UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

This is another classic. A story is told about a soldier who was coming home after having fought in Vietnam. He called his parents. “Mum and Dad, I’m coming home, but I’ve a favour to ask. I have a friend I’d like to bring home with me” “Sure,” they replied, “we’d love to meet him.” “There’s something you should know about him, “he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mine and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come and live with us.” “I’m sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live.” “No, Mum and Dad, I want him to live with us.” “Son,” said the father, “you don’t know what you’re asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can’t let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He’ll find a way to live on his own.”

At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him. A few days later, however, they received a call from the local police department. Their son had died after falling from a building; they were told they believed it was suicide. The grief-stricken parents were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror and amazement, their son had only one arm and one leg.

The parent in this story reflects us in many ways. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking, fun to be with but most times we don’t all like people who inconvenience us in our comfort zones. Some people would rather stay away from people who aren’t as healthy, beautiful or smart as we are. Our prayer this week is that God will give us the strength to accept people as they are, and help us to be more understanding of those who are different from us! There is a miracle called Friendship which dwells in our hearts.  The gift of Friendship that loves unconditionally is God’s most precious gift which we should all endeavour to bring out of our intra and inter personal relationships.

 

YOU ARE PRICELESS

Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves how ‘PRICELESS’ we are!  A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $1000 dollar note. In the room of 200 people, he asked, “Who would like this $1000 note?”Hands started going up. He said, “I am going to give this $1000 to one of you but first, let me do this. He proceeded to crumple up the $1000 note. He then asked, “Who still wants it?” Still the hands were up in the air. Well, he replied, “What if I do this?” And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. “Now, who still wants it?” Still the hands went into the air, then he finally tore it into two and then people still wanted the note despite the mutilation’.

 The valuable lesson we can deduce from the classic this morning is simply that no matter what was done to that note, people in that room still wanted it because it had not in any way decreased in value. It still maintained its original worth of $1000. Many a times in our lives, we may have been dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we have made, the circumstances we found ourselves, the loss of a loved one, being jilted in a relationship, setbacks in business, the loss of a job in a promising career, loss of time, investments and other things that made us loose our joy and feel as though we are worthless! But remember that no matter what happens in our lives, we will never lose our value. We may look dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased in the face of circumstances, we are still priceless and valuable to God and our generation. Everything shall surely come to pass for it has not come to stay

 

MISTAKES!!

One mistake we can make in our daily walk, will be not to ask what mistakes we are making or prone to making.  A leader wrote: ‘I gave little thought to what might go wrong. I assumed that the ‘right way’ would be mistake-free. I did not acknowledge mistakes I made to myself, or others. I was not learning from my mistakes. If I wanted to become a better leader, I would have to stop making the mistake of not asking what mistake I was making.’ It’s not the number of mistakes we make that counts but how often we keep making the same mistake.

 If you will turn your mistakes to your advantage consider the following thoughts:

1. Admit your mistakes. Why don’t we? May be partly because of pride largely of an image we protect or simply insecurity which is our self-worth based on performance and may be stubbornness because we will rather flog a dead horse than bury it to get a new one. Here is the news flash: ‘People already know about our mistakes’. When we admit them they are not surprised, as a matter of fact they are somehow relieved because they are assured that you are not pretending!’
2. Accept your mistakes as the price of progress. Learn to view failure as a healthy, inevitable part of succeeding. Nothing is perfect in life including you! So get used to it before you overburden yourself with unnecessary expectations that won’t be met each time.
3. Make sure you learn from your mistakes. Whenever you try to avoid failure at all costs, you will never learn as you end up repeating the same mistakes over. Those who are willing to learn from their failures don’t have to keep repeating them.

William Saroyan observed, ‘We get very little wisdom from success. We can learn from science, where mistakes always precede the discovery of truth”.

We learn greatly when we are willing to ask – ‘What am I missing?’ This simple question causes us to stop and think. It’s easy to see what’s obvious, but asking tough questions bring to surface things that aren’t obvious. A wise man will hear, ask with a discerning heart to increase in learning, a man who possesses understanding will attain to wise counsel. Consider these simple questions this week: ‘What am I missing out? What do I need to know?  We know little about something and yet treat it most times like we know everything.’ It is easy to make decisions based on what we know, but there are always things we don’t know. It is easy to choose a direction based on what you see, but sometimes those things we cannot see lead us into the unimaginable. We can learn from our mistakes when we admit them.

SPARTACUS DIES AT AGE 39

British actor Andy Whitfield, the star of ‘Spartacus: Blood and Sand’, has died at the age of 39.

The actor died yesterday in Sydney, Australia, following a battle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

He was diagnosed with stage one of the disease in March 2010, but was declared cancer-free two months later after beginning treatment in New Zealand.

He suffered a relapse in September and was advised to resume ‘aggressive treatment’ for the illness.

His wife said in a statement: “On a beautiful sunny Sydney spring morning, surrounded by his family, in the arms of his loving wife, our beautiful young warrior Andy Whitfield lost his 18-month battle with lymphoma cancer.

“He passed peacefully surrounded by love. Thank you to all his fans whose love and support have helped carry him to this point. He will be remembered as the inspiring, courageous and gentle man, father and husband he was.”

Whitfield was a virtual unknown when he was cast as the legendary Thracian slave in ‘Spartacus’, a role made famous by Kirk Douglas in the 1960 Stanley Kubrick film, but the movie proved a breakout. Whitfield appeared in all 13 episodes of the first season that aired in 2010, and was preparing to shoot the second when he was diagnosed with cancer.

While waiting for Whitfield’s treatment and expected recovery, the network produced a six-part prequel, ‘Spartacus: Gods of the Arena’ that aired earlier this year with only a brief voice-over from the actor

 

WORD FOR TODAY- Know your identity

When people label you, those labels can cause you to shrink instead of to stretch to your full potential. But the God who gave Jacob a new identity can give you one too. Are you struggling with the old names people called you and the old images you have of yourself? Nothing will change in your life until it first changes in your mind. Jacob’s wife Rachel died in the desert in childbirth. Just before she died she named her son Ben-Oni, which means ‘son of my sorrow’. When the midwife handed him to his father Jacob, he said, ‘He shall not be called Ben-Oni, the son of my sorrow; he shall be called Benjamin, the son of the right hand’ (the son of power). Guess which name prevailed? Benjamin! Hear this: you are who God says you are, not who others say you are! If God didn’t give you the name, it’s not yours. Only believe what God says about you. Nobody understood better than Jacob the power of a name change. It was in God’s presence that Jacob the trickster was renamed Israel, ‘…a prince… with God…’ Christ breaks the power of every negative thing that attaches itself to you. ‘You’re a saint, not a sinner; not a loser but a winner.’ When people try to label you, tell them you don’t answer to that name any more. Tell them the person they’re talking about died, was buried, and rose brand new in Christ. God sees you as a new creation, so start thinking, talking and acting like one!

5 KEYS TO DEVELOP A LEADERSHIP SPIRIT

Leadership isn’t learned or earned in a moment – John Maxwell.

Great leadership comes with the desire to develop our leadership spirit. You can nurture yours by applying the following guidelines to your life:

 Become The Kind Of Leader Others Want To Follow:
The key to becoming an effective leader is not to focus on making other people follow you, but largely on making yourself the kind of person they want to follow. You must become someone others can trust to take them where they want to go.

 Let Go Of Your Ego
The truly great leaders are not in leadership for personal gain. They lead in order to serve other people. Perhaps that is why Lawrence D. Bell remarked, “Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things, and I’ll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things.”

 Become A Good Follower First
Rare is the effective leader who didn’t learn to become a good follower first. That is why a leadership institution such as the United States Military Academy teaches its officers to become effective followers first – and why West Point has produced more leaders than the Harvard Business School.

 Build Positive Relationships
Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. That means it is by nature relational. Today’s generation of leaders seem particularly aware of this because title and position mean so little to them. They know intuitively that people go along with people they get along with.

Work With Excellence
No one respects and follows mediocrity. Leaders who earn the right to lead give their all to what they do. They bring into play not only their skills and talents, but also great passion and hard work and a contagious spirit. They perform on the highest level of which they are capable.

Leadership Spirit is a positive journey towards the Big Picture. It is certainly not gained by elections or appointments. Having positions, titles, ranks, or degrees doesn’t qualify anyone to lead other people, neither does age or experience entrust such, they only affirm our leadership quotient. The right to lead can only be earned when we develop our leadership spirit which takes time and comes with personal CHANGE in the life of the aspiring leader.

MINISTER FARRAKHAN DEFENDS NIGERIA

Hello Guys how are you doing today? its Sunday and I am enjoying my brand new swift 4G internet moderm, and the super fast service, I stumbled on a video I love so much, Minister Farrakhan blast the loud mouthed Mike Wallace on Nigeria, how crule can people be? Who is he to Judge Nigeria, How many years has this country been around and what is so strange that has not happened in other developing nations with the kind of resources that Nigeria has?

Minister Farrakhan does well here, thumbs up

ON A LIGHTER NOTE…Vol 13 (Boob stare)

Hello guys, this is a piece I found on you-tube and I guess it’s as funny as the post title, this is extremely hilarious and it makes my On a lighter note section. Feel free to tell me how long you live. 🙂 lol

HIDDEN MESSAGES IN FAMOUS LOGOS

 

You’ve seen these famous logos countless times on billboards, passing by on trucks, and at the grocery store, but there is more to them than meets the eye. If you take a closer look, you will find that these recognized logos have hidden images and messages. Check out these inventive designs that cleverly use white space and optical illusions to display subliminal messages.

FedEx

 

 

 

This logo appears to be very simple, but if you look at the white space between the “E” and “x” in “Ex,” you’ll find it is more complex than you thought. Can you spot the arrow?

Tostitos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These popular party chips are a staple at many backyard BBQs, but chances are, you’ve never noticed the hidden celebration scene concealed within the letters. The second and third “t’s” are sharing a chip over an “i” that is dotted with a salsa bowl. Yum!

Do Subliminal Messages Really Work?

Le Tour de France

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Named the world’s most famous and prestigious cycling race, bike-lovers and non-cyclists alike are familiar with the event’s emblem. However, you might be missing out on the logo’s most interesting aspect. After careful examination, you’ll notice an image of a person riding a bicycle; the yellow circle is the front wheel and the r is the body.

Amazon.com

 
 

Amazon.com has become a go-to source for electronic commerce. Clearly there is an arrow under Amazon, but have you ever thought about its significance? Take a look at where the arrow begins and ends: a and z. This secret message seems to conveys that Amazon offers everything from A to Z!

Hershey’s Kisses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Kisses logo doesn’t have much to it, but if you look at it sideways, you might see a chocolate kiss formed between the K and the I.

Toblerone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a slightly obscured bear within the Matterhorn Mountain if you look closely. That’s because the candy bar hails from Bern, Switzerland, a city supposedly named for a bear.

The Funniest News Bloopers

Big Ten

 
 

 

 

 

 

Penn State became the 11th member of this university athletic conference, hence the embedded “11” in this logo. That is, until the University of Nebraska–Lincoln became number 12, ushering in a new logo era.

This Year’s Wackiest College Courses

Northwest Airlines

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before merging with Delta, Northwest’s logo was one of the best in the industry. The N and W within the circle are fairly obvious, but did you know the circle also serves as a compass? And guess which direction the arrow in the upper-left-hand corner (or the beginning of the w) is pointing?

Yahoo