Tag Archives: Motivational messages

Clay Balls . . .

Posted on by

IMG_3339

Clay Balls
Author Unknown

A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn’t look like much, but they intrigued the man so he took the bag out of the cave with him.

As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could. He thought little about it until he dropped one of the balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone.

Excited the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure.

He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left. Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he just threw it away.

It’s like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn’t look like much from the outside. It isn’t always beautiful or sparkling so we discount it. We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person by God.

There is a treasure in each and every one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.

May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay.

May we see the people in our world as God sees them.

Consider this: Change how you look at another person today. There is a treasure inside.

The Royal Servant . . .

Posted on by

IMG_3339

Wisdom Story: “Royal Servant”

The King of Kamera in Africa was a proud and stern man, feared by all his subjects.

One day while sitting in his mud palace, surrounded by fawning courtiers and watched by a multitude of people who had come to see him, he was suddenly overcome by a sense of grandeur and loudly declared that he was master of the world and that all men were his servants.

“You are mistaken,” said a frail voice. “All men are servants of one another.”

A deathly silence followed the remark. The blood froze in the veins of the people assembled there. Then the king exploded in anger.

“Who said that!” he demanded, rising from the royal stool. “Who dares suggest that I am a servant!!”

“I do,” said a voice in the crowd, and the people parted to reveal a white-haired old man, leaning heavily on a stout stick.

“Who are you?” asked the king.

“I am Boubakar,” said the man. “We have no water in our village. I have come to ask for a well to be dug there.”

“So you are a beggar!” roared the king, striding down to where the man stood. “Yet you have the temerity to call me a servant!”

“We all serve one another,” said Boubakar, showing no fear, “and I will prove it to you before nightfall.”

“Do that,” said the monarch. “Force me to wait on you. If you can do that I will have not one but three wells dug in your village. But if you fail, you’ll lose your head!”

“In our village,” said the old man, “when we accept a challenge, we touch the person’s feet. Let me touch your feet. Hold my stick.”

The king took the stick and the old man bent down and touched the monarch’s feet.

“Now you may give it back to me,” he said, straightening up. The king gave him back his stick.

“Do you want any more proof?” asked Boubakar.

“Proof?” asked the king, bewildered.

“You held my stick when I asked you to and gave it back to me when I asked you for it,” said the old man. “As I said, all good men are servants of one another.”

The king was so pleased with the Royal Servant Boubakar’s wit and daring that he not only had wells dug in his village but also retained him as an adviser.”

Consider this: We all serve each other.

One Thousand Marbles . . .

Posted on by

 

marbles

One Thousand Marbles
Jeffrey Davis

I’m a Ham radio operator and spend some time working with radios and electronics. So when I heard this story it really made me think! I hope that you will find some application in your own life as well…

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement shack with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it.

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know, the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about “a thousand marbles”.

I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say. “Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you’re busy with your job. I’m sure they pay you well but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter’s dance recital.”

He continued, “Let me tell you something, Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities.” And that’s when he began to explain his theory of “a thousand marbles.”

“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.”

“Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now stick with me Tom, I’m getting to the important part.”

“It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail,” he went on, “and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.”

“So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up 1,000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.”

“I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.”

“Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.”

“It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again.”

You could have heard a pin drop on the radio when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss.

“C’mon honey, I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast.”

“What brought this on?” she asked with a smile.

“Oh, nothing special, it’s just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we’re out? I need to buy some marbles.”

Consider this: How many marbles are in your container?

Two Days We Should Not Worry . . .

Posted on by

IMG_3339

Two Days We Should Not Worry
Author Unknown

There are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.

One of these days is Yesterday with all its mistakes and cares,
its faults and blunders, its aches and pains.

Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.
All the money in the world cannot bring back Yesterday.

We cannot undo a single act we performed;
we cannot erase a single word we said.
Yesterday is gone forever.

The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow
with all its possible adversities, its burdens,
its large promise and its poor performance;
Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.

Tomorrow’s sun will rise,
either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds, but it will rise.
Until it does, we have no stake in Tomorrow,
for it is yet to be born.

This leaves only one day, Today.
Any person can fight the battle of just one day.
It is when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities Yesterday and Tomorrow that we break down.

It is not the experience of Today that drives a person mad,
it is the remorse or bitterness of something which happened Yesterday and the dread of what Tomorrow may bring.

Let us, therefore, Live but one day at a time.

Consider this: Live in the moment. Seize the day.

The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying . . .

Posted on by

IMG_3266

The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

By George Ambler, July 5, 2015

Bronnie Ware is an Australian palliative care nurse who provides specialised medical care for people who are in the last 12 weeks of their lives. Whilst working with dying people, Bonnie recorded the dying thoughts of her patient on her blog Inspiration and Chai, which got so much attention the she wrote a book “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying”. The top five regrets of people on their deathbed were:

I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
I wish that I had let myself be happier.
Reflecting on this list I would summarise Bronnie’s advice as “don’t spend your time living someone else’s life”.

These top five regrets, reflect the life lived by modern man, a life lived in response to the dreams, visions and goals of others. Living a life reacting to circumstances and events.

These regrets are the result of things you fail to do, these regrets are the result of apathy, the result of a life lived on auto pilot, the result of a life lived by default. When you live life on auto pilot you give up your dreams, sideline your friends, ignore your happiness and neglect your family.

To avoid having these regrets you need to make a new set of commitments. You need decide to live life deliberately and with intention.

1. Decide to live your dreams whilst you still have your health.
2. Don’t work too much. Get off the treadmill of endless work.
3. Take time to express your feelings to those you love and to those who care about you.
4. Cultivate friendships. Don’t let your friendships slip.
5. Happiness is a choice. Make the decision to be happy every day create yourself

Consider this: What will you focus on today?

These Are My Wishes For You . . . 

Posted on by

mmwna

These Are My Wishes For You
Sandra Sturtz Hauss

May you find serenity and tranquility
in a world you may not always understand.

May the pain you have known
and the conflict you have experienced
give you the strength to walk through life
facing each new situation with courage and optimism.

Always know that there are those
whose love and understanding will always be there, even when you feel most alone.

May a kind word,
a reassuring touch,
and a warm smile
be yours every day of your life,
and may you give these gifts
as well as receive them.

May the teachings of those you admire
become part of you,
so that you may call upon them.

Remember, those whose lives you have touched
and who have touched yours
are always a part of you,
even if the encounters were less than you would have wished.
It is the content of the encounter
that is more important than its form.

May you not become too concerned with material matters,
but instead place immeasurable value
on the goodness in your heart.
Find time in each day to see beauty and love
in the world around you.

Realize that what you feel you lack in one regard
you may be more than compensated for in another.
What you feel you lack in the present
may become one of your strengths in the future.
May you see your future as one filled with promise and possibility.
Learn to view everything as a worthwhile experience.

May you find enough inner strength
to determine your own worth by yourself,
and not be dependent
on another’s judgment of your accomplishments.

May you always feel loved.

Consider this: What do you wish for?

How would you . . .

Posted on by

mmwna

How would you feel if you had no fear?
Feel like that.
How would you behave toward other people if you realized their powerlessness to hurt you?
Behave like that.
How would you react to so-called misfortune if you saw its inability to bother you?
React like that.
How would you think toward yourself if you knew you were really all right?
Think like that.”

– Vernon Howard

Consider this: It is time to do . . . that!

The Wise Sage . . .

Posted on by

let go

The Wise Sage
Author Unknown

There once was a wise sage who wandered the countryside. One day, as he passed near a village, he was approached by a woman who told him of a sick child nearby. She beseeched him to help this child.

So the sage came to the village, and a crowd gathered around him, for such a man was a rare sight. One woman brought the sick child to him, and he said a prayer over her.

“Do you really think your prayer will help her, when medicine has failed?” yelled a man from the crowd.

“You know nothing of such things! You are a stupid fool!” said the sage to the man.

The man became very angry with these words and his face grew hot and red. He was about to say something, or perhaps strike out, when the sage walked over to him and said: “If one word has such power as to make you so angry and hot, may not another have the power to heal?”

And thus, the sage healed two people that day.

Consider This: There is  power in our words!

The 7 Most Popular Leadership Freak Posts of 2014

Posted on by

The 7 Most Popular Leadership Freak Posts of 2014.

via The 7 Most Popular Leadership Freak Posts of 2014.

A great way to end the year with several motivational messages including the favorite at the end of the list: The Three Power People You Need on Your Team.

Happy New Year from Motivational Moments with Nigel Alston (Monday Morning Inspiration). Peace and Blessings!

Consider this: Who is on your team for 2015?

Better To Light Candles . . .

Posted on by

life

Better To Light Candles
Merle Shain

It is better to light candles
than to curse the darkness.
It is better to plant seeds
than to accuse the earth.
The world needs all of our power
and love and energy,
and each of us has something that we can give.
The trick is to find it and use it,
to find it and give it away.
So there will always be more.
We can be lights for each other,
and through each other’s illumination
we will see the way.
Each of us is a seed,
a silent promise,
and it is always spring.

Consider this: Someone is depending on your light.