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Finding Happiness

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Choose Your Happiness

“Everybody can find happiness. It is just a matter of choice to be compassionate, wise, generous, and loving,” Kurt W. Denard.

As we ponder this quote, I would like to ask you: What brings true happiness into your life? Contrary to what we think many times, it is not purchasing things that brings happiness because we may be content for a little while, but it will not be long before we desire something more or something different. As with most aspects of life, happiness is a choice that we make every day. The choices that bring lasting happiness in our own lives is when we choose to positively impact the lives of others. It is really up to you.

Dale Carnegie summed it up pretty well when he said, “Everybody in the world is seeking happiness – and there is one sure way to find it. That is by controlling your thoughts. Happiness doesn’t depend on outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions.”

Do you desire to be happy? Then choose each day to be kind, be compassionate, be wise, be generous, be thoughtful, and be loving with an unconditional love toward others. It is then you will find the path to true happiness.

Ephesians 4:32 instructs us, “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”

True Success Requires Humility

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In our previous Wisdom Note, we learned how wisdom is better than gold. This week we will learn why true success requires humility. If you miss any of our Wisdom Notes, please go to the blog to read past newsletters.

Some people may look at our lives and think, “Wow! They have a lot, and they get to travel and do a lot of neat and exciting things.” While this season of life is busy for us, as I look back, every season of our life has been very busy. While we have had some success and do have some opportunities that others may not have, we also put in a lot of work, energy, time, and sacrifice in order for it to happen. As I grow older and hopefully wiser, it is much more important to move from success to significance and from income to impact.

We still struggle with life as much as anyone does, and the grass always appears greener on the other side – none of us are exempt from those thoughts. Through the seasons of life, though, I have come to discover that actually, the grass is greener when it is watered. So, water your grass where you are today, and who knows. Maybe your lawn will grow to be larger as a result. If that is the case, then an exhortation that I would like to extend is, “Don’t let success go to your head. Always remain humble, and be kind to others.”

On our trek for this week, let us explore the trail of…

True Success Requires Humility

The stories are all too common. After years of hard work pursuing their life dreams, these self-motivated, high achievers reach the pinnacle of success that they feel is so richly deserved. But, what comes next? You guessed it. They let success go to their heads. Whatever happened to being humble?

Unfortunately many people that reach a level of what the world considers success start to think they’re special. They buy expensive “toys” to show how successful they’ve become, and they push aside colleagues who’ve helped them achieve success. They abandon the values and principles that have made them successful. Worse yet, because they’re successful in one area of their life, which is usually thought of as financial success, they come to think they’re experts in everything.

The sad fact is that many who have obtained financial success have done so at the expense of their families, friends, integrity, and health. I struggle with considering this success because the most important aspects of life are something that no amount of money or resources can purchase. I am not opposed to anyone obtaining financial success because the impact that you can have on your world grows exponentially when you have additional resources. An interesting aspect, though, is that if you are unwilling to help others when you have limited resources, it usually does not change when you have more.

If you are unwilling to help others when you have limited resources usually does not change when you have more.

The simple truth is that not everyone treats success the same. Some people who achieve success remain humble, never forgetting who they are nor from where they came. The others? Well, we can learn from their mistakes. Unless you were born into wealth, you probably came from humble beginnings, so here are a few tips to assist on your journey to success in any aspect of life.

Success is temporary.

Success is a journey, not a destination. When you become successful, don’t rest on your laurels. As soon as you take your eye off the ball, you risk losing your edge.

Stop feeding your ego.

Don’t isolate yourself from reality by building relationships with people who stroke your ego. Surrounding yourself with “yes people” is just like talking to yourself.

Compete against yourself.

When you compete against others, it’s easy to emphasize winning over self-improvement. However, when you compete against yourself, you both win.

Even experts have room to learn.

Never stop learning and growing. Know your limitations and admit when you don’t know something. It’ll help to keep you grounded.

Listen up.

Discover what others have to offer and ask for their opinions before opening your mouth. It shows that you value their opinions as well as their insight.

No one’s perfect.

Don’t let success go to your head. Be quick to apologize for your mistakes. You’ll never learn anything or impress anyone by making excuses and diverting blame. And a little humility will remind you that you’re human.

Share your success.

You may be successful, but there’s a good chance others helped you along the way. Find creative ways to share the credit and pull people up the ladder of success along with you.

Remember your roots.

Remember where you came from and what you’ve learned along the way. Help others by mentoring them.
Get off your high horse. Treat everyone with dignity and respect. You may be successful, but that doesn’t make you better than anyone else.

Bragging is ugly.

There’s a difference between excitement and bragging. We know you’re thrilled about your new “toy,” but others may be cutting back on even their basic needs — be sensitive. As John Wooden said, “Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.”

Trust me.

Money and success can’t buy a person’s trust or guarantee a good reputation. You earn these through your words AND actions. There’s nothing more valuable in life than integrity. Trust me.

Many of us come from humble beginnings. I grew up in a family of 12 in an old farmhouse on an apple orchard. We were poor, but I didn’t realize it because our lives were full of love and hard work. I would not wish it any other way.

You can make something of yourself through the pursuit of knowledge, integrity, hard work, wisdom, following the principles of planting and harvesting, and by God’s grace. Yes, you can be thankful for the success that they’ve earned. But realize that ultimately it is by God’s grace, and that doesn’t give anyone the right to be rude or disrespectful to others.

The unfortunate reality is that some people get a big thrill from boasting about their accomplishments or showing off their possessions. They’ve convinced themselves that they’re better than others are. The fact is, some people let success go to their heads, and they gain a weird satisfaction from pushing people around. That’s wrong and should be avoided. On the other hand, just as it’s disgusting for the “haves” to look down on others, it’s equally disdainful for “have-nots” to resent those who’ve worked hard and have rightfully earned their success. For many humble people have become successful through much sacrifice, heartache, and struggle. You never know what others have had to go through in their pursuit of success, so be careful not to judge.

The truth is, all the money in the world doesn’t make you a better person. It simply means that you have more money. Real wealth is achieved by appreciating what you already have in life. After all, money can’t buy everything. It can’t buy a close-knit family, good friends, a clear conscience, work-life balance, a happy home, a second chance in life, or future success, among other things.

So, don’t let success go to your head. Be humble. Humility is a sign of strength, not weakness. People with humility possess inner peace. They’re modest about their achievements, grounded in their values, and they have nothing to prove to others. They’re down to earth, comfortable in their own skin, and quietly proud. Humble people shift their focus from taking to giving, from talking about themselves to listening to others, from hoarding the credit to deflecting the praise, and from being a “know-it-all” to knowing there’s so much more in life worth learning. There’s no ego, no pretense, and certainly no gamesmanship. Humble people are authentic. As C.S. Lewis said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”

Here are a few verses from Proverbs that teaches us a bit more about humility.

Proverbs 11:2 – Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

Proverbs 15:33 – Fear of the Lord teaches wisdom; humility precedes honor.

Proverbs 18:12 – Haughtiness goes before destruction; humility precedes honor.

Proverbs 22:4 – True humility and fear of the Lord lead to riches, honor, and long life.

Proverbs 29:23 – Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor.

On our trek we hiked the trail of success and learned that it passes through the valley of humility. We should seek our success in all aspects of life. To do less would be to not fulfill your God-given calling. In doing so, though, remember that it is by God’s grace and “…in him we live and move and exist.” Encourage your friends and family to join us on our 5-days a week podcast: Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

The Cycles and Seasons of Life—Make Your Winters Count

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In our previous Wisdom Note, we continued our series called The Cycles and Seasons of Life, Be Prepared for Winter. This week we finish this 10 part series about the cycles and seasons of life, and our focus is making your winters count. If you miss any of our Wisdom Notes please go to the blog to read past newsletters.

To be successful in life, we must fully understand the laws of planting and harvesting. Realize also that during your lifetime, there will be many different cycles of seasons. Just because particular cycles of seasons did not produce the harvest you expected, don’t let that control future seasons, or the entirety of your life. This week on our Wisdom Notes, let us continue the winter season which must be a time for reflection and planning while each new spring season gives you an opportunity to start new again. This week’s trek is titled…

Make Your Winter Seasons Count

As we continue to ponder the winter seasons of life, you need to grasp that throughout all the seasons of the year, winter can touch your lives in many small ways, as if it were testing you and providing you with subtle reminders of the plight of those whose lives are surrounded by winter. Winter can be a lost opportunity or the loss of love. A winter is when a trusted friend gives you cause for disappointment when your children, young or old, make unwise decisions that will force them into a winter season, or even when expected business goes to a competitor. Like a frigid blast from the cold, harsh words of someone you love is winter, and so is the pessimism or cynicism from someone whose advice and counsel you seek.

The major challenge confronting those who seem to be in a perpetual winter is that they don’t prepare for the arrival of spring, and lack the ability to recognize that arrival. So that you don’t become like this yourself, you must be planning, learning, and preparing so that you become part of the solution rather than allowing yourself to remain part of the problem.

If you are currently without love, money, or employment, it is a winter, and its very appearance is because you’ve missed a springtime somewhere. Even if it was not your intention, neglect is always costly, and winter is merely a circumstance—an effect brought on by some earlier cause. Dwelling on the severity of your personal winter merely makes the winter more difficult to endure. You must search the inner confines of your mind and your soul for the purpose of discovering the real cause within you.

Adversity is seldom attributable to someone or something outside of ourselves. To blame outside influences for the circumstance of winter is a convenient excuse for misplacing your responsibility. It is the normal human tendency to place blame for a winter of life on someone else, which is why most humans harvest the result of mediocrity that accompanies such behavior.

For circumstances to change, your attitudes, opinions, and habits must change. Conversation on how circumstances ought to be or on why situations aren’t fair is just that conversation! Unproductive conversation is what the lazy and unambitious engage in during the winters of life, for there is a certain euphoria that such empty conversation produces which dulls the senses from the harsh reality of how circumstances really are. The same euphoria is found on television and the internet. It will get you all worked up but does not provide a solution to your winter seasons. It is so easy to use it as an attempt to escape from an empty life. Since this will not solve the issues, many turn to alcohol and other drugs, seeking solutions in external means. Others turn to idle gossip, which allows those who engage in it to overlook their own weaknesses by attacking the weaknesses of others.

Instead, let winter find you planning for the arrival of spring, not contemplating the errors of commission and omission of last year. Let winter find you with a joyful countenance and a happy heart. Even if your winter is still dark and cold currently, share a good word for all those around you. Do it with confidence in the future, not apprehension; with an appreciation of the past, not regret; and finally, with gratitude for your achievements, adversities, and uncertainties of life, for each is a form of blessing that removes all limitations from the future possibilities of life.

Winter is a time for examining, pondering, and reflecting. It is a time for re-evaluating both purpose and procedure, for rediscovering an often misplaced sense of purpose. It is a time for finding new ways of solving old dilemmas and for devising unique plans for contributing to others less fortunate than yourself. It is a time for understanding and controlling anger, that frequent human emotion which causes us to pass judgment without fair deliberation. It is a time to analyze your fairness and to overcome your tendency to hastily spew out condemnation without a full investigation, which is the height of ignorance.

Winter is a time for being sincere with yourself and about yourself when the tendency is to fool yourself. It is a time for developing the skills that allow you to get along with imperfect people, for even a fool can get along with perfect people. It is also a time for becoming wise enough to know what to say, as well as to know what to overlook and what not to say.

The wisdom that comes with the careful use of winter teaches you also that evolution is merely revolution at a slower pace and that constant gradual change is the order of God’s universe. Only those worthy human attributes of honesty, loyalty, love, and trust in God and in your fellow humans are meant to remain constant. Winter is a time for being grateful for your achievements or for having endured your lack of achievement.

The physically inactive season of winter is a time for adding to your storehouse of knowledge through continued education, which in truth does not mean learning things that you do not know but in learning to behave as you do not now behave. The facts and things of life are automatically learned when you become inspired with the excitement of high expectations and belief in your own abilities.

With winter comes the opportunity to catch up on unkempt promises and on unanswered letters. It is a time also for encouraging the young, who with their inexperience are insecure, and for encouraging the old, whom because of their experience are apprehensive of the future. Let not a winter go by without investing much of your time in assuring, teaching, and encouraging others. For in so doing, your reward will be an uplifted confidence in yourself; the teacher is always the greatest recipient of the lessons he seeks to teach to others. Let winter find you thinking first of someone else, appreciating, being kind, and being gentle. And by all means, let winter find you laughing more, even though the winds blow cold and the snows cover the soil which will soon bring new life.

Someone once said, “Don’t pray for things to be easier, rather, pray for more obstacles and more challenges, for it is out of these that man’s character and will to succeed are formed.” Nearly every success story that I am aware of began when the person first lay flat on his mental and financial back. In this condition, people usually become sufficiently disgusted to reach deep down inside and pull out talent, ability, desire, and determination, which are the basic essentials required of anyone wishing to free themselves from the winters of life. It is in the face of adversity that circumstances begin to change, and the circumstances always change as a result of the personal change that takes place.

I have discovered that circumstances never change by themselves. It’s when a human with sufficient disgust, desire, and determination to change his life finally steps up and shouts for all the world to hear, “I have had it with defeat and humiliation, and I will tolerate it no longer.” That is when time, fate, and circumstances call a hasty conference, and all three wearily agree, “We had best step aside because we are powerless to stop that kind of resolve.” Unfortunately, the masses of people don’t change, they wait for circumstances to change, blaming others or blaming circumstances for their meager progress. They accept defeat as though it was God’s design for humanity to wallow in pools of defeat and self-pity.

It is in the face of adversity that circumstances begin to change

The fact is, life is going to continue, even though you may now be defeated. The world will wake up tomorrow just as it did today, and events will continue to unfold with repeated regularity of God’s creation. Your role of present failure, or success, is a temporary condition. You can rebound from failure as surely as you gravitated into failure. The condition of any person who feels defeated and ashamed is being repeated by thousands of humans around the world at this same moment in time. You must bring to mind the phrase, “This too shall pass” each time you are tempted to think you have accepted all the negativity and failure that your life could tolerate.

For everyone who is mentally, spiritually, and financially exhausted, a few will grasp for a new beginning. When they find it, they will pull themselves to their feet and move back into the world. It is then that they will not only do well, but leave their mark indelibly impressed upon the spiritual, business, political, or social world. They will be written about, talked about, and examined by their peers in numerous ways. The world will then pass judgment upon them as being “lucky” in some way and will be unaware of the agony and loneliness that each one experienced before he or she began his or her march upward toward accomplishment.

So, foolish as it may sound, thank God for your present limitations or failure if that should be the case, for you now occupy a status from which nearly all success stories originate. You can go where you want to go, do what you want to do, and become what you want to become, right from where you are today.

Over the time of recorded history, millions who were in abject poverty, had significant handicaps, or had failed many times chose through faith and hope that they would not remain in that circumstance. We can think of Longfellow, Michelangelo, Lincoln, George Washington Carver, Ford, Disney, and many others.

So be grateful for your adversity for it is the seed that you can now plant in the spring seasons of life for your own better future. The world will willingly stand by and let you feel sorry for yourself until you finally die, broke and alone, if that’s what you desire. It will also stand aside for you once you firmly decide that your present winter season is only temporary and that you will get back up and go on to make your impact on your world. The fact is, the world doesn’t really have time to care which choice you make, so for yourself at least, give a run at adventure with your eyes firmly set on achievement, not merely existence and self-pity.

From this moment on, and for what remains of the balance of your life, make your commitment to excellence, remembering that it is your challenge to succeed. After all, you only have one life! Do something remarkable!

We have now completed our ten-part series of the Cycles and Seasons of Life. Let us commit to living effectively during each season. In our next Wisdom Note, we will explore finding your motivation. Encourage your friends and family to join us on our 5-days a week podcast: Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

The Cycles and Seasons of Life—Prepare During Spring

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In our previous Wisdom Note, we continued our series called The Cycles and Seasons of Life, the Awakening of Spring. This week we continue with preparing during spring. If you miss any of our Wisdom Notes please go to the blog to read past newsletters.

It’s time to head out on our trek for this week as we continue on with the spring season in the Cycles and Seasons of Life with the section titled…

The Constant, Predictable, Pattern of Change

The essence of springtime is faith woven among the threads of massive human effort. Springtime is the fresh air of new opportunity, amid the dissipating clouds of winter. Spring is the time for you to enter the bleak, empty fields given to you as a new chance. When you enter those fields, you see in the adjoining fields the blossoming of nature’s flowers—the daisies, and other miracles of nature, which God planted, reminding you now that nature fulfills its promises. Already, the miracle of the seasons shows itself, for the same snows that gave you cause to huddle for warmth during the winter also covered nature’s crops, which exist now before your eyes.

Expend your effort now, without complaint, without doubt, without pessimism, and without self-pity over the severity of your winter of circumstance. Did the daisies complain because of the same cold and the same winds? No, they did not, yet they exist as either a reminder, a threat, or a promise. Do the lilies hide beneath the cover of earth, fearing an unexpected return of winter, or do they restrain themselves for fear of the coming bugs and weeds of summer? Do the daisies or the lilies of the field of nature make excuses or lie or linger? They are there because they endured circumstance and pushed aside the seasonal obstacles of rocks and hard-packed soil, and so must you if your life is to blossom.

The same God who gave life and meaning and opportunity to the crops of nature now gives you the same blessings. Are you to say that you are less than a lily or a daisy? Do they have a brain or vision or choice? Do they converse one with another for the sharing of ideas? In His parable in Matthew 6:28-30, Jesus taught us, “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?”

God does provide everything for you, but He does expect you to use your abilities as tools to fulfill His plan. Springtime merely says, “Here I am!” Springtime sends its life and its warmth. It sends you constant messages of its arrival—the robin, the squirrels, the return of the swallows, and the berries of the field for those whose own storehouses are empty. Springtime gives a smile to those who respond to its arrival and a tear for those who sit or who make only half an effort.

Some will work only a little—enough to give to themselves excuses for the meager results come the fall. Some will fish or play or sleep or lie among the wildflowers. Some will plant foolishly or quickly and not take the time to perform to the level of their capability or intelligence. Some will trust only in the God who brought forth the wildflowers, forgetting the admonition that “faith without works is dead.”

The warmth, the sun, and the fertile fields of the spring are but part of the formula for achievement; the catalyst that produces the final result is intense, honest, and consistent human effort, and therein lies the problem. As a human, you are given free will—the right to choose; the right to use discipline or not use it; the choice to act with courage or huddle in fear; the choice to think or respond out of habit.

When we are given a free choice, more often than not, we choose to rest, or we choose half an effort, or we choose a convenient excuse. Sometimes we choose to remain indoors because of its comfort or by a brook rather than in the field, knowing that the intelligence that lets us perform well will also let us lie well or excuse ourselves well or blame circumstances well. Above all, the gift of human intelligence and the freedom of choice that accompanies it is not a blessing but a curse, for it allows us to even fool and lie to ourselves, which is the height of ignorance.

Choose action, not rest. Choose truth, not fantasy. Choose a smile, not a frown. Choose love, not animosity. Choose the good in life in all things, and choose the opportunity as well as the chance to work when springtime smiles on your life.

Much of the effort and opportunity of springtime rests in the depth and degree of your faith. Life provides no assurances that the planting of seeds will provide the reaping of crops. We have only the demonstrated experiences of others to draw upon. The storms of life could cancel your efforts expended in the fields of opportunity. But to expend no effort during the spring will assure no results during the fall.

Faith further provides to you an irrevocable law decreed in heaven which assures that for every disciplined human effort, you will receive multiple rewards…For each cup planted, a bushel reaped…For every good idea given to another, many shall be given to you in return…For every demonstrated act of faith, a multiplicity of the rewards…For every act of love given, a life of love in return…For each seed of encouragement given to another, a gathering of the honest effort expended during the spring and an hour of honest rest in the fall…For each act of patience and understanding rendered to another, a return of patience from another when your own acts give cause for disappointment.

It is the promise of spring that as you plant, so will you also harvest. If you plant lies, you will harvest lies; plant greed, harvest poverty; plant inactivity, harvest an empty storehouse; choose to procrastinate, and surely an infant giant will grow to become a monster rendering your future action ineffective.

The act of planting during the warm breezes of spring requires that you exert the pain of human discipline. Being unwilling to do so assures that in the coming fall, you shall surely experience the greater pain of regret—the difference is that the pain of discipline weighs ounces, and the pain of regret weighs tons. You must either plant during the springtime of life or beg from others during the fall.

A kernel of corn produces its own kind. A seed of doubt, or fear, or distrust placed in the mind also produces after its own kind. As certainly as the soil gives back the same kind that which you place into it, so also does your mind give back in the human circumstance that which you place into it by your choice of human thought. The price or effort of thinking thoughts of love, prosperity, or self-confidence is no greater than the price given to thoughts of hate, poverty, or self-doubt. Only the rewards are different.

Each day is given to you as a new season of spring. The thoughts, deeds, dreams, and efforts of today will provide tomorrow’s harvest. To neglect the opportunity given to you this day is to delay your better future. Do not use today to mentally re-live yesterday or to await the arrival of tomorrow, for tomorrow— when it arrives—will be called today. There will be no better day, no better opportunity, no better springtime, no better time to begin than the current moment. Seize the moments as you find them, and mold them into your own better future. Today’s procrastination will surely be tomorrow’s regret.

For some, the emergence of springtime is a time of great difficulty. Perhaps because of your own neglect or inactivity of past seasons, you find your storehouse and your stomachs empty. Your need for food or monies is not in the coming fall…but now. The voices of those you love echo their needs brought about by your lack of effort or results, and their eyes look away from you, lest you detect the shame and disappointment shown in them.

Under circumstances such as these, you are often given to forgetting that the seasons will neither speed up nor slow down because of your needs. The springtime will only appear, but it will not wait, nor will it transform seed into harvest. As always, the seed, as well as your needs, must await the changing seasons. You cannot ask nature for an advance. Talent, need, desire, and prayer are meaningless to those suffering the painful consequences of earlier neglect. With your empty stomachs, barren storehouse, and great regret you must enter the fields during this spring, for to neglect once again because of your demeaning circumstances is to assure a continuance of the current conditions.

Finally, become wise enough to recognize the faint glimmerings of the springtimes of life which manifest themselves each day. Take advantage of the opportunity to listen to the words of those wiser than yourself…The opportunity to lift a child upon your knee. The opportunity to walk a beach with someone you love. The opportunity to absorb the value of a good book. The opportunity to speak good things about someone when habit prompts you to find fault. The opportunity to watch the hummingbirds, or the flowers, or a butterfly perform its strange miracle.

Seize the infrequent opportunity to do nothing for a change or something for a change. Force yourself to turn off the television or computer, and embrace the opportunity for having a family conversation—or even silence. Opportunity surrounds us all, appearing and disappearing just as fast, leaving behind fond memories to those who responded to its appearance, or regret to those who were then too busy to bother.

Life is truly a constant beginning, a constant opportunity, and a constant springtime. You need only to learn to look once again at life as you did as a child, letting fascination and curiosity give you a welcome cause for taking a second look, rather than taking for granted. Fortune, happiness, and peace of mind await those who learn to look for the miraculous hidden among the common. The unique blending of sun, soil, and seed at the springtime of seasons will provide predictable and miraculous results for those who will learn to take full and complete advantage of the spring.

This has been a rather lengthy trail on today’s trek, but it is one that we really need to take to heart and to consider and understand. The immutable laws of planting and harvesting are set by God and cannot be changed or violated any more than we can override the law of gravity. When you grasp this concept, then you can direct and achieve a rich and satisfying life.

Next week’s Wisdom Notes we will change our season to summer, and focus on the growth of summer. Encourage your friends and family to join us on our 5-days a week podcast: Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

The Cycles and Seasons of Life—The Value of Attitude

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In our previous Wisdom Note, we continued the series called The Cycles and Seasons of Life, and specifically, Choose Friends Wisely. This week we continue with the value of attitude. If you miss any of our Wisdom Notes please go to https://wisdom-trek.com/blog/ to read past newsletters.

Regardless of your own religious or intellectual inclinations, it is difficult to believe that humans somehow came about by random chance and circumstances. For all of us, what we believe about the origin of life, and particularly humans, is based purely on faith. Scientific proof requires observation and testing. No one is alive to verify what really happened in the ages past. Recorded human history is only from the past few thousand years.

For me, it is more logical to have faith in a divine creator as opposed to random chance and circumstances. I am personally convinced that the entire universe, including the earth and everything living on it, was created by God. Humans are a special creation since we are created as God’s image-bearer. Our lives are to project God’s image to humankind and all of creation. We are described in Genesis 1:26-27, “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.’ So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Based on this belief, you were created to grow in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of God and His precepts. In light of your eternal purpose and existence, even if you live beyond 100, your life is just a speck in time. As it says in James 4:14, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”

Your life on earth is but a mere stepping stone within your eternal existence. How your earthly trek finishes is based on the choices and decisions that you make each day. The impact of those choices will remain throughout eternity.

The more that I study, read, ponder, and speculate about people, their deeds, and their destiny, I become more deeply convinced that it is by God’s design that our natural destiny is to grow, to succeed, to prosper, and to find happiness while here on earth. True happiness is the joy that we can only experience when we accept and follow God’s provisions for us through His Son Jesus. It is then we will be able to experience God’s purpose based on what Jesus told us in John 10:10, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

In most of the world today, opportunity abounds, and it is within your reach to find within your own life a personal realization of the very best of all that exists, which very well may include personal wealth. Contrary to the teaching of some religious circles, wealth is not bad; poverty is bad. Poverty, in most situations, is self-inflicted and represses individuals or groups of individuals who have chosen not to use their God-given talents and abilities to grow. They choose, rather, to allow those who have discovered and used their talents to take care of them.

I realize in the Beatitudes it states that God blesses those who are truly poor if they recognize their need for Him. The problem that appears to be most prevalent today with those who are poor is they are poor because of unwise financial decisions or lack of motivation. When Jesus recited the Beatitudes, it was a time when many of his listeners were slaves or indentured servants. They had a limited opportunity to advance themselves. That is not the case in most of the world today. I realize there are specific situations where being in poverty may be out of a person’s control, but to remain poor, especially in western cultures is one of choice. Even in the face of difficulty, even severe difficulty, a person must make a total commitment to their cause, calling, or occupation in order to rectify their poverty. This situation is sad because many never even try to advance their lot in life through effort.

Imagine if George Washington decided not to try during the Revolutionary War because it looked bad across the Delaware River. Imagine Abraham Lincoln giving up because he was embarrassed as a soldier, failed as a businessman, or was soundly defeated at the polls by his peers. Imagine if George Washington Carver, born into slavery, had remained a slave in his mind instead of becoming one of the foremost crop researchers and scientists of all time. Imagine John Kennedy deciding not to go to the moon—to make America first, both in our own eyes as well as in the eyes of the rest of the world. I could go on with hundreds of people who overcame severe difficulties and went on to make a huge impact on the world. Imagine, if you will, the world without the contributions of these, and other great people who overcame adversity with talent, desire, and total determination to leave behind the world slightly better than they found it.

If I have failed to make my point, let it be known that God, did not intend for you to fail or wallow in poverty, self-pity, self-martyrdom, or mediocrity in any form. Such is not the grand design for you. God made you as His image bearer to represent Him. You are blessed with all those raw materials necessary for progress, such as imagination, ideas, inspiration, and undeveloped intellectual capacity…and that capacity is without limitation. The only limitation placed on your abilities is your inability to easily recognize your unlimited nature.

It does take an effort to become aware of your staggering and limitless abilities. It takes effort to become enthusiastic over your life purpose, a cause, or an occupation. It takes effort to continue when your results—as well as your friends—tell you to give up trying. It takes effort to feel right about everything that happens, the joys as well as the sorrows of life. And it also takes effort to learn to love yourself above all others, especially when you are so consciously aware of your failures, doubts, and tragedies. Your capacity to love others is dependent on your capacity to love yourself. The Apostle Paul quoted Jesus in Galatians 5:14 telling us, “For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

It does not, however, take effort to fail. It requires little else than a slowly deteriorating attitude about your present, your future, and about yourself. It is ironic that one of the few things in this life over which you have total control is your own attitude, and yet most of us live our entire life behaving as though we have no control whatsoever. By your attitude, you can decide to read or not to read. By your attitude, you can decide to try or give up. By your attitude, you blame yourself for your failure, or you foolishly blame others. Your attitude determines whether you love or hate, tell the truth or lie, take action or procrastinate, advance or recede, and by your own attitude you and you alone actually decide whether to succeed or fail.

How incredibly unique that a God, who would create the complex and immense universe, would create the human race and give to those humans the free choice that would permit them to select their own achievement or their own destruction.

This strange but all-knowing God gave to us a delicately balanced sphere called earth, and on it, he placed the intelligent human who would either develop it or destroy it. How terribly fascinating that God would leave both projects—earth as well as humans—unfinished! Across the rivers and streams, God built no bridges; He left the pictures unpainted, the songs unsung, the books unwritten, and space unexplored. For the accomplishment of those things, God created the unfinished human who, within his heart and mind, has the capacity to do all these things and more, depending upon his own choice. Attitude determines choice, and choice determines results. All that we are and all that we can become, for the most part, has indeed been left to us.

At this very moment in time, as you read these words, your attitude has determined what you are. Your enthusiasms, intensity, faith in yourself, patience with yourself and others, and childish excitement about your boundless future is a result of that single word—attitude. On the seventh day, the work of God was finished, and He rested from all his creative work. The work of creating your better future has just begun. For as long as you continue to draw breath, you have the chance to finish that work, and in so doing, complete the work in and for the earth and for yourself that God has left for you to accomplish.

We have come to the end of The Value of Attitude trail. We have much to consider and ponder  We will continue this trail in our next Wisdom Journal, as we learn The Constant, Predictable, Pattern of Change within the Cycles and Seasons of Life, so don’t miss it. Encourage your friends and family to join us on our 5-day a week podcast: Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

As the world struggles to get beyond the pandemic and every world leader must balance physical health with economic health, let us pray for the leaders throughout the world. That God will give them wisdom, insight, discernment, and understanding. Let us pray also that these leaders turn to God for direction.