WHAT ARE YOU HANGING ON TO

WHAT ARE YOU HANGING ON TO?

I saw this, i thought you such read.
The cheerful girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them: a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box.

"Oh please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please?" Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl's upturned face.

"A dollar ninety-five. That's almost $2.00. If you really want them, I'll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself. Your birthday's only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar bill from Grandma."

As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her penny bank and counted out 17 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores and she went to the neighbor and asked Mrs. James if she could pick dandelions for ten cents. On her birthday, Grandma did give her another new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace. Jenny loved her pearls.

They made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere - Sunday school, kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green.

Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. One night when he finished the story, he asked Jenny, "Do you love me?"

"Oh yes, Daddy. You know that I love you." "Then give me your pearls." "Oh, Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess - the white horse from my collection - the one with the pink tail. Remember, Daddy? The one you gave me. She's my favorite."

"That's okay, Honey. Daddy loves you. Good night." And he brushed her cheek with a kiss. About a week later, after the story time, Jenny's daddy asked again, "Do you love me?"

"Daddy, you know I love you."

"Then give me your pearls."

"Oh Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my baby doll. The brand new one I got for my birthday. She is so beautiful and you can have the yellow blanket that matches her sleeper."

"That's okay. Sleep well. God bless you, little one. Daddy loves you."

And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss. A few nights later when her daddy came in, Jenny was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed Indian-style. As he came close, he noticed her chin was trembling and one silent tear rolled down her cheek.

"What is it, Jenny? What's the matter?"

Jenny didn't say anything but lifted her little hand up to her daddy. And when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace. With a little quiver, she finally said, "Here, Daddy. It's for you."

With tears gathering in his own eyes, Jenny's kind daddy reached out with one hand to take the dime-store necklace, and with the other hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a strand of genuine pearls and gave them to Jenny. He had them all the time. He was just waiting for her to give up the dime-store stuff so he could give her genuine treasure.

Jenny's father is like our heavenly Father. He also is waiting for us to give up our dime store stuff and seek Him first ... so He can fling open the windows of Heaven and pour us out such a blessing that we will not have room enough to hold it.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT YOUR CHILD.

RAISING OR REARING YOUR CHILD?

It’s human nature for us to want to keep our kids smiling and cheerful. But you know what? If our kids never get mad at us, or get frustrated or become disappointed, that might be a warning sign that we aren’t doing our job as parents. In other hand we are just rearing that child, not raising him.

I got amazed as how you as a parent will put in your best to bring up your child, only for that child to turn out not just the right way and you wonder want went wrong. Maybe your best wasn’t just enough. I know you want to get mad at me for saying just that, but before you do let us just take a look at one truth about it. Follow me to the book of proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”. So you see the training lies in your hand. Is either you are raising that child or you are rearing your which. How will your child learn to deal with frustration and disappointment if they never have any practice? How will your child learn self-discipline if you don’t teach him? It is your job to teach these important life lessons to your child before it is too late. It is a well-known fact that the only manner in which an over pampered child may be made to become useful is by forcing that child to become self-sustaining. And the time to do it is now not tomorrow because it may be too late.

Raising a child is more demanding than rearing your child. In rearing a child you give that child almost everything the child asked for directly or indirectly, and to you, you are just doing the right thing. That is rearing your child and it leads to unhappy ending, where you wonder “what went wrong” I did all I should do as a parent, I gave him/her all to make him/her happy yet this is what I got in return. There’s more to life then all we see. Remember the teenager doesn’t wake up one morning and decide he doesn’t have any respect for his parents. You’ve been rearing that child without known. (Proverbs 22:13-14) “Withhold not correction from the child...” Help that child to turn out right in future.

KNOW THIS:

Some parents would disagree, perhaps saying that you should reason with your child, explain yourself, or even negotiate. But avoid saying no, they urge, for fear that it will make your child feel resentful. True, the word “no” might initially disappoint your child. Nevertheless, it teaches him vital lesson, which in real world, there are limits by which people must abide. By giving in, on the hand, you weaken your authority and teach your child to manipulate you by whining every time he wants something. Over time, your response could make him resentful. After all, how much can a child respect an easily manipulated parent? “Discipline your child while there is hope” proverbs 19:18. Please raise that child, not rear him for a better tomorrow!

The Power of DECISION!!

Why you do to take that decision now. If you are a leader, you will understand that one of the major requisites for leadership is the power of quick and firm DECISION!
A salesman called on a real estate dealer, in a small western town, for the purpose of trying to sell the real estate man a course in salesmanship and Business Management.
When the salesman arrived at the prospective student's office he found the gentleman pecking out a letter by the two-finger method, on an antiquated typewriter. The salesman introduced himself, then proceeded to state his business and describe the course he had come to sell.
The real estate man listened with apparent interest.
After the sales talk had been completed the salesman hesitated, waiting for some signs of  yes or no from his prospective client. Thinking that perhaps he had not made the sales talk quite strong enough, he briefly went over the merits of the course he was selling, a second time. Still there was no response from the prospective student.
The salesman then asked the direct question, " you want this course, do you not?" In a slow, drawling tone of voice, the real estate man replied: " well, I hardly know whether I do or not". What will you do? If you are the salesman.
No doubt he was telling the truth, because he was one of the millions of men who fine it hard to reach decisions.
The question is, are you one out of the millions of men who find it hard to reach decisions? If yes take a closer look at you life and see what a great price you are paying because of it. It affects everything you do negatively.
Don't just be a follower, be a leader. The follower, in whatever walk of life you find him, is a man who seldom knows what he wants. He vacillates, procrastinates, and actually refuses to reach a decision, even in matters of the smallest importance, unless a Leader induces him to do so.

Sow the right words....

Sow The Right Words Into Your Life

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he
also reap (Galatians 6:7).

The Lord Jesus, in narrating the parable of the sower said, “A sower went out to sow his seed…” (Luke 8:5). Then in the eleventh verse, He explained that the seed the sower sowed was the Word of God, letting us know that words are seeds.

We read in our opening verse that what you sow is what you reap. If you sow good seeds (the right words) into your life, they'll produce the right results. You can’t sow corn seeds, for instance, and expect to harvest mangos; every seed reproduces after its kind. So, the question is, what words are you sowing into your life?

Words come to us when we listen to other people, in messages that we receive from our environment, what we read, watch etc.
These words become seeds that are sown into our lives, reproducing the character that we become. Who you are today is not an accident; it's the result of all the seeds (words) that have been sown into you all your life: by those who took care of you while you were growing up, your environment, the schools you attended, and all the information you received through your senses of hearing and sight. How these words got into you isn’t so important; what’s important is that they did, and today you're the result of those words.

If those words (seeds) weren't the right ones, and you want to make adjustments, you have to introduce new “seeds.” You can't make the adjustment by crying or regretting; you can only do so by sowing the right words into you. Sow words of joy, peace and love, and you'll reap the same. Your life goes in the direction of your words. If your words are excellent, your life will be excellent.

Stop your heart and ears from the wrong words. The only words you should allow take root in your heart are words that inspire, lift, bless and stir you in the direction of God’s perfect will.

Making The Right Choice...

MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICE

No matter how much you think you have messed up your life, nothing has to change in your environment or in your circumstance for you to begin to deliberately make the right choices that will move you in the direction of your dreams.

Don’t focus on what is missing in your life, since life will give you more of what you focus on. Changing your reality is just a matter of changing what you have allowed yourself to be conditioned to believe. Take charge of the only place you can truly take charge, that is your mind.

Learn to watch your beliefs because someday the truth of what you believe will come knocking at your door and what will you do, will you let it in or not?  Learn to believe in the right thing. Soon enough you will attract that which you believe in. Your past may not be you fault but your future is your responsibility and what its turns out is your fault.

What can you today knowing you have a better future…….

Trust God or Run

Bethlehem but left because there was a great famine. They relocated to Moab with their two sons who married Moabite women; Orpah and Ruth. Unfortunately, Elimelech and his sons died, leaving three widows. Naomi decided that she would return back to Bethlehem after spending 10 years in Moab. She told her daughter in-laws to go back to their fathers’ house and remarry. Orpah left, but Ruth pleaded with her to stay.
TRUST GOD OR RUN?
Elimelech and Naomi were in a tough situation, faced with two options; to trust God or to run…they chose the latter. It was a decision that cost Elimelech and his two sons their lives. We read that they left Bethlehem (which means ‘the place of bread’) in Judah (‘praise’) to go to Moab (meaning: ‘what father?’). The meaning of Moab gives us an insight into Elimelech’s state of mind. He doubted the love, provision and fatherhood of God and chose to step out of where God had placed Him.
AN EXAMPLE OF TRUE CONVERSION
Orpah said she would stay with Naomi, but decided it wasn’t for her and left. Sadly, this is what happens with many ‘Christians’ today. They come to the Lord at countless ‘alter-calls’ but where are they a few days later? Or they may stay for a while, springing up quickly like the word says, yet when persecution or hardship comes like thorns encroaching ones growth, they leave the faith for a more ‘comfortable’ life.
But Ruth, she stayed. In Ruth we see an awesome example of true conversion. Even when others around her departed, Ruth stood her ground. Unshaken, not consumed by the thorns of life, she says in my favourite verses of this chapter (16-17), “…Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” Having counted the cost Ruth was willing to give up everything she knew and loved to follow Naomi, and Naomi’s God. A gentile becoming one of God’s own by CHOICE – have you made yours? Will you still trust God in the hard times