encouragement

What you ask for

  The world around you is whatever you sincerely ask of it. Your life is precisely what you ask of it, with your thoughts, your actions, and your attitude. All things and events may come and go. Yet, reality is what you choose to do with it all. The value you look for, and the […]

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The Red Marbles

Barbara Miller was bagging some early potatoes for me. I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily looking at a basket of freshly picked green peas. I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas […]

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Love and music in their hearts

For many years as I went about my weekend routine of doing all those chores around our house I would regularly hear the sound of a piano playing and singing in the background. One of our neighbours has always had a love of music and obviously the family enjoyed gathering around the piano on the […]

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Looking for Diamonds

Albert Einstein said, ‘In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.’ Once discovered, such opportunities are like valuable diamonds hidden in the sand. Several years ago I spoke at church about how we are surrounded by ‘diamonds,’ if we could only recognize them. A man stopped by to see me. I remembered him as somebody […]

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Who really cares

The people who make a difference Please take a moment to answer these questions: Name the five wealthiest people in the world. Name the last five recipients of the Australian of the Year Award. Name the last five winners of the Miss World contest. Name ten people who have won the Nobel Peace prize. Name […]

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Good Leaders are Good Followers

A young woman was filling out an application for college when she came across the question: Are you a leader? She thought she had better be brutally honest, so she answered, ‘No.’ She was convinced when she sent the application in that she’d never hear from them because of that answer. But she received a […]

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Live for now

There are two days in every week that we should not worry about, two days that should be kept free from fear and apprehension. One is yesterday, with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the power in the world cannot bring […]

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