder and upper pectoral muscles, but in order to control and balance the weight throughout the lift, your entire core needs to be engaged, along with the traps and small muscles in the neck and upper back. Over time, this will strengthen your entire body as a system, not only making you capable of moving more weight easier, but helping you avoid injury as well.
Getting Cut
The final benefit we’ll discuss today relates to fat reduction. One common reason for exercising is to trim down and get a leaner look. A regimen like ThriveFit is ideal for fat burning, because compound lifts like clean and jerks or pull-ups recruit lots of energy from the large muscle groups involved. Not only does this burn large amounts of calories during the workout, but as your body recovers post-workout, it will consume a great deal of energy rebuilding your muscles after the workout. And with stronger muscles, your body will need more calories in the days and weeks to come simply to operate your now-stronger muscles. Keep the same diet (don’t increase calorie intake) and you’ll quickly develop a significant calorie deficit, leading to a lower body fat percentage and a great lean look.
Start Today!
Of course, there are a great many more benefits to a high-intensity bodyweight and barbell training regimen than the few I’ve outlined today, but these will give you a good idea of some of the great benefits available to you through ThriveFit. As with nearly everything we suggest around here, you can give this a try for yourself and take note of what happens! I’m confident that if you dive in and stick with the program, you’ll quickly find the truth of these claims. Enjoy your healthier and fitter life! 🙂
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Have You Any Excuses?
By admin
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One of my major missions is to spend time around people who are living well. I want to be around people who inspire me, who are succeeding in areas of life I’ve yet to master, and who thrive in all aspects of their lives. When I meet and talk to people like this, I always notice that they’re all lacking one thing: excuses.
Obstacles yes, excuses no
What’s even more significant than their lack of excuses is the fact that in many cases, they had huge obstacles in their way when they began, and often at many points along the way. Sometimes, they’re facing a trial currently, but somehow still succeed despite it.
What I’ve realized is that these men and women are not exempt from the difficulties that you and I face from day to day; rather, they have adopted the attitude of an overcomer. Instead of trying to accomplish things, and then giving up when it gets hard, these people just keep working. They’ll try one idea to improve their life (health, marriage, career, etc.), and if that idea didn’t work, they’ll seek another solution. Whatever roadblocks come up are seen by them as temporary—just problems to be solved.
Don’t Be Normal
During the time when normal people, who have given up after the first few tries didn’t work, are loudly broadcasting all their excuses for why they couldn’t win, overcomers are still working. They know what they want, they’re willing to reach out to mentors for advice, and above all they keep trying until they attain the result they set out for.
What area of your life do you desire new success in? Will you be willing to take on the attitude of an overcomer and pursue a thriving life? The resources to reach your potential are all at your fingertips, and the only question that remains is what you will do!
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Getting Fit and Loving It!
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The following article is a guest post from Steven McClain, a member of the TotalThriver community. Steven recently began following the ThriveFit workout program and describes his experience and excitement for this new fitness regimen.
For the last several years I have been doing workout regimens that didn’t do much besides maintain strength or maybe even lose it gradually. I did what the typical gym rat would do which consisted of bench, dips, tricep extensions, flys, curls, rows, leg curls, leg press, and squats with terrible form. I’ve always tried to maintain a proper diet with lots of fruits, veggies, good quality fats, and proteins. I thought that I should be feeling awesome from this great lifestyle but one week ago I tried something very different. Chris took me on as his ThriveFit apprentice, and with the aid of some Double X vitamin supplements a new journey began.
Trial by Fire
It all started Thursday with a Metcon consisting of 4 rounds of 5 deadlifts, 10 pullups, 15 pushups as fast as possible. The next workout was called death by squats (one squat in minute one, two squats in minute two, and so on until failure) and here I learned the proper form for squats which engages your entire leg, lower back, and parts of the upper body. Lucky for me Chris was there in the 13thminute to pick the bar up after I dropped it and have me do another rep before failing a second time. The weekend offered some rest to the weary legs that felt like they had been ripped to shreds and stairs had become their arch nemesis.
Powering Through
On Monday the pain of soreness was still there for sure but that didn’t stop the 3 rounds of 8 pullups (kipping), 4 handstand pushups, 16 pushups, and a quarter mile run all in about 11.5 minutes. So far all the workouts had been Metcons which challenged both my cardio and muscular strength. So on Tuesday we did a 4 rep max of cleans (an Olympic lift), starting from low weight and adding on 10 pounds at a time for about 6 rounds. Although I was not on the verge of cardio death the workout was great and provided for some great technique work and its fair share of muscle soreness.
The Payoff
Most workouts I give a month or more before giving any assessment but after only a week I can’t deny the huge difference I’m feelingand seeing. I went from feeling like a normal human being a week ago to some sort of steel reinforced powerhouse today. Here I sit in my chair with good posture, no tired feeling after lunch, and with the energy to run at least a 5k just waiting to be used. While my shoulders are and legs may be a little stiff from the cleans there is no doubt that the power and energy increase is there along with mental alertness and just feeling great overall. What’s the big secret to this euphoric state? Compound crossfit lifting that challenges both the cardio and large muscle groupings combined with the Double X would be my scientific hypothesis (since I am a chemist J) because all other conditions in life have remained normal during that week. Are there any side effects to all this? I’ve experienced an increased metabolism so I’ve had to eat more delicious food while likely lowering my body fat and increasing lean muscle mass as the weeks continue.
Thanks for all the help and great advice Chris! I haven’t felt this good since being a senior on the high school wrestling team.
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Getting There
By admin
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How can we get from where we are today to the places in life where we want to be? How can we become the people that we want to be—that God made us to be? In a word, incrementally!
Fitter by the Day
One of the clearest examples I know of this principle is manifested in physical fitness. No one has ever turned from an overweight couch potato overnight. But many people have changed from a person 30 pounds overweight to a person 25 pounds overweight with an improved cardiovascular system. The activities, attitudes, and habits that brought the 5-pound transformation are the very ones that bring the 8-pound transformation the next month, and eventually result in a healthy, fit person with great eating habits.
Follow a Winner
The key in this area, as well as many other areas where this principle applies, is to find people who are where you want to be. That means people who are 8 steps ahead of you and people who are 2 steps ahead of you. By recognizing that they have the character, faith, or habit you want, you can then begin to model the life they live. You can see the choices they make, the council they follow, and the way they press on. As you watch them thrive and grow, you’ll be inspired to do the things it takes to take yourself to the next level.
One word of caution—do not be overwhelmed when you meet those people who are leaps and bounds ahead of you. If you go the gym and see someone snatching twice what you’re capable of, it can be discouraging to see that you have so far to go. Instead of allowing this discouragement to reign, let yourself see this person as having what you want long-term, and be happy for them in their success. Do not try to reach their place overnight, rather, identify your next level. What are the people doing who are just in front of you doing that you’re not? What are they reading or listening to that you’re not? How do they cultivate optimism and confidence in their lives?
Identify, Model, Own, Repeat
By recognizing the actions and attitudes you need to reach that next level, you’re most of the way there. As you begin to incorporate these practices into your life and being, you move that much closer to the place you’d like to be. And now that you’ve done it once, you need only take another step to reach an even higher level. Be intentional about those whom you choose to spend time around—they must be thriving in at least a few areas to a greater degree than you are, so that you can see what it takes and model their behavior. Not only that, but they must be growing themselves so that you can continue to learn from them. As we all walk this road together, we fulfill God’s design as expressed in Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
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No Breaks!
By admin
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One of the most important aspects of any successful training regimen (or perhaps any pursuit in life) is consistency. Today, we’ll discuss the importance of sticking with your workouts and never letting too much time pass between training sessions.
Here Comes an Excuse
As you may have read in previous posts, I had the joy of traveling to Indiahoma, Oklahoma last week to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the children, youth, and adults in the community. We had an awesome time (more to come on that soon) and forged many wonderful relationships. However, there was one thing we didn’t do while there—workouts!
While I was able to stay pretty active moving rubble from a burned-down building, swimming at the lake, and even a bit of free climbing, I didn’t lift any heavy weights. And, though I intended to go on a few runs and do some bodyweight exercises, I never managed to make it happen.
The Price That Must Be Paid
Consequently, I was in for a rough day back to the gym today. My last full workout was 6 days ago, and that’s much too long to go between workouts. My metcon of heavy squats, dips, dumbbell jerks and pull-ups started off well, but I ran out of steam about 3 minutes in and my whole body began to feel like Jello.
I’m afraid that there’s no good way to get around the rough spot that I found myself in today, should you skip too many workouts. The only way to get past it is to go right through. So, that’s exactly what I did, pushing my Jello-feeling body through the next 15 minutes of punishment. By the end, I was totally wiped, and struggled to catch my breath for about five minutes.
The Reward on the Other Side
However, once I did catch my breath, I began feeling much better, even better that I had felt all day. I spent the next 10-15 minutes stretching my hips and calves, which had grown rather tight and immobile in the two 10-hour bus rides that we’d taken last week. All in all, I felt great by the end, but there were some rough moments in there for sure.
Learn from Mistakes
As you can probably tell, I’ve been through this a time or two in the past, and have learned to avoid this situation as much as possible. Since I powered through today, I’ll likely be back in a good groove tomorrow or the next day. Getting back in a good rhythm requires paying a high price, though, as I experienced today, so I’ll be working to avoid another slip in the future.
Be Good to Your Body
One or two days of resting and stretching can be a great way to rejuvenate your body and recover from a tough workout. But three days can be dangerous and four days is trouble. If you make my mistake and wait six days between, you’re in for a rough day back, so don’t let it happen to you! Make workouts your habit four to five days a week, and even if it’s just a few rounds of sprints and push-ups, your body will thank you for avoiding the punishment of a “first day back!”
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What Are You Training For?
By admin
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Here at TotalThriver, we love to discuss the importance of a challenging fitness regimen, encouraging you to make physical training a priority and reap the many benefits that come with it. But, there are different ideas of what ideal fitness looks like. Today, we’ll introduce three measures (or perspectives) of fitness in order to help you identify what type of training fits you best. By knowing what you want to achieve in the realm of fitness, you’ll be a good way along in reaching your ideal!
You’ll Go Far
The first fitness type we’ll examine is cardiovascular endurance. This may be your focus if your goal is to have a thin body with lean muscle that is capable of running long distances. Picture your favorite marathon or iron man competitor, and this will give you an idea of what you’re aiming at. Personally, when I think of cardiovascular endurance, I think of Lance Armstrong, the seven-time winner of the Tour de France. He doesn’t’ have a large muscular stature, but he can pedal that bike seemingly endlessly!
Training the cardiovascular system involves long periods of a relatively easy movement, repeated over and over. Endurence trainers will often spend hours and hours training every day, always staying at a “slow burn.”. By definition, their effort in training will never be at absolute maximum, because this would be unsustainable. Rather, an endurance athlete may spend 2.5 hours in a single training session at a consistent 60% effort.
What you Get
This type of fitness regimen gives the athlete a well-developed set of lungs, and muscles that can sustain hours and hours of the repetitive motion that is being trained. Common applications of this type of fitness include biking, running, swimming, or rowing. If you focus on this training type, you’ll soon find that many everyday activities which used to make you huff and puff (e.g. climbing three flights of stairs) can now be accomplished with ease. You may also enjoy the slimmer-looking you that results from long training sessions which burn lots of calories and fat.
Lift a Bus
The second fitness type is strength training or training for raw power. This kind of training focuses on lifting heavy objects, usually for a very short period of time. In contrast with a marathon runner training cardiovascular fitness, a strength training individual may push himself to maximal effort during a set of squats that lasts less than 30 seconds. Then, he’ll rest for a few minutes before attempting another set.
When thinking of strength training, my quintessential example has to be Arnold Schwarzenegger. Every muscle group on this man is full, developed, and in proportion to all the others. He can (or at least could, in his day) lift very heavy barbells and perform dazzling feats of strength. His training involved hours and hours at the gym, pushing with maximum effort, followed by a short rest, repeated over and over for many years to reach his ideal form.
Good to Have Around
You may want to focus on this type of training if you desire to have a strong and healthy “beach body,” look or if it’s important to you to have the capability of lifting heavy things. Important exercises to include in your program for this type include deadlifts, squats, snatches, and clean and jerks. These movements should be done in heavy sets at low reps—5 sets of 5 reps or 7 sets of 2 reps, for example, resting a minute or two between sets. Those who make strength training a focus are great to have around anytime you need to move a piano or large dresser!
Fast and Strong
The third type of fitness we’ll examine today is called metabolic conditioning. In some ways, this type can be thought of as a cross between the first two. It involves challenging movements like pullups, dips, snatches, and deadlifts, but also incorporates continuous movement and “easy” high-rep movements like burpees, box jumps, and running. It will generally require significantly less training time than the other two, because the highest possible intensity is maintained for a continuous span of 5-20 minutes. This is in contrast with the low-intensity “slow burn” of endurance training and the alternating periods of maximum effort followed by a rest period, which make up a strength training program.
Don’t Be Fooled
A metabolic conditioning workout (or metcon, as it’s lovingly called by those who train this way) involves multiple sets of various movements, done in rapid succession while the entire workout is timed. For example, one might do 5 sets of the following rep scheme: 15 pushups, 10 pullups, 5 box jumps. Before you make a common mistake that I’m often guilty of, don’t say, “that sounds easy!” Metcons can be very deceiving! This one in particular results in a grand total of 75 pushups, 50 pullups, and 25 box jumps, and might take around 4-5 minutes for a relatively fit individual.
This type of training focus results in a strong and solid body, with a very developed set of lungs. A good example of a “metcon body” might be Bruce Lee. He didn’t look big or muscle-bound, but he was a very strong and fast guy, and could kick and jump all around the room with plenty of energy to spare. While a person who trains this way may not be able to hang with an endurance trainer for a full marathon, he’d likely keep pace just fine for the first several miles. Similarly, a metcon trainer will not be able to move as much heavy weight as a strength trainer, but he’ll be able to continue churning out reps while the strength trainer has to stop to rest and catch his breath.
When You Think You’re Spent…
One of the tricks of making it through a tough metcon is to push yourself to the limit, then take very short breaks intermittently (by very short, I mean 2-3 seconds maximum). There will be moments where you think you can’t possibly make it, but keep pushing and you’ll soon find that you’re fitter than you think!
Customize Your Plan
Hopefully you now have a good understanding of three types of fitness focus: endurance training, strength training, and metcon training. Each has distinct benefits, and in truth, any good program should incorporate all three types of training. But, it is a valuable undertaking for you to learn these different perspectives and think about which one most appeals to you. Do you want to be lean and trim, capable of extended periods of low-intensity movement? Or do you want to have massive power and full, developed muscles? Or, do you prefer to run shorter distances yet have the capability to move heavy weights too? Be sure that your program pulls from each—a run one day, heavy squats another, and a good metcon another. But spend a majority of days training in your preferred style. Not only will that take you where you want to go, but you’ll enjoy it more along the way too!
As always, check out the ThriveFit page for several sample workouts to get you started, and be sure to comment on that page or this one to let us know how you’re doing!
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Seeds of Success
By admin
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When you decide to pursue success in an area of your life that needs improvement, you’ll face many large obstacles standing in your way. Perhaps the greatest challenge of any new journey on the path toward thriving is keeping your resolve when the results you want aren’t coming.
Typically, the first few weeks of a new fitness regimen will be filled with excitement, enthusiasm, and passion. But by week 3, all you are is tired, frustrated, and wondering if it’s all worth the trouble. You have the testimony of those who’ve gone before you that this program will make you look better, feel better, and help you thrive in all areas of life, but that’s not what you’re experiencing right now and there’s a strong temptation to give up.
In these times, I find it helpful to take a moment and consider my position. First, have I done the things that my mentors have recommended? In the case of a fitness regimen, am I doing the workouts as prescribed? Or, do I skip the parts I don’t like, or not give my full effort?
If I am doing what I’m supposed to, yet still not experiencing the success I expected, I’ll do well to step back and reconsider whether my expectations were reasonable. Oftentimes, the instant success I imagine on day one is simply incongruent with reality. Growth takes time, and as long as you are moving in the direction of success each day, you’ll get there in time.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I find it helpful to remember a poignant example from nature—the simple vegetable garden. I keep a small garden in my back yard, planting seeds around mid-April. To date, I have spent many hours tilling the soil, measuring and planting rows of seeds, watering, fertilizing, and weeding. For all this time and effort, done skillfully and with the help of experienced experts, I have harvested nothing but one bowl of salad. A green pepper grows on one plant, and tiny tomato flowers have sprouted, but I have tasted nothing but a few leaves of lettuce.
As in my garden, many great things in life require hours and hours of effort, guidance from good mentors, and time. If I will take this view on new ventures I pursue, I will be able to resist the discouragement that comes in the early days of hard work and few results. The effort I put into my venture today may not produce results today, but as I grow and God grants me His blessings, they may just turn into delicious fruit tomorrow.
On this point, here’s a curious fact from my garden story: the lettuce I’ve harvested this year did not come from my efforts this year—I didn’t plant any lettuce this year! Rather, this plant sprung up of its own accord near the spot that I had planted last year! When I tilled the soil and planted those seeds in April 2011, little did I know that I’d be satisfied by that produce in May 2012! Perhaps the seeds you’re planting today will surprise you in the future at just how great a harvest they’ll bring!
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Your Habits Are Showing
By admin
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What’s one thing that will produce dramatic results in your life, for good or for ill? Habits. Today, we’ll explore why habits are so powerful and what you can do to take advantage of an amazing source of power within your own life.
Your Stomach Has Habits
For our purposes, we’ll define a habit as something you do consistently, with little or no conscious effort or decision-making. One simple example that illustrates this point is a habit most all of us have: eating breakfast. When you wake up in the morning, how much time do you spend thinking about whether or not you’ll have breakfast? If you’re like me, none. I may spend a minute thinking about what I’ll have for breakfast, but I never deliberate on whether or not to eat it–I’m hungry and breakfast will be eaten!
Other examples of habits may include listening to a certain radio station on the way to work in the morning, visiting the vending machine at 2:30 each afternoon, or taking your spouse our for dinner one Friday each month.
So what does this have to do with finding incredible power and effectiveness on your path to thriving? The secret lies in the cumulative force of months and years of positive habits. One clear example of this power is shown by bodybuilders, strength trainers, runners, and Olympians. Look at an athlete who engages in one of these activities and experiences success. What did they look like last week? Last month? Last year?
The answer is that they made it to where they are currently via steady progress. Like the stream of water that eroded a large rock, these athletes made gains one day at a time. They ate right and hit the gym while everyone else was pigging out and goofing off, and now they sit at the head of the pack as a result.
Winning in Your Life
You don’t have to have the fire of an Olympian to benefit from this concept. Just take this principle and apply it to whatever area of your life where you desire dramatic improvement. If you want to be a great dad, but have thusfar been lacking, decide today to spend 30 minutes every day on improving. This could mean helping your daughter color for 30 minutes, going for a bike ride with your son, or reading a book on parenting. The point is, it’s got to be a habit. 30 minutes, every day [or 5 days a week, at very least].
Perhaps you’re dissatisfied with your financial life–you know you should be doing a budget but you just can’t stick with it. The answer is habit. Block out a set time each week to spend time on your finances. During this time (say Monday nights from 7-8), balance your budget, pay your bills, set and track your goals, or read a good book on personal finance.
The First Step
As in our example, your physical fitness is a great area to test this idea and see real and dramatic results within a relatively short period of time. If you don’t currently have a fitness regimen, try this: put your workout clothes on every day, starting today. I don’t even care if you work out at first–just put your workout clothes on, every day. Once they’re on, how about doing a few jumping jacks? Get your heart moving, even if just for 5 minutes. Then, carry on with your evening as normal, you’re done for the day. Tomorrow, get the workout clothes on again. Try some pushups or squats, or maybe one of the workouts posted in the ThriveFit section of the site. But do something, and keep it up, every day.
If you’ll do this, committing to doing something every single day, you’ll look up a month from now and notice huge gains in your fitness level. You’re getting there one day at a time, just like Olympians do.
Habits for Eternity
Finally, consider your spiritual life. Do you have any habits that will feed your soul? Do you attend a church with gospel-centered preaching where the Word is shared each week? Do you seek the Lord in prayer, or read the Bible to commune with Him? If not, you are missing profound wisdom, comfort, love and hope from the Father who loves you more than anyone else. Will you begin today by seeking Him in prayer?
By adopting these habitual practices–spending time working on an area of your life where you desire improvement–you will gradually begin thriving, with success building on success. The next thing you know, you’ll be standing on the mountain heralding to others that they can get there too. All they’ll is a little encouragement and a few good habits!
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Keys to an Effective Fitness Regimen
By admin
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We’ve spent a good deal of time lately discussing the many benefits of a good fitness regimen. Maybe some of these ideas have made you interested in fitness, and you’re ready to dive in. But before you embark on a new regimen, it’s important to have a good gameplan as well as some strong support. Without these, your fitness habit will struggle to pass the 3-week mark, and you’ll have lost the strong motivation which could have been used to launch you to a new level of success.
The following principles are vital to a sucessful fitness regimen.
Permanence
Just like with diet, it is absolutely essential that your fitness habits be permanent. Your program can certainly change as you move through life’s different stages, but thinking of a fitness regimen as something that you’ll do for a few months, then go “back to normal” will not only lead you to disappointment and frustration, but can be hard on your body too. Your body is made to move, lift, and run. Consider exercise like food or worship of God–you need it perpetually to live life as it was meant to be lived.
Support
While it may well be possible to stick with a fitness program in isolation, I’ve not yet met someone who’s done well that way. Even Rocky had Mick! Give yourself the boost of a training partner. Ideally, this person can work out right beside you in the same gym, but even a friend who’s far away can be a good training partner if you can push each other to get out there on the tough days when you don’t feel like it. I also enjoy competing with friends who are of a similiar fitness level as myself, so we both always know that the other person is probably nipping right on our heels. As the Good Book says, “as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)
Intensity
Though some fitness programs can be useful without intensity, I find that most people who are truly successful in fitness incorporate high intensity training into their regimen. And practically speaking, most of us simply to not have the time luxury to spend hours in the gym every day. The good news is that you can achieve a remarkable level of fitness in 20 minutes per day, 5 days a week, if you will work at high intensity. Do that calculation, and yes, I’ll bet that’s a good bit less than the number of hours of TV you watch each week…
Functionality
This principle was a component that I sorely missed in my early years of fitness training. Like many others have done, I spent way too much time on 3 sets of 10 bench presses, lat pull downs, and machine shoulder raises. While these movements aren’t bad, they’re not particularly useful in real life.
When I began my current program, however, I found a whole new world with barbell lifing and other functional movements. For example, the snatch, a complex barbell lift, recruits large muscle groups and requires a great deal of energy, while simultaneously honing timing and balance skills. Not only this, but the strength built this way seamlessly travels into real life, whether it’s carrying a suitcase up a flight of stairs or hoisting a child up to see a parade.
Functional movements like pullups, deadlifts, kettlebell swings, and lunges work big muscle groups and the cardiovascular system. Your body reacts to this by building more muscle. The new muscle requires your body to expend more energy all day long to keep everything running. Thus, in addition to the stronger muscles that you’ll have, you’ll also have a larger calorie gap (the difference between the calories you consume and the calories you require). If you keep your diet under control, your body has no choice but to recruit energy from fat cells–resulting in a thinner, stronger, and happier you!
More to come
Much more could be said on this topic, but these ideas will get you started on a rewarding fitness regimen. Check out the ThriveFit page for a few sample workouts to get you going, and let us know how you’re doing–we’re here to help you thrive!
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Fitness as a Metaphor
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This is the final post in a series of six articles on how fitness benefits many other areas of your life. So far, we’ve discussed how a challenging fitness regimen can improve your productivity, disposition, relationships, finances, and your appreciation of the glory of God. Today, we’ll discuss how success in your fitness can be a powerful physical display of positive changes in your heart and life.
This topic is right at the heart of what we are all about here at TotalThriver. Oftentimes in life, we can overlook the strong connections between the various components of our lives. We think that we can be sloppy with our money, without having that sloppiness affect our relationship with our spouse. Or we think we can neglect prayer and the study of God’s word, yet still succeed in our career and find contentment.
Not only does this compartmentalized approach fail in practice, but it goes against the clear teachings of Scripture. In Matthew 12, Jesus said:
“33“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.
Here, Jesus is confronting the self-righteous Pharisees for their pride, arrogance, and wrong judgement. They rebuked Jesus for healing a possessed man, using the illogical argument that Jesus obtained the power to rebuke demons by serving the prince of demons. Jesus clearly taught us here that the evil words that proceeded out of the mouths of the Pharisees were only a symptom of their problem. The root of the problem was the hearts of these men, which were hardened against God. They cared only for themselves and the praise of men, and their words revealed their character.
This truth applies to you and me just as it did the Pharisees. Our words and actions in a certain situation are nothing more than a natural demonstration of the state of our hearts. So, our unorganized finances are rooted in a heart of poor stewardship, for example. Can this heart of poor stewardship with money do anything but be a poor steward of time with a spouse? Our words and actions are indications of who we are, and when we let failure reign in one area of life, it tends to manifest itself in other areas as well.
Thankfully, as Jesus goes on to explain in Matthew 12, this principle works in the reverse, too:
35“The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.
By His grace, God allows any of us sinners who will forsake our sin and trust Christ for salvation to be washed clean by his blood. Christ paid the penalty of our sins through his death on the cross, and by trusting Him we are made into a new creation. Day by day, Christ leads us to walk like Him, becoming more like our Savior each day.
This goodness spreads to each facet of life–as your heart is made new, your actions change to demonstrate the change that occurred in your heart.
The beauty of the process of adopting and following through with a challenging fitness regimen is that it is a powerful and dramatic example of new life. Before you began making fitness a priority, you lived with all the negative consequences that come with physical apathy. But once you turned from your old way and started down the road to fitness, your heart had changed. Your new behaviors began to reflect the new heart that you have–one recognizes the value of using the body as it was made to be used.
As you progressed through the weeks of training, you experienced the benefits of challenging exercise–improved disposition, productivity, and appreciation for the glory of God. These benefits encouraged you to commit to the program even more, and your habits gradually strengthened until fitness is a natural part of your life.
The physical transformation and the adoption of a new set of habits is a living metaphor of the life-changing power that Christ offers. Just as your fitness journey began with a change of heart, becoming a Christian begins by admitting that the self-centered road we’re on is the wrong path. Will you turn from your sin and trust Him today? His love is eternal, and although your fitness habits may fade someday in the future, Jesus will never let one of his children fall away.
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Our Awesome Creator
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This post is fifth in a series of six articles on how fitness benefits many other areas of your life. So far, we’ve discussed how challenging fitness regimen can improve your productivity, disposition, relationships, and finances. Today, we’ll discuss how embarking on a fitness regimen can awaken your heart and mind to the glories of God.
Psalm 139:14 says, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Can you sing this Psalm with the psalmist? Is this the sentiment that flows through your soul today?
Monotony
Unfortunately, for many of us, the drudgery of everyday life can suck the praise and admiration of our Lord right out of us. Demanding clients and rude coworkers can pull our eyes off the simple beauty of the world around us, and by the time we get home in the evening, we’re more likely to ignore or mistreat our families than lead them in a song praising the awesome power of our Creator.
So how can a challenging physical regimen help us reclaim a child-like sense of awe for our God? First, by stimulating bloodflow through the body and serving as a outlet for frustrations, as we discussed a few weeks ago. But there is another element to fitness training beyond these simple chemical responses.
Incredible Design
Have you ever seen someone drive up in a fine-tuned Corvette or a shiny new Harley? The moment you see the sleek exterior and hear the engine purr softly, you are flooded with a feeling of admiration and appreciation beauty. If you bask in the moment a bit longer, you’ll find you have an appreciation for the designers and builders of such a fine automobile. You think about all the planning that went into the production of the car, and you’ll see how each individual piece gracefully fits into the complete package, each part fulfilling a particular role in harmony with every other part.
This simple example is merely a slight glimpse into the appreciation of the human body that can come with an ongoing commitment to fitness. When I first began exercising in high-intensity functional movement training, I had a certain level of appreciation for what my body could do. But as I progressed in various compound movements such as squats and snatches, I became more and more amazed at the amazing intricacies and harmonious interaction of the body’s many systems. This machine that God built by his infinite divine creativity is indeed something to be marveled at, not only for its beautiful cohiesiveness but for it’s incredible ability to adapt to new challenges.
See His Glory
It is very easy to neglict our bodies and take for granted the life we are given each new day, and many in our culture have done just that. They spend their time on other things and allow their bodies to slowly decline–allowing flexibility to wane and strength disappear. Along with the loss of these capabilities comes a loss of appreciation for the miraculous systems that make up their body. If you want to gaze on the glory of God the way an art patron might gaze on a beautiful work of da Vinci, start your journey by visiting the ThriveFit page and trying out Workout 1. Although it may take many workouts for you to reach a deep appreciation for all the capabilities held within your body, in time you too may just find yourself singing with the psalmist, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made!”
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Fitness and your Finances
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This post is fourth in a series of six articles on how fitness benefits many other areas of your life. So far, we’ve discussed how challenging fitness regimen can improve your productivity, disposition, and relationships.
Today, we’ll investigate the connection between your fitness and finances. Although at first glance these two subjects may seem to be unrelated, in fact there are many aspects of these two areas that affect each other.
Your Premiums
The first and most obvious way that your fitness affects your finances relates to your medical care. As we all have become clearly aware, medical costs have skyrocketed in this country in the last several years. Medical insurance premiums climb and climb, and take a big chunk out of your paycheck when payday comes. Oftentimes, we can feel powerless in this situation–but there are things you can do to improve this situation for yourself and your community.
Much research has been done relating the effects of exercise on a person’s health. It has been clearly demonstrated that regular exercise benefits the body in many ways, including improving heart health and reducing diabetes. Insurance companies do a myriad of tests to see what kind of shape your body is in before issuing life or health insurance, since they know that your fitness and health have a strong impact on the amount of medial care you will need.
A Grassroots Solution
While our politicians argue about the best way to handle healthcare from a federal perspective, we can take steps now to improve our own health personally–helping to solve the problem from the ground up. Over time, a nation of healthier people will require less medical care, and insurance companies will be able to charge smaller premiums while maintaining their margins. As we’ve stated before, there’s no question of the link between exercise and good health–the problem is that so many just aren’t doing it!
Making Time
Often, when people are asked why they don’t exercise, even though the health benefits are so clear, they will answer, “I just don’t have time.” While I’ll always contend that such an answer is always just a cop-out and should really be translated, “it’s not a high priority in my life,” it is certainly true that we Americans are busy. It’s easy to fill our schedules with work, family, and play, and if we’re not careful, our week can full up and we’ve never made the time for a fitness regimen.
But by recongnizing the link between exercise today and health tomorrow, we can find the motivation to put on those gym clothes at 5 AM. By further recognizing the connection to our health and our pocketbook, this motivation can become even stronger. As we’ve discussed, the more of us who make fitness a priority and improve our health, the lower our healtch care cost as a nation can be. And of course, insurance premiums aside, going to the doctor pulls directly from your account as well via co-pays and deductibles.
Get Wealthy and Fit
So, the next time your buddy gloats about the Carrabean cruise he’s going on that you can’t afford, think about the connection between your fitness, your health, and your pocketbook. Use that understanding to motivate you to get in the gym and fuel a total commitment while you’re there. As you know, the beauty of the ThriveFit program is that it’s a very short time commitment (most workouts take less than 10 minutes), but in order to reap the fitness benefits you want, your workout must be at full throttle.
Years later, when you invite your buddy out to your lake house for a summer vacation, you’ll not only have surpassed him financially, but will look better in your bathing suit too!
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To Find a Mate
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This post is third in a series of six articles on how fitness benefits many other areas of your life. So far, we’ve explored the dividends that a challenging fitness regimen will pay in your productivity and your disposition.
In the previous post, we noted that the improved disposition that comes with a challenging fitness regimen can have a dramatic influence on your relationship with your spouse. If you’re single though, you might have felt a bit left out…
So, today’s post is for you singles out there. Believe it or not, embarking on a journey to better fitness will not just benefit your physically, but bring you success in your search for a great mate. The heart of the issue lies in the following bit of wisdom, courtesy of a few wise old men I know: “to have a great marriage, don’t focus on finding the right person, focus on being the right person.”
It’s not you, it’s me
Most of us have experienced the converse of this firsthand from going about this in the wrong way. Maybe you’ve caught yourself complaining to your friends, “how come every girl I date is argumentative and emotional? Why can’t I find someone who’s kind and easygoing??” Here’s the shocker–the common thread in all your relationships is you! Perhaps there are things you are doing, attitudes you have, even criteria you use for selecting dates that are bringing you the results that you don’t like.
The way that a fitness regimen can benefit you in this situation is that it takes your eyes off others, and helps you focus on the things you can control–namely, yourself! As you progress in your fitness program, you’ll see tangible results: your pants fit better, you can lift heavier weight, your arms look more toned, and so on. Your disposition will improve from your body’s natural reaction to exercise, and you’ll feel good about the work your doing and the progress you’re making.
Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks
These internal changes tend to be more visible to others than we would imagine. After you’ve completed a tough lunchtime workout with a new record time, you’ll find yourself smiling at people you meet, genuinely interested in them and more patient with their shortcomings. It’s somewhat like how you feel after you’ve won a race, gotten a raise, or finished painting a house–you’re just feeling good, basking in the work you’ve done, and no little inconvenience is going to get in your way of enjoying this moment. That elated feeling can become part of your everyday schedule, especially when you adopt a strenuous program like ThriveFit and give it your all.
Living in this state of mind where you genuinely care about others and are patient with others’ shortcomings will take you a long way down the road to being the kind of person who attracts a quality mate. Not only that, but this pattern of bettering yourself can be used to refine other areas of your life as well. Perhaps you’ll make time to learn a new skill to improve your capabilities at work. Or, you’ll join a Bible study to improve your relationship with God. By making a dedicated consistent effort to improve yourself, then meeting your objectives with excellence, you’re growing your character and confidence. Not only will these changes naturally attract members of the opposite sex to you, but God tends to reward those who seek after Him and live as He instructs. So, as you take care of the body He gave you, seek Him in His Word, and learn to forgive and love as Christ did, He may just send your future spouse right across your path…
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Fitness and Your Disposition
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This post is second in a series of six articles on why you should care about fitness. We often don’t realize how investments in one aspect of life provide benefits not just in their own realm, but in many other areas of life as well.
Be Honest
Are you ever grumpy? Most of us would grudgingly answer this question in the affirmative. Even though we enjoy so many blessings, comforts, and advantages in our modern society, we all sometimes get upset and unpleasant.
One powerful tool in the battle against grumpiness is a consistent fitness regimen. In particular, a workout that involves moving heavy objects and barbells (the program we recommend here at TotalThriver) tends to take you from a state of irritability to a state of contentedness and confidence.
There are certainly many physiological reasons why moving heavy weights around or doing burpees makes you happier and more relaxed, but to make things simple, let’s just say it this way: workouts are satisfying! Sometimes, you have a rough morning. Nothing seems to go right. And on top of that, your coworker yells at you for not doing a task in the way he would have done it.
Use It
All this junk is your fuel for your workout. When you step up to the barbell, remember those frustrations you faced in the first part of your day. Focus your anger and frustration into the movement you are doing. Not only will the weight move more swiftly, but you will get a better challenge to your muscles and cardiovascular system. And now for the best part: when it’s all over, you won’t care about your morning frustrations anymore!
There’s something about overcoming a difficult physical challenge that melts away a grumpy attitude. Perhaps your coworker was rude and demanding in your morning meeting, but when you return from your workout, you don’t really care about it anymore. By moving your body through this fitness regimen, you’ve burned off your frustrations, and you can start the latter half of your day with a fresh and positive attitude.
The Bonus
And what do you think this does to your life at home with your spouse? If you’ve been married for any length of time, you know that a great many of the fights (and especially the big fights) have lots to do with the disposition of one or both spouses in the moments leading up to the battle. The husband got chewed out by his boss just before leaving work, and the mom was puked on by a sick kid just as dad rolls up the driveway. The smallest conflict between these two is likely to set off a firefight, and both spouses are apt to say things they’ll later regret. Why not take a step to diffuse this situation before it even starts? Take those derogatory comments from your boss with you to the gym, and pour your frustration into some heavy clean and jerks. The fruit that a good fitness regimen brings to your marriage is some of the sweetest you’ll find!
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The Effect of Fitness on Productivity
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This post is first in a series of six articles on why you should care about fitness. We often don’t realize how investments in one aspect of life provide benefits not just in their own realm, but in many other areas of life as well.
Adopting a fitness regimen will not only make you more fit, but will also affect your career, your marriage and other relationships, and your disposition. In this post, we’ll explore how fitness pays dividends in your productivity.
The enemy
Many of our jobs involve something quite harmful to the production of quality work and creative thinking–a desk chair. Study after study indicates that one of the most dangerous things we do in our daily lives is spending long periods of time sitting in a chair. Read here for more detail on the studies backing this claim.
Look at it this way–your body was made to move. God did not give you muscles, joints, a cardiovascular system and a digestive system so you could sit still all day. Your body is a machine designed for a purpose, and when you don’t engage your body’s systems properly, it doesn’t work properly.
The first step
The good news for those of us who’ve adopted poor fitness habits is that the body is incredibly adaptable. If you will start incorporating movement into your daily life, your body will adapt and get stronger and fitter in a remarkable way. One very simple way to get started is to find a coffee machine, water fountain, or any other excuse that’s a good distance from your desk. Make a habit of getting out of your chair and walking to your excuse of choice once every 1.5 hours or so. If you can walk up and down a flight of stairs along the way, that’s all the better.
The next step is to find 15-20 minutes a few times a week to start engaging your body in a more strenuous workout, pushing your limits and giving you big gain potential. Walking around the office is good for getting your blood moving and keeping your chair from killing you, but to truly engage your body’s systems and reap the productivity benefits, you’ll need something more challenging.
Where can your workout fit?
I’m blessed to have a small gym and shower facilities at my workplace, so I’m able to workout over lunch most days. This is ideal, as it really allows my body and brain to be kicked into high gear for the afternoon. It’s amazing how a morning that was quickly turning into drudgery and poor quality output can be turned around by a lunchtime workout. Even if you can’t make this happen at your job, can you get a workout in before you come in in the morning? Or ride your bicycle into work to get your body’s systems going before you boot up your computer? Use your creativity to find how a workout can fit into your day. Remember, our fitness philosophy here at TotalThriver revolves around short, high-intensity workouts with functional movements requiring little equipment, so there’s incredible flexibility in terms of where and when you can workout, and the time commitment is quite minimal.
In summary, we’re advocating a strategy of moving from your chair every few hours and working out as near to your work time as possible. The most dramatic evidence for just how effective this is at boosting productivity and creativity is available directly to you. Try this: ramp up over a period of a few weeks until you’re doing a challenging workout 4 out of 5 workdays per week. You will notice a dramatic difference in your capabilities when compared to where you were before you began the regimen. Also, you’ll notice that anytime you have to miss a workout (for a meeting, a sick kid, etc.) that you’re just not at your best on those days. It almost feels like someone stuck with you with a needle and is sapping energy out of you. Once you feel the new capacity that this fitness regimen gives you, you feel like you’ve been cheating yourself out of so much latent ability that you never knew you had.
Test the claim
The great part is, this new productivity and energy level that you get from the fitness regimen can be a great motivator for keeping with the program. On days that I miss a workout, I know that I’m not able to put forth my best on the work I’m doing, and I desire that workout tomorrow all the more. When I get back in the gym and pour my all into a hard workout, I get such a feeling of satisfaction and my body is so thankful to get it’s systems moving again. Best of all, when I head back to my office for the afternoon, I’m energized and refreshed, and my tasks are knocked out with quality, creativity, and excellence. If this sounds like the kind of productivity boost you’d like to add to your day, why not head over to the ThriveFit page and give workout #1 a try? You can test these claims for yourself and see the tangible benefit in a very short time. Be sure to ramp yourself up gradually into any new program to reduce injury likelihood and to keep you from falling off the bandwagon after a week and a half. Keep the workouts short, the form correct, and the intensity high!
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Why Train?
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Today, we’ll begin a series of articles on the topic of, “why is fitness valuable?” Here at TotalThriver, we’re always working to provide you tools for how to win in all areas of life, but sometimes it’s the why that is missing between you and the person you aspire to be.
Fitness is so important to thriving in life because it touches so many other areas, increasing your capabilities for success in those areas. In the coming days and weeks, we’ll look at how adopting a challenging physical regimen pays dividends in:
- your productivity
- your disposition and your marriage
- the search for your mate (singles)
- your finances and long-term health
- your appreciation of God’s glory
- your control of your habits
Each of the next six articles on our main page will search out and explain how success in the fitness realm will awake new thriving potential in these other areas. Join us in the journey to thriving in all aspects of your life, and be sure to check out our ThriveWealthy and ThriveFit tools to help you along the way.
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To get where you’ve never been, do what you’ve never done
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If you’re ever began a new fitness program, you’ve probably found great results (and the associated soreness ;)) in the first few weeks. The amount of weight you can lift jumps up and up. The time it takes you to run 400m drops by large margins. But after a few months, you seem to stall out. It can feel like you’re hitting a glass ceiling. Where you used to gain 30 pounds per week on your deadlift, you now strain to add 5. What’s going on??
To avoid these frustrating plateaus, it is essential that your fitness regimen be varied. As Arnold Schwarzenegger explains in Pumping Iron, “you have to keep zee muscles guessing!” If you repeat the same program week after week, your body will adapt to the stress, and what challenged you last week won’t stress your body this week. This is good in one sense, because it means that you’re making progress. But it’s bad if you don’t vary your program at this point. You’ll find yourself stalling out, leading you to frustration and tempting you to drop your fitness program altogether.
In order to provide you with the best long-term results, our ThriveFit program includes dynamic and varied programming. We use a plethora of different functional movements, training your whole body as an integrated system. This keeps your body perpetually “on its toes” so that your muscles are always adapting to new stresses–thereby avoiding plateaus and promoting a high rate of improvement.
As you progress through each workout posted in the ThriveFit section of the site, feel free to be creative with the exercises involved and rep and set schemes. And don’t forget to post those scores to build the ThriveFit community–as we compete with each other, everyone is motivated to push their limits and we all win!
ThriveWealthy
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What’s the thread?
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What’s TotalThriver.com all about? Perhaps you noticed last week the feature of the ThriveFit training program and took a moment to learn how an Olympic lift can help you get in great shape and look and feel better. Maybe you scrolled down to see the previous week’s post about eternity and what God has planned for His children. After that, you clicked the ThriveWealthy tab on the top menu and downloaded the free cashflow planning tool, including instructions for getting your finances in order. Are these topics related? What connects these seemingly unrelated ideas?
You’re not an ice-cube tray
The threads that connect these aspects of life are at the very core of our mission here at TotalThriver. A prevalent notion in our culture today is the idea that we exist as individuals with different compartments, which are separate and distinct from each other. For example, a man may delude himself by thinking, “Sure, I’m harsh and unsympathetic at work, and sometimes I take advantage of my employees, but that has nothing to do with my relationship with my wife and kids. Who I am at work is not who I am at home.”
Contrast this with the wisdom of God’s Word. In Proverbs 23, we read:
6 Do not eat the bread of a selfish man,
Or desire his delicacies;
7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is.
He says to you, “Eat and drink!”
But his heart is not with you.
This is a teaching given throughout the Bible–that the heart is where our behavior and actions originate. Similarly, Jesus said in Luke 6:45 that:
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
Address the real problem
All of us want to thrive in life–and particularly those of you who’ve come to this site to find tools and resources to do just that. But the first step in moving forward is to recognize that our “less than thriving” behaviors in the various aspects of our lives are rooted in our heart. The man who mistreats his employees has a heart problem. And this problem of the heart will manifest itself everywhere in his life.
To insist that poor behavior in one area in life has nothing to do with other areas of life is dangerous because it refuses to recognize the real connections within your own person. And without clear understanding of the cause of a problem, no true change can be made.
What are your “unseen connections?”
Take a moment to consider personally, “what aspects of my life have I been neglecting?” If your life is a wheel made up of five spokes (physical, financial, spiritual, relational, career), which spoke is deficient and giving you a wobbly wheel?
Try to seek out the connections between parts of life where you aren’t thriving and the negative effects that they produce in other areas of your life. Do you hate your job? Do you then come home angry and fight with your spouse? Or perhaps you’ve not exercised in months, and notice that you just don’t have the energy level to care for your family that you once did. By identifying the negative results that you most dislike and connecting them to their causes, you’ll find the motivation to make the investments of time and energy needed to thrive in one area, bringing success in both areas.
The bonus
That’s what’s so great about starting to understand how these areas relate–you improve the area that needs improvement, but you get a bonus in other areas. The clearest example of this is the area of fitness. When you spend time exercising your body properly, you’ll notice an improvement to your physique. But you get a bonus benefit in your work life, as you have better energy levels and can be more productive. And you’ll likely notice an improved relationship with your spouse, as your frustrations have been taken out on a barbell instead of your lover!
The connections between these areas of life are complex and seemingly infinite. Some, like the examples above, can be understood and generalized. Others are known by God alone. Yet as we understand more and more that our behavior and the results of our behavior stem from the heart, we work to thrive in each area to the satisfaction of ourselves and the glory of our Maker.
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Overcoming the Unexpected
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Most of us have been through the following story at some point in our lives: We resolve to “do better” with our money. That credit card company has taken advantage of us for the last time! We’re angry that we let ourselves get into such a vulnerable position and we’re angry that the credit card company hit us while we were down.
So, we get out the yellow pad or the computer spreadsheet and we get to work on a budget. We allocate our money carefully, taking our best estimate at what we’ll spend in the following month on groceries, gas, and utilities. Everything’s going fine until the 9th of the month…
On that day, two tires go flat on our usually-reliable family car. Your dentist sends you a second bill for the work done last month to resolve a clerical error. And your electricity bill is $30 higher than usual. What in the world is happening?!? Why is this all hitting at once???
Unfortunately, these unexpected things do seem to hit us just when we think we’re getting it all together. However, even though they seem like a string of improbable flukes, the root of the issue closer than the mechanic’s garage or the dentist’s office–the problem is us!
When we get used to living life without an advance financial plan (a budget), we quickly lose touch of what we really spend each month. Ask me before I started budgeting what I spent on groceries each month, and I would have said, “like $150 or so.” (reality = $400) Or ask me how much I spent on car repairs per year: “like $450 I think…” (reality = $60 per month)
The point is, our perception of reality is quite different than the truth of the situation, and we tend to underestimate how much we spend each month on these “unusual expenses.”
So be encouraged–you’re not alone when you’re hit by a “string of flukes,” in fact almost all of us have been there! If you’re starting (or restarting) budgeting for the first time, be generous with your grocery budget, and include $60 per month or more for car repairs. You may not need it in the first month, but soon you will, and having $180 sitting in your account waiting to be spent on car repairs makes that phone call from the mechanic a great deal less stressful!
If you haven’t yet downloaded the most recent version of ThriveWealthy, please spend a few minutes trying it out for yourself now. And as always, let us know of anything we can do to improve your experience at TotalThriver.com! Remember, we exist to help you Thrive!
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Planning for Unusual Expenses
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Last week, we discussed the importance of including unusual but predictable expenses in your budget. Items on this list include things like car repairs, home improvements, large gifts, or vacations. By allocating a fixed amount each month, these big expenses don’t have to catch us off guard. For example, my wife and I set aside $60 each month for car repairs, which has been plenty for the minor repairs and maintenance that our vehicles have required.
This brings up a small wrinkle in your budget, though, since you’ve allocated money to be spent on a certain day, but since you likely won’t have a $60 car repair this month, your account will be out of balance if you don’t correct for this.
Thankfully, this feature is built right into the ThriveWealthy advance cashflow planning program. If you’ve not downloaded a copy yet, be sure to head over to the ThriveWealthy page and download the latest version. Start budgeting next month’s income in the colored boxes, along with the dates your paychecks come.
Once you’ve entered your income and expenses in the appropriate categories, notice the orange box in the upper left part of the screen. This section is called, “pending expenses” in the example tab, and is used to balance your budget with your current bank balance. This section is also where you’ll keep track of your car repair fund, and any other “funds” for big items that you’re saving for.
Keeping with our example of $60 per month for car repairs, let’s say that we’ve reached the 15th of the month, which is the date we entered the car repair fund to be spent. But, since we’ve not needed any repairs or maintenance this month, that $60 is still sitting in our account. To ensure that the budget matches the actual bank balance (ascertained by logging into your bank’s website), we need to enter the $60 as a pending expense. Next to the value of $60 that we enter in the orange box, we need to title the expense as, “car repair fund.” The spreadsheet will automatically adjust the budgeted balance, and the “difference” value in cell C25 should drop to 0.
Next month, we’ll have the same thing happen, and assuming no car repairs are needed by the 15th of that month, we’ll follow the same procedure. On the 15th, we’ll replace the $60 value in the orange box with a value of $120, and so on and so on, month after month. Anytime money is spent at the auto repair shop, simply reduce the pending amount by the total amount spent. So, if on the 18th of that second month, you spent $20 on wiper blades, simply reduce the pending amount from $120 to $100.
Following this plan will bring you such a sense of peace–bring ahead of these unusual expenses instead of getting knocked down by them. Please enter any questions or clarifications you have in the comments section, and as always, remember that we’re here to help you thrive!
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Mortals Only
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
For those of you who aren’t invincible, today’s post will show you one vital practice for demonstrating your love to your family. It is important that we express our love and affection verbally, but oftentimes it is our actions that truly show our hearts.
First some bad news: you’re going to die. You knew that, right? Now, I can’t tell you when it will happen, but I will tell you one thing–that day is one day closer today than it was yesterday!
Of course we all think that our final day is way off in the future, and for many of us, it will be. The problem is that for some of us, that day will come quite soon, perhaps even before our kids are grown and our retirement portfolio is sufficiently large. We need some way to guard our loved ones from the compounding diffiulty of a parent’s premature death and an impossible financial situation.
Thankfully, generations ago, our forefathers instituted insurance programs to protect their families as well as future generations like us. Insurance companies collect premiums from large groups of people, most of whom do not die while the policy is in effect. But for those few who die in the prime of life, the revenue generated by everyone’s premiums is paid out to the family of the departed. And thanks to significantly improved technology and business models, today most healthy people can obtain this protection for next to nothing.
Between my wife and I, we have a 20-year term policy for close to $1,000,000 which cost us less than $40 per month. For less than what many people pay for cable, we are protecting our children and each other in the event that death comes sooner than we expect. Over the next 20 years, it is vital that we invest aggressively, building our portfolio to a large enough value that insurance is no longer needed.
For those who do not have the discipline to save an invest, insurance companies also offer “whole life” policies. Unlike term policies, these insurance products do not expire at a set date in the future. Rather, they are a policy that you plan to pay into for the rest of your life. In addition to the insurance coverage built into these plans, they also have a savings account inside. So instead of paying the $40 like in our example, you might pay several hundred per month. Some of the extra money you pay goes into a savings account that you own, which grows over time.
Many people like the whole life policies because they have a built-in way of forcing you to save money. However, these products often carry significant fees and underperform compared with a good mutual fund or a 401k. Therefore, it is our recommendation that you purchase a sizeable (say $500,000 for an average person) term policy on a 20 or 30 year term. Plan to invest at least 8% of your income into a 401k or Roth IRA during that time, so that at the end of the term you will have become self-insured and will no longer need life insurance.
Taking these few simple steps is the difference between leaving your family vulnerable and destitute or loved and financially secure. Make the time today to investigate rates at a few different companies before purchasing, and rest confidently knowing that your family is being loved well.
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But I’m special….
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Ask five of your friends if it’s important to have money saved for an emergency, and you’ll likely get five affermative answers. Now ask the same five friends if they have such an account, and you’ll probably get some resounding no’s.
Yeah, what do they know?!
We’ve all heard from financial experts over and over again how important it is to have an emergency fund. “Three to six months expenses in a savings account or a money market account,” they say, and we think to ourselves, “yeah, that sounds like a good idea…” But look at our accounts in a month or two and nothing has changed. What’s the problem?
For one thing, saving for emergencies isn’t too exciting. It’s much more fun to spend a few hundred dollers on a weekend getaway, new set of clothes, or a night out with friends that to put money into an account for “future unexpected expenses.” Some of us also balk at the thought of earning a measley 1% interest in a money maket account when we could easily average 10% in the stock market. Emergency funds aren’t slick, cool, or sophisticated, so we’re tempted to consider them optional.
The problem is, that unexpected things do tend to happen, and on a long enough timeline, they’ll happen to all of us. Just think about this for a minute: do you know anyone who has been laid off from a job? Or someone who’s gotten hurt or sick and required hospitalization? Do you think that person expected those things to happen to them?
Knowledge gained vs. knowledge applied
Of course, we all know people in these situations, and we understand intellectually that having money saved is very important in such times. The problem is, we just don’t connect it to our lives. We assimilate the knowledge in our heads, but our hands never carry out any action to create change. We delude ourselves into believing the lie, “that won’t ever happen to me, I’m special!”
While every TotalThriver reader is special to me, you don’t have any unnatural abilities to avoid emergencies. In the next several years, you’ll very likely encounter a layoff, sickness, injury, or family situation where a fully-funded savings account will be of great value. Like our discussion regarding insurance, these financial foundations are often not appreciated until they’re needed. And by that time, it’s too late to prepare.
A choice today affects life tomorrow
Those who succeed with life and money are those who understand the long-term consequences of decisions they make each day. They realize that the decision they make today to forgo a trip to the beach to save money for an emergency will pay them dividends in the future when their house gets flooded and they have money to pay for a hotel room.
Will you apply these concepts to your life? Will you commit to eliminating one fun thing from your expenditures this month, and put that money toward an emergency fund? If you will set a goal that includes a total amount to be saved along with a timeline to meet that goal, you’re well on your way to financial security. Not only that, but you’ll have put into practice the habit of acquiring knowledge and applying it toward long-term success, an ability that will bring prosperity and peace to many other aspects of your life as well.
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Wandering into Trouble
By admin
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Attributed to: admin
I’ve enjoyed many hiking and camping trips since I was a young child. Walking through the forest, listening to the sounds of wildlife and seeing the sun gleaming through the trees, I’ve had a chance to appreciate the beauty and creativity of our Father’s world. Occasionally, my hikes have become extended for a bit longer than I was planning on, due to an underestimation of how long a climb might take or a casual disregard for things like maps and compasses….
Oblivious to the Peril
The funny thing about getting lost is that you don’t realize you’re about to get yourself in trouble until you suddenly realize that you are in trouble! On a certain camping trip with a buddy of mine in Arizona, we hiked out into the desert loaded with many gallons of water. We found a good site, set our provisions down, and trotted off in search of a good “sitting log” to place beside the firepit. We found a good one a short while later, and began carrying it back to our campsite. At first, we thought it was pretty funny that our campsite was taking so long to get to. “Strange how it only took us 10 minutes to find this log, but we’re taking 20 minutes to carry it back,” we laughed. Slowly we realized that we were actually lost, and we’d been walking for so long because we didn’t know where we’d left our jackets and water!
A few hours later, tired and thirsty, we found our campsite as the sun finally set. This set us up for a cold night (the coldest night of my life, in fact), since we’d wasted our afternoon and now had only a half-built shelter. But we were thankful at least for the jackets and water that we had nearly lost.
This story is an example of how we can be walking along unaware, and suddenly find ourselves in an overwhelming situation. We were too confident that we wouldn’t get lost, and by the time we recognized our precarious position, it was too late.
Common Financial Dangers
In a similar way, we can tend to be very blasé with debt in America today. We look around at our friends and neighbors, and many of them have student loans. Everyone’s got a mortgage, and some debt on their cars. And of course we’ve all got to have our credit cards! But even though we all know that people get trapped and pulled under by debt, we mistakenly think that this can never happen to us.
Confident of our ability to keep our debt in control, we walk right along the edge of a financial cliff. We buy a nice big house, great new cars, and a brand new living room set—all on payments. At the end of the month, we’ve got $25 leftover after all the credit payments are made, and we think, “All right! Everything’s going great!” But then comes something unexpected, and all of a sudden we’re $175 under instead. No big deal, we think, “I’ll just pay the minimum credit card payment this month, then get everything cleaned up next month.” But again, something unexpected comes, and now the balance we carried last month is compounding on us. On and on it goes, and the debt pulls us down deeper and deeper.
Recognize the Trap
This story has sadly happened to too many people who are able to escape only through a long and painful bankruptcy. If you’re fighting this now, know this: many have overcome this situation through wise money management, hard work, and tenacity. If you’re still dabbling with debt and don’t think this could ever happen to you, think again. Banks are not evil, but they are concerned with making money, not ensuring that you keep your head above water. Knowing what you can afford and what you cannot is your responsibility, and you owe it to your family and to God to manage the money He’s given you wisely.
The most reliable way to make sure that you can afford something is to simply buy only with cash (or debit cards/checks). The one exception might be a mortgage on a 15-year fixed rate with the monthly payment of 25% of your take-home pay, which can be a reasonable debt, provided that you have a substantial down payment. And some financial experts would contend that there are a few other “reasonably safe” debts as well, but use these very carefully. It is much easier to lose your way than you think. Decide instead to take control of your financial life by eliminating debt and paying with cash. The confidence and freedom that come with becoming debt-free will serve you well on your path to a thriving life.
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Mortals Only — Part II
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Several weeks ago, we shared the shocking news that yes, even TotalThriver members will one day face their mortality. Since death is one day closer today than it was yesterday, we highlighted the importance of getting good life insurance in place.
Today, we’ll explore another aspect of financial planning related to caring for your loved ones after you are gone: estate planning.
I’ll get to it tomorrow…..
Though not always the most glamorous or delightful topic, getting a will in place is a vital part of any good financial plan. Even though we all know that death will catch us some day, we seem to be in denial that that day is actually coming. According to a recent survey conducted by findlaw.com, nearly 60% of American adults do not have a will (http://commonlaw.findlaw.com/2008/06/findlaw-survey.html)
Obviously, getting your will in order doesn’t benefit you–you’ve got to be dead to use it! But it does provide great benefit to your family and other loved ones. Some people think that drafting a will for themself is unnecessary, because, “of course, everyone knows that I’d want to leave everything to _______.” The problem is that the one person who makes the call–the judge–doesn’t know you! So, the only way to make sure that your antique rifle collection goes to your son and not your crazy old hunting buddy is to write down your wishes. Otherwise, your son may have to spend thousands of dollars in court fighting for what’s rightfully his.
Get it done right
The best option for getting a will done properly is to consult with a local attorney who specializes in estate planning. If you live in the Omaha area, I can personally recommend Lynne Timmerman Fees, an experienced professional with great qualifications. Find out more about her practice here.
Although hiring a professional is the only way to be assured that your will is done properly, sometimes using generic forms can be a cheaper alternative. Places like uslegalforms.com can be a good stepping-stone for recent grads or families struggling financially who need to get a will in place but can’t afford an attorney right now. Of course, if this is you, just keep following us at TotalThriver and we’ll have you in a strong financial position in no time!
Demonstrate your love
In closing, although estate planning is not particularly glamorous, it is an essential part of your financial life. To ignore the fact that you need a will is to do a disservice to your loved ones, and create legal battles for your money and property in the months and years following your death. Won’t you take these steps today to love your family well? The small investment of time and money you’ll make today will pay large dividends when they’re needed most.
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Your Habits Are Showing
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
What’s one thing that will produce dramatic results in your life, for good or for ill? Habits. Today, we’ll explore why habits are so powerful and what you can do to take advantage of an amazing source of power within your own life.
Your Stomach Has Habits
For our purposes, we’ll define a habit as something you do consistently, with little or no conscious effort or decision-making. One simple example that illustrates this point is a habit most all of us have: eating breakfast. When you wake up in the morning, how much time do you spend thinking about whether or not you’ll have breakfast? If you’re like me, none. I may spend a minute thinking about what I’ll have for breakfast, but I never deliberate on whether or not to eat it–I’m hungry and breakfast will be eaten!
Other examples of habits may include listening to a certain radio station on the way to work in the morning, visiting the vending machine at 2:30 each afternoon, or taking your spouse our for dinner one Friday each month.
So what does this have to do with finding incredible power and effectiveness on your path to thriving? The secret lies in the cumulative force of months and years of positive habits. One clear example of this power is shown by bodybuilders, strength trainers, runners, and Olympians. Look at an athlete who engages in one of these activities and experiences success. What did they look like last week? Last month? Last year?
The answer is that they made it to where they are currently via steady progress. Like the stream of water that eroded a large rock, these athletes made gains one day at a time. They ate right and hit the gym while everyone else was pigging out and goofing off, and now they sit at the head of the pack as a result.
Winning in Your Life
You don’t have to have the fire of an Olympian to benefit from this concept. Just take this principle and apply it to whatever area of your life where you desire dramatic improvement. If you want to be a great dad, but have thusfar been lacking, decide today to spend 30 minutes every day on improving. This could mean helping your daughter color for 30 minutes, going for a bike ride with your son, or reading a book on parenting. The point is, it’s got to be a habit. 30 minutes, every day [or 5 days a week, at very least].
Perhaps you’re dissatisfied with your financial life–you know you should be doing a budget but you just can’t stick with it. The answer is habit. Block out a set time each week to spend time on your finances. During this time (say Monday nights from 7-8), balance your budget, pay your bills, set and track your goals, or read a good book on personal finance.
The First Step
As in our example, your physical fitness is a great area to test this idea and see real and dramatic results within a relatively short period of time. If you don’t currently have a fitness regimen, try this: put your workout clothes on every day, starting today. I don’t even care if you work out at first–just put your workout clothes on, every day. Once they’re on, how about doing a few jumping jacks? Get your heart moving, even if just for 5 minutes. Then, carry on with your evening as normal, you’re done for the day. Tomorrow, get the workout clothes on again. Try some pushups or squats, or maybe one of the workouts posted in the ThriveFit section of the site. But do something, and keep it up, every day.
If you’ll do this, committing to doing something every single day, you’ll look up a month from now and notice huge gains in your fitness level. You’re getting there one day at a time, just like Olympians do.
Habits for Eternity
Finally, consider your spiritual life. Do you have any habits that will feed your soul? Do you attend a church with gospel-centered preaching where the Word is shared each week? Do you seek the Lord in prayer, or read the Bible to commune with Him? If not, you are missing profound wisdom, comfort, love and hope from the Father who loves you more than anyone else. Will you begin today by seeking Him in prayer?
By adopting these habitual practices–spending time working on an area of your life where you desire improvement–you will gradually begin thriving, with success building on success. The next thing you know, you’ll be standing on the mountain heralding to others that they can get there too. All they’ll is a little encouragement and a few good habits!
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Seeds of Success
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
When you decide to pursue success in an area of your life that needs improvement, you’ll face many large obstacles standing in your way. Perhaps the greatest challenge of any new journey on the path toward thriving is keeping your resolve when the results you want aren’t coming.
Typically, the first few weeks of a new fitness regimen will be filled with excitement, enthusiasm, and passion. But by week 3, all you are is tired, frustrated, and wondering if it’s all worth the trouble. You have the testimony of those who’ve gone before you that this program will make you look better, feel better, and help you thrive in all areas of life, but that’s not what you’re experiencing right now and there’s a strong temptation to give up.
In these times, I find it helpful to take a moment and consider my position. First, have I done the things that my mentors have recommended? In the case of a fitness regimen, am I doing the workouts as prescribed? Or, do I skip the parts I don’t like, or not give my full effort?
If I am doing what I’m supposed to, yet still not experiencing the success I expected, I’ll do well to step back and reconsider whether my expectations were reasonable. Oftentimes, the instant success I imagine on day one is simply incongruent with reality. Growth takes time, and as long as you are moving in the direction of success each day, you’ll get there in time.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I find it helpful to remember a poignant example from nature—the simple vegetable garden. I keep a small garden in my back yard, planting seeds around mid-April. To date, I have spent many hours tilling the soil, measuring and planting rows of seeds, watering, fertilizing, and weeding. For all this time and effort, done skillfully and with the help of experienced experts, I have harvested nothing but one bowl of salad. A green pepper grows on one plant, and tiny tomato flowers have sprouted, but I have tasted nothing but a few leaves of lettuce.
As in my garden, many great things in life require hours and hours of effort, guidance from good mentors, and time. If I will take this view on new ventures I pursue, I will be able to resist the discouragement that comes in the early days of hard work and few results. The effort I put into my venture today may not produce results today, but as I grow and God grants me His blessings, they may just turn into delicious fruit tomorrow.
On this point, here’s a curious fact from my garden story: the lettuce I’ve harvested this year did not come from my efforts this year—I didn’t plant any lettuce this year! Rather, this plant sprung up of its own accord near the spot that I had planted last year! When I tilled the soil and planted those seeds in April 2011, little did I know that I’d be satisfied by that produce in May 2012! Perhaps the seeds you’re planting today will surprise you in the future at just how great a harvest they’ll bring!
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Invest or Save
By admin
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Attributed to: admin
In today’s post, we’ll explore the important distinction between saving and investing — two terms that, though often erroneously used interchangeably, must be treated in distinctly different ways on your path toward a thriving life.
Be Prepared for the Unexpected
Saving ought to be done first — and for a specific purpose. As we’ve discussed previously, one of the first milestones you need to hit as you pursue the thriving life is to save a full emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses. The emergency fund is not an investment; rather, it exists to protect you from the unexpected expenses that will most certainly come your way.
Great places to keep an emergency fund include savings accounts and money market accounts (fnbodirect.com is a great place to get started). Though the interest you’ll typically earn on such accounts is quite low, they provide a few important benefits that you need for emergency savings. First, your principle is protected. This means that your value won’t go down in times of economic recession. This is important because oftentimes unexpected drains on your cash will come during times of economic hardship nationwide. With your savings in an account at a bank or in a money market account, you can rest assured that the $10k that you put in will be there when you need it.
Make Your Money Make Money
On the other hand, an investment ought to involve significant growth. While a savings account is earning less than one percent, a good investment should earn in the neighborhood of ten percent. But here’s the catch: that 10% rarely comes linearly. Unlike a savings account which will return 0.5% per year, every year, an investment may earn 5% one year, 30% the next, and -15% the year after that. The returns are a function of the market you’re invested in (e.g., the stock market or the housing market), so you never know how the investment will do in a given year. But, you can look at history to draw reasonable conclusions at what the investment should do long term.
Exhibit A
Take for example a mutual fund we’re quite fond of here at totalthriver.com: Fidelity Contrafund. This fund is primarily comprised of stocks of large U.S. companies such as Google, McDonald’s, and Coca-Cola. The following chart shows the return for each of the last four years:
| 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
| 19.78 | -37.16 | 29.23 | 16.93 |
As you can see, 2010 was a great year for this investment, and 2009 was a lousy one. Of course if you knew that ahead of time you could make a killing! But since none of us have such knowledge of the future, we must simply follow the averages. This fund in particular has averaged 15% per year over the past 3 years, and 8% per year over the past 15 years.
Time Horizon is Important
Because even good investments like this one can fluctuate violently, most financial experts only recommend investing when you plan to leave the money alone for five years or more. Generally, this is a long enough period to ride out the turbulent ups and downs of the market, and give yourself a high probability of making money with your investment. For short-term savings (e.g. for a newer car or living room set), you’re usually better off to take the guaranteed 0.5% of your money market than risk losing 20% of your money should the market take a bad turn one year.
Make It Happen
In closing, it’s very important to recognize the difference between saving and investing. As you make progress toward your financial goals, you’ll need to be very intentional with which of the two you’re doing. Will you be using the money in the next two years? Open a money market. Will you be leaving the money alone for the next five years? An account with scottrade.com or a visit to your local financial advisor (see the “investing ELP” section at DaveRamsey.com) are great places to start. And as always, be sure to check back at TotalThriver for help along the way!
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What’s Important to You?
By admin
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Attributed to: admin
What would you think if I told you that you have two sets of priorities? Or that you have two sets of values? Perhaps you will deny it—“of course not! I know what’s important to me, and my values are clearly sorted in my mind.” Maybe so, if you’re like many people, your bank statement will demonstrate quite a disparity between the list of priorities in your head and the true priorities according to which you spend your money.
Your Treasure and Your Heart
Jesus taught this principle quite clearly in Matthew 6:21 when he said, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” For example, if I look at my bank statements and notice that I spend 5% of my household income on golf in an average month, this demonstrates that golf is important to me. Conversely, if I say, “international missions are very important to me,” yet none of my money is given to support international missions, I’ve demonstrated that my imagined priorities are quite different than my actual priorities. Your treasure will go to that which your heart values.
An Eye-Opening Experience
Now, if you’re anything like me, the first time you sit down to look at where your treasure went, you will be very disappointed with yourself. I remember the day, years ago, when I sat down to start getting my finances in order. I first developed an imaginary budget, allocating something like 2% of my salary to entertainment. This made my budget work out very well, apportioning a solid sum of money towards saving and paying off debt, which I thought were high priorities to me (my imagined priorities). Then, I looked at the previous month’s bank statement. To my chagrin, I found that my actions demonstrated a high priority of enjoying activities with friends and buying drinks at the bar. Instead of working toward a place of financial strength, I placed high value on having fun with money now.
If you find yourself in a place like I did—with “real” priorities rather far from the ideal you imagine, take heart, for change is quite within your reach. Start by creating your budget for next month, using your bank statement as a template. Then, adjust down slightly the categories that you think are too high (entertainment, in my case) and increase other more desirable categories by the same amount. The trick is to not go “scorched earth” in your first month. If you try to reduce entertainment from 5% of your budget to 1% on the first try, you’ll be tempted to “forget the whole thing” a few weeks from now. Instead, focus on incremental progress, one month at a time.
Some Practical Steps
Herein lies the beauty of a zero-based budget. Before the month begins, spend all the income you expect to receive on all the categories of expenses that you will have. Allocate every dollar to the appropriate category, then get several blank envelopes. Write the category name on each envelope, and withdraw the appropriate amount from the bank after each paycheck is deposited. Now, if you will restrain yourself to only spend from your envelopes, you have no choice but to follow your budgetted plan.
Staying Flexible
When something unexpected comes, as it always seems to, you may have to go back to your budget mid-month and reallocate. This is perfectly acceptable, so long as you reduce one category by the amount that’s needed in another category. Just make sure to do this with all your numbers in front of you, so as not to start the month with 2% allocated to clothing and find at the end of the month that you gradually ratcheted up to 7% by not paying attention.
All in all, this practice of advance cashflow planning is a great tool for spending your money on things that are truly important. The sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that comes with switching expenses which bring you little value for those that you truly care about is magnificent, and will serve you well on your path toward the thriving life.
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Controlling the Little Kid Inside
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Any time you turn on the TV, open a magazine, or walk down the street, you’ll find a plethora of advertisements for incredible products that you can’t live without. While many of these products may well be amazing, if you lose control of yourself and let the little kid inside take over, you can end up with a home filled with some cool stuff and retirement and savings accounts filled only with IOUs. Perhaps worse than that, you’ll find that your resources were unintentionally spent on things you value little, and those priorities that you want to value highly go wanting. Today we’ll dive into the topic of prudent spending and offer a few suggestions on how to enjoy some of the nicer things in life now, while preserving your future and tempering buying with wisdom.
I Need a New One!
One of the starkest examples I’m aware of that illustrates this danger dramatically is the following story. A man owns an older car that he had purchased years ago and maintained well. One day, as he’s tuning through presets on his car’s radio, one of the buttons pops off. “Well, I can get by with only four presets,” he thinks. No big deal. A few days later, while setting his coffee cup in its usual place, he hears a loud “Crunch!” as the well-worn plastic cup holder finally gives way. A week after that, he notices that his brakes start squeaking, and then grinding.
“That’s it, he exclaims, “I’m getting a new car!” And off he goes to trade his $2,000 car in for a $15,000 brand new one, for which he’ll take out a loan. Normally our man would know better than to do such a thing, since he’d read the TotalThriver post on the value of saving for large purchases. But, he let that information drift far from his mind in this moment of weakness since, even though he didn’t have the money saved up yet, he HAD to do this because it was an “emergency.”
Upselling Yourself
Before we’re too hard on our reckless friend, we should recognize how easy it is to let yourself begin down this road, and then justify a higher and higher purchase price, ignoring the fact that you don’t have the money for any of this. Our man did have a real problem. His car radio, cup holder, and brakes all needed to be repaired. Let’s even imagine that in this case, the total repair bill would have been high enough that putting such a large sum into an old car wouldn’t have been wise. In this case, what our friend should have done was sold the car as-is. Perhaps it would only bring $1500 because of the defects that he left unrepaired. But here’s where our man went awry: He thought to himself, (as we have all done one time or another), “well, since I’m getting another car anyway, I might as well get a nicer one while I’m at it…” Though this isn’t necessarily a terrible sentiment, problems come when things go too far out of proportion.
A more prudent decision for our friend to would have been to spend $800 or so from his savings account to put with the $1500 that he received from the sale of the old car in order to purchase a $2300 vehicle. Notice that this is an upgrade from the car he had before, and should definitely include functioning cup holders, a radio, and brakes. Though a $2300 car isn’t as fun to drive as a $15,000 one, our man would have solved his problem while staying out of debt, thereby preserving his options. By avoiding entering into a loan agreement, he will have more of his income available to replenish his emergency fund, and then begin his car savings fund.
I’ll Bet You Like Options
This brings us to the more pleasant side of the coin—enjoying the good things in life in a prudent way. According to the revised plan outlined above, our friend is on the path toward a better car, without the risk and bondage of the debt that came with the “new car today option.” As he saves the money month by month, he can evaluate how important a premium car is to him. He lives, as most of us do, with some limit on his available cash. Because we have these limits, we must decide which things are most important to us, and conversely, which areas we will tolerate a lower-quality product. What we often don’t realize is that when we sign up for a $15,000 loan on a new car, we’ve just locked ourselves into a high-quality vehicle and low-quality everything else—potentially even very important things like a future home, retirement savings, kids college, and many other aspects of our lifestyle.
The point is that by having the cash saved up, you have multiple options. You can think about what areas you desire a quality product, and what areas you’ll tolerate something lesser. Perhaps you want a really nice car and don’t care about eating at restaurants or buying expensive gifts for others. Or perhaps you don’t mind driving an old car but you’ve got to have a new iPad and an unlimited data package. For you ThirveFit members, perhaps your priority is high-quality weight equipment, supplements, and nutritional products, and you’ll put up with a five-year-old computer and TV without complaint. Whatever your combination is, the important thing is that you find out who you are—what’s important to you—and then make sure to limit your big purchases in lower-priority areas. Though this sounds obvious when put this way, it is so easy to find ourselves “ponying-up” for a great ______, (car, tv, washing machine, computer) when we can’t really afford it, and then later regretting having so much money tied up in that item. The point isn’t that you can’t have nice things; it’s that we all must be vigilant to resist the “kid in the candy store” mentality ruling our every purchase. We are wise to remember that money saved on a purchase today is money we’ll have available for those things we truly value.*
*Incidentally, this could be another purchase, or something even more valuable like giving to others or supporting spreading the Gospel. But we’ll save that topic for another day!
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Who Shapes Your Mood?
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Someone is controlling the experiences you have, the feelings you experience, and the ways you react to your circumstances. Where can I find this person, you ask? You need only look in your bathroom mirror.
No Slave to Circumstances
The importance of a positive attitude in shaping one’s experience is often underestimated, but truly successful people everywhere understand and adopt the philosophy of looking positively on life. We tend to think that our moods are largely driven by our circumstances—and it is true that some events can have a drastic impact on us in the moment—but most of the things life throws at us can be taken in stride. These everyday ups and down that we so often allow to control us can be overcome by taking the following two actions.
Tend Your Garden Well
First, plant good things in your brain. This is the long-term strategy to getting you in the place where a “negative” experience can’t dampen your day. Recognize that your mind is in many ways similar to a garden. The people you choose to associate with, the books you read, the TV shows you watch, the music you listen to, and the church you attend are all seeds that you plant in the garden of your mind. As these messages are positive, helpful, and uplifting, you plant seeads in your mind that help you react positively to experiences you later face. As these messages are angry, sarcastic, or demeaning, you plant seeds in your mind which will cause you to react negatively. The latter seeds manifest in statements like, “that will never work,” we can’t ever get ahead,” and “it’s just not worth the effort.”
Start Off Right
Secondly, have a great morning. Don’t try to have a great morning; have one! Every day. What is your current habit first thing when you wake up? If it’s anything other than, “praise God for creating another great day!” change it. If you don’t believe me that this makes a difference, you need only give it a try tomorrow. Make a decision tonight to wake up tomorrow happy and thankful. Then, when your alarm rings, follow through on the decision you’ve already made. Have a good breakfast, spend 10 minutes reading Psalms, and see if the rest of your day is better than normal. Don’t fight the smiles that come your way tomorrow, and notice how those around you react to the positive person they meet in your office.
But It’s Too Easy!
Too simple, you say? Maybe so, but it is the practice of people who have the kind I lives that I want. And if you want to live an abundant life, all you need do is follow their lead. Enjoy the happy disposition on your way to the top! 🙂
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It Won’t Happen to Me
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Nobody likes getting sick, having their house burn down, or dying in a car crash. Unfortunately, these things happen every day to a single group of people: people who didn’t think it would happen to them today! Today’s post deals with the important and too-often neglected topic of insurance. What kinds do I need? Which types of insurance are superfluous? What should my philosophy on insurance be? We’ll answer those and more as we unpack how insurance in its various forms can be a great blessing to our lives.
We’re all in this together
At its most basic level, insurance is the banding together of a large group of people to create a fund which pays the expenses of a few of the people when disastrous circumstances hit. You’re not very likely to need open-heart surgery next week, but someone near you will. We just don’t know who!
In this context, insurance is a wonderful blessing because it offers protection for unusual events beyond our control. While you likely couldn’t afford the $300,000 medical bill for diagnosis, surgery, and treatment for heart disease, you can afford a few hundred dollars a month in insurance premiums. All these premiums from a large number of people go into a big pot of money to be used to pay the expenses of the few members who contract a serious medical condition.
When to buy, when to pass
Given that understanding of what insurance is and how it works, what should be our insurance philosophy? Should we buy every kind of insurance that is offered? Or if we shouldn’t, how should we differentiate between the vital and the superfluous?
Generally, I believe it is the wisest course to insure yourself against any event that is reasonably likely to occur and would have disastrous financial consequences. In this statement, you’ll notice two inexact terms: “reasonably likely” and “disastrous consequences.” You’ll have to apply these for yourself in your specific situation, but let’s take a look at a few examples to illustrate the idea.
An expensive lapse of judgment
When you buy a car and head out on the road, there are multiple potential disasters that can occur. You could neglect to stop at a red light and demolish a $45,000 truck, along with your own vehicle. Or worse yet, perhaps you injure the drivers or passengers, creating a stream of medical bills. So, is this insurance worth having? First, is it reasonably likely to occur? Certainly! Driving is one of the most dangerous things most of us do in our daily lives. Second, could it have disastrous financial consequences? Yes again. This one is a no-brainer: car insurance is vital.
I never get sick
Some people think they can get by without health insurance. They feel healthy and think that it’ll be cheaper to just pay for minor medical expenses out of pocket. While this plan can temporarily provide relief to the budget, ultimately it is playing with fire. You set yourself up to erase years of hard work, saving, and investing in a moment. A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with cancer, having no insurance, and he now has medical bills approaching half a million dollars. Another man I know recently broke his thumb in two places, and is facing the possibility of needing surgery—which will cost more money than he has. In both cases, these men thought they were healthy and could go without health insurance. Unfortunately, none of us will stay well forever.
As with car insurance, it is strikingly evident that a health issue can be financially disastrous and has a reasonable likelihood of occurring. Even if you can’t or don’t want to pay the premiums for an expensive plan, you must at least get a basic policy that will limit your exposure in the case of a major health problem. High-deductible insurance plans are a good fit in this case—you generally pay for minor services yourself, but your maximum out-of-pocket might fall somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000. Obviously, this would still cause financial difficulty to most families, but it would at least be survivable.
Avoid death by a thousand cuts
Finally, let’s look at an example that doesn’t pass the test. Many electronics stores offer insurance for computers, TVs, or other big-ticket items. These tend to be quite profitable for the electronics store, and consequently a bad deal for you. These types of insurance fail the “financially disastrous” test. If your TV were to break after the manufacturer’s standard warranty has expired, you’d be without a TV. Guess what? Plenty of people survive without a TV! If you’re managing and saving your money well (as taught by the ThriveWealthy system), you’ll be able to save and pay cash for a new set quickly anyway. And by avoiding paying extra for unnecessary insurance policies in other areas (pet insurance, laundry machine insurance, insurance providing you with a rental car when yours is involved in an accident), you’ll have more money available to save for that new TV quicker!
So, when it comes to insurance, it’s important to recognize events that are reasonably likely to occur and would have disastrous financial consequences. For these events, it is absolutely vital that you carry insurance with appropriate limits. Insurance policies that fail this test are superfluous and you’ll be better off to save or invest that money instead. And enjoy the comfort and security that goes with knowing that you are protected from financial disaster and are being a good steward of your resources.
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The Secret to Riches
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Ever wish you could get a hefty raise? Want to enjoy some of the finer things in life as you climb to the top? Read on to find the secret to advancement and wealth that many don’t know and even fewer practice.
Work harder than everyone around you.
Too Simple?
After reading such simple advice, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “yeah right! I work hard and I never get promoted! The way I see it, I’m stuck being paid basically what my salary is now, so I may as well coast through the day as best I can to at least enjoy myself a little.” Don’t let this lie get you—instead, follow the sage advice of Scripture:
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24)
Good Work, Not More Work
Note that the verse says “with all your heart.” We should not misconstrue hard work with excessive time spent at the office, rather, there should be a focus on productivity and enthusiasm, behaving as if you were doing work personally for a king, not just a client or a boss.
This kind of excellence in your work will get you rewarded. It may take time, and it may not be from within your current company or industry, but as God promises, He will see to your reward. Not only this, but there is a very practical benefit that comes with pouring yourself into the work at hand and doing your very best: you learn things. As you accomplish work in one week that your neighbor would streach out to two, you’ve effectively gained one week of experience over him. You are more seasoned and capable, and as this pattern continues over time, you’ll become the “go-to guy” in many areas of your business. Your neighbor thought he was getting a better deal by taking the same salary as you while doing less work, but long-term, he’s actually been cheating himself.
Don’t Believe It?
As usual, I challenge you to test these claims in your everyday life. While this is a simple and easily-understood principle, a person who’ll put it in practice is quite a rarity in today’s workplace. Besides, you’ve got nothing to lose but inexperience and a low salary!
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You Need a Smaller Vocabulary
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Do you know why you only achieve small victories in your life? Why you may hope or wish for a grand success, but make only meager progress? Why you’ve always dreamed of making a big impact on the world but can’t seem to turn those dreams into reality? The answer is in your vocabulary. You see, you’re letting the word, “impossible” spoil your mind.
But Don’t Jump Off a Building
Don’t misunderstand—there are certain rules of the world we live in which are not to be toyed with; gravity for instance. I’m not saying that you can fly if you just start with a great mental attitude. But I am saying that we are all apt to grossly underestimate our capabilities. When we make up our mind that our dream cannot be done, we have ensured that it will not.
Garbage In, Garbage Out
Your mind is an incredible and powerful machine, and in many ways it is programmed by what you pour into it. When you repeat to yourself that a certain goal or dream is impossible, your mind goes to work to find all the ways that the thing is impossible. If you surround yourself with negative programming (most TV shows) and negative people, you’re programming your mind to bring you failure. On the other hand, if you toss the word, “impossible” out of your vocabulary, you do the opposite—you begin programming your mind to find the ways to achieve the goal you’ve set before it.
A Lesson from the Master
When your goals are in line with God’s plan and you’re programming your mind to seek ways to fulfill your vision, you are in a wonderful place indeed. I believe that this is the concept which Jesus was teaching in this passage in Matthew 17:
14When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, 15“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16“I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” 17And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.
19Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” 20And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.
Trying Hard Isn’t Enough
Jesus tells the disciples that their lack of faith was the root cause of their inability. Although it appears that the disciples were trying hard to drive out the demon, nevertheless they failed because they did not believe. In order to succeed in that which is difficult, we must first choose to believe that that which we seek is possible. Once we can see the goal clearly and accept that we will be able to reach it, our minds can go to work figuring out how to make it happen. Oftentimes, God will give us ideas along the way that lead us in the right direction. And finally, we must use our minds, passion, and resources to take action toward reaching the goal.
Ok, I Get It
A simple concept, huh? As with most things, this idea is not difficult to understand. Yet, how hard it is to practice! It is a great challenge to believe a thing possible when circumstances seem to indicate otherwise, and all one’s loser friends surround the idea with negativity and discouragement. But of how sweet the reward is for those who will believe their dreams and take action to achieve them.
How about you? What do you dream of becoming or achieving? Are you handicapping yourself by repeating, “it’s impossible,” whenever the dream pops back into your mind? Release yourself from the self-imposed bondage and take action today toward the goal set before you. You have nothing to lose but mediocrity!
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Have You Any Excuses?
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
One of my major missions is to spend time around people who are living well. I want to be around people who inspire me, who are succeeding in areas of life I’ve yet to master, and who thrive in all aspects of their lives. When I meet and talk to people like this, I always notice that they’re all lacking one thing: excuses.
Obstacles yes, excuses no
What’s even more significant than their lack of excuses is the fact that in many cases, they had huge obstacles in their way when they began, and often at many points along the way. Sometimes, they’re facing a trial currently, but somehow still succeed despite it.
What I’ve realized is that these men and women are not exempt from the difficulties that you and I face from day to day; rather, they have adopted the attitude of an overcomer. Instead of trying to accomplish things, and then giving up when it gets hard, these people just keep working. They’ll try one idea to improve their life (health, marriage, career, etc.), and if that idea didn’t work, they’ll seek another solution. Whatever roadblocks come up are seen by them as temporary—just problems to be solved.
Don’t Be Normal
During the time when normal people, who have given up after the first few tries didn’t work, are loudly broadcasting all their excuses for why they couldn’t win, overcomers are still working. They know what they want, they’re willing to reach out to mentors for advice, and above all they keep trying until they attain the result they set out for.
What area of your life do you desire new success in? Will you be willing to take on the attitude of an overcomer and pursue a thriving life? The resources to reach your potential are all at your fingertips, and the only question that remains is what you will do!
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Check Your Heart
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
We often discuss the habits and principles for becoming wealthy here at TotalThriver. But if we pursue financial gain with the wrong heart, we are setting ourselves up for disaster. Today we’ll examine the Master’s teachings on wealth, and learn from him the proper attitudes and perspective.
In Luke 12, we read:
13Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
The Man’s Heart
I love how Jesus always sees us for what we are. The man in this story asks what might seem to us to be a legitimate question. He wants Jesus to instruct his brother to give him half of his father’s estate. Notice how Jesus goes straight to the heart of this issue: “be on your guard against covetousness.”
The man’s request had little to do estate planning or arbitration and everything to do with his jealousy toward the possessions of his brother. Not only is this a violation of the tenth commandment, but the man has the audacity to imply wrongdoing on the part of his brother. No doubt this did not foster a good relationship between the man and his brother.
Looking out for Number One
Jesus explains the foolishness of pursing wealth with the wrong heart in His usual way: through a parable. The man in the parable had an abundance of wealth, but instead of being thankful to God and praising Him, using the resources to glorify God and help others, the man is solely concerned with his personal comfort. He plans how he will use his resources to bless himself, and unlike wealthy and righteous Job, does not use his riches for the glory and worship of God.
Too late, the man in the parable realizes how temporal worldly riches are. He had the opportunity to use his money to expand the kingdom of God, thereby storing up treasure in heaven. But instead, he sought wealth only for himself and his own security and comfort.
What About You?
Are you like either of these men? Does your heart hold jealousy toward others who have greater riches than you? Do you desire that some of their money be taken from them and given to you? Or, are you like the man in the parable, focused on what you can get for yourself, and indifferent about the kingdom of God and the ways that your money can be used for His glory?
Father God, help us to resist the lies that the world teaches on the value and use of money. Let us seek financial gain honestly, and use it for your purposes and your purposes alone. By your grace, may it be so in my heart and each one who reads these words.
Categories
Need a Lift?
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Do you ever get discouraged? Most of us can get excited about a new opportunity when we first hear of it (especially if we’re not yet too jaded!) But what do you do when the initial fire wears off and you come face to face with difficulties, discouragement, and obstacles?
When You Need a Friend….
In times when you’re struggling, don’t you just wish that a warm, kind friend would seek you out, give you an encouraging word and a thoughtful, sincere compliment? What if I told you that you could be assured this pick-me-up anytime you desired it? Would you be interested?
…Be One!
Here’s how you get the vital encouragement you need to pick yourself up when times get tough: encourage others. No, I don’t mean that you should encourage friends and neighbors today, in hopes that they’ll reciprocate in the days to come (although that may also happen). Instead, I’m encouraging you to seek out someone to pay a compliment to because that action will actually encourage you as much, if not more, than it does them.
Building, Building, Building Others Up
The reason why this works falls into the large category of things I don’t quite understand. I don’t know why it brings us such great encouragement when we encourage others—I only know very simply and clearly that it does. Incidentally, this idea is something we parents always teach our kids; however, like so many simple concepts that fill children’s books, we adults never seem to practice them!
Be the Leader
If your environment is anything like the workplaces and neighborhoods that most of us live in, the practice of an unsolicited and sincere compliment will be somewhat foreign to you. It is difficult to start a healthy habit when it’s not modeled for you, but then again, readers of TotalThriver are trailblazers anyway, right??? Thankfully, this practice is one that’s relatively easy to start—people really do appreciate compliments, whether they’re your colleague, boss, or just someone you occasionally pass by.
A Win-Win Situation
Make your compliment specific, genuine, and personal. When you notice a job well done, a positive attitude, or a bright idea, take a moment to share your delight. Whether it’s something small or a significant victory, both you and the recipient of your compliment will leave the encounter happier, more positive, and energized for success. Consider your fire rekindled!
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Treat Her Like a Lady
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Although you should treat your wife or girlfriend like a lady, that’s not what today’s post is about. 🙂 Instead, since winter weather is coming fast, we’ll be identifying some of the most important things you’ll want to do to prepare your vehicle for the cold days ahead. By taking the time and effort to address these items before they become issues, you’ll save time, energy, frustration, and quite a bit of money!
The most important things to check are the:
- Fluids (coolant, oil, windshield washer fluid, etc.)
- Battery
- Tires
- Wipers
The Liquids
First, test and inspect your coolant and battery. Test your coolant with a hygrometer if you do not already know it to be good, and make sure all the other fluids are clean and full, or serviced if not.
Holding Your Electricity
A healthy battery is as important as the cooling system: one is like the skin, the other like blood. You can take and have your battery tested to be sure, but be careful, as you know there are plenty of places that would try to sell you a new one to replace your perfectly good old one. In general, you battery should be ok if all the following conditions are met:
- It’s less than 3 years old
- It looks good
- not swollen (sides pushing out)
- not leaking acid
- not growing cauliflower on the terminals
- it turns the engine over well after sitting overnight in the cold
If possible, it’s best to perform a load test on your battery, but if you can’t, these parameters should be a good rule of thumb.
Good Contact with the Pavement, Seeing the Road
Beyond that, a good pair of wiper blades, ensuring the tires are roadworthy (proper psi, tread depth) and a basic vehicle inspection are all any car really needs to survive the winter and its driving conditions. In my experience, there’s no such thing as too much maintenance, and your vehicle will thank you for it!
Be Prepared for the Worst
And finally, you need an emergency kit if you don’t already carry one–it’s always a good idea, and especially so if you’re traveling with kids. Make sure your kit includes:
- jumper cables
- flares or warning triangles
- blanket or sleeping bag
- a warm hat and gloves
- flashlight/lantern
- first aid kit
Stay safe out there this winter, and make it a priority to get these things taken care of now, before it gets cold. Your family and your pocketbook will thank you!
Categories
Get Money, Don’t Let Money Get You
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Most of us spend the majority of our waking hours in pursuit of one thing: money. Even though money isn’t the only reason we go to work each day, for most people it’s the main reason. Though money can get a bad rap sometimes (in particular from those who misquote the Bible as saying that money is the root of all evil), spending the day working to acquire it is not a bad thing. In fact, if you’re like me and you enjoy eating and having a warm bed to sleep in at night, it’s quite a wonderful thing. But, money makes for a cruel Master, and we must be sure to take certain steps to keep the money we seek from getting us.
What the Good Book Says
The quote I mentioned earlier that people often get wrong is from 1 Timothy 6:10: “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” Similarly, Jesus taught in Matthew 6:24 that, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
A Matter of Priorities
These scriptures, as well as many others throughout the Bible show clearly that money itself isn’t bad, but the way we spend our money tends to reveal where our allegiance lies. If we are like Christ, our chief desire will be to love and worship God, and money will be a tool or servant under our watch, to be used to glorify God and spread His Gospel. Conversely, if we seek our own desires first, we will tend to use God as a means toward the end of having more and being more comfortable. As the wise teacher Hank Haanegraaf says, “instead of loving the Master (Jesus), we only want what is on the Master’s table.”
Fix Your Heart
So, given the understanding that we all tend toward selfishness and are tempted within our own hearts to pursue wealth for the wrong reasons, what can we do to keep money from getting us? The answer is simple: give. All throughout history, God has taught His people to give to Him first. Though many think that this practice is simply a pragmatic way to fund the church, in fact this has more to do with meeting a need you have than meeting a need the church has. Here’s why: God owns everything. He doesn’t need your money to accomplish His purpose.
Live as You Were Meant To
But what you need is a way to keep your heart from pride, greed, and self-centeredness. Giving accomplishes this wonderfully, and also comes with the side effects of joy and peace. When you take the first $100 of your $1,000 paycheck and give it to God, it speaks very clearly to your heart: “I’m not the most important thing in my life.” By giving, you recognize that you are simply the manager of God’s money, to use it in accordance with His purposes, and really, what better investment is there?
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Who’s Programming You?
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
We are all given a limited amount of time in this life, and we all want to make the most of it. But how intentional are we about who we spend our time with? For good or for ill, the people we spend the lion’s share of our time with will impact who we become. Are your associations building you into the type of person you want to be?
Anyone Bringing You Down?
It’s been said that your income will be the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. I contend that often your habits, worldview, and maybe even your physique will also tend to mirror that of the people you let into the moments and hours of your life. If you’re a part of a group of successful people, over time you’ll tend to build yourself into a successful person too. If you hang around with losers, you’re well on your way to becoming one.
Observe the Words
A good way to distinguish successful people whom you’ll want to model from the kind of people who’ll bring you down is to listen to what they’re predominantly talking about. Are they more positive and encouraging? Or do they spend a good deal of time speaking about others negatively? Is their conversation about future goals they have, and the means they’re planning to accomplish those goals? Or are there frequent diatribes of blame: I’d be better off but for what so and so did; If I weren’t so unlucky, I wouldn’t have all these problems. A person who you want shaping your character will be speaking positively about future events more than he’ll be speaking negatively about past ones.
Avoid Pride
One quick disclaimer before you think I recommend sitting in your own personal ivory tower looking down on all the poor untouchables down there: there is a distinction between choosing to be part of a toxic circle of friends and spending time with people in order to evangelize, mentor, or disciple them. The former is hazardous to your future, the latter is vital. Only make sure that you’re spending enough time with strong leaders that you are strong enough yourself to influence a weaker group, rather than being influenced by it.
Can I Do That?
But where can I find a group of strong and godly leaders? Why would they want to hang out with me? I have two answers to this point—a short term and a long term answer. First, you already know a few winners, and I think if you’ll spend a few moments considering it, you can think of few high-quality people in your life who’d answer your phone call. Start there. As you intentionally work on those relationships, you’ll be exposed to other winners naturally, and better than that, you’ll actually start to see and recognize the qualities of good leaders in those around you. And one great thing about strong, godly, successful leaders is that they absolutely love to help people like you who are looking to grow themselves!
Own Your Time
Limit your time around negative people. Particularly if your core group is of this sort, you’ll have a hard time keeping your distance, but you must gradually ramp down the time and replace it with time with positive role models. If your negative group is family, you’ve got an even more challenging task. But you must do it—for your good and ultimately theirs. Get strong enough over time by being with winners that you’re capable of being around the weaker group and influencing those people positively. And finally, recognize that you can create boundaries with people—even if those boundaries make people mad. In fact, if your boundary makes a person mad, they’ve just identified themselves as the kind of person that you definitely need to set boundaries with! A winner will respect others’ boundaries, and even if he feels slighted, he’ll approach you in a gentle and respectful manner, because that’s how winners behave.
Simple, Not Easy
Today’s lesson can be a tough one to live, particularly if the discussion of “toxic groups” brings the names of a few close friends to mind. But just as the flight staff tells you to put your own oxygen mask on before helping your child, the best way to help your negative friends is to become a real leader yourself. We’re here for you along the way, as is our Father in heaven. Follow Him first and you’ll never be last.
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Keys to Leadership and Success
By admin
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Attributed to: admin
Last weekend, I had the incredible opportunity to attend a Leadership Team Development (LTD) business conference in Louisville, Kentucky. My team and I had the chance to learn leadership and success principles from some of the best in our industry. For your benefit, I’ve summarized some of our major takeaways from the weekend in the following article. If you’re interested in how you can join this amazing team and have access to great conferences and leaders like these while you create an additional income stream for yourself, feel free to comment on this post or leave a message on our ThriveMart page. We’d love to be a part of your journey to the top!
Common Denominators
My single biggest takeaway from the weekend came from a presentation of the five common denominators of every successful business owner. The general idea was that even though different people build their businesses differently, they all generally do the following five things consistently.
Harmony
In my mind’s eye, I pictured business as an engine. If you take action on these five things consistently, your engine stays in step with itself–in harmony. But if not, the time and energy you spend on one cylinder gets for the most part wasted when one of your other cylinders isn’t firing properly. I believe that a lack of knowledge of this principle has been one thing that has held our business back from realizing its full potential up to this point. When I first got into business for myself, I thought, “This is great—I get to be my own boss and set my own schedule” and I think I translated that into, “I need only do the things I find fun; I can avoid the uncomfortable things.” In reality, the proper way to build a business is to set the time commitment you’re willing to make, and work on each of the five things consistently during the time you’ve made available.
Ok, enough commentary, here are the five things:
- Consistent sales: Be sure that you’re using your products personally promoting their benefits to existing and potential customers.
- Read and listen: Become a collector of great business books and audio recordings of the best and brightest leaders of today and yesterday. Incidentally, Zig Ziglar is probably my favorite person to read and listen to. Make sure you get at least a few hours of reading and at least a few hours of listening each week.
- Lead others: Share your business with others who have interest in joining your team. Once you understand how to do something, you can help another person learn it. Multiply yourself by training others to learn and do those things which made you successful.
- Spend time around successful people: Get around the people who have what you want and are doing what you want to be doing as often as possible. Attend informal gatherings, team meetings, and conferences as often as they are available. Make the decision to consistently attend beforehand and work the other demands on your schedule around your business. (Note: never lose sight of your priorities: God, family, then business. But work your schedule in advance in order to attend these important opportunities for instruction and encouragement)
- Communicate with your team: Call, email, and text your mentors as well as those whom you are mentoring. Good communication increases accountability and helps mentees learn from your actions.
Don’t Stop Short
A final picture of this idea goes like this. Assuming a soda costs $1, what do you get if you put 95 cents into the machine? Nothing. You spent all that effort getting the money in, but because you didn’t get all the way to the full dollar, you end up getting nothing. Neglecting one of the five areas is like leaving off the last five cents. Don’t leave your effort in the soda machine or run your car on 3 cylinders: translate these concepts into your life and get going on your journey to the top!
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Get Your Money’s Worth
By admin
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Thinking of making a big purchase soon? How can you get the best deal and have a great time, simultaneously? Today we’ll explore a few best practices for buying big ticket items like a car or a new appliance, to ensure that your dollars work as hard for you as you worked to earn them! 🙂
Use Your Own Money
The first step to any big purchase is saving up the money! Obvious as this sounds, it is a rather uncommon practice today. Many retailers make big money selling financing, and therefore market it heavily. They don’t usually have a tough sell either, since by nature we tend to want the nice things now, and patience isn’t usually too fun! But if you will slow down and consider it, I think you’ll realize that by nature debt reduces your options and inhibits your freedom. There’s a reason that it feels so good to pay cash for things, and this is what wise and wealthy people do. In fact, it’s habits like these that typically made the wealthy wealthy in the first place! For more on that, check out “The Millionaire Next Door,” a great, fact-based book that will likely surprise you in more ways than one!
Narrow the Field
Once you’ve saved the money, your next step will be to determine what models and features are available to you in that price range. If you’re looking at a car, for example, you can use resources like Craigslist and kbb.com to identify particular year/model/mileage combinations that are in the right range.
Taste and Sample!
Now comes the fun part—go looking! Seek out at least three stores or individuals offering the model or models that you’re looking at. Try out the features, and hone down your short list of models to the one you like best. As you begin to settle on the particular item that’s best for you, take note of any optional features or upgrades. In many cases, buying a higher-end model with extra features can offer more long-term value, but this is very dependent on what you’re buying. (A quick aside, I’ve become convinced over the years that spending a little extra on leather seats for a vehicle is money very well spent! Particularly if you have kids…
Fit and Price
After looking at the model you like at a few places, you’ll start to have a feel for what a good deal is. Resist the urge to get in a hurry and instead remain calm as you seek for the ideal fit. Once you’ve found a good price on your item, let the owner or salesman know that you’re thinking this item is a good fit. I used to think that feigning disinterest in an item was a good way to get the seller to come down on price, but have learned from experience that this doesn’t work. Instead, make the sales process into two steps. First, decide if the item meets your needs/desires. Once you’re convinced it does, let the seller know, but then go right into the price negotiation. So, you might say something like, “This electric stove seems to be just what we’re looking for. The price, however, does seem a little high. How flexible are you on that figure?” This is a useful tactic because it lets the seller know that there’s only one thing stopping you from buying the item: price.
Have Fun and Be Creative
Now for the next fun part—price ping pong! Let the seller make an offer, then counter with a lower one, have a good time (without insulting anyone). Somewhere along the line, you’ll want to pull out your envelope of cash and start rifling through it. I don’t care who you are—a stack of hundreds makes your eyes get bigger and your heart beat faster, and you can use this method to stir the seller into accepting a lower price. If you’re starting to get close, a fun way to end the negotiation goes something like this: “I’ll tell you what, I’ve got $4,700 right here. Say the word and it’s yours.”
Sometimes, your man won’t be willing to come down as far as you’d like. Don’t fall in love with a particular item and keep your walking away power—there are plenty other deals out there for you. Or, if the price is still a bit higher that you’d like, but the particular item seems worth the extra, it’s ok to pay a little more than absolute bottom dollar. Just have fun, keep your head, and enjoy the process!
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Set the Right Goals, and Don’t Forget to Execute!
By admin
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Believe it or not, we’re coming up on the second quarter of 2013—have you set your goals yet? If you had set goals for 2013, are you progressing toward them? If you’re like many people, you may have let these aspirations move to the back burner. Today we’ll look at whether these goals should move to the front burner or off the stove completely. For those that do belong on your front burner, how can you keep your focus on them and ensure that they’re reached?
What’s the Problem?
There are a few major reasons why a goal you set early in the year will fade into the background after a few weeks or months. One reason could be that the goal was not something you truly want or value. Sometimes it can be difficult to really drill down to the things we really want. In fact, focusing on ourselves only can result in blurry vision. Instead, recognize that your Creator God made you in a particular way; individually and different than anyone else. What strengths and passions has He placed in you, and what purpose does He want to use you to accomplish?
Translate the Long Term to What to Do Today
Another common reason that we discard our goals relates to lack of detailed planning and accountability. Instead of setting general goals and stopping there, translate your goals into weekly activities and execute them consistently.
Seven Key Areas
The following six-step process provides a simple overview of how to set the right goals and adopt the habits that will lead you to reach them. Use these steps as guidelines to build a specific process that works for you. This method can be applied to reach success in any area of life, and we recommend using it for eack of the following areas:
• Career
• Fitness
• Personal Development
• Spiritual
• Family
• Financial
• Social
The six steps toward setting and executing worthwhile goals are as follows:
Step 1 – Figure out what you want. Peace? Financial security? Influence? Travel? Strong relationships? Missions? Taking care of family? Be specific. What would your life look like if you inherited $200 million today and also learned that you have only 5 years to live?
Step 2 – Find people who have what you want and listen to them; protect your mind from people [who don’t have what you want] who want to give you advice. Does your brother-in-law have financial success? If not, don’t take his financial advice.
Step 3 – Based on what you want (step 1) develop big, 5-yr goals. Figure out the goals you’ll need to hit this year to reach these big goals. Then, figure out the goals you’ll need to hit this month to hit the annual goals.
Step 4 – Plan out daily activities that will lead you to your monthly goals. Work with an experienced mentor [from step 2] to insure you choose the right activities.
Step 5 – Put your daily activities into your calendar, and stick to your calendar
Step 6 – Forget about the goals and focus on executing this day’s activities. Report how you did to your mentor. If you completed today’s activities, be happy with that.
Focus on things you can control—your activity. Focusing on results instead of activities you can control can be frustrating. Use your mentor to determine the right activities, do them consistently, and results will come.
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Leading Takes Listening
By admin
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I used to think that leaders were the ones with all the answers—the smartest ones in the room. While it takes intelligence to lead a team, I’m learning that great leaders do something you might not expect, and they do it exceptionally well.
You may think that you’re the smartest person in the room—and you might even be right. But if you’re unwilling to listen to the people around you, you will dramatically hamper your effectiveness as a leader. Leaders listen, both for ideas and in order to influence those they lead.
Listen for Ideas
Even if you are a genius, you don’t have a monopoly on good ideas. The beauty of this world God made is that things work best when people work together. Jesus used the example of the body to describe His bride, the church. An eye has a different function and role than an ear, just as a foot can be used more effectively accomplish some things than can an eyelash. Here’s the takeaway—you may be an excellent hand, but no matter how great a hand you are, there’s no way you can hear a noise—only ears can do that. Recognize your strengths but be willing to seek feedback and ideas from the people around you.
Listen for Influence
Do you look others in the eyes when they speak? Do you really listen to what they’re saying? If you do these things, you’ve certainly noticed how few other people do this. When you do little things like make eye contact, adopt a welcoming posture (no arms crossed, no hands in pockets), ask questions, and use the name of the person you’re talking to often, you will be amazed how people will open up to you. In doing this, they demonstrate their trust in you. And to be trusted means to have influence. Make the effort to truly listen and care about the person you’re talking to, and you’ll be amazed how they will want to hear from you. Humility, respect, and trustworthiness—things that we know belong to good leaders, but the question is, will you exemplify them today?
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Making a Plan That Lasts
By admin
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Why make a plan for your money? Isn’t it more fun to just grab what you want whenever you want it?
Growing Up
Living your financial life with the foresight of a 3rd grader may be fun in the moment, but to have what you want next week and next month, a longer term vision is required. Problem is, even when people become convinced of the value of budgeting to their peace and financial freedom, their first attempt to make a budget sets them up for failure.
Make it Today, and For Today
If you’re like most people, the first time you sit down to work up a budget for the coming month, you try to create a generic, one-size-fits-all budget that will represent all future months. You’re planning for the perfect month from heaven, problem is, that month never really happens here in the real world!
The key in building a successful cashflow plan is to spend this month’s income on this month’s expenses. Some expenses will be nice and consistent, such as your house payment or water bill. But if you make your budget too generic, it won’t work in real life, and you’ll be tempted to just give up money management altogether.
Get Started
Today’s always the perfect time to start planning your budget for the coming month. If you haven’t tried the latest version of ThriveWealthy, click the tab above to find the page and download the tool. Read over the instructions briefly, then start entering your expected paycheck amounts and dates. Allocate how you’ll spend all of next month’s income in the different categories provided, changing category names as needed to make the budget fit your life.
Enlist Our Help!
Don’t be discouraged when things come up and you have to revisit your allocations several times throughout the month. As you continue to plan your spending before the money is spent, you’ll improve at predicting your actual expenses, and you’ll also notice that your money will start to be spent on those things that are important to you–with less “falling through the cracks” or getting spent on things that don’t really matter to you. Feel free to post successes, hardships, or questions to the comments section below; we’re all in this together, and we are all here to help each other thrive!
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Driving Blindfolded, Looking in the Rear-view Mirror, or Looking Ahead
By admin
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What would you think of a person who drove his 2013 Corvette convertible around while wearing a blindfold. How about someone who kept his eyes glued to the rearview mirror as he blazed down the highway? Would you think that person is nuts? Would you consider that person dangerous? Would you be surprised if I told you this is exactly the way most people operate a major aspect of their life?
The illustration above is the way many people operate their finances. Ask 10 of your friends and neighbors if they keep a budget and you’re likely find few who do so. Of those who keep a budget, many do not truly have a budget (forward looking) so much as they have a spending tracker (backward looking). You would never drive a vehicle this way, so why would you operate your finances this way?
Not that fun?
Ok, few people are delighted to sit down with a spreadsheet and map out their spending for the month. Even fewer people like to say no to themselves and restrict their spending on superfluous items. But, if you will give advance cashflow planning (budgeting) a chance, I promise that the rewards will be worth the small investment of time, and you may just save yourself from careening off the road!
Having Financial Agility
When you’re sitting down with all the information in front of you, you’re more apt to see roadblocks and curves in the road ahead. You can look at your home improvement fund or your vacation fund and get a gauge foe whether it’s on track for the upcoming expenses. This lead time allows you to respond to financial challenges earlier: for example, skipping meals out for a few weeks early in the month so you can afford to buy new tires for your car when they’re needed later in the month.
Taking Control
Rather than creating unpleasant restrictions, a budget like that recommended in our ThriveFit page actually makes your life easier and more hassle-free. While your friends are busy worrying and hand-wringing about how they’ll pay for the medical bill they didn’t plan for, you’ll be peacefully executing your spending plan for the month. Although planning ahead doesn’t create more money for you from thin air, when you get your spending under your control, it often feels like you’ve gotten a raise. Anyway, what do you have to lose? If you hate the feeling of being in control and looking in front of you instead of behind, you can always go back to the chaos method….
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To Whom Do You Go?
By admin
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Can you think of a time when you faced a tough decision and were unsure of the proper course? When posed with two different options and can only choose one, how do you sort out the best way to go? I believe that the first step is to recognize the value in seeking council. This is natural, isn’t it? To tell people around what’s going on in your life in order to hear their perspective? But all too often, I think we apply this good principle of seeking council in a way that may actually hinder us.
What to Do?
Let’s take a common and tangible example of a difficult decision. Imagine that you own and drive a car that is near the end of its life and not worth too much. One morning when you attempt to start the car, you get some scary noises and a whole lot of white smoke. Later that day you get the call from your mechanic: you need a between $800 and $1,500 of work done. Now, you’re not sure that your car is worth much more than $2,500 once it’s all fixed, and you’re not sure if it’s worth it to pay for the repairs or not.
Seeking Feedback
What would you do in this situation? If you’re like most people, you’d probably tell your car story to the nearest 10 people who’ll listen. Invariably, many of these people will offer advice, and certainly it will be well intentioned. If you’re thinking of the principle mentioned above, that gaining the perspective of others can be valuable in making decisions, you’re probably happy to get all the feedback. But there’s one key issue we’ve skipped over that makes the difference between the advice you get yielding you a good situation or a problem on top of your problem.
Qualifications test
The key is the determination of adviser qualification. Or, put more simply, does the person offering advice know what he’s talking about? Take a basic idea like the following for instance. Taking financial advice from broke people is unwise. Think about that for a second. Now try this one: taking marriage advice from a person with an unhealthy marriage is unwise. Seriously, think about it!
Now, while this may seem so simple and obvious, it’s been my experience (personally, I assure you, as well as by watching others do this) that we often fail to apply such a basic filter before giving people’s suggestions credibility. Our car repair example above is quite a common case of this illogical behavior. One will ask everyone around him what to do about the car, and he’ll hear many people say, “oh, just trade it in and get a new car! You’ll save the money on repairs, and paying a little interest is no big deal. In fact, have you considered a lease? Then you could have a really cool car right now!” All too often, we’ll not only accept these ideas, but will actually factor them into our decision making process and let them influence our choice. But what is the financial position of the advisers here? Do they own their own cars? Do they have an effective budgeting system in place and are they on track for retirement? Often, No! They do not!
To Become a Winner, Follow Winners
So, here’s the bottom line. Does the person offering advice have what I want? If it’s financial advice I’m seeking, do they have a financial life that I’d like to have? If it’s spiritual advice, so they have the walk with the Lord that I want? If it’s fitness and nutrition advice, do they have the physique and energy levels I want? Run your advisers through this simple filter first, and you’ve avoid many behaviors that lead to the terrible place called average.
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Learning Something New
By admin
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Are you growing? Not in height, but in your capabilities, your character, your walk with God? Here’s one way to check: how often lately have you been frustrated, overwhelmed, and uncomfortable?
Yes Benefits, No Discomfort
It’s a little funny sometimes how we always want to have the capability, the strength, the skill, but we avoid the exact things it takes to develop those parts into us. I’ve heard it said that the place where success resides is outside your comfort zone. I think that describes it pretty well. Have you been there lately?
I’ve been learning what some may think is an odd skill lately, and even though it might not be the most important capability in the world, the experience has been very enlightening. You probably can’t tell, but this article is being written with a different keyboard than usual. It’s called the Dvorak keyboard layout, and I encourage you to Google it and learn more about what makes it worth learning.
But keyboards aren’t what we’re talking about: we’re talking about learning. And it’s what I learned about learning that can encourage and propel you to success in what’s important to you. What I learned is this:
Embrace the Stages
Learning involves progressing through four distinct stages. Only if you persist through the hard times, the times that make you want to quit, will you get to experience the benefits on the other side. If there’s only one thing you hear from this entire article, let it be this: you must persist. When all seems most hopeless, you must hang on—you are so close to a breakthrough!
The four stages of learning are these: enthusiastic beginner, frustrated learner, capable but lacking confidence, and master. When I first learned of the Dvorak keyboard layout, I got really excited! I jumped into an online lesson and flew through it happily. This enthusiasm lasted a few days…
By the next week I had a few of the letters down, but by no means enough to type at a decent pace. I used the backspace key like nobody’s business, and it seemed typing three sentences would take me all day. It was at this point that the thought of giving up entered my mind. To make matters worse, I told a few friends about what I was doing and how it could benefit them. Rather than getting excited like I did, they told me that this was a waste of time and not worth the effort. This was the low point of my Dvorak experience, and only my commitment to learning and growing helped me hold on.
Don’t Give Up!
I’m happy to report that as I persisted, I began to improve and the new style of typing became more and more fun. Better than that, I began to see some of the lessons I’m describing for you here, and that made me even happier that I stuck with it! I still have some room to grow before I become a master Dvorak typist, but I’m at a strong pace and am moving forward—taking the lessons I’ve learned and applying them to growth in the areas that matter most. Will you get out of your comfort zone this week and start learning something new? Let us know what it is by registering (which is free of course) and posting a comment below! Thanks for including us on your path to a thriving life!
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Is Success Once Success?
By admin
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One day, a little boy decided he wanted to learn to ride a bike. He found his dad and asked him all about how bicycles worked. His dad told him all about the history of bicycles, the parts that make up a bicycle, and the technique required to ride one.
Victory! Or Is It?
The boy and his dad began working diligently on learning to ride the bike. As the boy practiced, he gradually improved, until one afternoon, his dad released his grip on the back of the seat and the boy rode under his own power for a full block. Happy and proud, both man and son returned home and parked the bike in the garage. The bike stayed in it’s spot in the garage all night. The next day, the bike also stayed in its place. So too the third day, fourth day, and fifth day. In fact, the bike stayed put for weeks, followed by months, and then years. The boy never again took the bike out for a ride, though he walked past it nearly every day. Now the question: did this boy learn to ride a bike?
Technically, the boy learned all about the bike. And once, he did manage to ride it a ways. But did he benefit? Did anyone benefit?
Assimilate It
You see, you and I are often like that foolish boy. We undertake a worthy venture, like eating healthier, beginning a fitness regimen, or connecting with God in Scripture and prayer, but we fail to continue and create a permanent habit. In so doing, we miss out on the benefit of the venture, just as the boy missed out on the joys and benefits of bicycling around his neighborhood.
Today’s the Day!
Can you think of something you know you should be doing, something perhaps that you’ve even successfully done on occasion, but that you’ve never gotten consistent with? What benefits would you enjoy if you made this behavior a permanent habit in your life? It could be that the only thing separating you from the greater level of success or achievement that you desire is the simple consistent application of something you already know how to do! Will you take the steps today to make a new habit for your own success? Make a commitment, let someone know about it, and enjoy your journey to the top!
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Does Money Drive Your Decisions?
By admin
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Have you ever heard someone quote from the Bible that, “money is the root of all evil?” Does God really oppose riches and want His children to avoid nice homes, cars, and other physical possessions? Is it wrong to seek financial freedom and success?
To start off, let’s check the accuracy of that biblical quote.
1 Timothy 6
7For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. 8If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. 9But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Money is Paper
Does this passage teach that money is bad? Is money the root of all evil? No. Rather, it is the love of money that is a root of all sorts of evil. Loving anything more than we love God is idolatry, and to do so violates what Christ said was the greatest commandment: to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. As the passage above teaches, many foolish men have wandered away from God in the pursuit of their greatest love: money.
So, if loving money is a danger we must be careful to avoid, should we seek to keep our income low and not bother to learn sound financial principles and habits? Some have misquoted and misunderstood Scripture in asserting such ideas, only to find that this foolishness has the opposite effect than what was intended.
Money on Your Mind
Which man spends more time thinking about money, the one who earns plenty and has a large savings account or the one who earns little and lives paycheck to paycheck? All else equal, who places more value on a $100 bill, a man who’s in debt up to his ears or a man who has a $1 million net worth? A rich man may be miserly or generous, and a poor man may love God or love money, but in general the following applies: those with plenty of money make fewer decisions based on money than do those who have little.
How Then Shall We Live?
So, what does this mean for us—the majority between poverty and affluence? How should we live in light of these truths? I see two major lessons: First, always check your heart that you’re loving God more than money (or anything else for that matter). Whether you count yourself rich or not, your heart can be led astray after money, so guard yourself and always see money as a means to serving God, not the other way around. Lesson number two is this: act wisely now in order that your decisions need not revolve around money later. Dave Ramsey says in this way: Live now like no one else so that later, you can live like no one else.
Don’t Be the Joneses
It’s a hard thing to do, saying no to fun trips, activities, and purchases just because “we don’t have the money.” What makes it even harder is that it’s so easy to borrow money on a credit card or finance a big purchase, and this is exactly what our neighbors do. But, if you will make the hard decisions and say no today, the money you save and invest will grow and compound, and one day you’ll reach the position of financial strength and freedom where money no longer drives your decisions. We’ll look forward to seeing you there!
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What Are You Pouring In?
By admin
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In my garden out back of our house, I planted tomato, pepper, and squash plants this spring. I did not plant only a single seed of each, but many seeds of each type. What would you think of me if I say I am disappointed today that I have no apple trees, cactus plants, or strawberries growing? Would you think me foolish? What if I went further to say that I am frustrated that so many tomato, pepper, and squash plants are growing? Surely then you’d think me strange, right?
What Are You Growing
While we might think this sort of behavior foolish, we tend quite often to act this way when it comes to what we plant in ourselves. We desire to have good things happen to us, to have a life full or rich relationships and success, but how can these things grow if they haven’t been planted? Take this past week for example: how much time did you spend around positive, excited winners? Did you learn things directly from leaders or mentors of yours by listening to their wisdom as they poured their experience into you? If not, how can you expect the plants of success to grow? There are no seeds to even start with!
Conversely, how much time in the past week have you spent letting negative messages pour into your head? Have you listened to others around you complain about things they don’t like or blame others for the situations they find themselves in? Have you spent many hours letting the TV be your teacher? Are the shows than you watch filled with positive messages of overcoming difficulty through persistence and teamwork, or are they overly-sexualized sitcoms that display selfishness, destruction, or belittling others. If the latter, what do you think these seeds will grow into within the garden of your mind?
Understand the Connections
Our lives are in much more of our own control than we often realize. Wise men make the connection between what’s poured into the mind today and the situations we find ourselves in tomorrow. Will you take the step of intentionally pouring in an shielding yourself from the bad? Put distance between yourself and the habits of the masses, and watch your life of success grow and flourish!
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Get More of What You Want
By admin
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What if there were a way that you could have more of the things you want in life? A better car, more time with family, better and more frequent vacations, or anything else you can think of. Would you be willing to make a few changes in your life in order to get these things?
Have You Lost Your Dreams?
Most people are good dreamers when they’re young. We imagine what life could be: the things we’ll do, the places we’ll go, the people we’ll influence. But, as we get older and become part of “the real world,” the temptation surfaces to deny or suppress our dreaming. There are a few big reasons this happens. One, that’s what people around us do. As you know from being a reader of this blog, that’s never a good reason to do anything! But a second reason is that often the practical cost of all the things we’d like to do adds up to a great deal more than we earn in income. This is a real limitation, but I have some good news: it can be overcome in two ways.
Owning Your Priorities
The first way to overcome the gap between what your dream life costs and the money you have available is to eliminate things which are not essential. For example, I may dream of owning a top-of-the line road bike, but don’t currently have the $1,500 in the bank to purchase one. However, owning the bike of my dreams is actually within my reach. I can get the $1,500 I need if I will simply commit to cutting $1,500 from other areas in my life. Maybe I collect $200 by abstaining from buying coffee from Starbucks for a year. I can collect another $300 by canceling cable TV for three months, and get $150 more by selling an old stereo that I never use. What I’m doing here is sacrificing the things that aren’t important to me in order to obtain that which is important to me.
We often let statements like, “I wish I could afford that,” or, “someday I hope to be able to…” come out of our mouths. As in our example above, the fact of the matter is that we can afford the things we’re dreaming about, but we refuse to give up the other things in our life that we need to sacrifice in order to get it.
Instead of Shrinking Your Dreams, Expand Your Income
The long-term way to overcome the gap between the life we imagine and the life we can afford is to develop an asset. One of the best definitions of an asset, especially in the context of what we’re discussing here, is Robert Kiosagi. In his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert defines an asset as something you own that produces a stream of income for you. By this definition, a house you own and live in isn’t really an asset, because it moreso takes your money, through taxes, interest, and upkeep expenses, than it produces in capital appreciation for you. An asset by Robert’s definition would be ownership in a growing company, a stock or bond, or creating a franchise. What assets do you have currently? What opportunities do you have to develop an asset?
We’ll Show You How
If you don’t know where or how you could begin to create an asset for yourself, you are in the right place! Part of what we do as part of our ThriveMart business is something called, “personal franchising.” We help people to do what we’ve done—start a business that they own without the risks and financial investment typically required to launch a business. Visit our ThriveMart facebook page and send us a message to learn more, and remember what Zig Ziglar says, “you can have anything you want in life if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want!”
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Are You Busy?
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We are busy people. If you’re like most of us these days, you fill your plate to overflowing with activities, work, fun, family, church, sports, and many many other things. Often, these things bring benefits to our lives, although they can sometimes make us feel overwhelmed. Worse still, we’re not always too accurate in our estimation of how many hours a new commitment will require, and this can lead to a schedule packed full of activities that might not quite line up with our dreams, desires, and priorities. Is there any way to gain control of our schedules?
Money and Time
Just as it is with money, time often gets away with us. Without intentional planning, the loudest cries for our attention get our time and money first, leaving other, more important priorities lacking. A telltale sign of this is when we fine ourselves saying, “Oh, I’d love to do something like that, but I just don’t have the time!” It doesn’t take too much reflection to realize how preposterous this statement is. As if any person is given any more or less than 24 hours each day! We all make choices each day how we will spend our hours. It’s ok if you don’t want to prioritize a fitness regimen in your life, but don’t fool yourself by saying you don’t have time to go to the gym.
Be Real with Yourself
Think of it this way: you, just like the rest of us, have 168 hours each week. Typically, work will consume something like 45 of them and if you sleep 8 hours a night, that’s another 56. So, how will you spend the other 67 hours?
Just as with budgeting money, budgeting our time will help us elevate our highest priorities first, and let the things that matter least fill in the gaps. Instead of spending 24 hours watching TV this week, why not reduce it to 20 and invest those 4 hours into growing your marriage or relationship with another important person in your life?
You Can Have It; Are You Willing to Pay the Price?
It’s pretty easy to fall into the trap of wistfully wishing for things we’d like in our life, but failing to take any action in pursuit of those things. What do you really want? Can you make a decision today to spend three hours next week pursuing it? Maybe all you can do during those three hours is some research. But guess what? The following week, you’ll be armed with the info you need to take the next step, then the next one, on and on until you reach the place you want to be. The journey to success may be long, but what’s that to you—you’ve got time!
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Your Surroundings
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Imagine I had a very valuable and powerful computer, capable of extraordinary things and able to make me healthy, happy, and wealthy. What should I do with this incredible machine? If I asked you who I should have program it for me, who would you recommend? Should I allow random coworkers, family members, or friends to load whatever content they want into my computer?
Your Incredible Mind
Guess what—you do have a very powerful computer that can get you anything you want in life. It’s called your brain! Scientists are continually amazed at the incredible complexity and capability of the human mind. And, just like a computer, your brain can be programmed. In fact, your brain is being programmed whether you realize it or not!
The problem with most of us is that we are simply not intentional about what we allow to program our brains. We often let the foolish words of well-meaning people invade our minds and keep us from growing to the heights we’re capable of. One may try something great, fail, and accept failure as part of his life. He then spreads his bile to those around him, discouraging others from pursuing their dreams, simply because he has failed, given up, and accepted defeat.
Filtering What Goes In
You have a choice. You can spend time around the failure of a man described in the previous paragraph, letting his rotten ideas and programming spoil your mind. Or, you can intentionally limit your time around such people and develop a filter for the junk ideas they spew. Turning positively, you can seek out successful people, people who have achieved what you want and are seeking to improve themselves further still, and allow them to speak positive ideas into your mind.
Choose Your Associations Wisely
Success always requires hard work and sacrifice. You can decide to accept your status quo as it is now and fill your life with distraction and entertainment. Or, you can get around people who challenge, inspire, and motivate you. The company you keep and the advice you follow will create the path and future of your life. Will the path you’re on today lead to a thriving life?
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Worth the Hassle
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Today’s topic most certainly falls under the category of “things I know I should do, but I never feel like getting around to.” Although this simple practice will help protect you from excessive damage from identity theft and is a habit of the financially responsible, all too often we’re apt to neglect checking our credit report. But, with the information you’ll get below, you’ll find that this financial discipline is actually very easy, free, and will give you confidence in your financial health.
Big Brother’s Watching
If you’ve never seen your credit report before, get ready to be surprised at all the information about you that’s floating out there in cyberspace! It addition to every credit account you’ve ever opened (many you’ve probably forgotten about), your credit report will show you previous addresses, phone numbers, and lots of other data that other parties collect about you.
Free is Good
There are three credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You can access your credit report once per year from each agency for free by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com. I checked mine earlier today, and from the moment I arrived at the site to the moment I printed my report was less than five minutes.
Watch for Posers
When looking over your report, note any activity that looks unfamiliar or suspicious. If someone took out a loan or opened a credit card fraudulently in your name, it should show up on your report. Take action to resolve these issues right away if they exist, as they’ll only get worse with time. You may also want to close any inactive accounts that show a zero balance, as these can be easy openings for future identity theft.
Take a moment to download your report from one of the three bureaus today, and then set a calendar reminder four months from now to remind yourself to check another bureau then. With this rotation you’ll get a copy of your report three times per year for free—and at a time cost of less than five minutes, we are all without excuse for knowing our financial health!
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The Well-Kept Secret
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Those who are financially free are those who know, and have applied, something that the rest of us don’t. In fact, not only wealthy people, but every person who has success in any area of life has learned and applied a secret principle. Although these people are not shy about sharing their secret formula with others, the principle remains elusive for most people. And of those who know this principle which guarantees success, a great many people refuse to employ it to affect the result they desire.
The Action Component
It’s been said that knowledge is power. This is almost correct: applied knowledge is power. The difference between knowledge and applied knowledge is this well-kept secret known by all who possess success–be it financial, physical, or in any other realm. You must know what you want. You must know what actions are required to obtain what you want. But with these two pieces only you cannot succeed. You need the third piece: consistent daily action.
Discover Your Dream
Imagine your dream life. If you could have anything, anything at all, what would it be? Whatever it is, let’s represent it as a large tree. You have an axe and must chop down this large tree. Each swing of your axe gets you a little closer to your goal. Find a mentor who has a life closer to your dream life than you do. Ask him what actions he took to achieve the level of success he has attained. These actions are your axe swings.
Five a Day, Every Day
Now for the application of the secret principle: Take these actions; every day. Not some days, not for a short period, but every day. Here’s what I know: if you swing your axe five times per day, every day, every day, every day, eventually the tree will fall. No matter how big the tree, no matter how great or terrible you are at swinging, the tree will fall. You must know what you want, you must know the right activities, but many people who have these things right still do not succeed. Too often, we give up to early, or fail to take daily consistent action.
Persist Until Victorious
Do not let failure beat you in this way. Discover your dreams, find what your axe swings are. Then commit to doing them every day without fail for the next 2, 5, 10 or how ever many years are required to get there. Success is never comfortable or easy; it is, however, worth it!
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Are You Safe?
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You probably have a job. Jobs are good, at least many of them are. If you have a job, you get paid to come to the office or job site, spend your hours working on tasks, and at 5:00 you get to go home. If you’re really blessed, you get to work with people you like and do tasks that are interesting and challenging. Your job is a blessing, even if it doesn’t feel like a blessing at times, as it brings income into your household. But for many, and perhaps for you, the one source of income creates a dangerous and precarious position.
It Wouldn’t Happen to Me
How many people have to decide they don’t like you in order for you to lose your job? Even worse than that, how many people have to decide that your department is overstaffed, and you are the most logical person to eliminate? Unfortunately, in most cases, as few one may decide to give you your pink slip.
Companies who lay people off aren’t bad or evil—in fact, if they refuse to take such measures they run the risk of running the business out of business and causing all the employees to lose their jobs. The answer to the tough reality of being an employee is not to get mad at companies. Instead, why not protect yourself by diversifying?
Employee, Self-Employed
Working as an employee is only one of several major ways to create income. It has the advantages of typically stable income (your paycheck is the same each week) and fringe benefits like insurance. Disadvantages can include a cap on your income and a disconnect between productivity and compensation. Some people create income through being self-employed. They are still an employee, trading their time for money, but they have the added benefit of a larger income potential, as the money they earn is theirs, and the more productive they are, the more they make! This can be a good option, but is tough to pursue without making a big change, quitting your job, and giving it a go.
Using Money to Make Money
Since our purpose is to diversify income, we’ll focus on the following two ways of creating passive income: investments and business systems. First, investiments. You’re probably familiar with things like stocks, bonds, and real estate. These assets are a great way to diversify your income, because instead of having to trade more time to get more money, as you do with a job or a self-employed opportunity, you use money to create money. As you save and invest, your portfolio grows and grows, so that each year a larger and larger percentage of your total income is capital appreciation. This is a great way to protect yourself from having your entire financial life being in the hands of one person. You could still be laid off from your job, but now you lose only a percentage of your income, rather that the whole thing.
Creating a Business System
Another great way to create income is to build a business system. You may not think you know about this concept, but if you’ve eaten at McDonalds you actually do! The history of McDonalds, as the history of any fast food chain, began with one man’s good idea. Ray Crock opened a hamburger stand, serving burgers and fries for 10 hours a day. He figured out how to run the business well and made some money. He wanted to make more, but didn’t want to stay open longer. So, he created a business system. He showed a friend how to open a burger stand just like his on the opposite side of town. Then he did it again with another friend. And another, and another. After a while, the new stands spawned more locations, and the franchise began to multiply. Each new person who wants to own a McDonalds location is trained in the right way to run the place, and the system grows and grows. Everyone wins here, from Ray Crock, to each business owner, down to each and every customer.
So What?
So how does this knowledge help you? Is it only relevant if you want to open and run a McDonalds? No—you can use this same model to diversify your income and lower your dependence on your employee income. At TotalThriver.com, we not only help people thrive in the areas of fitness, finances, and faith, but we also show budding entrepreneurs how to start a business of their own. Like other franchises, we have a proven system for getting a new person profitable in a business moving high-quality products that people in your network use every day. Sound like something you’d like to check out? Send a message to our Facebook group (ThriveMart) and get some info diversifying your income today. Your tomorrow can be better than today; are you willing to put in the work to make the dream a reality?
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Keep Your Goal Before Your Eyes
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Imagine your ideal life—how would it be different than what your life is like today? Spend a few quiet minutes thinking on this, and you’ll find the key areas where you’re ready to set a goal. Make your goal bigger that what you think you can do, in order to stretch you and challenge you. This exercise can be inspiring, motivating, and exciting, but soon comes the hard part of getting it done!
Can You Keep Going?
You can achieve the big goals that are currently out of reach, and the path there is simpler and more straightforward that you think. But one thing is required: consistent right action. Take a physical example: losing weight. In order to drop that ten pounds, all you have to do is lose half a pound a day for twenty days. How? Increase your energy output and reduce your calorie intake—it really is as simple as that. But, here’s the hard part—on day three, when you’re hungry and your body is sore, will you continue with the consistent right action of eating healthy and exercise, or will you take a break and let your goals fade into memory?
The Slight Edge Principle
Setting goals is important. But alone, the activity of setting a goal may not bring you what you want. Once you set a goal, you must commit to it, and keep the goal in front of your eyes. Like many principles of success, this important step is easy to do. But easy to do is also easy not to do, and oftentimes we skip this important step, to our own peril.
How to Keep the Goal in Mind
What does it mean to keep a goal before your eyes? Well, first it means that your goal must be written down. Have a number and a date (for example, run a mile in seven minutes by December 15, 2013) so you have a clear idea where you are going. Next, find a way to bring your goal to the front of your mind every day. Some helpful ideas here include writing your goal and taping it to you bathroom mirror. Some people ask others to help keep them on track towards their goals by checking in with them every few days, or even pursuing a similar goal at the same time. One idea that I found strange at first was to actually speak your goals out loud every day. What at first felt very silly became a valuable tool in training my mind to see and take action toward my goals every day. Whatever method you want to use, the main key is to keep your mind on your goal.
Your Mind Working for You
Your mind is an amazing thing, and if you take the time to focus it on your goals, you will be astounded how it starts seeing opportunities around you every day. Stay committed, stay steady, and start down the path toward living the thriving life that’s waiting for you!
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Actions and attitude
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Have you ever pursued success in an area of your life and found the journey to be more challenging than you expected? Maybe you’ve been on a new diet and fitness regimen for a week and a half, but instead of weighing less and looking better, you look the same and feel hungry. Or maybe you’re on month two of living on a budget and even though you’re following the plan, you’re still stressed out, and getting your income and expenses to balance seems impossible. What can you do in these times when you’re doing the right things, but the results you want aren’t coming?
The Right Plan
The first thing to check when your activities aren’t bringing the results you want is to make sure you’re taking the right action. See the article from two weeks ago for more info on following the right person and crafting the right plan. If you are, give yourself some encouragement and keep reading!
If you have identified an effective plan for bringing about the results you want, there are only two major components that you need to turn your goals into reality. These components are Action and Attitude.
Action and Staying Consistent
A major reason why many people do not achieve their desired results—even though their plan is good—is simply that they stop taking the right action. As in our fitness example, you may find a great program for losing weight and getting fit, but in most cases, you won’t notice any results, even after a week or more of hard work. What do most people do at this point? The figure, “well, this is so much work, and I don’t see the point. I’ll just skip my workout today.” After skipping one day, it then becomes easy to skip another, and another, until we find ourselves right back in the old routine of not exercising.
What was the problem here? Was the workout not effective? No—the plan would have worked, but it was implemented only temporarily. What is the answer? Find a different, better plan? No! Start the activity again, only this time, KEEP GOING. When you find it difficult, keep going anyway. When you don’t see the good results you want, keep going anyway. When others give you a hard time and say you’re wasting your time and effort, keep going anyway. Not only is it worth it, but the joy that comes with overcoming something challenging is something you do not want to miss!
The Right Attitude
The second essential component for success in a new endeavor is attitude. Sometimes, even though we have a good plan and are taking the right actions toward the results we want, success may yet elude us if we are taking the right actions with the wrong attitude. Say for example that your goal is to receive a promotion at work. You’ve talked to leaders in your department and industry, and identified the daily activities to become more valuable in your profession. Yet, after six months of working hard and learning new things, you don’t find yourself valued higher by your boss or associates. What’s going on?
It could be that you have the right activity and are adopting the right habits, but you are doing them with the wrong attitude. Here’s one good test: how often are you smiling? Firstly, people enjoy being around positive people. Given two team members with the same skills, wouldn’t you prefer to work with the one with a positive outlook and a smile? Secondly, particularly when we are pursuing a new capability or a new level of competence, success can be challenging. If you do not have the expectation of success, the attitude that what you want will be yours soon, you may find that you won’t achieve it.
One place where this truth is particularly evident is in the weight room. When one attempts to lift a weight that is quite heavy, a proper state of mind is essential. If you think a weight is too heavy for you to lift, you are right. Only when you convince your mind that you can lift the weight is success even possible. Your body does what your mind directs it to.
Right Plan, Right Action, Right Attitude
When we pursue high levels of success, many difficulties must be overcome. Sometimes, just having the right plan may not be enough. Only when a proper plan is mixed with a good attitude and persistent, consistent action will we attain the results we desire. Instead of following the typical pattern of giving up when things get hard, let’s take the opportunity to encourage and build up each other, and enjoy the process of making our way to the top!
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Insisting on Balance
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Guess what’s coming soon? Christmas!! Even though it’s the same date every year, it sure can sneak up on us! Christmas is a wonderful time, full of joy and celebration. We give gifts to each other in honor of God’s gift to mankind: the baby Jesus, born in Bethlehem, that we might be reconciled to God. It’s good to get carried away in the spirit of the season, but one area we must work hard not to get carried away in is our FINANCES.
Say Yes to Great Gifts
Before you call me Scrooge, let me say that I do want you to have a wonderful Christmas, to make a special time for those you love, and to elevate the day through special activities and make great memories. I just don’t want you to experience the January hangover that so many of our friends will have once the presents are all opened.
When You Are Blessed, Bless
If you are experiencing financial success this year, don’t be afraid to spend a little more money on people this year. In particular, do you know anyone who may be struggling to make ends meet this Christmas? Why not bless them with a big gift or a big check? You could even give it to them anonymously for an extra bit of fun!
Borrowing Is Not For the Wise
If, on the other hand, you didn’t experience an overflow of income this year, you may be like many across our country—facing the temptation to go big on Christmas with money you’ve borrowed on a credit card. Like many short-sighted solutions, this decision would be easy on the front end, and hard on you in the months to come.
Think of it this way: if you can’t afford to pay cash for presents now, how will you afford the full amount, plus the interest? Or, put another way, what choice will lead you to have the best gifts for your family for Christmas 2014? Racking up debt now? Debt that will deplete your resources from January through July?
Solutions Are Out There
Something funny happens when you insist your budget must balance. Your brain goes to work. Once you’ve made the decision that you won’t go negative in December, your eyes suddenly see opportunities all around you. You notice that stack of DVDs that you haven’t watched lately and you decide to put them up for sale. You see the snow fall outside and take a few hours to shovel driveways in the neighborhood. You eat peanut butter and jelly instead of fast food on your lunch break. All these things may seem small, but when you add them together, you’ll be amazed: you really can make things balance.
Supernatural Gifts
Another funny thing happens when you make a commitment to keep your budget in balance, particularly when you commit to prayer for the Lord’s help. God loves to reward those who trust in Him, who rely on Him, and who live His way. Call on the Lord, and keep your eyes open—you will find Him when you earnestly seek Him, and He is more loving and gracious than you can possibly imagine.
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Success in Reaching Your Goals
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Can you believe 2014 is here already?! I hope you had a great year, and I further hope that you’re looking to make the coming year even better! One good thing that many people do is to use the new year as a time to set goals to improve themselves—this IS a good thing, IF we take these resolutions seriously and succeed. Unfortunately, in many cases, our lofty goals are left unfinished and our resolutions are abandoned before a full month has even passed. How can you separate yourself from the masses and actually achieve your plans for growth in 2014?
If you have the desire to live healthier, improve your finances, grow in your spiritual walk, or any other goal for living a more rewarding and successful life, take advantage of your desire by applying the most significant key to success in fitness or any other area of life: adopting new habits.
Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day
Take a simple example of a short-lived new year’s goal of losing weight. One’s natural inclination after a whole December (or whole 2013) of overeating and inactivity is to overcorrect. We think that to even out big meals over the last several weeks, we should break our year-long fast of jogging by running 5 miles. We take the high enthusiasm to get fit and convert it into a short burst of high activity. But we tend to neglect a few important steps.
The Big Challenge: Change
First, we fail to recognize that adopting a new routine involves one of the most difficult things there is: changing one’s habits. One big mistake at this point is that we try to accomplish this feat alone. Accountability is absolutely essential to get into and stay with the routine of working out regularly, week after week. Find a friend who has success in the area you’re pursuing growth in. Decide how often and for what duration you will connect for accountability and encouragement, and specifically what goals you will pursue.
Write it Down
This leads right into the second necessary step for getting and staying fit: setting goals and writing them down. Make sure your goals are specific, measurable, that they have a due date. For example, if your goal is to get in better shape, the following goal serves as a good example.
I will improve my one-mile run time to below 7:00 minutes and lose 10 pounds by February 15.
To accomplish this, I will exercise for 20 minutes, three times per week using the ThriveFit program. I will write down my workout results every day, and email a weekly report every Sunday evening to my fitness mentor to seek his feedback.
Instant Feedback
Notice how this is a specific plan with set dates and times and clear markers to shoot at. The reason this is such an important step is that it gives you a standard to measure yourself against for immediate feedback should you start to falter. Without this plan, you’ll tend to let your habits slip little by little as the days go by, until you are left back where you started, and with a vague sense of dissatisfaction with yourself. With clear goals and a specific schedule to reach them, you’ll know immediately when you’re getting off course. In addition to that, the goal or dream that you’ve identified will help motivate you on the days when you don’t feel like doing the work.
Let Us Help!
Remember, changing habits is hard, and our aim is to create good long-term habits for a better life. Don’t kill yourself on the first day such that you can’t move tomorrow. Keep your focus on identifying and executing effective and sustainable habits.
Our ThriveMart store has a wide array of great products to support you in a healthy and successful life. Just comment on our facebook page
or send us a message and we’ll help you identify the right products for you. And as always, be sure to check back with us each week for motivation and encouragement along the way—we’re here to help you thrive!
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Choosing Your Smile
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Who likes smiling? Buddy the elf, of course, but is he the only one? How about you? Do you enjoy smiling and laughing? What I’ve recently realized is that in the past, I had waited for something external to me to cause me to laugh or smile. And in doing this, I gave up the power to control my state of mind, not to mention the state of mind of those around me. Are you interested in enjoying yourself more, and being around people who are enjoying themselves more?
It’s a Decision
The more time I spend around successful people, the more I realize that success is a planned event. Winners are not blown about by their circumstances or their feelings. It’s not that they don’t have feelings; they simply use their feelings to inform their thinking, and then choose to move forward positively.
It’s a matter of what’s a cause and what’s an effect. Kids are captives to their feelings. As we grow and mature, we need to learn to control our attitudes and our disposition. Try this–be angry while smiling. It’s very difficult! When you make a decision to view your situation as great, to have expectation that good things will happen, you exert influence on the situation.
Give to Receive
I find, with rare exception, that approaching someone with a smile and treating them politely tends to cause them to smile at me and treat me politely. There are some people who are so negative, that event this won’t work. Determine who these people are by taking the action above, and then consider avoiding these people in the future. 😀 But you know, a great majority of people, when approached with a positive attitude, will respond in kind.
Waiting to Feel Like It
I have missed out on positive and enjoyable interactions many times, simply because I mixed up cause and effect. I didn’t feel like smiling and expecting my interaction to be positive. Because I didn’t feel like it, I didn’t do it, and I didn’t experience the benefit. I have since found that smiling and positive expectations are a decision, and I may choose to have them or not.
The funny thing is, thise times that I don’t feel like being positive, but simply decided to smile and decided to expect good things, I often have found that my circumstances change, becoming more positive, and resulting in a more enjoyable time. As I enjoy this improved interaction, I naturally begin to smile and feel positive about the situation.
Adjusting Our Habits
How did I miss such a simple and now seemingly obvious truth? Waiting to be happy, depending on your circumstances, causes your emotions to be blown around by the winds of your circumstances. Conversely, deciding intentionally what your outlook will be will tend to bring you more positive interactions, resulting in a more enjoyable experience and a naturally positive outlook. Simple, right? then why do we miss it?
Likely this isn’t the first time you’ve heard that it’s good to be positive. In fact, when you last heard or read this idea, it probably made you feel positive for a while. But guess what? All that is is being influenced positively by positive circumstances! If that’s all you do, the positive outlook will only stay until a negative circumstance comes!
Instead, make a decision that you will choose to smile and be positive, even when your circumstances make you want to feel otherwise. Acknowledge that you’re facing a tough situation, pick yourself up, choose to smile, and walk forward into your next successful moment. And as you do, enjoy the benefits of your thriving life!
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Spend It All
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We’re new and improved! The latest version of ThriveWealthy is now available, and you can start using it today, for FREE, to create more options and less stress for yourself!
What can this tool do for you?
Good Advice
Here’s a statement you might not expect from a financial expert: you should spend all your money! In fact, you should spend the entire month’s income, even before the month begins. You should spend it on purpose, by creating your cashflow plan before the first of the month.
Now, some of your money should be spent into your savings account. Some should be spent paying down debts. Some should be spent by investing into your retirement. But it should all be spent. Your income needs to exactly zero with all expenses, including savings and investments. Why? Because it isn’t until you lay out all income for January with all expenses in January that you can make educated decisions about how much to allocate to the various competing uses your money can have.
You’re in Control
The beauty of using a cashflow planning tool like ThriveWealthy is that it puts you more in control of how your money is spent! Since you are now making educated decisisons and prioritizing the things you value as most important, you are actually able to achieve more, and enjoy some of the better things in life. Why not give this great free tool a try today?
ThriveWealthy Cashflow Software
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How We Program Ourselves
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On your way into work tomorrow, what thoughts will run through your mind? If you’re like most of us, your natural inclination will be something like, “here comes another day at the grind! I hope I don’t see Jim today, he’s such a loudmouth! I can’t wait till the weekend’s here!” But do these thoughts help you? Or are they helping to create the very kind of day you dread?
Want Control? Take It!
Setting our expectations and our outlook for the day—or even for the next moment—is totally within our control. Would your morning be better if you chose to speak something better to yourself while walking from your car to the office?
Let Wise Men Teach You
Zig Ziglar once said, “Positive thinking won’t let you do anything, but it will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.” This is great advice from a great man! When’s the last time you took control of your circumstances and made a decision to have a great morning? Why let circumstances dictate our life to us? Do you really believe that telling yourself that your coworkers are rude and your work is boring does you any good? How about when you say things like, “it doesn’t matter how hard I work or what good things I do, no one notices anyway.” Do these statements help you, or hurt you?
Attitude and Response
Simple as it sounds or silly as it sounds, you make the choice every day whether your day will be great or a dud. Things outside your control will still happen. Some may be pleasant, others not—but your attitude going in and your response coming out are both things you choose. If you’re really interested in living a thriving life, right now’s a good time to start! What kind of day will you make today?
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Success In the Second Mile
By admin
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Have you ever wanted to succeed at a high level? To set yourself apart from others and achieve things most people don’t? Would you like to be the one at your office that everyone else thinks of as the go-to person? The path to becoming a high achiever is quite simple. Easy never, but very simple.
The Way to Live
In Matthew 5, Jesus is teaching the crowd how to live. He cites a law of Israel, that when someone wrongs you and you lose sight in one eye, retribution was the law—the one who harmed you would lose that eye too. Some for a tooth, or any other similar situation. The point was, what harm comes to you from another individual, you may justly give the same harm back to them in retribution.
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41 Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
Fair is Fair
Jesus does not deny that you are justly able to take an eye for an eye. That is the law and that is fair. But Jesus teaches that you should forgo this right. Instead, Jesus instructs us to respond to evil with love. When we are wronged, instead of seeking to hurt our enemy, we are to seek after his good.
One Mile and Drop It
Now for the famous line in verse 41, go the extra mile. If someone you didn’t like forced you to carry his stuff for him for one mile, what would you want to do at mile 1.1? Drop it on the ground, right? Well Jesus teaches us something profound: carry it another mile of your own accord.
Think now of the people in your life who you’re around in a typical week: your family, your friends, your boss and coworkers. Hopefully you don’t think of all these people as your enemies, hopefully you like them better than an enemy. But how often do you go the extra mile for them?
What Did We Do Last Week?
When your wife asks you to help her with something, do you growl and complain, get it done quick and plop down on the couch? Or do you go the extra mile? When your boss gives you an assignment that you think is stupid, do you slowly trudge through it with a bad attitude? Or do you go the extra mile? When your kids ask you to play with them, do you hurry up and get it over with so you can get to what you want to do? Or do you dive in with enthusiasm and go the extra mile?
Set Yourself Apart
This behavior of willingly exceeding the expectations of those around you, regardless of whether you like them or find them awful people, will set you so far apart from the norm that you can’t believe it. So few people live this way, and it is a guaranteed way to set yourself apart from and ahead of others. People who live lives of mediocrity most likely won’t like to see you doing this because of the way it makes them look in comparison. Don’t let them drag you down; the people who you want to surround yourself with are already extra-mile people, and it won’t take them long to notice you. The rewards are great, the path is simple; do the hard work and we’ll see you at the top!
Thrive Eternally
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What’s the thread?
By admin
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What’s TotalThriver.com all about? Perhaps you noticed last week the feature of the ThriveFit training program and took a moment to learn how an Olympic lift can help you get in great shape and look and feel better. Maybe you scrolled down to see the previous week’s post about eternity and what God has planned for His children. After that, you clicked the ThriveWealthy tab on the top menu and downloaded the free cashflow planning tool, including instructions for getting your finances in order. Are these topics related? What connects these seemingly unrelated ideas?
You’re not an ice-cube tray
The threads that connect these aspects of life are at the very core of our mission here at TotalThriver. A prevalent notion in our culture today is the idea that we exist as individuals with different compartments, which are separate and distinct from each other. For example, a man may delude himself by thinking, “Sure, I’m harsh and unsympathetic at work, and sometimes I take advantage of my employees, but that has nothing to do with my relationship with my wife and kids. Who I am at work is not who I am at home.”
Contrast this with the wisdom of God’s Word. In Proverbs 23, we read:
6 Do not eat the bread of a selfish man,
Or desire his delicacies;
7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is.
He says to you, “Eat and drink!”
But his heart is not with you.
This is a teaching given throughout the Bible–that the heart is where our behavior and actions originate. Similarly, Jesus said in Luke 6:45 that:
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
Address the real problem
All of us want to thrive in life–and particularly those of you who’ve come to this site to find tools and resources to do just that. But the first step in moving forward is to recognize that our “less than thriving” behaviors in the various aspects of our lives are rooted in our heart. The man who mistreats his employees has a heart problem. And this problem of the heart will manifest itself everywhere in his life.
To insist that poor behavior in one area in life has nothing to do with other areas of life is dangerous because it refuses to recognize the real connections within your own person. And without clear understanding of the cause of a problem, no true change can be made.
What are your “unseen connections?”
Take a moment to consider personally, “what aspects of my life have I been neglecting?” If your life is a wheel made up of five spokes (physical, financial, spiritual, relational, career), which spoke is deficient and giving you a wobbly wheel?
Try to seek out the connections between parts of life where you aren’t thriving and the negative effects that they produce in other areas of your life. Do you hate your job? Do you then come home angry and fight with your spouse? Or perhaps you’ve not exercised in months, and notice that you just don’t have the energy level to care for your family that you once did. By identifying the negative results that you most dislike and connecting them to their causes, you’ll find the motivation to make the investments of time and energy needed to thrive in one area, bringing success in both areas.
The bonus
That’s what’s so great about starting to understand how these areas relate–you improve the area that needs improvement, but you get a bonus in other areas. The clearest example of this is the area of fitness. When you spend time exercising your body properly, you’ll notice an improvement to your physique. But you get a bonus benefit in your work life, as you have better energy levels and can be more productive. And you’ll likely notice an improved relationship with your spouse, as your frustrations have been taken out on a barbell instead of your lover!
The connections between these areas of life are complex and seemingly infinite. Some, like the examples above, can be understood and generalized. Others are known by God alone. Yet as we understand more and more that our behavior and the results of our behavior stem from the heart, we work to thrive in each area to the satisfaction of ourselves and the glory of our Maker.
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The Problem of Evil
By admin
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If you visited our site in the last week, you may have noticed a rather peculiar message on our homepage. An image of a skull and crossbones was displayed with a message of: “you’ve been hacked!”
Though I’m not certain, I believe the intruder gained access to the site because my password was too simple. Hackers today can use programs to guess many common passwords automatically, so if you have a simple password for your sensitive information, take this opportunity to change it before thieves get into your accounts too!
I’m very grateful to my hosting company, namecheap.com for automatically saving backups of all my content. A few quick emails back and forth with the support team had be back in business again! And yes, I’ve improved my passwords and backed up my files locally so I’m prepared for next time.
Pointless Destruction
It’s odd, but from what I can tell, the hacker didn’t use their access to do anything useful for themselves. They hacked in, deleted my content, and displayed the “you’ve been hacked” page. But there was no gain for them in the whole thing. All that was accomplished was that they destroyed someone else’s work, requiring many hours from me and others to repair the damage.
This brings up a few key issues. First, what’s going on inside someone who will seek to destroy the possessions of another, not for their own gain, but simply to cause pain and destruction? Second, how can the all-powerful and all-loving God of the Bible allow these things to happen?
Unfortunately, the hacker from last week is bit a small example of someone who’ll harm others for no reason but to cause harm. While my site was repaired quickly, some evil acts leave their victims with lasting scars. Murder, rape, and abuse occur everyday in cities across the U.S. and the world. If God created all things and has the power to do anything He wants, why doesn’t he zap these people?
The Story of David
The Bible answers this question very clearly and in many places. One of the most dramatic examples in the Bible is David. This man was chosen by God to be king of Israel after Saul, who had turned away from God. But even though David was God’s choice for king, Saul continued to live and rule. Saul even commanded his entire army to seek out David to kill him, forcing David to flee his home, leaving all friends and family.
Think how David must have felt—all alone in the wilderness, hiding from an entire army, waiting for God to fulfill His promise to make him king. He must have thought, “God, why don’t you just zap Saul?! He’s persecuting me, your servant and breaking your Law.” Many of the Psalms written by David during this time have this theme (e.g., Psalm 42, 43).
But God did not destroy Saul here, even though he did deserve it. This is the basis of our question too—why doesn’t God destroy evil people? One major answer the Bible gives us is that God is great in Mercy.
You see, if God were not merciful, He would never have let Adam and Eve live after they disobeyed Him in the garden. He would have destroyed everyone in the flood, instead of sparing Noah and his family. God is a God great in mercy, and he holds back the punishment that is deserved, giving us time to turn from our sin, repent, and trust Christ as our Savior.
Ironically, in David’s story, we see later see King David doing exactly the same thing to Uriah that Saul had done to him. Uriah’s wife Bathsheba was beautiful, and when David saw her, he decided to go to her and sleep with her, committing adultery. Because he was afraid of being caught, he sent Uriah into the front lines in battle where he was quickly killed. He then took Bathsheba as his wife. The same David that cried for God to destroy the evil men that persecuted him in the wilderness, had now persecuted another. By the rules David asked God to set up, be himself should have been destroyed by God.
Thankfully, God is a God of mercy. When David was confronted with his sin, he repented in sorrow. He remembered that God is merciful, and cried out to Him for forgiveness. This was his prayer (Psalm 51):
1Have mercy on me, O God,
because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion,
blot out the stain of my sins.
2Wash me clean from my guilt.
Purify me from my sin.
3For I recognize my rebellion;
it haunts me day and night.
4Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
You will be proved right in what you say,
and your judgment against me is just.
5For I was born a sinner—
yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.
6But you desire honesty from the womb,b
teaching me wisdom even there.
Who Draws the Line?
We too can be quick to ask for God’s justice and wrath on those who do evil to us. But we must remember that we have received God’s mercy, and we didn’t deserve it either. One of my favorite atrists, Lecrae, puts it this way in one of his songs:
“Some people say that God ain’t real ’cause they don’t see how a good God can exsist with all this evil in the world. If God is real then He should stop all this evil, ’cause He’s all-powerful right? What is evil though man? It’s anything that’s against God. It’s anything morally bad or wrong. It’s murder, rape, stealing, lying, cheating. But if we want God to stop evil, do we want Him to stop it all or just a little bit of it? If He stops us from doing evil things, what about lying, or what about our evil thoughts? I mean, where do you stop, the murder level, the lying level, or the thinking level? If we want Him to stop evil, we gotta be consistent, we can’t just pick and choose. That means you and I would be eliminated right? Because we think evil stuff. If that’s true, we should be eliminated! But thanks be to God that Jesus stepped in to save us from our sin! Christ died for all evilness! Repent, turn to Jesus man!”
You can see the full video of this song here:
Much more could be said on this topic, but I hope this helps give you a better understanding of the problem of evil. We may be hacked again here at TotalThriver, but we’ll always come back, and will be praying that those who’s feet rush to evil may be changed by the power of God to faith in Christ Jesus. Thanks for reading and feel free to add your comments or questions.
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To Find a Mate
By admin
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This post is third in a series of six articles on how fitness benefits many other areas of your life. So far, we’ve explored the dividends that a challenging fitness regimen will pay in your productivity and your disposition.
In the previous post, we noted that the improved disposition that comes with a challenging fitness regimen can have a dramatic influence on your relationship with your spouse. If you’re single though, you might have felt a bit left out…
So, today’s post is for you singles out there. Believe it or not, embarking on a journey to better fitness will not just benefit your physically, but bring you success in your search for a great mate. The heart of the issue lies in the following bit of wisdom, courtesy of a few wise old men I know: “to have a great marriage, don’t focus on finding the right person, focus on being the right person.”
It’s not you, it’s me
Most of us have experienced the converse of this firsthand from going about this in the wrong way. Maybe you’ve caught yourself complaining to your friends, “how come every girl I date is argumentative and emotional? Why can’t I find someone who’s kind and easygoing??” Here’s the shocker–the common thread in all your relationships is you! Perhaps there are things you are doing, attitudes you have, even criteria you use for selecting dates that are bringing you the results that you don’t like.
The way that a fitness regimen can benefit you in this situation is that it takes your eyes off others, and helps you focus on the things you can control–namely, yourself! As you progress in your fitness program, you’ll see tangible results: your pants fit better, you can lift heavier weight, your arms look more toned, and so on. Your disposition will improve from your body’s natural reaction to exercise, and you’ll feel good about the work your doing and the progress you’re making.
Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks
These internal changes tend to be more visible to others than we would imagine. After you’ve completed a tough lunchtime workout with a new record time, you’ll find yourself smiling at people you meet, genuinely interested in them and more patient with their shortcomings. It’s somewhat like how you feel after you’ve won a race, gotten a raise, or finished painting a house–you’re just feeling good, basking in the work you’ve done, and no little inconvenience is going to get in your way of enjoying this moment. That elated feeling can become part of your everyday schedule, especially when you adopt a strenuous program like ThriveFit and give it your all.
Living in this state of mind where you genuinely care about others and are patient with others’ shortcomings will take you a long way down the road to being the kind of person who attracts a quality mate. Not only that, but this pattern of bettering yourself can be used to refine other areas of your life as well. Perhaps you’ll make time to learn a new skill to improve your capabilities at work. Or, you’ll join a Bible study to improve your relationship with God. By making a dedicated consistent effort to improve yourself, then meeting your objectives with excellence, you’re growing your character and confidence. Not only will these changes naturally attract members of the opposite sex to you, but God tends to reward those who seek after Him and live as He instructs. So, as you take care of the body He gave you, seek Him in His Word, and learn to forgive and love as Christ did, He may just send your future spouse right across your path…
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Our Awesome Creator
By admin
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This post is fifth in a series of six articles on how fitness benefits many other areas of your life. So far, we’ve discussed how challenging fitness regimen can improve your productivity, disposition, relationships, and finances. Today, we’ll discuss how embarking on a fitness regimen can awaken your heart and mind to the glories of God.
Psalm 139:14 says, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Can you sing this Psalm with the psalmist? Is this the sentiment that flows through your soul today?
Monotony
Unfortunately, for many of us, the drudgery of everyday life can suck the praise and admiration of our Lord right out of us. Demanding clients and rude coworkers can pull our eyes off the simple beauty of the world around us, and by the time we get home in the evening, we’re more likely to ignore or mistreat our families than lead them in a song praising the awesome power of our Creator.
So how can a challenging physical regimen help us reclaim a child-like sense of awe for our God? First, by stimulating bloodflow through the body and serving as a outlet for frustrations, as we discussed a few weeks ago. But there is another element to fitness training beyond these simple chemical responses.
Incredible Design
Have you ever seen someone drive up in a fine-tuned Corvette or a shiny new Harley? The moment you see the sleek exterior and hear the engine purr softly, you are flooded with a feeling of admiration and appreciation beauty. If you bask in the moment a bit longer, you’ll find you have an appreciation for the designers and builders of such a fine automobile. You think about all the planning that went into the production of the car, and you’ll see how each individual piece gracefully fits into the complete package, each part fulfilling a particular role in harmony with every other part.
This simple example is merely a slight glimpse into the appreciation of the human body that can come with an ongoing commitment to fitness. When I first began exercising in high-intensity functional movement training, I had a certain level of appreciation for what my body could do. But as I progressed in various compound movements such as squats and snatches, I became more and more amazed at the amazing intricacies and harmonious interaction of the body’s many systems. This machine that God built by his infinite divine creativity is indeed something to be marveled at, not only for its beautiful cohiesiveness but for it’s incredible ability to adapt to new challenges.
See His Glory
It is very easy to neglict our bodies and take for granted the life we are given each new day, and many in our culture have done just that. They spend their time on other things and allow their bodies to slowly decline–allowing flexibility to wane and strength disappear. Along with the loss of these capabilities comes a loss of appreciation for the miraculous systems that make up their body. If you want to gaze on the glory of God the way an art patron might gaze on a beautiful work of da Vinci, start your journey by visiting the ThriveFit page and trying out Workout 1. Although it may take many workouts for you to reach a deep appreciation for all the capabilities held within your body, in time you too may just find yourself singing with the psalmist, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made!”
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Fitness as a Metaphor
By admin
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This is the final post in a series of six articles on how fitness benefits many other areas of your life. So far, we’ve discussed how a challenging fitness regimen can improve your productivity, disposition, relationships, finances, and your appreciation of the glory of God. Today, we’ll discuss how success in your fitness can be a powerful physical display of positive changes in your heart and life.
This topic is right at the heart of what we are all about here at TotalThriver. Oftentimes in life, we can overlook the strong connections between the various components of our lives. We think that we can be sloppy with our money, without having that sloppiness affect our relationship with our spouse. Or we think we can neglect prayer and the study of God’s word, yet still succeed in our career and find contentment.
Not only does this compartmentalized approach fail in practice, but it goes against the clear teachings of Scripture. In Matthew 12, Jesus said:
“33“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.
Here, Jesus is confronting the self-righteous Pharisees for their pride, arrogance, and wrong judgement. They rebuked Jesus for healing a possessed man, using the illogical argument that Jesus obtained the power to rebuke demons by serving the prince of demons. Jesus clearly taught us here that the evil words that proceeded out of the mouths of the Pharisees were only a symptom of their problem. The root of the problem was the hearts of these men, which were hardened against God. They cared only for themselves and the praise of men, and their words revealed their character.
This truth applies to you and me just as it did the Pharisees. Our words and actions in a certain situation are nothing more than a natural demonstration of the state of our hearts. So, our unorganized finances are rooted in a heart of poor stewardship, for example. Can this heart of poor stewardship with money do anything but be a poor steward of time with a spouse? Our words and actions are indications of who we are, and when we let failure reign in one area of life, it tends to manifest itself in other areas as well.
Thankfully, as Jesus goes on to explain in Matthew 12, this principle works in the reverse, too:
35“The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.
By His grace, God allows any of us sinners who will forsake our sin and trust Christ for salvation to be washed clean by his blood. Christ paid the penalty of our sins through his death on the cross, and by trusting Him we are made into a new creation. Day by day, Christ leads us to walk like Him, becoming more like our Savior each day.
This goodness spreads to each facet of life–as your heart is made new, your actions change to demonstrate the change that occurred in your heart.
The beauty of the process of adopting and following through with a challenging fitness regimen is that it is a powerful and dramatic example of new life. Before you began making fitness a priority, you lived with all the negative consequences that come with physical apathy. But once you turned from your old way and started down the road to fitness, your heart had changed. Your new behaviors began to reflect the new heart that you have–one recognizes the value of using the body as it was made to be used.
As you progressed through the weeks of training, you experienced the benefits of challenging exercise–improved disposition, productivity, and appreciation for the glory of God. These benefits encouraged you to commit to the program even more, and your habits gradually strengthened until fitness is a natural part of your life.
The physical transformation and the adoption of a new set of habits is a living metaphor of the life-changing power that Christ offers. Just as your fitness journey began with a change of heart, becoming a Christian begins by admitting that the self-centered road we’re on is the wrong path. Will you turn from your sin and trust Him today? His love is eternal, and although your fitness habits may fade someday in the future, Jesus will never let one of his children fall away.
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How’s Your Foundation?
By admin
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Here at TotalThriver, we provide tools and resources to help you thrive in many aspects of your life. We’ve discussed how it’s very important to take care of your body through a challenging fitness regimen, and how this practice will bring positive effects to other aspects of your life as well. We’ve also explored various topics on managing your finances, in order to be a good steward of your resources. We’ve even provided ThriveWealthy, a free tool for managing your spending and savings. But all of these resources are merely bricks that you can build your life out of. The piece that is much more important than all these is what you build on.
The Wise and the Foolish
Jesus once told a parable about a wise man and a foolish man. The wise man built his house upon a rock, while the foolish man built his house upon the sand (Matthew 7:24 and following). When the rains came, the house of the foolish man was destroyed, but the wise man’s house stood firm.
Jesus explained how the man who builds his life upon the words of Christ is like that wise man. While worldly people around us build their lives on fine possessions, power and influence, or friends and family, Jesus calls us to build our lives on Him.
Paul uses a similar metaphor in 1 Corinthians 3 to teach us what will become of our life’s work when we face the Judgment:
11For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Enduring the Final Test
We may do some good things in our life, and use the “costly stones” of good money management, care of our bodies, and love and devotion to family, yet still be the foolish man whose life work is destroyed when the rains come. Christ himself is the only sure and true foundation, and any other will be shown one day for what it is – sinking sand.
As you continue along the path to a thriving life, I encourage you to take a moment to pause and reflect on what is your ultimate foundation. Are you seeking tools to live a thriving life in order to revel in your own glory? Do you want to acquire wealth merely for your own comfort and convenience, or do you seek to use money as a tool for glorifying God and bringing others to a saving knowledge of Him?
Laying the Groundwork
If you’ve never come to a point in your life where you’ve realized your need for Jesus, I pray that you would take a moment now to reach out to God in prayer. The Bible tells us that we are born sinners, in rebellion against our Maker. Each of us defies Him when we desire our own way above His, when we violate His commands and spurn His love. But in Romans 5:8, we learn that, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” He died that we might be born again into a new life with Him, and rose again to demonstrate His divinity and power over death. If we will turn from our sin, turn to Christ as Savior, and trust Him as the only Lord of our life, He promises that He will blot out our sin, wash us clean, and enter our heart. Will you relinquish control of your life to Him today? Jesus is waiting to show you His love, and lead you in a thriving life with Him for all eternity.
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Your Habits Are Showing
By admin
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What’s one thing that will produce dramatic results in your life, for good or for ill? Habits. Today, we’ll explore why habits are so powerful and what you can do to take advantage of an amazing source of power within your own life.
Your Stomach Has Habits
For our purposes, we’ll define a habit as something you do consistently, with little or no conscious effort or decision-making. One simple example that illustrates this point is a habit most all of us have: eating breakfast. When you wake up in the morning, how much time do you spend thinking about whether or not you’ll have breakfast? If you’re like me, none. I may spend a minute thinking about what I’ll have for breakfast, but I never deliberate on whether or not to eat it–I’m hungry and breakfast will be eaten!
Other examples of habits may include listening to a certain radio station on the way to work in the morning, visiting the vending machine at 2:30 each afternoon, or taking your spouse our for dinner one Friday each month.
So what does this have to do with finding incredible power and effectiveness on your path to thriving? The secret lies in the cumulative force of months and years of positive habits. One clear example of this power is shown by bodybuilders, strength trainers, runners, and Olympians. Look at an athlete who engages in one of these activities and experiences success. What did they look like last week? Last month? Last year?
The answer is that they made it to where they are currently via steady progress. Like the stream of water that eroded a large rock, these athletes made gains one day at a time. They ate right and hit the gym while everyone else was pigging out and goofing off, and now they sit at the head of the pack as a result.
Winning in Your Life
You don’t have to have the fire of an Olympian to benefit from this concept. Just take this principle and apply it to whatever area of your life where you desire dramatic improvement. If you want to be a great dad, but have thusfar been lacking, decide today to spend 30 minutes every day on improving. This could mean helping your daughter color for 30 minutes, going for a bike ride with your son, or reading a book on parenting. The point is, it’s got to be a habit. 30 minutes, every day [or 5 days a week, at very least].
Perhaps you’re dissatisfied with your financial life–you know you should be doing a budget but you just can’t stick with it. The answer is habit. Block out a set time each week to spend time on your finances. During this time (say Monday nights from 7-8), balance your budget, pay your bills, set and track your goals, or read a good book on personal finance.
The First Step
As in our example, your physical fitness is a great area to test this idea and see real and dramatic results within a relatively short period of time. If you don’t currently have a fitness regimen, try this: put your workout clothes on every day, starting today. I don’t even care if you work out at first–just put your workout clothes on, every day. Once they’re on, how about doing a few jumping jacks? Get your heart moving, even if just for 5 minutes. Then, carry on with your evening as normal, you’re done for the day. Tomorrow, get the workout clothes on again. Try some pushups or squats, or maybe one of the workouts posted in the ThriveFit section of the site. But do something, and keep it up, every day.
If you’ll do this, committing to doing something every single day, you’ll look up a month from now and notice huge gains in your fitness level. You’re getting there one day at a time, just like Olympians do.
Habits for Eternity
Finally, consider your spiritual life. Do you have any habits that will feed your soul? Do you attend a church with gospel-centered preaching where the Word is shared each week? Do you seek the Lord in prayer, or read the Bible to commune with Him? If not, you are missing profound wisdom, comfort, love and hope from the Father who loves you more than anyone else. Will you begin today by seeking Him in prayer?
By adopting these habitual practices–spending time working on an area of your life where you desire improvement–you will gradually begin thriving, with success building on success. The next thing you know, you’ll be standing on the mountain heralding to others that they can get there too. All they’ll is a little encouragement and a few good habits!
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Worthy of Praise
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Life can get pretty hectic in our fast-paced world! If you’re like me, you rush through breakfast and your morning routine to get to work on time, spend the day on various projects, get a workout in, cook dinner, kids to bed, chores, snack, and crash into bed. Just writing it all out makes me tired!
Add to all that the pursuit of a thriving life and you’ve got a full plate! But if we’re not careful, this “pedal to the metal” living can wear on us, even working against us in the pursuit of a successful life.
The best medicine for a life starting to spin out of control is a time of quiet reverence in the presence of God. While it can be easy to neglect spiritual matters when life gets busy, it’s vital that we take time to commune with our heavenly Father, as we will find in Him the peace and satisfaction that can be found nowhere else.
Psalm 145 is a great passage to bring praise to God and foster a time of meditation and prayer:
1I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
2Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.
3Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.
4One generation will commend your works to another;
they will tell of your mighty acts.
5They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.b
6They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
7They will celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
8The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.
9The Lord is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made.
The Psalmist begins in reverence of His creator–exalting him as King. God’s name is lifted high in praise. When we approach God, recognizing his authority and glory, we find our hearts softened and open to His life-giving Word.
In verse 3, we read that no one can fathom the greatmess of God. Though we see the splendor of God in His Word, creation, and in our lives personally, we can never fully comprehend his greatness. The highest thoughts we can imagine fall terribly short of his true glory, power, and greatness.
We do well to speak to one another of the great works that God has accomplished throughout history. From the awesome display of his power in creation, his wrath against rebellious men at the flood and the Red Sea, to his infinite mercy in sending a Savior to redeem us from death, the Lord has displayed His greatness to us. We do well to consider his works, call them to mind regularly, and speak them to each other all throughout the day.
How thankful we are that verse 8 speaks the truth! God is slow to anger–allowing us time to recognize the insanity of sin, turn from it and to him, where he waits with open arms to freely forgive. Praise God that Jesus has made a way for our forgiveness through His atoning death on the cross!
The Lord is good to all, according to verse 9, and He has compassion on all He has made. Even those who hate him enjoy the blessings of rain, sunshine, laughter, and love. God is rich in mercy and allows us sinners chance after chance to spurn our rebellious ways, give up our lives to Him, and place our faith and hope in Him alone.
If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, thank God for his grace and mercy, and turn to Him today. Though you now stand guilty before the all-powerful just judge, you can yet be saved from the punishment you deserve. Because Jesus lived a perfect life, His torture and death has paid the debt that you owe. Trust in Him alone for salvation, give your heart to Him, and He will wash you white as snow.
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Why Go?
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
What do you do with good news? When you hear that a friend’s baby was born, do you keep it quiet? When you try a new restaurant and find the food to be amazing, do you hide the place from others? Of course not! We love to share good news with our friends, and it’s very satisfying to see another person take advantage of a great opportunity we’ve found and enlightened them about. But what about the greatest news of all? Are we good sharers of this news?
The news I’m referring to is the gospel of Christ—the truth that Jesus came down from heaven to become man, live a perfect life, and die on the cross as payment for the sin that His people had committed. The news that by turning from our sin and putting our faith in him, we can be washed clean and given a new life, to serve out Lord and work for His purposes. And that a relationship with Christ will make our joy complete and allow us to spend eternity in the blissful worship of our Savior and Creator.
Surely there can be no better news than this! And yet, so often we are quiet about these truths to the people who need to hear it most—our friends and neighbors. Steven Curtis Chapman paints the craziness of this in the following metaphor:
Imagine this…I get a phone call from Regis
He says, “Do you want to be a millionaire?”
They put me on the show and I win with two lifelines to spare
Now picture this…I act like nothing ever happened
And bury all the money in a coffee can
Well, I’ve been given more than Regis ever gave away
I was a dead man who was called to come out of my grave
We wouldn’t hide the fact that we received a huge treasure if it came in dollar bills, so in the same way, we should naturally tell others about the huge treasure we received from Jesus in redemption. Not only has our debt of sin been paid, but we have received riches beyond imagination both in this life and in the life to come through the blessing of God Almighty.
It is for the purpose of sharing this great gospel that I will embark on a trip with my local church this summer to Indiahoma, Oklahoma. Calvary Baptist Church in Lenexa, Kansas will be sending a team to Indiahoma to help a local church host a Vacation Bible School for the kids of the town. We will also be reaching out to the community by hosting a neighborhood barbeque and conducting a worship service. We will be seeking opportunities to tell everyone we meet about the love of Jesus Christ and his gospel.
If you would like to be a part of this outreach, we would appreciate your fervent prayers. Pray that God would show us His will, that we would be filled with His Spirit, and that He would prepare the hearts of those whom we will meet.
Secondly, if you would take a few moments to check out the ThriveMart store by clicking the “Store” link on the top right of this page, you’ll find a plethora of exceptional products designed to make your life easier and simpler. All profit made on purchases in the month of June will go directly to the Indiahoma Mission Trip fund, so you can buy products you need and support local missions at the same time!
If you have any questions about any of the products or the 180-day satisfaction guarantee, please don’t hesitate to send a message. Thanks for your support and may the gospel be ever on your lips!
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Equipped
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Today’s post is a devotional on John 20:19-23. This story takes place just after Jesus’ resurrection, and from it, we’ll learn four ways that Jesus equips us to take His gospel to the world.
19So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23“If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
He Seeks Us
The first way that Jesus equips us to share the gospel with others is by seeking us where we are, even when we are not seeking Him. In verse 19, we read that the disciples were not looking for Jesus, even though He had told them many times that he would rise on the third day after His crucification. Instead, they had locked themselves in a room in an attempt to keep safe from those who hated Jesus and succeeded in killing Him. Yet, Jesus sought them out anyway.
Notice also that Jesus met the disciples where they were in terms of belief. They clearly did not believe His words that He would rise again, but rather than harshly condemn them for their lack of faith in Him, he offered them to touch the wounds of His hands and side. In the same way, Jesus is patient with us and our small faith. When we doubt His words that He can give us a new life, make us a new person when we trust Him as Lord and Savior, he begins showing us in little and big ways, the extent of His awesome power to transform lives.
Jesus seeks after us even when we don’t seek after him. Just like the disciples in the story, many unbelievers have come to faith in Christ not by seeking out a church in the phone book and attending regularly in order to find the Truth, but instead found Jesus at their rock bottom—prison, near-suicide, or in the midst of trying times. Jesus finds us when we need most, and this shows how amazing his grace is! He doesn’t wait for us to deserve salvation, rather, He gives us what we desperately need but can never obtain on our own–forgiveness and eternal life with Him.
Calming Fears
The second way that Jesus equips us to share His gospel is by calming our fears. In the story, the disciples were clearly afraid, so much so that they hid in a locked upper room. Like these men, we face fears of all sorts living the Christian life in a hostile world. John 16:33 says, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” Jesus tells us that we will face challenges in this world, but He also tells us that He is with us. As He calmed the disciples fears through His steadfast love and comforting voice, let Him ease your fears today. Call out to Him in prayer, and trust in His promise, “lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20).
As the Father Sent Him
The third way that Jesus equips us to share His gospel with the world is by sending us in the same manner that the Father sent Him. This we read in verse 21, and we take comfort in knowing that Christ himself blazed the path for the Truth to enter the world. We are simply to follow in His footsteps. There are many aspects in which our mission and Christ’s were similar. Two of the clearest are as follows.
First, His mission was difficult. Though He performed countless miracles and spoke with wisdom greater than any other, many hated Him. Just the same, when we share the Truth with those who reject Christ, we will gain many enemies. And yet, as Christ pressed on in spite of opposition, pain, and discouraging circumstances, so must we do as we tell others of His love.
Second, His mission brought glory to God. When Jesus took the sin of the entire world upon Himself and endured the punishment we deserved on the cross, He redeemed His people back to Himself! Though we had rebelled and cursed our Creator, Jesus made a way for our forgiveness and justification. Hallelujah, what a Savior! Like Jesus, we bring glory to God as we shine as lights in a dark world. In sharing the gospel of Christ, we glorify the Father in heaven (see Philippians 2:10-11).
The Holy Spirit
The final way that Jesus equips us to take His gospel to the world is by giving us the Holy Spirit. Having the Holy Spirit in us unleashes the power of God to work through us. The moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your heart (see 1 Corinthians 6:19). What an incredible blessing to have the God of the universe abiding in our heart! What power is ours, what effectiveness for winning souls, if we will bit recognize that God is in us—powerfully able to speak with wisdom, grace, and truth if we will boldly go where the gospel message needs to be heard.
In Acts 2:1-13, the Holy Spirit allowed the disciples to proclaim the works of God in every tongue. Those who saw the sight were astounded! But this same God, this same Holy Spirit is in us! Let us allow Christ to deepen our faith, and prepare to stand in awe before the work God will do through us, His people.
- Jesus seeks us out where we are and makes himself known to us
- Jesus appeared to the disciples
- In a closed room (v19). He took the initiative—they didn’t go to the synagogue or the Mount of Olives to look for Him
- Where they were in terms of belief. He showed them evidence that He was the risen Christ (v20).
- Jesus finds us and saves us
- Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
- John 3:16 says, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
- Jesus appeared to the disciples
- Jesus calms our fears by his presence
- We have real fears in this life
- The disciples feared persecution from the Jews (v19)
- We will face difficulties too. John 16:33 says, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
- Twice, Jesus calmed the disciples’ fears (v19, v21). He is patient with our fears (lack of faith)
- Because Jesus was with them, they found joy despite their fears (v20)
- We have real fears in this life
- Jesus sends us in the same way the Father sent Him
- Jesus’ mission was difficult; He has told us ours will be too
- Jesus’ mission brought glory to God, as does our fulfillment of the Great Commission (see Philippians 2:10-11)
- Jesus fills us with the Holy Spirit
- 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”
- Having the Holy Spirit in us unleashes the power of God to work through us
- In Acts 2:1-13, the Holy Spirit allowed the disciples to proclaim the works of God in every tongue.
- Jesus granted the disciples power to forgive or retain sins by the Holy Spirit (v23).
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What a Trip!
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
I had the incredible privilege a few weeks ago to travel with a group from my church, Calvary Baptist, to Indiahoma, Oklahoma. We partnered with a local church in that area, Post Oak Mennonite Brethren, to host a Vacation Bible School for the kids and reach out to the community through fun events and worship services. Today, I’ll share some of the great experiences we shared together as we proclaimed the gospel of Christ with these wonderful brothers and sisters.
First off, let me take a moment to express a heartfelt thank you to all of you who purchased products from our store during the month of July. All proceeds from these sales went to support our team, covering expenses associated with the trip. Your prayers and financial support were instrumental in the success the Lord gave us, and we are deeply grateful.
Our trip began early Wednesday morning, when we crammed 16 people into two vehicles: a 15-passenger van with virtually NO storage space for luggage and our leader Eric’s Highlander. Eric and Brian were our gracious drivers on the 10.5-hour trip (including a few stops!) We all had lots of fun playing catch phrase, telling jokes and stories, and listening to Lydia practice her ABCs.
We arrived around dinnertime, and met our fabulous host, Victor. Several families had offered to open their homes to us, so we split off into groups of 3-5 to unpack our stuff and get settled in for the night. A small group of us headed for Walmart at 9:00 pm to load up on food and supplies. We filled four carts with food for the week, and after a rousing round of the Price is Right, Travis came away victorious by guessing closest to the $400 total price without going over!
We decided to swing by Sonic on the way home to pick up drinks for everyone and a second dinner for me (the running joke of the trip was how I was seemingly eating constantly… Sue me—I like food!! but noticed as we pulled up that there was only one minute until closing time! Thankfully, a voice answered when we pushed the button, “Did you have a call-in order?” “No,” we replied. “Oh, well then we’re closed!” Bummer!! Thankfully, I had some snap peas, bananas, and mixed nuts from our shopping trip, so I tore into those…
The next morning we all met at 7:00 am for a quick continental breakfast and devotional. I shared a lesson from the book of John, encouraging our group to thank and trust our Lord Jesus Christ, who has equipped us to share his Gospel with the world. To learn more about this devotional, see the TotalThriver post from two weeks ago.
After our lesson, we headed over to the church to prepare for VBS. Brian manned the registration table, recording each child’s info and giving them a name tag. Brian was our emcee and storyteller, and poured so much energy and enthusiasm into his role that no one could keep from laughing and learning! One of his favorite things to do to get the kids’ attention was to scream, “Feet!!” to which all of us pounded our feet on the ground. Then, “Hands!!” and we would follow with thunderous applause. Next, “Mouth” and we would all hoot and holler. And finally, “Quiet!” and believe it or not, quiet swept over the room. Pretty good trick, huh?
Our theme for the week was Psalm 100. We all practiced saying it together, and all our stories and lessons were related to this theme. Psalm 100 is as follows:
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! 3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! 5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
The first day, we heard the story of Paul and Barnabas in Lystra from the book of Acts. The people there worshiped false gods such as Zeus and Poseidon, and had a legend that the gods would come in their midst incognito. When Paul and Barnabas performed miracles through the power of Christ, the people began to worship them as gods! Paul and Barnabas were insistent that they were not gods, rather they were simply servants of the one true God. The people then turned on them and sought to stone them to death. Paul was left for dead, yet survived, and Paul and Barnabas left the city rejoicing that they had been able to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the city.
The story was a hit and we all shuffled off to our individual classes to practice the memory verse and discuss the story. The kids were all very sharp and asked such great and transparent questions, as only kids can do. We followed class time with games (capture the Frisbee) and crafts. Finally, we all came back together in the sanctuary for music and closing time. Michelle and I lead the music, which ended up being a mix of classic hymns like “Are you washed in the blood,” contemporary choruses like, “praise ye the Lord, hallelujah,” and fun and silly songs like, “Hip-hip-hip-hippopotamus!” My chords on the guitar were nowhere near clean and perfect, but either no one noticed or they were to kind to let on!
After a nice lunch at the church and a short nap for the kids, we headed off to climb Mount Scott in the Witchita mountain range. Before you’re too impressed though, we climbed to the top using our 15-passenger van. That’s right, it was paved the whole way! But, in true TotalThriver fashion, I did take the opportunity to free-climb down the 80-degree or so slope. Coming back up was actually easier than going down—I think because I knew what to expect, and had fewer fears of sliding down to my demise…
For dinner that night, we had a special night out at a historical local restaurant. Meers Store and Restaurant has been in business since 1901! I ordered the steak and the waitress brought out a delicious-looking slab of raw meat and a knife. I chose how thick a cut I wanted and began the cut, then she took it back to the kitchen where they finished the cut and cooked it to a perfect medium-rare. I’m not much of one for restaurant steaks, as I prefer the charcoal grill on my back deck, but I’ll tell you what—that was in the top five restaurant steaks I’ve had in my life! We left the restaurant that night stuffed full and content from a glorious day!
Our second day of VBS centered around the story of Creation. We talked about how Genesis tells us that God spoke the universe into existence. He is the one true God because He is the One who created all things. On days one, two and three, we learned that God made the places for his creation: (1) separating light from darkness, (2) separating the waters above from the waters below, and (3) separating the land from the seas. On the next three days, he filled those places with: (4) the moon and stars, (5) the birds and fish, and (6) animals and man.
The highlight of our class time that day was a fierce battle, boys vs. girls, answering questions about the story. I held yarn of various lengths in my hand, and every time your team got a question right, you drew a piece of yarn and added it to your line. Whoever string went farthest was the winner, and those boys managed to swipe the win in the closing seconds! It was a blast for everyone!
After the kids went home, our team split into the guys and the ladies. The ladies took to the kitchen to organize and clean from top to bottom. The men headed up the block to an old gymnasium belonging to the church. Unfortunately, this gym had burned down recently, so there were piles of beams and roof material in piles around the concrete pad. It was our job to load everything into a trailer and haul it away. Our gracious host Victor allowed us to use his SUV and trailer. Eric pulled the vehicle around and parked near the piles, then ran off to do something. I noticed that he’d left quite a bit of space between the trailer and the piles, so I told Travis to back it up closer. “No way!” he replied, “I don’t know how to back up a trailer.” “So what,” I replied, “neither do I; how had could it be?” In I hopped, and jammed the car into reverse. I then noticed that no matter which way I turned the wheel, I couldn’t get the trailer to move in the direction I wanted. “Crunch,” went the trailer into the back headlight of the SUV. “Oh man! Apparently this is tricky!” Well, needles to say, I learned how to back up a trailer the hard way. I told Victor vehemently many times that I was paying for the headlight replacement, but he would have none of it. “You all don’t get country folk—we slap a band-aid on it and keep going. No big deal.” I have half a mind to send him a check anyway—if I can figure out how to do it without making him mad!
You might think that the most dangerous part of moving piles of wood that have been sitting out for months would have been the snakes, spiders, and scorpions who make these piles their happy home. Or, perhaps you’d think that the most dangerous moment was when Travis and I constructed a fulcrum in order to break the long boards in half to fit in the trailer and were precariously balanced each on one side of the lever, bouncing up and down. But no, none of this led to trouble—it was Brian looking up while walking that resulted in a nail penetrating his shoe, sock, and toe, driving clear out the top of his big toe! Ouch! He pulled it out and headed for the bathtub for some serious scrubbing. Thankfully, his latest tetanus shot was a few weeks ago! Pray for his healthy recovery!
That night, we led a special worship service for the town. Michelle and I led music, with the church’s pianist playing for us. Our first song that evening was sung in the language of the people of the church. It was very beautiful, and we did our best to keep up. Eric gave the message, discussing the sacred union of a man and wife in marriage. We learned how marriage is a dramatic picture of Christ and the church, and that we men are to love our wives as Christ loves the church, and gave himself up for her. We were all encouraged and moved by this excellent sermon, and it was very clear that the members of the church were deeply touched as well.
Our third and final day of VBS, we learned the most important story of all: Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. We talked about how, because of Adam’s sin, we are all born in rebellion against God. Because God is Holy, he cannot allow us in His presence. And because God is just, He cannot overlook our sin as if it simply did not exist. Jesus came to the earth, took on the form of a man, and lived a perfect and sinless life. At Calvary, He took our sin upon Himself and endured the punishment we deserved. When he breathed His last, the curtain separating God from His people was torn in two, and on the third day, Christ rose again to demonstrate His power over death, hallelujah!! As I’ve experienced in the past, I was amazed how children can grasp such complex ideas and communicate them back so simply. One girl in our class shared with us, “to be saved, you just need to know your ABCs—Admit you’re a sinner, Believe in Jesus, and Confess Jesus as your Lord.” Wow! This must be what our Lord meant when He spoke of the faith of a child being the only kind of faith that saves!
That afternoon we went to the nearby Army base with several families from the church. There was a beautiful lake with a sandy beach for the kids to play on, and the view of the nearby mountain range was spectacular. The sun was hot but the water was cool, and we even got to go down a big water slide! Lydia and Nathan loved it, and even managed to avoid a sunburn somehow!
As usual, our loving Calvary ladies took care of the kids at the beach. Cheryl and Chrysti were so kind and gracious to watch the kids and both Lydia and Nathan formed a deep bond with all these loving ladies. As seems always to be the case on these trips, we sought out to bless another church on this trip, but found our own community blessed more than anything else. We were so thankful for the time we spent together and the closeness we found as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Sunday morning after the church service, we said our sad goodbyes. Lord willing, we will return again to Indiahoma to see our friends again, but the day we really look forward to is the one coming soon when we will all praise out Lord Jesus Christ together in heaven. Father, hasten that day!!
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Getting There
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
How can we get from where we are today to the places in life where we want to be? How can we become the people that we want to be—that God made us to be? In a word, incrementally!
Fitter by the Day
One of the clearest examples I know of this principle is manifested in physical fitness. No one has ever turned from an overweight couch potato overnight. But many people have changed from a person 30 pounds overweight to a person 25 pounds overweight with an improved cardiovascular system. The activities, attitudes, and habits that brought the 5-pound transformation are the very ones that bring the 8-pound transformation the next month, and eventually result in a healthy, fit person with great eating habits.
Follow a Winner
The key in this area, as well as many other areas where this principle applies, is to find people who are where you want to be. That means people who are 8 steps ahead of you and people who are 2 steps ahead of you. By recognizing that they have the character, faith, or habit you want, you can then begin to model the life they live. You can see the choices they make, the council they follow, and the way they press on. As you watch them thrive and grow, you’ll be inspired to do the things it takes to take yourself to the next level.
One word of caution—do not be overwhelmed when you meet those people who are leaps and bounds ahead of you. If you go the gym and see someone snatching twice what you’re capable of, it can be discouraging to see that you have so far to go. Instead of allowing this discouragement to reign, let yourself see this person as having what you want long-term, and be happy for them in their success. Do not try to reach their place overnight, rather, identify your next level. What are the people doing who are just in front of you doing that you’re not? What are they reading or listening to that you’re not? How do they cultivate optimism and confidence in their lives?
Identify, Model, Own, Repeat
By recognizing the actions and attitudes you need to reach that next level, you’re most of the way there. As you begin to incorporate these practices into your life and being, you move that much closer to the place you’d like to be. And now that you’ve done it once, you need only take another step to reach an even higher level. Be intentional about those whom you choose to spend time around—they must be thriving in at least a few areas to a greater degree than you are, so that you can see what it takes and model their behavior. Not only that, but they must be growing themselves so that you can continue to learn from them. As we all walk this road together, we fulfill God’s design as expressed in Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
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The Secret to Riches
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Ever wish you could get a hefty raise? Want to enjoy some of the finer things in life as you climb to the top? Read on to find the secret to advancement and wealth that many don’t know and even fewer practice.
Work harder than everyone around you.
Too Simple?
After reading such simple advice, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “yeah right! I work hard and I never get promoted! The way I see it, I’m stuck being paid basically what my salary is now, so I may as well coast through the day as best I can to at least enjoy myself a little.” Don’t let this lie get you—instead, follow the sage advice of Scripture:
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24)
Good Work, Not More Work
Note that the verse says “with all your heart.” We should not misconstrue hard work with excessive time spent at the office, rather, there should be a focus on productivity and enthusiasm, behaving as if you were doing work personally for a king, not just a client or a boss.
This kind of excellence in your work will get you rewarded. It may take time, and it may not be from within your current company or industry, but as God promises, He will see to your reward. Not only this, but there is a very practical benefit that comes with pouring yourself into the work at hand and doing your very best: you learn things. As you accomplish work in one week that your neighbor would streach out to two, you’ve effectively gained one week of experience over him. You are more seasoned and capable, and as this pattern continues over time, you’ll become the “go-to guy” in many areas of your business. Your neighbor thought he was getting a better deal by taking the same salary as you while doing less work, but long-term, he’s actually been cheating himself.
Don’t Believe It?
As usual, I challenge you to test these claims in your everyday life. While this is a simple and easily-understood principle, a person who’ll put it in practice is quite a rarity in today’s workplace. Besides, you’ve got nothing to lose but inexperience and a low salary!
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Follow Your Heart?
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
In many of today’s movies and TV shows, the lesson is put forth that we should follow our hearts above all else. From Disney cartoons to adult-rated dramas, the idea that what is best for us is to look deep within ourselves and do that which we inwardly desire. But will this philosophy really bring blessing to our lives?
Hidden Assumptions
Oftentimes, ideas that seem pleasant on their surface carry along with them disastrous and erroneous assumptions which are not readily apparent. When we are not vigilant to test the truth claims of the society around us, we can mistakenly believe some of these pleasant-sounding lies, right along with the errors contained in them.
In this case, the assumption that lies within the “follow your heart” advice is this: your inner self is perfect and righteous. This claim lies in stark opposition to Scripture, which teaches us the following:
The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?
(Jeremiah 17:9)
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
(Romans 7:21-22)
The Corruption of Our Wills
We know that God created us in His image, and that our earthly father Adam was initially without sin. Yet when Adam rebelled against God in the Garden, he shattered the perfect nature he was given. Because of his sin, we, his children, have been born corrupted, bent away from the will of God and inclined toward selfishness and self-centered living.
When we look to our inner selves for direction and purpose, we will find nothing but emptiness and ruin. How many men have abandoned their wives and families because their hearts told them to pursue a fling with a woman at the office? How many youths have traded their bright future for a life of addiction because their first hit felt like heaven? Perhaps your own experiences have been less drastic than these examples, but have they not left you empty and unsatisfied?
The Way to Life
There is a better way to live. Jesus came to give us life, and that abundantly—His atoning death on the cross bought us peace on this earth and with our Father in heaven. Because He died to take the penalty of your sin and mine, we can be washed clean by placing our faith in Him as Savior and Lord. He rose from the grave to demonstrate His power over death, and sits now at the right hand of God the Father.
As Christians, we live not to follow our own inner desires, but rather to serve our Lord and Giver of Life. Living each day to bring God glory will not only fill the emptiness in a way “following your heart” never could, but your life will bring a smile to the face of the Lord Jesus Christ—on the day He welcomes you into His paradise with those wonderful words, “well done, my good and faithful servant!”
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You Need a Smaller Vocabulary
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Do you know why you only achieve small victories in your life? Why you may hope or wish for a grand success, but make only meager progress? Why you’ve always dreamed of making a big impact on the world but can’t seem to turn those dreams into reality? The answer is in your vocabulary. You see, you’re letting the word, “impossible” spoil your mind.
But Don’t Jump Off a Building
Don’t misunderstand—there are certain rules of the world we live in which are not to be toyed with; gravity for instance. I’m not saying that you can fly if you just start with a great mental attitude. But I am saying that we are all apt to grossly underestimate our capabilities. When we make up our mind that our dream cannot be done, we have ensured that it will not.
Garbage In, Garbage Out
Your mind is an incredible and powerful machine, and in many ways it is programmed by what you pour into it. When you repeat to yourself that a certain goal or dream is impossible, your mind goes to work to find all the ways that the thing is impossible. If you surround yourself with negative programming (most TV shows) and negative people, you’re programming your mind to bring you failure. On the other hand, if you toss the word, “impossible” out of your vocabulary, you do the opposite—you begin programming your mind to find the ways to achieve the goal you’ve set before it.
A Lesson from the Master
When your goals are in line with God’s plan and you’re programming your mind to seek ways to fulfill your vision, you are in a wonderful place indeed. I believe that this is the concept which Jesus was teaching in this passage in Matthew 17:
14When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, 15“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16“I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” 17And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.
19Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” 20And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.
Trying Hard Isn’t Enough
Jesus tells the disciples that their lack of faith was the root cause of their inability. Although it appears that the disciples were trying hard to drive out the demon, nevertheless they failed because they did not believe. In order to succeed in that which is difficult, we must first choose to believe that that which we seek is possible. Once we can see the goal clearly and accept that we will be able to reach it, our minds can go to work figuring out how to make it happen. Oftentimes, God will give us ideas along the way that lead us in the right direction. And finally, we must use our minds, passion, and resources to take action toward reaching the goal.
Ok, I Get It
A simple concept, huh? As with most things, this idea is not difficult to understand. Yet, how hard it is to practice! It is a great challenge to believe a thing possible when circumstances seem to indicate otherwise, and all one’s loser friends surround the idea with negativity and discouragement. But of how sweet the reward is for those who will believe their dreams and take action to achieve them.
How about you? What do you dream of becoming or achieving? Are you handicapping yourself by repeating, “it’s impossible,” whenever the dream pops back into your mind? Release yourself from the self-imposed bondage and take action today toward the goal set before you. You have nothing to lose but mediocrity!
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Check Your Heart
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
We often discuss the habits and principles for becoming wealthy here at TotalThriver. But if we pursue financial gain with the wrong heart, we are setting ourselves up for disaster. Today we’ll examine the Master’s teachings on wealth, and learn from him the proper attitudes and perspective.
In Luke 12, we read:
13Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
The Man’s Heart
I love how Jesus always sees us for what we are. The man in this story asks what might seem to us to be a legitimate question. He wants Jesus to instruct his brother to give him half of his father’s estate. Notice how Jesus goes straight to the heart of this issue: “be on your guard against covetousness.”
The man’s request had little to do estate planning or arbitration and everything to do with his jealousy toward the possessions of his brother. Not only is this a violation of the tenth commandment, but the man has the audacity to imply wrongdoing on the part of his brother. No doubt this did not foster a good relationship between the man and his brother.
Looking out for Number One
Jesus explains the foolishness of pursing wealth with the wrong heart in His usual way: through a parable. The man in the parable had an abundance of wealth, but instead of being thankful to God and praising Him, using the resources to glorify God and help others, the man is solely concerned with his personal comfort. He plans how he will use his resources to bless himself, and unlike wealthy and righteous Job, does not use his riches for the glory and worship of God.
Too late, the man in the parable realizes how temporal worldly riches are. He had the opportunity to use his money to expand the kingdom of God, thereby storing up treasure in heaven. But instead, he sought wealth only for himself and his own security and comfort.
What About You?
Are you like either of these men? Does your heart hold jealousy toward others who have greater riches than you? Do you desire that some of their money be taken from them and given to you? Or, are you like the man in the parable, focused on what you can get for yourself, and indifferent about the kingdom of God and the ways that your money can be used for His glory?
Father God, help us to resist the lies that the world teaches on the value and use of money. Let us seek financial gain honestly, and use it for your purposes and your purposes alone. By your grace, may it be so in my heart and each one who reads these words.
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Need a Lift?
By admin
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Do you ever get discouraged? Most of us can get excited about a new opportunity when we first hear of it (especially if we’re not yet too jaded!) But what do you do when the initial fire wears off and you come face to face with difficulties, discouragement, and obstacles?
When You Need a Friend….
In times when you’re struggling, don’t you just wish that a warm, kind friend would seek you out, give you an encouraging word and a thoughtful, sincere compliment? What if I told you that you could be assured this pick-me-up anytime you desired it? Would you be interested?
…Be One!
Here’s how you get the vital encouragement you need to pick yourself up when times get tough: encourage others. No, I don’t mean that you should encourage friends and neighbors today, in hopes that they’ll reciprocate in the days to come (although that may also happen). Instead, I’m encouraging you to seek out someone to pay a compliment to because that action will actually encourage you as much, if not more, than it does them.
Building, Building, Building Others Up
The reason why this works falls into the large category of things I don’t quite understand. I don’t know why it brings us such great encouragement when we encourage others—I only know very simply and clearly that it does. Incidentally, this idea is something we parents always teach our kids; however, like so many simple concepts that fill children’s books, we adults never seem to practice them!
Be the Leader
If your environment is anything like the workplaces and neighborhoods that most of us live in, the practice of an unsolicited and sincere compliment will be somewhat foreign to you. It is difficult to start a healthy habit when it’s not modeled for you, but then again, readers of TotalThriver are trailblazers anyway, right??? Thankfully, this practice is one that’s relatively easy to start—people really do appreciate compliments, whether they’re your colleague, boss, or just someone you occasionally pass by.
A Win-Win Situation
Make your compliment specific, genuine, and personal. When you notice a job well done, a positive attitude, or a bright idea, take a moment to share your delight. Whether it’s something small or a significant victory, both you and the recipient of your compliment will leave the encounter happier, more positive, and energized for success. Consider your fire rekindled!
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Why Do Clean Hands Matter?
By admin
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Whoever loves Christ has the remarkable privilege of adoption into God’s family. Since we call God Father, we may inadvertently diminish His great power and His holy wrath toward those who oppose Him. The following excerpt from Psalm 18 depicts God in his mighty majesty and power, and reminds us that in times when those who pit themselves against God seek to harm us, our Father yet holds the strength and the will to bring down those who lift themselves up.
Psalm 18
13The LORD also thundered in the heavens,
And the Most High uttered His voice,
Hailstones and coals of fire.
14He sent out His arrows, and scattered them,
And lightning flashes in abundance, and routed them.
15Then the channels of water appeared,
And the foundations of the world were laid bare
At Your rebuke, O LORD,
At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
16He sent from on high, He took me;
He drew me out of many waters.
17He delivered me from my strong enemy,
And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
18They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
But the LORD was my stay.
19He brought me forth also into a broad place;
He rescued me, because He delighted in me.
20The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.
21For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
And have not wickedly departed from my God.
22For all His ordinances were before me,
And I did not put away His statutes from me.
Nature Obeys Him
In verses 13-15 we get a clear picture of the massive strength and power of our Mighty God. The elements of this earth obey His every word, as he sends forth lightning to scatter groups of men who would oppose Him.
The psalmist remembers past times when the Lord has delivered him from his enemies. Strength and safety was found in the secure presence of God himself. This haven was provided to the psalmist because God delighted in him. He chose righteousness and clean hands, rather than falling to the temptation that undoubtedly surrounded him.
What You Place Before Your Eyes
See in verse 22 how the psalmist continued to keep the ways of the Lord: by keeping God’s Laws before his eyes. This is a great example for us to follow—day by day placing the statutes of the Lord in front of us, that we might live in them.
To those who do not understand the ways of God and who He is, it seems silly and pointless to place such restrictions upon ourselves. For example, why would we choose to “miss out” on all the fun of casual sex or drunken partying? Many who engage in these things seem to do just fine, and disaster and destruction don’t necessarily rain down on them. But there is wisdom in the words of this Psalm, and in the example set by the psalmist. By living God’s way when it seems that we could “get away” with behavior that displeases Him, we are storing up a reward (v20) with Him who holds all things in His Hands.
What Will That Day Be Like?
Days of struggle and even oppression by the unrighteous occur in the lives of Christians more often than we’d like to think about. When these days come for you, how will you face them? Will you confidently rest in the comforting protection of your Father God, or will you look back in regret at all the times you broke and disregarded the statutes of the One who stands in power over all things?
In our culture, it can be so easy to push the Laws of God into the back corners of our mind—to focus on so many things which fill our schedules, until there’s no time for reading God’s Word or talking with Him. Let’s encourage each other to adopt some new habits of placing the statutes of God ever before our eyes. Let’s work as a group to grow in righteousness and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may face our enemies and disasters with clean hands and a pure heart, watching what our Mighty God will do in defense of His children!
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Not Too Busy to Understand
By admin
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Attributed to: admin
During this season of the year, there are many delightful traditions and customs that promote joy, togetherness, and fun! Whether it’s a jolly fellow dressed in a Santa suit greeting children, a neighborhood party, or Christmas carolers going door to door, there are many great experiences to be had and joy to be shared. And although we should enjoy and embrace these positive times with family and friends, there one very important thing about Christmas we must take care not to overlook.
Look Deeper
In the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, it can be easy for us to rush from one thing to the next, focusing on the task at hand and missing the beauty around us. Instead of being sucked into this frantic activity, we’ll do well to pause and remember what Christmas is about. It is about the love we share with others, but there is a truth deeper than even this lovely sentiment. That truth is this: that when we were estranged and distant from our Creator, God came down from heaven to be born a helpless baby in a dirty stable. Why would the glorious and all-powerful Maker of all things step down from glory to enter the world in such a humiliating way? Could the One who made the stars and the seas not manage to find a house to be born in?
God’s Gracious Plan
The humility of Christ’s birth was only exceeded by his humility in death, hanging naked on a cross, and these events both took place as they did for the same reason. That is, Christ came to the earth for us. He lowered himself to the form of a man so that He could live the perfect life that we never could. Jesus kept God’s Law perfectly, never transgressing with even a single step. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he was betrayed into the hands of evil men, suffered torture and an agonizing death, in order to pay your debt and mine. The punishment he suffered was the punishment we deserved. But as he takes on our sin, we can, through faith, take on His purity. Christ’s blood washes us white as snow, if only we will turn from our sin and trust Him exclusively for salvation and cleansing. Our own good works can never save us, but His perfect life, death, and resurrection will.
Christ Now Lives in Me
This Christmas season, as you enjoy the joy in the air and the wonderful times with family, remember why Christ’s birth is reason to celebrate. Live not for yourself, but for Him—do what He taught and love what He loves. Share Him with others who don’t know the peace and joy found in Christ alone, and follow Him as a disciple-making disciple, day by day by day.
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The Intimidated Witness?
By admin
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Attributed to: admin
Caught Red-Handed
Imagine you walked into a grocery store just in time to see a young man slip an item off the shelf and into his pocket. As he turns toward the exit, a security guard grabs his arm, saying, “Come with me, sir.” The man ends up being arrested, and you are called as a witness to the court.
What would you feel like, being asked to honestly tell your story to the court? Would you be hesitant, or would you share clearly and confidently the plain facts of the day? Would you tell your friends and coworkers what had happened?
The Medicine You Need
Or, take a more positive example: let’s say you came down with a terrible disease. You began losing function in your fingers and toes, and doctors told you that you only had a few months to live. Then one day, a bottle of medicine is sitting on your kitchen table, marked simply, “drink me and live.” You drink it, and are immediately and completely healed! Would you tell people your story? Would you seek out others with the same disease in order to help them be healed as well?
These stories and questions seem so obvious: of course we’d want to tell people! Even though some of us would be intimidated to stand before a court, we’d want the truth to come out, and we’d certainly tell our friends and neighbors the story. If we were healed from a terminal disease, of course we’d want to share our happiness with others, and find people who are sick too in order to help them. But do you know that there’s something many of us have that is infinitely more important than any medicine, and concerns a court case much more significant than petty theft?
Something that Matters Much More
This truth is of the most vital importance, and will have lasting consequences. It is this: all people are estranged from God. This all-powerful and holy being who gave us life also gave us a choice. We could follow Him and live His way, or reject His love and rebel against His commands. Our parents Adam and Eve chose rebellion, and we have been a sin-stained race ever since. God requires perfect obedience to every statute in His Word, and to trespass once is to be guilty before Him. How many lies do you have to tell to be a liar? Only one. And God will let no liars into His eternal Kingdom.
This is the disease that you and I have. It truly is terminal, for if we die in this state of sin, we will spend eternity apart from our Creator. One day, we will stand in judgment before the Lord of all, and on our own, there is no hope for any verdict but guilty.
Hope for the Hopeless
The gospel is the good news that there is hope for us. While we were still sinners, God became a man, the man Jesus Christ, and came to the earth to live the perfect life we couldn’t. When He died on the cross, he took your punishment and mine, and rising from the grave on the third day demonstrated His power and authority over death. Any who will turn from sin, turn to Christ, and place their exclusive faith in Him will be saved. Jesus’ blood will wash us white as snow.
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The Standard of Wisdom
By admin
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Attributed to: admin
We live in an information age. Every day, we are overwhelmed with news, media, advertisements, and opinions of friends, family, and associates. How can we sort out the claims steeped in wisdom from those dripping with folly? How can we discern truth from error and the wise path from the highway of fools? We must have a reliable standard by which we can test all claims, holding fast to that which is good. That standard is our Creator God and the Word He has given us. Today we’ll delve into an excerpt from Proverbs 12 and discover how the principles contained in it can guide us into truth and right living.
22Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD,
But those who deal faithfully are His delight.
23A prudent man conceals knowledge,
But the heart of fools proclaims folly.
24The hand of the diligent will rule,
But the slack hand will be put to forced labor.
Easy to Read, Tough to Do
I love the clarity of the Proverbs! Sometimes they require deep reflection and some digging, but often they are so clear and practical that there is little difficulty understanding them, only difficulty in living them.
In Accord with Reality
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. God hates deceitfulness and it is against His character to affirm that which is false. Conversely, when we deal faithfully with our friends and neighbors, this pleases and delights our Father. How truthful has your tongue been this week? Do your words and actions accord with reality, or can you think of times recently when you’ve sought to create an appearance that is false? Have you blamed another for a mistake that was yours? Or have you withheld information from someone in order to lead them into an inaccurate conclusion?
Not All Sharing is Good
In the second stanza, we see a common device used in proverbs: pairs of opposites used together. Notice the contrast in verse 23: a prudent man versus a fool, concealing versus proclaiming, and knowledge versus folly. As is often the case in proverbs, the truth can at first appear puzzling to us. Why should a wise person keep knowledge from people? Wouldn’t he want to share his insight with everyone within earshot? Conversely, wouldn’t a fool want to hide his foolishness by remaining silent?
As usual, the wisdom of the proverb is proven right upon careful consideration. Much like the New Testament concept of not casting pearls before swine, a wise person understands that sharing wisdom with those who are not willing to receive it will only bring sorrow to all involved. Instead, we ought to share knowledge and council in stages, allowing a student to hear and understand the simple and general things, and later share the deeper and more magnificent pearls. Let us be careful not to spew forth speech as a fool, painting those around us with a fire hose. Instead, let us seek out those who wish to behold a beautiful painting, and paint it for them in small and careful strokes.
Choose to Prosper
Finally, we learn a lesson on diligence. Decide now to apply yourself and work hard for the rewards you desire. Stick with your efforts even during the tough times and your hard work will be rewarded with honor and authority. Do not be as the fool, who has the opportunity to work today but chooses instead to sit idly by. That man will find himself without honor, doing work he despises against his will. Today you have the choice to find your passion and pursue it with excellence. Do it, and develop a habit of diligence, that the seeds you plant today my harvest future bounty for the good of your family and country, to the glory of God.
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What Are You Doing Tomorrow?
By admin
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Attributed to: admin
We’re always making plans for tomorrow—whom we’ll see, what we’ll do, and where we’ll go. Whether it’s fun activities like attending a party or playing a game of basketball, or mundane tasks like cleaning the garage, we assume that our plans will happen and we’ll have the time to accomplish what we set out to do. But is this assumption secure?
One in A Million?
Historically, how many people have never died? Not too many? Were any of these people less than (gasp) 40 years old when they died? Of course, we all recognize that death comes to all men, and to many, the end is not at 75, but much much sooner. While we lament this verity, many of us (and myself definitely included) seem to ignore the obvious fact that these statistics are applicable to us.
James 4:
13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are [just] a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15Instead, [you ought] to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
A Sobering Reminder
Most all of us can think of people in our life, people we may have been very close to, who have passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. It is a shocking and surreal experience to lose someone whom you thought you’d have many more years with. When people we love go through this valley, it is our charge to comfort and pray for them, and hold them tightly as they walk through the pain.
But it is also our responsibility to take these moments as reminders that life is fleeting. And not just life in general, but your life, my life! I may not have tomorrow, and therefore must use today to do that which truly matters. Only God’s Kingdom is eternal—am I seeking it first, or letting it get crowded out by many other fleeting things?
How We Spend Our Time
Am I using my gifts and talents to pursue that with is God-glorifying and beneficial to my family and those whom I love? Or am I settling for mediocrity, more of the same, and the lack of excellence that is common among the time-wasters and complainers?
I hope you’ll join me on the journey toward personal growth and the pursuit of your grand calling. God has seen fit to give me breath for today, and He has a purpose in mind for this life of mine. May God bless us both as we grow in grace and knowledge of Him.
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His Philosophy
By admin
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Attributed to: admin
What is truth? Have you taken a moment recently to think about this question? You have beliefs, beliefs that guide your decisions, and even how you react to situations in your life. But are these ideas true? If we’re honest with ourselves, every one of us has an imperfect worldview in some way. We use our experiences, our minds, and God’s Word to guide us, but only One man who has walked the earth had a perfect understanding of truth: our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Who Do You Say that I Am?
Many people would say that Jesus was an admirable example, or even a great prophet. Many people would say that we would do well to become more like Him, and adopt His philosophy. But few people actually pursue this in their daily lives. Worse still, many people adopt ideas and philosophies that run in stark contradiction to what Christ taught and stood for. Instead of reading the Word to learn about what Jesus was really like, many people invent a picture of Christ in their minds that bears little resemblance to ministry on this earth.
You’ve certainly heard of Gentle Jesus, and it is true that He had and has the attribute of gentleness. Jesus was called the friend of sinners precisely because he sought out prostitutes, thieves, and adulterers to save them from their sin. He is gentle with us when we stumble and fall on the road of life—even when we rebel against Him, He often corrects us like a gentle and loving Father. If we will listen to and follow His gentle correction, He often withholds the greater pain and punishment that we truly deserve.
Gentle, But Not Gentle Only
All this being said, Jesus was also a fierce man. When the situation warranted it, Jesus spoke with boldness and authority, condemning men for their rebellion and the hardness of their hearts. If we think of Jesus only as a meek lamb and never as a righteous judge, we see him incorrectly.
A striking example of Christ’s anger at those who disregard the Father’s commandments is found in Matthew 21:
12And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. 13And He said to them, “It is written, MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER; but you are making it a ROBBERS’ DEN.”
Can you imagine one man entering a mall and drivng our droves of merchants by himself? Imagine the tenacity and fiercness that must have been in our Savior’s eyes. Now think of your reactions to sin and the profaning of God’s Name. Do you react as the Lord did?
False Teachers
Another example is found in Matthew 23:
13″But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. 14[“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation].
15″Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
…
25″Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26″You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.
Here, we see Christ calling out the men who would dare to speak on God’s behalf, perverting His Laws and His character in order to obtain personal benefit. Jesus called down woes to these false teachers, directing others to avoid their influence and instead follow the true God and His Son Jesus Christ.
Will You Follow Him?
It can be difficult to live like Christ, particularly in a world that rejects our Lord for who He truly is. We know that Jesus taught that He was the way, the truth, and the life and that none may come to the Father but through Him. Yet our world rejects this reality, and accuses those of us who follow Christ completely as being radical and narrow-minded. Instead of bending to the influence of our culture, let’s really take the time to see our Lord for who He is and not shy away from following Him and letting Him make us more like Himself. If we will choose today to care more about what Christ thinks of us than what the world thinks of us, we will find Him ready and able to meet our every need—for this day and all the millennia to come!
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Leading Takes Listening
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
I used to think that leaders were the ones with all the answers—the smartest ones in the room. While it takes intelligence to lead a team, I’m learning that great leaders do something you might not expect, and they do it exceptionally well.
You may think that you’re the smartest person in the room—and you might even be right. But if you’re unwilling to listen to the people around you, you will dramatically hamper your effectiveness as a leader. Leaders listen, both for ideas and in order to influence those they lead.
Listen for Ideas
Even if you are a genius, you don’t have a monopoly on good ideas. The beauty of this world God made is that things work best when people work together. Jesus used the example of the body to describe His bride, the church. An eye has a different function and role than an ear, just as a foot can be used more effectively accomplish some things than can an eyelash. Here’s the takeaway—you may be an excellent hand, but no matter how great a hand you are, there’s no way you can hear a noise—only ears can do that. Recognize your strengths but be willing to seek feedback and ideas from the people around you.
Listen for Influence
Do you look others in the eyes when they speak? Do you really listen to what they’re saying? If you do these things, you’ve certainly noticed how few other people do this. When you do little things like make eye contact, adopt a welcoming posture (no arms crossed, no hands in pockets), ask questions, and use the name of the person you’re talking to often, you will be amazed how people will open up to you. In doing this, they demonstrate their trust in you. And to be trusted means to have influence. Make the effort to truly listen and care about the person you’re talking to, and you’ll be amazed how they will want to hear from you. Humility, respect, and trustworthiness—things that we know belong to good leaders, but the question is, will you exemplify them today?
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The Debt is No More
By admin
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Attributed to: admin
Would your friends describe you as an appreciative person? Are you grateful for the many blessings you enjoy? Or, are you prone to take the benefits you daily enjoy for granted? Do you occupy yourself more with giving thanks for the good things or keeping count of the bad things? Today we’ll learn from the master, as the Lord Jesus Christ teaches us to have hearts of gratefulness.
Luke 7
41″A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42″When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?” 43Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.” 44Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45″You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. 46″You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. 47″For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” 49Those who were reclining [at the table] with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this [man] who even forgives sins?” 50And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
A Huge Debt Forgiven
As was so often His habit, Jesus used a simple and relatable story to communicate a deep and powerful spiritual lesson. In the parable, we meet two men who are both in debt to a wealthy man. One owes him 50 days wages (say $10,000 or so) and the other owes him ten times that amount. Although the wealthy man has every right to demand his due payment, he does not. Because he is gracious, he completely forgives both debts. The two are of course grateful—but not exactly the same. Imagine being forgiven a debt of $100,000! How much weight would you feel lifted off your shoulders!!
The Lord then goes on to explain the spiritual truth underlying the story. Like the men in debt, you and I owe a monstrous sum. But it’s not money we owe—it’s a debt of sin. Because God is a just God, and we all fall short of obeying His perfect Law, we must pay for our unrighteous actions. The penalty for sin is death, and not just death, but eternal separation from our Creator. But, like the gracious rich man in the story, our heavenly Father has paid our debt. He did this through Christ’s atoning death on the cross. Our Savior paid the penalty we owe by dying the death we deserved—He Himself being without sin. If we will turn from our sin and accept Christ as Savior and Lord, He will wash us clean and forgive our debt.
Do Your Actions Show You Grateful?
Now, whether we have been forgiven for a collection of small or lesser sins, or if we’re forgiven from a lifetime of rebellion and grotesque sins, we will be overjoyed and thankful to our gracious Father. But the one who is saved from the mountain of heinous sin will tend to have a greater appreciation for the gift he has been given. Like the woman in the story who was saved and forgiven from her life of adultery, we should recognize and give thanks to God for blotting out our transgressions.
If you’ve been forgiven much, take the time to recount and remember what God has saved you from. Pray and give thanks that Jesus has paid your debt and God has forgotten your iniquities. Conversely, do you think yourself forgiven relatively little? It can be easy to downplay our own sinfulness, to view our godless words and actions as “minor slipups,” or “small infractions.” But God is holy, and a sinner cannot enter His presence. Instead of looking on others, whom we deem as “worse sinners” than us, let’s take the lesson of this passage and fall at our Savior’s feet in overwhelming gratefulness for His grace and love toward us poor, undeserving sinners.
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To Whom Do You Go?
By admin
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Can you think of a time when you faced a tough decision and were unsure of the proper course? When posed with two different options and can only choose one, how do you sort out the best way to go? I believe that the first step is to recognize the value in seeking council. This is natural, isn’t it? To tell people around what’s going on in your life in order to hear their perspective? But all too often, I think we apply this good principle of seeking council in a way that may actually hinder us.
What to Do?
Let’s take a common and tangible example of a difficult decision. Imagine that you own and drive a car that is near the end of its life and not worth too much. One morning when you attempt to start the car, you get some scary noises and a whole lot of white smoke. Later that day you get the call from your mechanic: you need a between $800 and $1,500 of work done. Now, you’re not sure that your car is worth much more than $2,500 once it’s all fixed, and you’re not sure if it’s worth it to pay for the repairs or not.
Seeking Feedback
What would you do in this situation? If you’re like most people, you’d probably tell your car story to the nearest 10 people who’ll listen. Invariably, many of these people will offer advice, and certainly it will be well intentioned. If you’re thinking of the principle mentioned above, that gaining the perspective of others can be valuable in making decisions, you’re probably happy to get all the feedback. But there’s one key issue we’ve skipped over that makes the difference between the advice you get yielding you a good situation or a problem on top of your problem.
Qualifications test
The key is the determination of adviser qualification. Or, put more simply, does the person offering advice know what he’s talking about? Take a basic idea like the following for instance. Taking financial advice from broke people is unwise. Think about that for a second. Now try this one: taking marriage advice from a person with an unhealthy marriage is unwise. Seriously, think about it!
Now, while this may seem so simple and obvious, it’s been my experience (personally, I assure you, as well as by watching others do this) that we often fail to apply such a basic filter before giving people’s suggestions credibility. Our car repair example above is quite a common case of this illogical behavior. One will ask everyone around him what to do about the car, and he’ll hear many people say, “oh, just trade it in and get a new car! You’ll save the money on repairs, and paying a little interest is no big deal. In fact, have you considered a lease? Then you could have a really cool car right now!” All too often, we’ll not only accept these ideas, but will actually factor them into our decision making process and let them influence our choice. But what is the financial position of the advisers here? Do they own their own cars? Do they have an effective budgeting system in place and are they on track for retirement? Often, No! They do not!
To Become a Winner, Follow Winners
So, here’s the bottom line. Does the person offering advice have what I want? If it’s financial advice I’m seeking, do they have a financial life that I’d like to have? If it’s spiritual advice, so they have the walk with the Lord that I want? If it’s fitness and nutrition advice, do they have the physique and energy levels I want? Run your advisers through this simple filter first, and you’ve avoid many behaviors that lead to the terrible place called average.
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Trusting Though Surrounded
By admin
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Do you expect that following God’s way will make life easier? If you study the Scripture and seek to keep all its precepts, will your circumstances be easy and smooth? While our loving Heavenly Father promises many good things to us, His children, a life of comfort and ease isn’t one of them!
Psalm 3 (New Living Translation)
1O LORD, I have so many enemies;
so many are against me.
2So many are saying,
“God will never rescue him!”
3But you, O LORD, are a shield around me;
you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.
4I cried out to the LORD,
and he answered me from his holy mountain.
5I lay down and slept,
yet I woke up in safety,
for the LORD was watching over me.
6I am not afraid of ten thousand enemies
who surround me on every side.
7Arise, O LORD!
Rescue me, my God!
Slap all my enemies in the face!
Shatter the teeth of the wicked!
8Victory comes from you, O LORD.
May you bless your people.
How Can the Wicked Prosper?
Certainly in our society today, we find many people opposed to God and His Word. As in David’s time, there are many mockers and slanderers of God’s followers. Sometimes we may think that God should tear down these people directly with His mighty right hand, or at least give us victory over them so they will see the truth in what we speak. But, God’s ways are not our ways—no, his are much higher. In His good pleasure, God often holds back his wrath and judgment from those who break his Law and oppose His people.
For a time, we find ourselves surrounded by a mighty army of enemies. Christians around the world today face physical violence from groups who oppose the gospel, and every day men and women are beaten and even killed for following Jesus. And God continues to give life and breath to even those who harm and kill His people. How can God do this?? Why does he allow His people to be surrounded?
He’s Longsuffering with Us, Should He Not Be with Others?
God’s mercy is very great. His grace, or unmerited favor, is lavished on all of mankind, even those who actively oppose Him. And while we may desire comfort and ease in our lives by following Him, God knows better. Often these trials and tests produce greater faith and dependence upon God. See in the Psalm how David exudes confidence in God and His power during the time when he’s surrounded. This is the faith that moves mountains—trust in God even in the times when it appears that God’s enemies will triumph.
While There Is Time
The good and bad news is that a day is coming when God’s patience with sinners will end. When Christ comes to judge all the earth, all who are not covered by His blood will be cast out of His presence for all eternity. Jesus referred to this hell as a place of weeping and knashing of teeth, and all who oppose God will find themselves there. Yet while we live and breathe there is yet time. Have you repented of your sin and unbelief and turned to Christ? Have you asked Him to wash you clean and adopt you into His family? Do not let the sun go down today without finding hope and rest in the Lord Christ Jesus. Call on Him now, and watch as He transforms you into the person you were meant to be!
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Is Success Once Success?
By admin
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One day, a little boy decided he wanted to learn to ride a bike. He found his dad and asked him all about how bicycles worked. His dad told him all about the history of bicycles, the parts that make up a bicycle, and the technique required to ride one.
Victory! Or Is It?
The boy and his dad began working diligently on learning to ride the bike. As the boy practiced, he gradually improved, until one afternoon, his dad released his grip on the back of the seat and the boy rode under his own power for a full block. Happy and proud, both man and son returned home and parked the bike in the garage. The bike stayed in it’s spot in the garage all night. The next day, the bike also stayed in its place. So too the third day, fourth day, and fifth day. In fact, the bike stayed put for weeks, followed by months, and then years. The boy never again took the bike out for a ride, though he walked past it nearly every day. Now the question: did this boy learn to ride a bike?
Technically, the boy learned all about the bike. And once, he did manage to ride it a ways. But did he benefit? Did anyone benefit?
Assimilate It
You see, you and I are often like that foolish boy. We undertake a worthy venture, like eating healthier, beginning a fitness regimen, or connecting with God in Scripture and prayer, but we fail to continue and create a permanent habit. In so doing, we miss out on the benefit of the venture, just as the boy missed out on the joys and benefits of bicycling around his neighborhood.
Today’s the Day!
Can you think of something you know you should be doing, something perhaps that you’ve even successfully done on occasion, but that you’ve never gotten consistent with? What benefits would you enjoy if you made this behavior a permanent habit in your life? It could be that the only thing separating you from the greater level of success or achievement that you desire is the simple consistent application of something you already know how to do! Will you take the steps today to make a new habit for your own success? Make a commitment, let someone know about it, and enjoy your journey to the top!
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Does Money Drive Your Decisions?
By admin
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Have you ever heard someone quote from the Bible that, “money is the root of all evil?” Does God really oppose riches and want His children to avoid nice homes, cars, and other physical possessions? Is it wrong to seek financial freedom and success?
To start off, let’s check the accuracy of that biblical quote.
1 Timothy 6
7For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. 8If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. 9But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Money is Paper
Does this passage teach that money is bad? Is money the root of all evil? No. Rather, it is the love of money that is a root of all sorts of evil. Loving anything more than we love God is idolatry, and to do so violates what Christ said was the greatest commandment: to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. As the passage above teaches, many foolish men have wandered away from God in the pursuit of their greatest love: money.
So, if loving money is a danger we must be careful to avoid, should we seek to keep our income low and not bother to learn sound financial principles and habits? Some have misquoted and misunderstood Scripture in asserting such ideas, only to find that this foolishness has the opposite effect than what was intended.
Money on Your Mind
Which man spends more time thinking about money, the one who earns plenty and has a large savings account or the one who earns little and lives paycheck to paycheck? All else equal, who places more value on a $100 bill, a man who’s in debt up to his ears or a man who has a $1 million net worth? A rich man may be miserly or generous, and a poor man may love God or love money, but in general the following applies: those with plenty of money make fewer decisions based on money than do those who have little.
How Then Shall We Live?
So, what does this mean for us—the majority between poverty and affluence? How should we live in light of these truths? I see two major lessons: First, always check your heart that you’re loving God more than money (or anything else for that matter). Whether you count yourself rich or not, your heart can be led astray after money, so guard yourself and always see money as a means to serving God, not the other way around. Lesson number two is this: act wisely now in order that your decisions need not revolve around money later. Dave Ramsey says in this way: Live now like no one else so that later, you can live like no one else.
Don’t Be the Joneses
It’s a hard thing to do, saying no to fun trips, activities, and purchases just because “we don’t have the money.” What makes it even harder is that it’s so easy to borrow money on a credit card or finance a big purchase, and this is exactly what our neighbors do. But, if you will make the hard decisions and say no today, the money you save and invest will grow and compound, and one day you’ll reach the position of financial strength and freedom where money no longer drives your decisions. We’ll look forward to seeing you there!
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True Spirituality
By admin
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What does it mean to be spiritual? Does a person with a strong spiritual life simply keep all the rules? And what’s the point of living in true spirituality anyway, when it seems like all you get for your sacrifices is some undefined goody-goody feeling? Today we’ll explore these questions and more, and learn what the world’s greatest teacher had to say on the subject.
Actions Speaking Louder
Many of us have had less than positive experiences growing up around Christian people. Even within the church, it’s all too common to see people talk about all kinds of good things, but then when we see how they live, the disparity is enormous. What good is it to talk about the right things one ought to do, and then go out and live completely the opposite? Seeing people living this way can make us jettison the whole idea of Christianity: who wants to follow a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites?!!
Not Based in Duty or Behavior
Jesus’ picture of spirituality, as contrasted with the heresy described in the previous paragraph, has nothing to do with activity. Rather, true spirituality is walking in a loving relationship with our Father God. You see, while we were sinners, alienated from our Creator because of our sin, God sent his son Jesus to come, live a perfect life, and die the death we deserved. When we respond to this truth and turn from our sin and to Christ as Lord, God grants us new life. Just as God saw our sin placed on Christ at the cross, He now sees Christ’s perfection in us. No longer are we estranged from our Creator – we are His sons and daughters!
Living in Response to What He Has Done
True spirituality, then, is living in response to this truth, to this great gift of salvation we have received. When we understand what Christ has done for us, we respond in the only way possible—by loving Him, loving what He loves, and desiring His will. How do we know what He loved? In the Scriptures we hear from God who He is, what He has done, and how He desires we live. Christ taught us that the first commandment is to love God above all else. The second commandment is to love our neighbors. On these two commandments hang all the teachings of the Law, and if you think about it, sole direction one needs to live as a blessing to those around him. Though living this way is not easy, and even as followers of Christ we often fall short and sin, this is the way to true spirituality and eternal life: accept the gift of salvation Christ offers, and devote your life to following Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He is gentle and humble of heart, and will lead you, protect you, and invite you into His heavenly kingdom.
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Our Latest Blessing
By admin
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My wife Michelle and I were greatly blessed yesterday to welcome our third child into the world! Hannah was born happy and healthy at 7:15 in the morning, and mom and baby are both doing great!
Our other two, Lydia and Nathan, were excited and intrigued to meet the newest member of our family! Michelle was such a trooper all through the labor and delivery, and all the nurses fawned over how tough she was and for her positive outlook and attitude. I’m married to a pretty amazing lady!
God’s hand is so apparent in the experience of seeing a baby being born. God has made our bodies with such complexity and ingenious design, and the mysterious process of birth is an incredible sight to behold!
Even with this being our third, I found the beauty and excitement woven into Hannah’s birth transformational. Even as I left the hospital and drove along our familiar street, I felt that I saw the world around me differently. A new child has entered my life, and depends on me for physical, emotional, and spiritual support.
Through parenthood, we get a small picture of the love God has for us. Like little children, mankind is dependent on God for life and existence. He gives to us great blessings, blessings we don’t deserve, out of his gracious love for us. Though Hannah may slip, make mistakes, fall, or rebel, my love for her will remain. So it is with our Father in heaven. Though we may break his Law, reject His ways, and refuse his Son as Savior, He remains patient with us, and gives us another breath and another chance to turn from sin and accept the Lord Jesus. Praise God for the love he bestows on us, and we thank Him for the precious gift He has given our family this week!
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Who’s your Neighbor?
By admin
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Do you consider yourself to be a friendly person? Would the people who see you, whether at work, as you leave your house, or at the supermarket, speak of how you sought them out in friendship and treated them great? Do you routinely smile and greet those you pass on the street or in the hall, or is your daily focus primarily on yourself?
Two Ignore, One Helps
Jesus was once asked by religious leaders who he considered to be his neighbor. He responded with a familiar parable, the story of the Good Samaritan. In this parable, we learn of a man who is beaten and robbed. A few of his countrymen see his helpless condition, yet pass by on the other side of the road. In contrast, a Samaritan, who is naturally an enemy to the Jewish victim, yet seeks him out, takes him to a doctor, and even covers the expenses for the man’s care.
We often hear this parable as a nice story, meant simply to induce us to be kind. But remember back to what question Jesus was actually responding to when He told this story. He was asked who his neighbor was. Understanding this context gives a deeper meaning to the story than the simple truth that we are to be kind.
Look for Needs
The people of Jesus’ day, much like most people in our day, tended to happily exist in their own small sphere of influence, engaging with people who were like them and who they were familiar with. Through this parable, Jesus shows clearly that we are to intentionally seek out others, others who may not be very much like us, in order to meet their needs.
The Greatest Need
What is the greatest need which many of our neighbors have? For any who do not know Christ personally, who have not been washed and cleansed through faith in Christ, their greatest need is salvation of their soul. Without atonement, mankind is separated from God’s good presence, and any who perish without Jesus will face eternity without Him. The need for salvation is so widespread, little recognized, and of utmost importance that, if we are looking, we will see it everywhere.
This is the condition of many people we see and walk by each day. The strangers who we’re ignoring are desperately in need of the truth, the truth that we know. But someone needs to tell them. Not only that, but most people aren’t particularly receptive to ideas unfamiliar to them being expressed by strangers. So what can we do? We share the gospel with them as a friend.
Be a Friend
Friendship doesn’t come instantaneously, but it can be cultivated in a relatively short period of time. Start simply by adopting the habit of greeting and smiling at the people who cross your path each day. You’ll quickly find that a great many people are eager to engage with you, particularly if you’ll ask them open-ended questions about themselves.
As you cultivate friendships with your neighbors, be listening for what they value. Do they desire wisdom? Or perhaps peace and something solid to rely on? Or maybe they’re contemplating what happens after death because of a recent loss in their family. Remember that when you have Jesus, you have the truth and the life that our world desperately needs. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, share the truth, and let Jesus call out to the people in your life using you as His mouthpiece. To God be the glory!
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The Greatest
By admin
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How do you define greatness? Is a person with a sharp suit and a fast car great? Or is it a popular and loved person who is truly great? Maybe someone who follows all the rules of the Bible? Or maybe it’s the one who works hard and becomes CEO of his company.
What Standard?
Could it be that all of these definitions are wrong? Could someone be winning in his fitness, family, financially, and career, and yet lack what it takes to be great? Let’s take a moment to look at what the world’s greatest teacher had to say on the subject:
Luke 9:
46 An argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest. 47 But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side, 48 and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great.”
I’m better! No, I’m better!
We see in this scene men arguing with each other as to who is better than whom. Have you ever, perhaps in your mind, compared yourself to those around you and decided that you really are greater than they? It is easy for us to overlook some of our own shortcomings and see ourselves favorably. “If only others were more like me,” we think, “this place would be a whole lot better…”
The problem is, besides becoming puffed up with ourselves, we are apt to have a very mixed-up view of greatness and what it takes to be great. Like the disciples in the Luke 9 story, we focus on external accomplishment and things that impress men. Jesus taught the disciples, as He teaches us, that God values highest what men often esteem lowest.
Why waste my time with kids?
Children are often looked down on in our society—and not just because of their stature! 😉 Adults will often think of children as silly, naïve, and simple. Rather than have a conversation with a little kid or tell a story from the Bible, we adults will prefer to spend time on “important things” like washing dishes, paying bills, or even surfing facebook.
In contrast, Jesus defines greatness by one who receives a child in His name. When we accept children, we accept Jesus, and when we accept Jesus we are accepting God. To be great, we must be willing to, and take the time to, tell kids about God, about Jesus, and about what He has done. When is the last time that you shared God with a child?
Will you serve, even if no one cares?
Perhaps we won’t impress those around us with speech about how we told kids about Jesus. Maybe teaching a Sunday School class of second graders or volunteering to lead game time on Wednesday night will not be rewarded with the thanks of your fellow church members. Maybe no one will care. But isn’t that the point? Do we really love God for who he is, and desire to serve Him and do what He says for that reason only? Perhaps this is one reason Jesus defines greatness in this way—who will value a child, take the time to pour truth and love into him, even if he must do so thanklessly. Lord, teach us to be great!
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What is Christmas?
By admin
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It’s the most wonderful time of the year—Christmas!! We all have our favorite things about the season: caroling, amazing food, candy everywhere, time with family, parties, and lots of other delightful traditions. With so much going on, we can sometimes get so busy and overwhelmed that we can miss some important things, perhaps even the most important things! So what is Christmas really about? What is it that holds all these activities and traditions together?
Time with Family
If you’ve seen any of the famous Christmas movies, you’ve probably caught on to a recurring theme. Christmas isn’t about amassing stuff for yourself. It’s no time to be a recluse or a Scrooge or just treat Christmas like just any other day. So often in these stories, the mixed-up main character finds through a series of events that all the money and selfish living are empty and hollow, and he finds the value of friends and family, coming back to those who once loved him and adopting a loving and giving attitude.
This is part of what Christmas is all about, but as an ultimate meaning, even good things like friendliness and loving family fall short. Indeed, we should love others and value and appreciate our families all year long, and especially so at Christmas. This is a key part of what Christmas is all about. But why should we live this way?
Selflessness
Christmas is a time of giving. A time when we seek out others who are in need and bless them generously and graciously. Maybe we volunteer or buy gifts for the local homeless shelter. Or perhaps we team up with a program at church to deliver a turkey and loads of groceries to a needy family. These activities come even closer to the true meaning of Christmas, but as an ultimate meaning, even these will not do. Again, why are we to graciously love and give to the undeserving?
The Root
The root of all the good things we do at Christmas can be found in the very name of the holiday: Christ! The word means Messiah, the one sent by God to save His people. And that is exactly who Jesus is. The first one to be gracious, to love those who didn’t deserve it was God. You see, we were enemies of God, estranged from Him because of our sin. We are naturally in rebellion against our Maker due to the sin of our father and patriarch Adam, and our first desires are to please ourselves and live our own way.
He Loved the Unlovable
It was when we were in this sinful state, far from God and wanting nothing to do with Him or His Word that God sent the Christ. Jesus, eternal God from before the beginning of time, humbled himself and became a man. No time in history has such a momentous and glorious event occurred—the Creator of all things came to earth to be born as a baby. He did this not because it would be pleasant or easy, in fact it would be painful and difficult. Ultimately, he would be tortured and nailed to a cross to die a slow and agonizing death. This was God’s gracious plan to bring mankind back to Himself. You see, God is holy and perfect. He is Just. He cannot and will not ignore sin and sweep it under the rug. In order for you or me to be brought back into relationship with Him, punishment must be rendered. Jesus came to take that punishment—anyone who trusts in Him and accepts His substitutionary payment of our debt can be forgiven. It’s as if you were found guilty in court, but Jesus comes in and pays your fine for you. Your case is legally dismissed and you may walk out a free person!
We Love Because He Loved
We should be loving during Christmas and all times for the principal reason that God was loving to us. He didn’t wait for us to clean up and earn good things; He sent His Son to save us even while we were dirty and rotten, full of sin. We should love our families and be kind to each other because love and kindness are who God is. When we accept Jesus as Savior, we also accept Him as Lord. He is our shepherd, Father, and example. We read His Word to learn what He is like and how He desires us to live, and we make choices each day to live His Way.
This Christmas, let’s let the true meaning of Christmas undergird everything we do. Yes, let’s love others, value time with our family, and graciously give to those in need. But let’s do it with the understanding that it was God’s gift of His only Son that causes these actions for His Glory. Merry Christmas!!
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Two Archers
By admin
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“What is truth?” These words, uttered to Christ by Pontius Pilate during the trial of Jesus are an old-world example of a “new” and popular view in our culture today. It goes like this: “what’s good for me is good for me; what’s good for you if good for you. There’s no real standard, we just make it up ourselves.” Sounds nice, doesn’t it? What could be wrong with such a friendly and tolerant worldview??
A Story of Two Men
Two men entered an archery contest. In the first year of competition, both men missed the bull’s-eye with every shot. A few shots missed the target entirely. In the year that followed, one man learned of a master archer, one who’s arrows had never missed the bull’s-eye. The man then heard that the master’s score and the purse associated with winning the contest were available to him for free, should he submit himself to the master’s instruction. He immediately discarded his former ideas on archery and went to live with the master and learn from him.
The other man spurned the master, caring nothing for his instruction. Instead, he told himself that the target in the contest was incorrectly placed, and much too small. He sought to convince others to ignore the standards of the archery contest, and introduced different targets of his own making.
The first man spent his year training from the master. Though he did not hit the bull’s-eye very often, He never denied that the target was real. His shots improved week to week to week, and he came to resemble the master more and more. The second man continued his delusion for the entire year, and led many who followed him astray.
The Day Comes
When the contest came, the folly of the second man was evident. For all his smooth arguments and denial of the standards, the target was indeed real. The second man was incapable of hitting the bulls-eye, and went away dejected. The first man was also incapable of hitting the bull’s-eye. The master stepped up and hit the bulls-eye with every arrow, and when he received the prize, he gave it to the first man, as he had originally promised to do. The first man’s arrows had not hit the bulls-eye, yet he received the prize based upon the work of the master. He did not earn the prize; he simply submitted himself to the master and devoted himself his teaching and received the prize as a gift.
Our Holy and Awesome Maker
God is perfect, He his love. He is truthful and compassionate, caring and just. His very person is the root of all goodness and truth. He shows us in His Word what He is like, and sin is defined as anything that is against God, or runs contrary to his character.
Our Need
We are all sinners. By our nature, we desire to live in rebellion against God and do what we want. We don’t love His commands or His Word, we want nothing to do with them. In this state, we will never seek God, and we certainly do not desire to spend eternity worshiping Him.
God’s Solution
And yet, while we were sinners, God acted. God humbled Himself to become a human, even taking the humility of being born in a stable, as we just finished celebrating. Jesus lived the life we were incapable of living, perfectly keeping the Law. He was then tortured and killed, taking on our punishment and taking our place. If anyone will place his faith in Christ, his sin is washed away. Our debt of sin is paid, and we are free!
Your Choice
Faced with this truth, the gospel, we have two choices. Embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, love Him, and live His way, or reject Him. He will either be our Lord and Savior or not. When we die, God allows us to keep our choice for eternity. I choose to follow Christ, to have faith in Him, and do all I can to share this truth with my neighbors and my family. Will you this day turn from living your own way and trust Him? He is gentle and humble of heart, and in Him you will find rest for your soul. The Master invites you, will you follow Him?
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Does Intelligence Always Win?
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Intelligence is highly valued in our culture—call someone intelligent and he will be delighted! Are there more important things though? Is a man well loved who is intelligent yet rude? Or, does someone who is very intelligent necessarily have right understanding? Could it be that a man of lower intelligence may actually beat out one of higher intelligence when it comes to living a thriving life? How could this happen?
Two men at work
Consider the following story. I hired John, a very intelligent man I know, to take care of a few things at my home. One day I instruct him to work on a retaining wall in my yard and pick up an important package arriving by train from Chicago. Our agreement states that he will be paid based upon how much of the wall he finishes and he will receive a fixed amount for retrieving the package.
On another day, I hire Bruce, a man of low intelligence yet a man of practical experience and common sense. I offer the same terms to him that I agreed to with John.
The two men, given their differing intelligence, come at the task very differently. John has a mind like a steel trap, and has the train schedules memorized. He knows the Chicago train arrives at the station every day at 4:30. He also knows that the route to the train station becomes congested during that time, and accounts for this, calculating that he must leave the house by 3:50 to make it on time. This gives him the maximum time to work on the wall. He has also studied engineering and foundation design, so he knows the latest methods for efficient and sturdy retaining wall construction.
Bruce, on the other hand, does not possess all this intelligence and knowledge. He knows the basics to build a retaining wall, as his father had taught him years ago. He doesn’t know the train schedules or the route to get to the station. So, his first action is to call the station and ask the representative when the train arrives. The representative informs him that a derailment yesterday has thrown off the usual schedule, and the Chicago train will be arriving an hour later than usual. In addition, the main freeway into the station is currently under construction, so the rep informs Bruce of an alternate route.
You can guess how this story ends: our intelligent man John spends a little over an hour sitting in traffic, arriving just too late to get the package, which is instead sent via courier. When it’s all said and done, John spent more time in the car than Bruce, so despite his more efficient process, he didn’t accomplish more of the wall than Bruce did. On top of that, he missed picking up the package, so when his invoice is totaled, he actually made less than Bruce.
What’s the Cause?
Now how did this happen? John was smarter than Bruce, had more knowledge, and had worked out an ideal plan to maximize his efficiency. How did he come in behind Bruce?
John simply did something that a great many people—people of high intelligence and people of low intelligence—do every day. He did not test his assumptions. It’s not that his plan was bad, in fact, his plan was probably better than Bruce’s. But it was based on something false. It was based on the train arriving at a time other than the true time, and it was based on the route to the station being open as usual. Both of these falsehoods are rooted in John’s own mind. He thought he knew, and so he didn’t take the time to check whether or not his beliefs were true. Ample evidence and resources existed for him to test his beliefs and assumptions, yet he failed to use them because he wrongly believed he didn’t need them.
Could This Really Happen?
Perhaps it seems unrealistic that such a smart man as John would so foolishly neglect to check such an important component before making his plan. Surely a smart person would know better, right?
Sadly, there are a great many people, people we meet and talk with every day, who are neglecting something far more important than a train schedule. There are a great many important topics to be studied in this world, and many intelligent people study them each day, but none are more important than questions like these: How did I come to exist? Who made me, and for what purpose? And this one who made me, what is He like?
It Happens Every Day
As with the train schedule in our story, much evidence exists, and many reliable resources are available to answer life’s most important questions. The Holy Bible reveals many things to us about what God is like and what He has done. The historical accuracy and reliability of the Bible are facts clearly demonstrable through the archaeological records and the science of textual criticism. The evidence is available for any and all who will take the time to investigate it. But what do most people do? Do they take an honest look at the Bible and the evidence that it is a document of divine origin?
Most people choose to reject the Bible as their foundation, not because they have looked at the evidence and do not find it compelling, but rather because they have never examined it at all. Like the intelligent man in our story, many people think they know the train schedule, so they just assume the ideas in their mind are right.
The Right Foundation
The sad reality is that if we build our lives on the assumptions in our minds, we will have a grand structure sitting on a foundation of sand. When time reveals the truth of God’s Word and Christ’s promises, many will regret their failure to seek and find the truth. What about you? Are your beliefs about God rooted in reliable foundations or untested assumptions? How much time have you spent investigating the claims that the Bible is God’s Word, reliable and written for you?
The answers and the evidence are out there, and great resources like www.equip.org will help you sort out the truth. The question is, will you seek the truth or will you live tomorrow as you lived today—confident in your belief that the train arrives at 4:30? John’s consequence for being too late was simply losing a little money; realizing Christ is Lord too late will cost you your soul.
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The Root of Anger
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Anger, disappointment, resentment, hurt: these are emotions we’d prefer to avoid. If we could choose, we’d rather live happy, content, and fulfilled, wouldn’t we? What if there was a way to significantly reduce the amount of time we spend angry or hurt? If we understand the root cause of these negative emotions and the negative situations they lead us into, we can find victory and spend more of our time cultivating excellent relationships and enjoying the time we have.
Our Many Gifts
We enjoy so many incredible blessings in our everyday life. Just think about the comfortable bed you slept in last night, the delicious dinner you ate, and the people around you that truly and deeply love you. We could spend all day listing all the great things in our lives—things given to us by the Maker of all things.
We desire good things—and there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, it is good to enjoy and appreciate all the wonderful blessings we have every day. But there is a good way and a bad way to hold these blessings. One will give us great fulfillment and thankful hearts, while the other will produce the harmful emotions listed above.
With Open Hands?
The difference is this: do you hold your gifts with open hands or closed fists? You see, when our desires are met, we have a choice. We either recognize that the blessing that we received is a gift of God, or we start to close our hands around it and begin thinking we own it. As we neglect to thank God for a particular blessing, we slowly close our grip around it, wishing to keep it within our possession.
The Enemy works gradually, taking some new blessing and day by day inducing us to feel more and more that we earned it, we deserve it, and we need it. Once we view that blessing as something we need, we will react in anger when it is threatened.
Thankful to Expectation to Need
Consider the simple act of a man writing a love poem to his wife every week. When he first begins this act of love and appreciation, his wife may be delighted! She feels loved and cherished, and expresses her thanks to him. But over time, as the notes continue to come week after week, this blessing may turn into an expectation in her mind. She begins to think she deserves these notes, and her husband owes them to her. If he misses one week, she will feel emotions of disappointment, resentment, or even anger.
But this is all rooted in a choice—if the woman in the story above simply appreciated the love notes as a blessing, she will each week feel the emotions of thankfulness, happiness, and love when her husband gives the poem. If one week the husband should fail to present a poem, she will miss it, but that’s all. She only feels anger, hurt, and resentment when the gift is expected and assumed. Put another way, she will feel anger and disappointment when her need for her weekly poem isn’t met.
What’s Yours?
Perhaps this seems silly to you, that a woman should come to need an expect a poem from her husband every week. But what about you and me? Are there not blessings in our life that we one didn’t have, now have, and now expect we shall always have? God has bestowed amazing gifts upon you and me—do we hold them with an open hand?
The Example of Open Hands
Job is was one of the richest men in the world in his day—not only in material wealth, but also with many children, as well as the love and respect of his neighbors. In one day, it was all taken from him, and yet his response was this: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21).
Are there things you expect from those around you? Do you need and demand that your coworkers speak well of you, such that when they disparage you you become angry? Do you expect your mentors to have perfect understanding in everything they teach and council you? Do you expect you spouse to always be there to meet your needs and do the things you want them to do?
What Perspective Will You Choose?
Let’s make the decision today to stop letting anger have root in our hearts. If we will recognize that the blessings we enjoy each day are gifts—gifts that are not promised to be there tomorrow—we will increase our reliance upon the Lord, our appreciation of His grace, and the moments of life that bear the hallmark of peaceful contentedness.
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How We Program Ourselves
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
On your way into work tomorrow, what thoughts will run through your mind? If you’re like most of us, your natural inclination will be something like, “here comes another day at the grind! I hope I don’t see Jim today, he’s such a loudmouth! I can’t wait till the weekend’s here!” But do these thoughts help you? Or are they helping to create the very kind of day you dread?
Want Control? Take It!
Setting our expectations and our outlook for the day—or even for the next moment—is totally within our control. Would your morning be better if you chose to speak something better to yourself while walking from your car to the office?
Let Wise Men Teach You
Zig Ziglar once said, “Positive thinking won’t let you do anything, but it will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.” This is great advice from a great man! When’s the last time you took control of your circumstances and made a decision to have a great morning? Why let circumstances dictate our life to us? Do you really believe that telling yourself that your coworkers are rude and your work is boring does you any good? How about when you say things like, “it doesn’t matter how hard I work or what good things I do, no one notices anyway.” Do these statements help you, or hurt you?
Attitude and Response
Simple as it sounds or silly as it sounds, you make the choice every day whether your day will be great or a dud. Things outside your control will still happen. Some may be pleasant, others not—but your attitude going in and your response coming out are both things you choose. If you’re really interested in living a thriving life, right now’s a good time to start! What kind of day will you make today?
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Could Four Minutes Really Matter?
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Have you ever had a day get off to a rough start, and you felt behind all day? Maybe your coworker rushed into your office before you’d had a chance to check your email, upset and needing your immediate assistance. Your plans for the day get all thrown off, and you may feel like control of your time and activity perpetually eludes you. Anything here sounding familiar? How did you respond? Are there things you and I can do in these circumstances to not only get through the day, but actually thrive? How can we take such a day and still use the time to make progress towards the growth we want and the goals we’re pursuing?
What Truly Must Be Done?
If you’re anything like most of us, you have some daily habits and routines that feel like they’re essential. For example, I usually check my email messages in the mid-morning then head up to the coffee machine for a tasty brew. Although these are my typical habits, they aren’t absolutely necessary, and on days where large unexpected demands fall on me, they can be jettisoned. The key when stuff is flying at you is to stay clearheaded and in control. Even if people around you are getting frantic, take five minutes to get away. Use this time to identify the three most important priorities that must happen before the end of the day, and write them down in order.
Forgo the Unnecessary First
Once you’ve put out the preverbal fire, get going on your first priority right away. Taking back control of our day is going to involve forgoing some of our usual routine, but often this is what it takes. Unfortunately, some days there is simply more to be done than can possibly fit. Rather than running frantically from one task to the next, and spending our whole day out of control, we can be intentional and spend our time first on the most important things, and since something will fall through the cracks, let’s choose the lowest priority task to be the one.
Resist the Couch
Finally, on days like these, when you finally finish your work, get home and eat, clean up and do whatever chores need doing, we face the last challenge of the day: the temptation to neglect our personal growth and pursuit of our goals. On a day that was particularly hectic, I probably didn’t get a workout in, and I’d really like to lounge on the couch and watch a show for twenty minutes before bed. I probably don’t feel like reading, connecting with my spouse, or spending time in the Word and in prayer with my Heavenly Father. Now is where I have a choice: do I throw in the towel for the day, or do I commit to doing these vital activities that will cause me to grow and move closer to my goals?
Don’t Forgo the Important
Never underestimate the difference a small amount of focused activity can make in your life when practiced daily. I can absolutely and personally attest to the huge difference that even a four-minute workout can make to one’s fitness and health. Many times in my life, I’d succumbed to the easy solution after a hard day at work, and plopped down on the couch. When a one- or two-day break from my exercise regimen turned into a four- or five-day break, I found I paid a heavy price on the day I finally did make it back into the gym. But I have since learned that even a very quick workout—perhaps nothing more than a few minutes of pushups (pushing myself as fast and hard as possible) can get my blood moving, my muscles and lungs working, and can sustain me until the next day when I can get a full workout in. It seems like such a small thing that it couldn’t possibly matter, but it truly does. And the same goes for my other habits in contributing to my growth. Maybe I only read 8 pages of a good book when I’ve had a super busy night. But I can focus on learning to the best of my ability during the short period of time, and the benefits are undeniable.
Building Blocks
With this perspective, it tends to be pretty ridiculous to me when I hear someone say, “I just don’t have time to work out,” or, “I’d love to read good books, if only I had the time.” Let’s all make a commitment to each other never to waste our time speaking such nonsense—just use the time you’re saving by not spewing such ignorance to be that four-minute workout, 8-pages of reading, or time of prayer. These are the building blocks we use to build our thriving life, and I thank you for coming with me on this journey of growth together!
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A Life Well Lived
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
Mildred Timmerman, a beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother said goodbye to this mortal world earlier this week, and is now in the presence of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We who knew her were blessed for the time we shared with her here, and she left an indelible impression on so many who had the privilege of spending time with this wonderful lady. What did she have that caused her to live the way she did? From what source did she draw for her seemingly infinite patience, love, and wisdom?
She Lit Up the Room
Grandma Millie was a person who instantly lit up a room simply by walking into it. Her face was ever-smiling and her disposition ever-encouraging. At the same time, she was a woman who stood for something. I can remember times when grandma would catch word that I my grades were falling in one class or another, and she would react in such a way as to indicate she knew I was capable of better. She knew it was wrong of me to misuse my gifts, but she didn’t seek to motivate me through guilt or nagging. She simply exuded wordlessly: “Chris, you were created by God for a purpose. He has given you a great many blessings, and you ought to be developing and using them in serving Him.”
When I did well, grandma was lavish with praise. She appreciated the important things in life—time with family, the love we show to each other and importance of nurturing unity. She would always brush away the peripheral and unimportant matters that brought conflict, and without being forceful, her words carried weight.
A Living Demonstration of Real Love
The more I think of the person grandma Millie was, the more I appreciate her and the more I realize how incredible a model of godliness she really was. I can think of no better way to express it than by quoting her Lord, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16). Millie truly lived this way—she loved people, really loved them well, and brightened their lives when she was around them. At the same time, she stood for truth and devoted her life to her Lord and Savior. She would build relationships, deep and meaningful relationships with people around her, and in those moments when our ears were open to her advice, she would speak the truth into our lives.
Millie’s Source
Oh that we each would learn from this godly woman’s example and follow her path. She was loving and good because she followed One who is the source of all love and goodness. She wasn’t perfect, and she is righteous not because of her own morality but because her sin has been washed clean. Christ died for sinners, among whom Millie was one; when He died on the cross He willingly took the punishment she deserved. Jesus was without sin, and his suffering atoned for all those who place their faith in Him. His resurrection on the third day demonstrates his dominion over death, and it is in His power that we rest and know that death has not overcome Mildred Timmerman. Through her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Grandma Millie is righteous and without spot or blemish. Her mortal hindrances are now no more, and she stands in the presence of the Lord Jesus right now, in this very moment! We await with joy the day that we too will leave this mortal body of death and join Millie in the throne room of Jesus, to worship Him forever beside her! Will you be there too?
Turn and Follow
Jesus calls any who will come to draw near to Him in faith and find cleansing. Give up on living your own way and for yourself—do as Millie has done and turn from your own path, turn to His path. He will take you as you are and give you a new nature, a nature like His, and you, like Millie, will begin to grow more like Him each day. The Savior is calling, come to Him today!
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A Beautiful Bride
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
A beautiful bride walks down the aisle, radiant in beauty and wearing a magnificent white dress. Her family and friends look on in delight and hopeful admiration—this is the day when she will be joined in marriage to the love of her life. The couple stands before the pastor with stars in their eyes and vow exclusive devotion to each other above all others, and commit, “till death do us part.” Fast-forward nine months and we’ll often find an altogether different scene. This same woman shouts at the top of her lungs, “You’re always leaving your stuff all over the house! Do I need to give you a map to the laundry basket?” Her husband, the one who stood at the altar confessing his undying devotion, shouts back as he slams the door in her face, “screw you, I’m going to the bar!” What has happened? Why do couples go from starry-eyed lovers to enemies, and how can we create thriving marriages that last?
The Right Atmosphere
Look around you. Of the ten people you spend the most time around, how many are couples with strong and healthy marriages? We make small choices each day, such as who we spend time around, without realizing how these choices significantly affect our outlook, worldview, and habits. If the people around you typically belittle and mock their spouses, this will begin to seem to you to be normal and acceptable behavior. Over time, speaking negatively about your spouse will start to program your brain to think less of your spouse. Conversely, spend time around couples who speak well of each other, and you’ll start speaking more positive, and begin thinking more highly of your spouse. When you recognize how wonderful your spouse really is, you’ll appreciate what they do more, and you’ll naturally give them more praise and affection.
What we’re really talking about here is creating the right atmosphere. When godly people spend time around each other and living out the Lord’s way day by day, it creates this incredible atmosphere that lifts each and every person. We strengthen and challenge each other to reach greater heights, and we make excellence the norm. It’s a beautiful and constant growth process, and it’s how those wise and loving couples who’ve been married for 50 years became what they are. Brick by brick, step by step, getting around other winners and creating an atmosphere for everyone to build a thriving marriage.
Making the Time
In addition to getting around credible leaders, it’s important that we make time to enjoy our spouse. With work, kids, the house, friends, and getting involved in the community, it’s really easy to let activities and commitments take over your calendar. While these things are all good things, if they cause us to neglect our spouse, we’ve traded the great for the good.
A wise friend taught me the following great habit: once a day, once a week, once a month. Once a day, kiss your spouse. And I don’t mean just a peck—it had better last more than 20 seconds. Once a week, spend time together talking (while looking directly at each other and not doing anything else). And when your done talking do something fun just the two of you. Go for ice cream, play a game, have a cup of coffee and recount fun stories. Once a month do a real, extended date. Dinner and a movie, or take her to a show she’ll like. Or maybe have a picnic at the park. Be creative, be romantic, and make it fun!
The Third Cord
The final piece is by far the most important. Think of your marriage as a rope. You are one piece of string, and your spouse is another piece of string. The point of marriage is that the two become one. But if you have only two cords to twist together, it will unfurl in the tough times. Only when a third cord is in the marriage can the cords be braided and the marriage have the full strength needed to stand firm. That third cord is Jesus, and the main purpose of marriage is to serve and honor Him. A marriage that is entered into for some reason other than Christ is ultimately done for self. If I marry my spouse because I want her to make me happy, I will have a big problem when she ceases to make me happy. If she’s no longer pleasing me and giving me what I want, the marriage has no reason to go on. I’ll simply want to file a divorce and go out and find someone else who will fulfill my needs.
If, on the other hand, I enter into marriage for the purpose of worshiping and honoring Christ, my commitment is not based upon my spouse’s performance. I will love her and remain faithful to her for the sake of Christ. Even when she fails to love and respect me well, I will continue loving and serving her anyway, for this is my charge from my Lord. My life belongs to Jesus and I serve Him because that is my purpose. God, help me to live out this high calling you have given me, each day and every day for You.
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Waiting for an Invitation
By admin
Anthologized by: admin
Attributed to: admin
A Christian is one who follows Jesus as his Lord. Instead of serving our own desires and conforming to what our surroundings tell us to be and do, we have found the freedom and life found in Jesus alone! How wonderful it is to follow our Master, for he is loving and His burden is light. I never realized what a load I had been carrying until I came to Jesus and found strength and rest. But what about the many people around us who have not yet learned of Christ and the hope and strength He offers? Sure, we know God has told us to share the truth with them, but what if they think we’re weird? Surely if they want to know what faith in Jesus is, they’ll just ask? No.
A Needed Invitation
Though you may not believe it at first, there are many people all around you who want to know spiritual truth. They would gladly converse with you on the subject and even come to your church with you to see what it’s all about. But guess what, they’re not going to tell you that! And you can’t identify them by just looking.
What Do the Numbers Say?
According to a Scott McConnell of LifeWay Research “…many would respond to an invitation from a friend or acquaintance (41 percent), their children (25 percent) or an adult family member (25 percent).” (Read these stats in detail here.) The difficult part for many Christians about asking a friend or acquaintance to church is this: what if they say no??? Allow me to let you in on a little secret. Most will say no. Gasp!
Collecting No’s
The stats are going to vary greatly for any specific person and set of circumstances, so for simplicity let’s just assume that 20% of friends you invite via personal invitation will actually attend church with you. Of those who attend, some will never return, some will return a few times, and some will be radically changed and become followers of Christ. How many people will say no to your invitation in order for you to find one person who will hear the Holy Spirit’s voice and turn from sin to faith in Jesus? Ten? Sixty? Two thousand?
Does it matter? Is it worth it to bring one lost soul to the feet of your loving Savior, so that he may taste the love and salvation of Jesus as you have? Can you imagine yourself standing before your Lord at the end of your life saying, “Jesus, I would have told people about you, but I just didn’t want to hear anyone tell me no. It felt awkward.”
Ambassadors
We Christians need to trust God that He has people out there He is going to save. He has put us where we are in our lives in order that we would take His Word to these people, to be the means by which they hear the gospel. Christ died for sinners, and anyone who will place their faith in Him will be washed clean and declared righteous.
Go Get More of Both
Instead of viewing negatively an answer of, “no,” to our invitation to come and see Jesus, we should view it as a victory—that’s one more person in the denominator. For every 100 friends you ask, some percent of them are just waiting to be asked, to come and hear, and to find rest and peace for their souls. It is God’s plan that they will be saved. And it is God’s plan that a Christian would share the good news with them. Will you be that Christian? Or will God use someone obedient? Embrace the no’s, they are part of the process. The more invitations, the more no’s, and naturally, the more yeses. Let’s be the church we are called to be: let us come together for equipping and encouragement to take the gospel out to the very ends of the earth. Lord Jesus, lead us on, show us how, and may your will be done.