What Teddy taught me

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat.

-Theodore Roosevelt

Quotes for today

"What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality."

- Greek author, Plutarch

"If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."

- JK Rowling

In Him, thru Him

A negative mind cannot find God because God is in the positive

I got to lead my mind with the Word of God or my mind will lead me wrong

When I make room for God, barrenness disappears. Fruitfulness will come

God will move into the space that I make for Him

God will rather have you messy than not have you at all

Irritation

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

- Carl Jung

Right there

God meets us right where we are. This is enuff' for me. I pray you find encouragement in this lil' nugget.

Spiritual Nuggets

There is tremendous power in a life well lived.

Faith travels in an atmosphere of positivity.

Love is expressed in obedience.

Our lives either communicate or contradict the Gospel.

It's not the absence of the fall that matters; it's the presence of grace IN the fall that makes the difference.

Oprah on Life

She emerged from poverty and abuse to being one of the highest paid women talk show hosts in America today. Her career on t.v. appeals to millions worldwide, bringing on people and topics quite unlike the typical media content. Wholesome, truthful, informative as well as therapeutic, The Oprah Winfrey Show tops charts and bags awards throughout its 20 years in show history. Women all round the world love Oprah because here is one who has the courage, charisma and confidence to speak like no other American icon.

Here are a couple of quotes from Oprah which I find astounding:


"I can't even imagine what it would be like to lose a child or a family member. I wonder: Will [victims of the Oklahoma federal building bombing] ever sleep again?

My father turned my life around by insisting I could be more than I was.

Although I'm grateful for the blessings of wealth, it hasn't changed who I am. My feet are still on the ground. I'm just wearing better shoes.

My grandmother taught me that prayer is the most valuable tool you could have. And always pray on your knees because one day you won't be able to bend down."

Quotes from Maya Angelou

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

I speak to the black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition – about what we can endure, dream, fail at, and still survive.

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

The honorary duty of a human being is to love.

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows me to survive, and better than that, to thrive with passion, compassion, and style.

The main thing in one's own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.

Resilient Children

Much excellent research has shown that families are tremendously important to the fate of children,

that adults who truly care about a child change lives,

that schools can paralyze or empower,

that gender expectations can liberate or imprison,

that churches and school sports teams really can change a child’s life,

that racism still cripples children,

that language can make or break young people.

– Daniel D. Challener

Bruce Philosophies

More than a martial arts enthusiast, an actor, a director and film producer, Bruce Lee was a loving husband to Linda Lee Caldwell, a great father to Brandon and Shannon Lee and a devoted family man. Unknown to many film enthusiasts, Bruce Lee majored in philosophy in the University of California where he met his wife Linda. Reading up on his biography did a thing or two for my self check. Here's some...

On Marriage:

In marriage, the excitement of romance is bound to dwindle with the years; in its place must grow the day-to-day companionship that would endure throughout the adventure that is human life.

Marriage is a friendship, a partnership based solidly upon ordinary, everyday occurrences. Marriage is breakfast in the morning, work during the day – the husband at his work, the wife at hers – dinner at night and quiet evenings together talking, reading or watching television. Marriage is caring for children, watching over them in sickness, training them in the way they must go, sharing worry about them and pride in them.

A married couple isn’t one and one. They are 2 halves that make a whole. You have to apply yourself to be a family – 2 halves fitted together are more efficient than either half would be alone!

On Life:

The oak tree is mighty, yet it will be destroyed by a mighty wind because it resists the elements; the bamboo bends with the wind, and by bending, survives.

Be pliable. When a man is living, he is soft and pliable; when he is dead, he becomes rigid. Pliability is life; rigidity is death.

Life is a process. Through the ages, the end of heroes is the same as ordinary men. They all died and gradually faded away in the memory of men. But when we are still alive, we have to understand ourselves, discover ourselves and express ourselves. In this way, we can progress, but we may not be all successful. But at least we are closer to truth.

My Strength & Light

"The strength of a man is found not in brawn and wit. The strength of a man is found in his stability and composure in the face of adversity - he doesn't walk away from the storm – he stays on to shield, protect and fight." – A.T.

You fought with me through my negativity and self doubt.
You stayed when it’s so easy to walk away.
You loved when I’m unlovable.
You became my strength when I fell.
You showed light that pierced my darkness.
Thank you for your love.

Preserving Humanity

Spiritual dictatorship in particular - which has devastating consequences for countless people - must be resisted. Church totalitarianism in particular must be opposed with the freedom of the conscience, the freedom of a Christian.
- Hans Kung

The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn. - Luther

The devil - the proud spirit - cannot endure to be mocked.
- Thomas More

Masterpiece

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

Your workmanship is marvelous and how well I know it.

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,

as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

You saw me before I was born.

Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God!

They are innumerable!

I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!

And when I wake up in the morning, you are still with me!

Psa 139: 13-18

Loneliness

In a world plagued with an overwhelming sense of loneliness, evident across faces, people, names and personalities, let's get to the bottom of the issue and understand what loneliness truly is.

Ravi Zacharias' take on loneliness:

If you've not learnt to worship Him in the aloneness of your life, you'll never be able to deal with the problem of loneliness. In the darkness of a dungeon, you can be alone and still have something greater than the darkness around you. That's worshipping God with your innermost being.

Loneliness is not so much aloneness as it is a sense of emotional abandonment.

Worship takes away loneliness because:

1. It binds the fragmented areas of your life - fusing it with meaning.

- Eric Lidell in Chariots of fire: "When I run, I feel God's pleasure."

- Worship pulls the fragmented area of my life - when I play music, when I write. Every area of my life becomes worship.

2. It bestows dignity to every calling.

3. It brings purpose

4. It builds gratitude

Concluding Marriage Quotes

Marriage means handing over yourself, your body, your future, your keeping to the one whom you dearly love, although this person may in many ways remain a stranger.

This tremendous act of faith is something that can unlock in each lover powers of compassion, generosity, joy, passion, fidelity and hope that no one guessed was even there.

That is why the confidence of young lovers is not foolish or arrogant, but an expression of a basic fact in human experience, that the greatest of human gifts are set to work only when people are prepared to risk everything. And first you risk it before God.

The above quotes were made by Ravi Zacharias in his message "I, Isaac Take you Rebekah" available on podcast via iTunes. Search for "Ravi Zacharias" under podcasts. He has 2 programmes: Just Thinking & Let My People Think. Both are phenomenal.

Quote Me Baby!

If our homes fail, history collapses. - Ravi Zacharias, on the value of the relationships and marriages

Without a determined sacrifice, we will never accomplish the call to which God has placed us. - Ravi Zacharias, on the purpose of men

Fear tastes like a rusty knife, don't let her into your house. Courage tastes of blood. Stand up straight. Admire the world. Relish the love of a gentle woman. Trust in the Lord.

- John Cheever, on everything

When your soul prospers, eveything becomes positive. When your soul regresses, everything becomes negative - that even when opportunities surround, you can't see them.

- Angeline Tan, on the inner self

Phil Wisdom On Struggles

International speaker, preacher, author, painter, song writer, Phil Pringle from CCC Australia phenomenally expounds on an issue very often you and I are abashed to share publicly and struggle privately.

May you find encouragement and inner strength from the truth shared below, a direct excerpt from Phil Pringle's message:

__________________________

God wants your attention more than He wants to give you your results. He does want you to have your results - that glorifies Him, but He knows that giving you results without your attention on Him as No. 1 is gonna destroy you; it's gonna damage you; it'll steal your heart. So He will always arrange for things to be in your life that will get your attention.

Jacob in Hebrews 11 "by faith he blesses his children, blessing God, leaning on a staff."

Jacob had a limp, and he had a limp all his life. God never fixed that problem up. Jacob always got to walk with a walking stick.

Faith is not a thing for a moment. It's a thing for a lifetime.

So that everyday, even though you've got a limp, you get up and you walk again. You lean on a staff and God isn't fixing the problem, but the very strength that it takes for you to get up and go, in spite of a limp in your life causes you to finish your life, worshipping your God and blessing your children. You have no cynical attitude, but you're a worshipper and a blesser of the people in your world.

People struggles with all sorts of areas in their lives. Some struggle with their sexuality, some with eating disorders, some with drugs or alcohol addiction - and it doesn't seem to get fixed. For many people their addiction never really got fixed; they are always susceptible to it, and they walk through life with a limp. And God doesn't fix it. Coz He wants your attention more than He wants your comfort.

The first half of the book of Hebrews is about people who had a moment of faith and they got set free from the mouth of the lions, but the second half of the book of Hebrews is about ppl who didn't get set free, but still had faith and lived above their circumstances.

Remember the movie "A Beautiful Mind". John Nash, a mathematical genius, made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim, but soon found himself on a painful and harrowing journey of schizophrenia. His problem never got fixed but he managed to live above it and ended up receiving a Nobel Prize.

Understand this, there are many things that God will fix in your life - tonnes of things, but generally there's just one thing - one thing you pray e'day of your life "If only I could get rid of this" - and you find yourself stretched by that thing - and that causes you to grow. That gives you prosperity on the inside.

Love Is... Commitment

Marriages are meant to last a lifetime, but why don't they in this current age and time?

Below are extremely wise and hard truths to digest from author & apologist Ravi Zacharias, but when we are desperate and honest enough to get past the unwillingness of the flesh to the eternal reward and blessing of a live of obedience based on the truth, we will find ourselves cherishing every single moment of life with our loved one, namely, our spouse, or for many of us, our spouse-to-be ;)

_______________________

Love is as much a question of the will as it is the emotion, and if you will to love somebody, you can.

Love is stronger than a mere flutter of the heart.

Love is an enormous commitment: -

• A commitment that will test you at some of your most vulnerable areas of spirituality.


• A commitment that will force you to make choices between some difficult issues that you'll be faced with.


• A commitment that will force you to deal with your lust, greed and every area of temptation that the Bible talks about.

That commitment is a constant dying to self, and giving - it is hard work.

Romance has to be transcended by a strong will and a degree of commitment to it.

There is never a reason to be unkind - there may be reasons to disagree, to struggle; after all it's 2 wills emerging into 1.

There are compromises and struggle, but there is never a reason to be unkind.

Of Passion & More

The only constant in life is change, thus to ride high in life, let's be quick learners and sharp minders. Here are life-changing points (elaborated by and picked up from Pastor Mark Conner, Melbourne) which I leave you to ponder & work on:

1. God dwells in a state of perpetual enthusiasm. - A.W. Tozer

2. Intelligence alone is not gonna lead to success in life. See the statistics below: -

- 75% of the American Presidents were in the lower half of their class;
- 50% of Fortune 500 CEOs average C- in school; &
- 50% of self made millionaires have no university degrees.

If intelligence alone ain't the answer to success, then it's gotta be:
i. ATTITUDE - how you think, and ii. PASSION - how you feel.

3. Enthusiasm and persistence will make an average person superior while indifference and lethargic will make a superior person average. - William Ward

4. The enemy targets our strength.

5. Often your frustration is the key to your anointing and to your gifting.

6. Many of us may not be prominent but everyone of us is significant.

7. What you tolerate, you will never change.

Leadership

When leaders make a mistake, they say, "I was wrong."
When followers make mistakes, they say, "It wasn't my fault."

A leader works harder than a follower and has more time;
a follower is always "too busy" to do what is necessary.

A leader goes through a problem;
a follower goes around it and never gets past it.

A leader makes and keeps commitments;
a follower makes and forgets promises.

A leader says, "I'm good, but not as good as I ought to be;"
a follower says, "I'm not as bad as a lot of other people."


Leaders listen;
followers just wait until it's their turn to talk.

Leaders respect those who are superior to them and tries to learn something from them;
followers resent those who are superior to them and try to find chinks in their armor.

Leaders feel responsible for more than their job;
followers say, "I only work here."

A leader says, "There ought to be a better way to do this;"
followers say, "That's the way it's always been done here."