Choosing the Better Way

From One-Minute Devotions for Girls
by Carolyn Larsen

So, you love those who love you.

You’re friendly to your friends.

You do nice things for those who do nice things for you.

BIG DEAL.

Anyone can do that.

It’s when life gets tough, when someone tells lies about you, cheats you, steals from you, or is just generally a jerk that you have a choice to make.

You can decide to be just as stinky as they are and let your behavior sink to their level or you can choose to behave like God’s child and love your enemy, pray for them.

It’s a choice you have to make every day.

                      Dear God,
                      Please help me to treat others the way
                      You want me to.
                      Help me to show love, even to those who
                      are mean to me.
                      Amen.

10 Great Ways to Treat Others

We Promise to Be Fair!

We Promise to...

treat everyone equally.
listen to the ideas and opinions of others.
show good sportsmanship.
include others in our activities.
value others regardless of their race, religion, gender, age, or intellect.
work to change things that are unfair.
share and take turns.
©Teacher's Friend, a Scholastic Co
TF2295 0-439-73179-8
*I saw this in a church Sunday school classroom and I can't find the poster for sale online.*

Don't Take Anything Personally

Don't take anything personally. Nothing others do is because of you.

What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream.

When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.
~ Miguel Angel Ruiz

How Should A Person Be Measuring His or Her Career?

You want to be in a job where you’re motivated. There’s a theory that was articulated by the late psychologist Frederick Herzberg. He makes a strong point that there’s a big difference between motivation and incentives. An incentive is, “I will pay you to want what I want.” Motivation means that you’ve got an engine inside of you that drives you to keep working in order to feel successful and to help the organization be successful. It causes you to keep at it through thick and thin.


Motivators are things like, “I have the opportunity to achieve important things,” “I get recognized for my achievements,” “I learn ways to be better,” and “I’m an important part of a team.” If you have those kinds of experiences every day, you’re motivated, and you’ll be satisfied.
Excerpt from Money magazine, pp. 97-100, October 2012

True Valentines

by Dr. Michael A. Halleen

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God." (1 John 4:7)

Valentine's Day is coming up. This love business is a tricky thing. In western culture, we have it all wrapped up with emotion, as though love springs from liking someone enough to have warm feelings toward them. In fact, love is a way of acting toward another, regardless of feelings.

Mr. Alwin was my English teacher in high school and director of the junior class play in which I had a role requiring me to kiss Sally Brunzell. Inexperienced at sixteen, I had never kissed a girl before, and my first attempts in rehearsal were evidently awkward even beyond what's expected in a high school play. Mr. Alwin called Sally and me into his classroom after school one afternoon and told us we had to improve. "I want you to practice here and now," he said, "until you get it right!" He judiciously kept the door open and remained at his desk while we went to the back of the room to practice.

"No, no, no!" he said loudly after our first faltering attempts. "What's the matter with you, Halleen?" (The fault obviously was mine.) I mumbled something to the effect that I could kiss Sally better if we loved each other. "Feelings have nothing to do with how to kiss her!" he roared from across the room. "This is for the stage!" He proceeded to give me specific direction on the proper techniques of a stage kiss. It was the first time I had to think about separating feelings of love from actions of love.

A few years later, while in college and living with my widowed grandfather, I asked him about something we had read in a student Bible study about loving God. I confessed that I was having a hard time mustering up any feelings for God. "Love for God has nothing to do with feelings," this wise veteran preacher told me. "To love God is to obey God. It's about what you do, not what you feel."

Mr. Alwin's classroom and my grandfather's dinner table were two places where I began to understand love's reality. Feelings come and go, but actions can be carried out with a degree of consistency. If love demands that I feel warm and cozy toward an enemy, or even a friend, I'm lost. But if it requires only that I act in a way that is kind and truthful, whatever my feelings, there's hope. And that's the love to which God calls us. That's being a *true* valentine.

Sally's and my stage kiss was carried out successfully. "I knew you could do it," Mr. Alwin said.

©2009. Dr. Michael A. Halleen. Permission granted to send this to others, with attribution, but not for commercial purposes.
**********
“Be my Valentine...forever.” ~God

Gitomer's Affirmations of Success*

*Mel's note: This is written for a target audience of sales ppl. Adapt as needed per your career situation. This works for anybody!

I am the friendliest person in the world.
I am the most enthusiastic person in the world.
I am the most helpful person in the world.
I will tell myself what I can do, not what I can't.
I love to serve.
I love to sell.
I don't pre-judge or down anyone.
I will ask before I tell.
I will take control of myself and my success.
I will not gripe or whine about my lot in life. Rather I will celebrate all I have and all I love and all I will learn.
I will remember the good times as often as I can.
I will ask for what I want.
I will stick at it until I win even if my ass falls off.
I will reinforce my decisions with positive thoughts, not negative second guesses.
I will thank everyone for their help and never measure.
I will give with pride.
I will be memorable.
I will avoid “argue.”
Life may not be a blast right now, but look at all I've learned and look where I can get with hard work.
I will feel GREAT when I make a sale.
I will earn more when I make the sale.
I will celebrate my victories today.
I will have a great time tomorrow.

Posted to Facebook Notes on January 15, 2011

Ode to November

November is usually the bleak and gloomy end of something. The bust of life in spring has slowed to a stop; the grand lushness of summer is gone. The rich bounty of autumn harvest and the amazing colors of the season are all gone. Done.

But what the earth does is to rest up for another go at summer’s glory. November and the impending winter are important steps in the goodness to come. Winter doesn’t arrive to kill off one summer but to renew the earth for another summer.

Gray November can remind us that the Holy Spirit is a spirit of hope, always calling us onward!

We don’t rest in the evening because we have been working, but in order to be fresh and ready to live and work again!

~Author Unknown (if you know, let me know!)
~from Minar Therneau letter, November 2010