Inspire Me (December 2005)

True stories, quotes and information on inspiration, leadership and kindness to provide hope and direction in your life.

Excellent Stress Management Advice (just in time for the holidays)

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "how heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.

"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.

If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.

If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management.

If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. "

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. "

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow.

Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. " Relax; pick them up later after you've rested."

You can apply this wisdom to both your personal and professional life...

QUOTES for YOUR MONTH:
“Even the woodpecker owes his success to the fact that he uses his head and keeps pecking away until he finishes the job he starts.” Coleman Cox

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." Edmund Hillary

“It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever — the one who recognizes the challenge and does something about it. " Vince Lombardi

"The easiest way to set goals is to answer the following questions:
- What is it I want to achieve?
- When do I want to achieve it?
- Where am I today land what action do I need to take to achieve my goal?" Catherine Pulsifer

"People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to." George Allen

"Achievement is largely the product of steadily raising one's levels of aspiration and expectation."
Jack Niklaus

"My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others. That is nice but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success." Helen Hayes

"All great achievements require time." Maya Angelou

STRONG WORDS FROM BILLY GRAHAM'S DAUGHTER...PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding the attacks on Sept. 11).

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine
Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school . the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou
shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself..And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to
do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they WILL think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

A DOG GONE GOOD STORY

Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named Lucky. Lucky was a real character. Whenever Mary and Jim had visitors come to stay for the weekend they would warn their friends to not leave their
luggage open because Lucky would help himself to whatever struck his fancy.

Inevitably, someone would forget and something would go missing. Mary and Jim would go to Lucky's toy box in the basement and there the treasure would be, amid all Lucky's favourite toys. Lucky always stashed his finds in his toy box and was very particular that his toys stay in the box.

It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she was going to die of this disease...she was sure it was fatal. She scheduled the double mastectomy, with fear in her heart.

The night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky. A thought struck her.. What
would happen to Lucky? Although the three year old dog liked Jim he was Mary's dog through and through.

If I die Lucky will be abandoned, Mary thought. He won't understand that I didn't want to leave him.
The thought made her sadder than thinking of her own death.

The operation was harder on Mary than her doctors had anticipated and Mary was hospitalised for several weeks.

Jim took Lucky for his evening walk faithfully but the dog just drooped, whining and miserable. But finally the day came for Mary to leave the hospital.

When she arrived home, Mary was so exhausted that she couldn't even make it up the stairs to her bedroom. Jim made his wife comfortable on the couch and left her to take a nap.

Lucky stood watching Mary but wouldn't come to her when she called. It made Mary sad but sleep soon overcame her and she dozed. When Mary woke, for a second, she couldn't understand what was wrong.

She couldn't move her head and her body felt heavy and hot. Panic soon gave way to laughter though when she realised the problem. She was covered, literally blanketed, in every treasure Lucky owned!

While she had slept the sorrowing dog had made trip after trip to the basement and back, bringing his beloved mistress his favourite things in life. He had covered her with his love.

Mary forgot about dying. Instead she and Lucky began living again, walking further and further together every night.

It's now been 12 years now and Mary is still cancer-free. Lucky? He still steals treasures and stashes them in his toy box but Mary remains his greatest treasure.

F A M I L Y (author unknown)

I ran into a stranger as he passed by,
"Oh excuse me please" was my reply.

He said, "Please excuse me too;
I wasn't watching for you."

We were very polite, this stranger and I.
We went on our way and we said goodbye.

But at home a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My son stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down.
"Move out of the way," I said with a frown.

He walked away, his little heart broken.
I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,

"While dealing with a stranger,
common courtesy you use,
but the family you love, you seem to abuse.

Go and look on the kitchen floor,
You'll find some flowers there by the door.

Those are the flowers he brought for you.
He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue.

He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise,
you never saw the tears that filled his little eyes."

By this time, I felt very small,
And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed;
"Wake up, little one, wake up," I said.

"Are these the flowers you picked for me?"
He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree.

I picked 'em because they're pretty like you.
I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue."

I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today;
I shouldn't have yelled at you that way."
He said, "Oh, Mom, that's okay.
I love you anyway."

I said, "Son, I love you too,
and I do like the flowers, especially the blue."

Are you aware that if we died tomorrow, the company
that we are working for could easily replace us in
a matter of days. But the family and friends we left
behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

Think about that next time you have to choose
between your job and your family...