Part 5
4. The Seed of Wisdom
Wisdom: The combination of honesty and knowledge applied through experience. Wisdom is honest knowledge in action.
Honesty, The Unfailing Boomerang. Who you are will come full circle, that’s what a boomerang is designed to do. Every time an individual engages in dishonest activities in time it will come back to haunt him.
As a model of testing ourselves on a daily basis, we can ask ourselves three questions.
1. Is this true?
2. Is this what I believe I should do?
3. Is what I say consistent with what I do?
These three questions involve consistently thinking, doing, and saying what you believe to be true. There is one more question that you should consider after you are satisfied that you can be consistent on the three points. The base question is; what is the effect of this decision going to be on the others involved? To be effective human beings, we must consider the impact of our decisions on other people in our lives. The ability to anticipate the probable effects of our decisions on other people’s lives, as well as on our own life this is wisdom. When we honestly consider the well being of others, before we decide to profit ourselves, we become truly rich in the deepest sense.
Knowledge: a result or product of knowing; information or understanding acquired through experience, practical ability, or skill.
We teach our children all the facts, Math, English, History, Science; we live in a time when technology is advancing so fast that we can’t keep up; we write text books and they are obsolete before they hit the presses. This knowledge is good. A primary goal should be to help our children discover their own natural abilities so they can blend these talents with acquired skills and knowledge to achieve maximum satisfaction in their individual lives. Proverbs 22:6 “Train up (set life patterns) a child in the way he should go (keeping with his natural bent or gifts) and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
We Touch The Future
Part 4
3. The Seed of Responsibility
As a society, we protest for individual liberty and social order in the same breath. We strive for material wealth and would like spiritual wealth as a by-product. We plead for more protection from crime, but demand less interference in our social habits. We want to cut taxes, take the great risk, and build our own destinies and at the same time we want financial security and safety provided by our government. But we can’t have it both ways. If we want results we must be willing to pay the price.
Our rewards in life will depend on the quality and amount of the contribution we make. Every cause brings its effect; every action has a consequence. If a man plants melons he will reap melons; if he sows beans, he will reap beans. This is true in everyone’s life; good begets good, and evil leads to evil.
True enough, the sun shines on the saint and the sinner alike, and too often it seems that the wicked prosper. But we can say with certainty that, with the individual as with the nation, the flourishing of the wicked is an illusion, for, unceasingly, life keeps books on us all.
In the end, we are all the sum total of our actions. Character cannot be counterfeited, nor can it be put on and cast off as it if were a garment to meet the whim of the moment. Like the markings on wood that are ingrained in the very heart of the tree, character requires time and maturing for growth and development. Day by day, we write our own destiny.
Galatians 6:7; Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
3. The Seed of Responsibility
As a society, we protest for individual liberty and social order in the same breath. We strive for material wealth and would like spiritual wealth as a by-product. We plead for more protection from crime, but demand less interference in our social habits. We want to cut taxes, take the great risk, and build our own destinies and at the same time we want financial security and safety provided by our government. But we can’t have it both ways. If we want results we must be willing to pay the price.
Our rewards in life will depend on the quality and amount of the contribution we make. Every cause brings its effect; every action has a consequence. If a man plants melons he will reap melons; if he sows beans, he will reap beans. This is true in everyone’s life; good begets good, and evil leads to evil.
True enough, the sun shines on the saint and the sinner alike, and too often it seems that the wicked prosper. But we can say with certainty that, with the individual as with the nation, the flourishing of the wicked is an illusion, for, unceasingly, life keeps books on us all.
In the end, we are all the sum total of our actions. Character cannot be counterfeited, nor can it be put on and cast off as it if were a garment to meet the whim of the moment. Like the markings on wood that are ingrained in the very heart of the tree, character requires time and maturing for growth and development. Day by day, we write our own destiny.
Galatians 6:7; Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
We Touch The Future
Part Three
2. The Seed of Creativity
The second is that our minds can’t tell the difference between real experience and one that is vividly and repeatedly imagined. Proverbs 23:7, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”
Understanding this secret of the power of the imagination experience is a foundational key to understanding human behaviour. What you see is what you’ll get. We perform and behave in life not in accordance with reality. Many of our everyday decisions are based upon information about ourselves that has been stored as truth---but which is really a combination of hearsay from family, friends, and peers, actual past experiences, and information we read, listen to and view on TV.
Napoleon, once said, “Imagination rules the world”. Einstein believed, “Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
2. The Seed of Creativity
The second is that our minds can’t tell the difference between real experience and one that is vividly and repeatedly imagined. Proverbs 23:7, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”
Understanding this secret of the power of the imagination experience is a foundational key to understanding human behaviour. What you see is what you’ll get. We perform and behave in life not in accordance with reality. Many of our everyday decisions are based upon information about ourselves that has been stored as truth---but which is really a combination of hearsay from family, friends, and peers, actual past experiences, and information we read, listen to and view on TV.
Napoleon, once said, “Imagination rules the world”. Einstein believed, “Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
We Touch The Future
Part 2
1. The Seed of Self-Esteem
First, is that we must feel love inside ourselves before we can give it to others.
Deuteronomy 6:6, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.” Vs. 7, “You shall teach them diligently to your children…”
Galatians 5:14, all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; you shall love your neighbour as yourself.
Simple isn’t it? If there is no deep, internalized feeling of value inside of us, then we have nothing to give to or share with others. We can need them, we can be dependant on them, we can look for security in them, we can indulge them, flatter them and attempt to purchase them. But we cannot share or give an emotion to anyone else, unless we first posses that emotion inside of us.
1. The Seed of Self-Esteem
First, is that we must feel love inside ourselves before we can give it to others.
Deuteronomy 6:6, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.” Vs. 7, “You shall teach them diligently to your children…”
Galatians 5:14, all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; you shall love your neighbour as yourself.
Simple isn’t it? If there is no deep, internalized feeling of value inside of us, then we have nothing to give to or share with others. We can need them, we can be dependant on them, we can look for security in them, we can indulge them, flatter them and attempt to purchase them. But we cannot share or give an emotion to anyone else, unless we first posses that emotion inside of us.
Monday, June 9, 2008
We Touch The Future
We Touch The Future
Delivered at the Foster Parent Society of Ontario June 8, 2008
Church Service
Part 1
Proverbs 22:6 “Train up (set life patterns) a child in the way he should go (keeping with his natural bent or gifts) and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Genesis 1:11-12 God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind whose seed is in itself, on the earth”, and it was so.
And the earth brought forth grass and herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, who’s seed is in itself according to its kind, and God saw that it was good.
Seeds of Greatness
What are these seeds that we want to plant? Are they special genes, transmitted to offspring by superior parents? Are they in-born talents? Are they seeds of exceptional learning abilities or intelligence quotients (IQ)? No! The Seeds of Greatness are not dependent upon gifted birth, the inherited bank account, the intellect, the skin deep beauty, the race the colour or the status. The Seeds of Greatness are attitudes and beliefs that begin in children as baby talk, as do’s and don’ts, as casual family chatter, bedtime stories, almost un-noticed, delicately transparent ideas, like flimsy cob-webs, at first----then, with years of practice, become like unbreakable steel cables to shackle or strengthen our characters throughout the rest of our adult lives.
The children of Israel were commanded in Deut. 6:6-7 To teach diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
These life patterns are caught as well as taught. The seeds that we plant are seeds of success. So what is success? “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” It means that when we are working or moving toward something we want to accomplish, especially when that something brings us respect and dignity as a member of the human race, we are succeeding.
It is not what you get that makes you successful; it is what you are continuing to do with what you’ve got.
Total success is the continuing involvement in the pursuit of a worthy idea, which is being realized for the benefit of others---rather than at their expense.
Delivered at the Foster Parent Society of Ontario June 8, 2008
Church Service
Part 1
Proverbs 22:6 “Train up (set life patterns) a child in the way he should go (keeping with his natural bent or gifts) and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Genesis 1:11-12 God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind whose seed is in itself, on the earth”, and it was so.
And the earth brought forth grass and herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, who’s seed is in itself according to its kind, and God saw that it was good.
Seeds of Greatness
What are these seeds that we want to plant? Are they special genes, transmitted to offspring by superior parents? Are they in-born talents? Are they seeds of exceptional learning abilities or intelligence quotients (IQ)? No! The Seeds of Greatness are not dependent upon gifted birth, the inherited bank account, the intellect, the skin deep beauty, the race the colour or the status. The Seeds of Greatness are attitudes and beliefs that begin in children as baby talk, as do’s and don’ts, as casual family chatter, bedtime stories, almost un-noticed, delicately transparent ideas, like flimsy cob-webs, at first----then, with years of practice, become like unbreakable steel cables to shackle or strengthen our characters throughout the rest of our adult lives.
The children of Israel were commanded in Deut. 6:6-7 To teach diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
These life patterns are caught as well as taught. The seeds that we plant are seeds of success. So what is success? “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” It means that when we are working or moving toward something we want to accomplish, especially when that something brings us respect and dignity as a member of the human race, we are succeeding.
It is not what you get that makes you successful; it is what you are continuing to do with what you’ve got.
Total success is the continuing involvement in the pursuit of a worthy idea, which is being realized for the benefit of others---rather than at their expense.
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