LEARNING...

WISDOM NUGGET: Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

                                                                                                                                 - Albert Einstein

Source: Photopin

Its alarming to find that some folks still think that learning is a luxury for a few individuals, or that it should be done during our early (formative) years.
Learning should be looked at as something well beyond formal schooling; it encompasses our entire life cycle. Learning allows us to stay relevant in life and to be ahead of the game. If you don't render yourself obsolete someone else will; like your employer.

Learning is the price innovators will gladly pay for staying ahead of everyone else. In order for you to create the new results you want in your life, learning is a path you must be willing to take. It provides opportunities to continually expand your capacity. The world is always changing around us. Plus there's nothing anyone of us can do to impede the changes that happen technologically in our environment, but we can make our selves relevant and invaluable in every stage of these advancements by constantly and continuously giving ourselves to LEARNING.

Take the birth of the automobile for instance; what did the first automobile look like? With that picture in mind, compare it to the automobiles today, you'll agree that the difference is almost irreconcilable. Automobiles today are a direct result of human beings gaining a deeper understanding of how to make cars function and look better.

What new skill will allow you to move forward from where you are now to where you want to go? Don't hold back; go and get it. When you change your thoughts you change your results.
This is how John Locke put it, "the actions of men are the best interpreters of their thought."

AN ANCIENT SECRET FOR MODERN (WO)MEN

Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.

                                                                                                                                - Dennis Prager

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Many years ago a lad of 16 was obliged to leave home because his father was too poor to support him any longer. So he trudged away with all worldly possessions in a bundle dangling from his hand, resolving as he journeyed to set up in business as a soap maker in New York.

When the country boy arrived in the big city, he found it hard to get work. Remembering the last words of his mother and also the godly advice given him by the captain of a canal boat, the youth dedicated his life to God, determining to return to his Maker an honest tithe of every dollar he earned.
So, when his first dollar came in, the young man sacredly dedicated ten cents of it to God. This he continued to do. And the dollars rolled in! Soon this young man became partner in a soap business; and when his partner died a few years later, he became sole owner of the concern.

The prosperous businessman now instructed his bookkeeper to open an account with the Lord and to credit to it one tenth of all his income. The business grew miraculously. The honest proprietor now dedicated two-tenths of his earnings; and then three-tenths, four-tenths; and finally, five-tenths. It seemed as if his sales increased in exact proportion to his generosity, so that soon his brand of soap became a household word throughout the world.

The late William Colgate was this man who was so prospered in return for his faithfulness.

Things to Learn About Generousity

Wisdom Nuggets: Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

                                                                                                                          - Og Mandino 

Source: Photopin

 

People who don't like to give must realise that they are being controlled by their wealth. What they own possesses them; they do not possess the things they own.

 People filed into church one Pentecost Sunday and collected the bright red carnation the ushers were sharing. The people listened attentively to the reading of the Pentecost story from the Book of Acts about how the disciples had heard “what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven”; about how the Holy Spirit had appeared “like tongues of fire.” Then came the sermon: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon us,” the preacher began. “Like the powerful wind from heaven!” shouted a woman sitting in the first pew. Then she threw one of the red carnations toward the altar. The preacher began again: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon us.” The same woman’s voce rang out again, “Like the tongues of fire, the tongues of fire!” Again, she threw a red carnation toward the altar. The preacher looked straight at her and said, “Now throw your pocketbook.” To which the woman replied, “Preacher, you have just calmed the wind and put out the fire.”

We may laugh at such stories, but it should be taken seriously.

 

RECIPROCATING KIND GESTURES

Wisdom Nugget: Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

                                                                                                                      - Mark Twain

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Often we think of reciprocating in terms of repaying our benefactor. Perhaps recalling an occasion in the life of D. L. Moody will give us a different perspective.

Once, when Mr. Moody was in New York, he was helped tremendously by R. K. Remington. As he was leaving on the train, Mr. Moody grasped his friend by the hand and said, "If you ever come to Chicago, call on me and I will try to return your kindness." Mr. Remington replied, "Don't wait for me; do it to the first man that comes along."

However this blessing does not just apply to the law of reciprocity but to the very basic philosophy of showing kindness to others generally.

In Edwin Markham's lovely poem, "The Shoes of Happiness," Conrad, the old cobbler, dreamed one night that the Master would come to be his guest. When the dawn was yet young, he arose and decorated his little shop with bright and gay flowers and waited. When the Master would come, he would wash the feet where the spikes had been and would kiss the hands that the nails had punctured.
But the Master did not come. A beggar came, and Conrad gave him a pair of shoes. An old woman came bent from the weight of a heavy burden. He lifted the load off her back and refreshed her with food. And finally, just before the day was about to fade away into darkness, a little child came. Her eyes were wet with tears, and in pity Conrad led her back to her mother. But the divine guest never came:
Then soft in the silence a voice he heard
"Lift up your heart, for I kept My word.
Three times I came to your friendly door;
Three times my shadow was on your floor.
I was the beggar with bruised feet,
I was the woman you gave to eat,
I was the child in the homeless street."

Alexander the Great and the Beggar

Wisdom Nuggets: To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.

                                                                                                                             - Confucius

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Your approach to giving doesn’t just show reverence to the receiver but also mirrors your values as a giver.

 No other illustrations paints a clearer picture of this than the story told of a roadside beggar who asked alms from Alexander the Great as he passed by. The man was poor and wretched and had no claim upon the ruler, no right even to lift a solicitous hand. Yet the Emperor threw him several gold coins. A courtier was astonished at his level of giving and commented, "Sir, copper coins would adequately meet a beggar's need. Why give him gold?" Alexander responded in royal fashion, "Cooper coins would suit the beggar's need, but gold coins suit Alexander's giving."

 Giving is not dependent on the nature or level of the receiver but should mirror the nature of the giver. It is my pleasure to announce to you that you are royalty. Therefore, always give like the royalty that you are. Let your value system and true nature be reflected in your giving today.

 

You Too Can Save Lives

Wisdom Nuggets: Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish.

                                                                                                                  - Richard Dawkins

Source: Photopin

 

EVER so often, when we stretch forth a benevolent hand and reach out to someone, we never know whose life we could be saving. This is truly one of life’s greatest beauties.

Tutu was almost late for an interview, and feared that lateness could disqualify him from getting this dream job. He quickly purchased a ticket and got himself a seat. Then before long came this elderly man, just after the bus had been filled. The man was looking so bewildered and despondent. The man approached the lady on the seat by the door, explaining to her how he is needed urgently in the hospital for an immediate blood transfusion for his only son who was at the verge of death. The lady turned down the man, pointing out that she was in a hurry somewhere. Touched by the man’s plight, the young man obliged the elderly man, gave up his seat and alighted from the bus. The bus had hardly left the park, before the he was told that, that was the last bus for the day. But as he stood by the road outside the park feeling like the biggest fool, a vehicle pulled over, whose driver needed to get to exactly the same place where the young man’s interview was taking place, but the diver didn’t know his way around. The driver of the car, who ended up being a cousin to the MD of the company where the young man was scheduled for the interview, simply took the young man straight in to his uncle’s office and narrated his experience with the young man. The MD felt so moved that the young man had helped his cousin, that he simply gave him the job.

Every time we give up something, we have no idea what we are securing in the future. He just wanted to help save a life and ended up securing a good job on a platter of gold.

 

This is how Mahatma Ghandi puts it. "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."

What Gifts Mean

Wisdom Nugget: Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

                                                                                                                                   - Khalil Gibran

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Someone once said that one of the greatest indications of a person’s worth is shown by the quality of gifts he receives, not just in quantity but by the reference attached to the gift. For example when you invite special guests to your home, do you warm up the leftovers in the refrigerator and serve them on paper plates? Of course not. Most of us prepare a special meal, use our best dishes and arrange our schedules so that we can spend quality time with our guests. In other words, we offer them our very best. The quality of sacrifice we are willing to make tells how important they are to us.

A lawyer and a merchant, joined a group of tourists who were travelling around the world. Before they started, a minister earnestly asked them to observe and remember any unusual and interesting things that they might see in the missionary countries through which the party was to travel. The men promised—carelessly, perhaps—to do so. One day in Korea, they saw in a field by the side of the road a boy pulling a crude plough, while an old man held the handles and directed it. The lawyer was amused, and took a snapshot of the scene. "That's a curious picture! I suppose they are very poor," he said to the missionary who was interpreter and guide to the party. "Yes," was the quiet reply "That is the family of Chi Noui. When the church was being built they were eager to give something to it, but they had no money so they sold their only ox and gave the money to the church. This spring they are pulling the plough themselves." The lawyer and the businessman by his side were silent for some moments. Then the businessman said, "That must have been a real sacrifice."

"They did not call it that," said the missionary. "They thought it was fortunate they had an ox to sell."

The amount of sacrifice always indicates the amount of love and reference.

REASONS TO INVEST WISELY

Wisdom Nugget: Take time to gather up the past so that you will be able to draw from your experience and invest them in the future.

                                                                                                                     - Jim Rohn

 

Picture from Photo Pin

 

 

Fela Durotoye once defined the word "POOR" as Passing Over Opportunity Regularly. Following that definition, the difference between you and the fellow who always hangs around you for a hand-out is that you maximized your opportunities and they didn't. Simply put, you could have been them and vice versa. So instead of talking them down and treating them despicably the next time they show up why not count your blessings; be thankful that you're in a position to give.

A story is told of Martin of Tours who met a beggar when he didn't have any money. But he noticed the beggar was freezing, and gave him what he had. He took off his soldier's overcoat, old and faded as it was, cut it in half, and wrapped half around the beggar. During the night Martin had a dream. He saw heaven opened, and Christ wearing half an overcoat. One of the angels asked, "Lord, why are you wearing that shabby old coat?" Christ answered, "Because my servant gave it to me." It was only a dream.

It pays to give.

Starting The Receiving Process

WISDOM NUGGET: Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process.

                                                                                                                        - Jim Rohn

 

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A lot of people want to be on the receiving side. And it is no sin or crime at all.

 

Everyone loves to receive gifts. However, we must recognise the infallible, life-governing, principles. One example of those principles is that of sowing and reaping (seed time and harvest shall not cease).

 

 As long as there is seed in the ground a harvest awaits: it is a universal law of nature. Also when it comes to receiving, the only guarantee that one will receive is that one has given.  

Once, a blind beggar sat beside a road, fingering the rice in his little bowl. The road stretched into nowhere both ways. The scarce travellers occasionally gave him a little rice. One day he heard the thunder of a chariot in the distance. It was the grand entourage of the maharajah. Never had they passed his way before. Surely the great one would stop and give him baskets of rice. Indeed, the golden chariot of the maharajah stopped before the poor beggar. The great one stepped down and the beggar fell before him. Then the sky seemed to fall in. "Give me your rice," said the great one. A fearful, hateful, scowl masked the face of the beggar. He reached into his bowl and thrust one grain of rice toward the maharajah. "Is that all?" said the great one. The beggar spat on the ground, cursed, and threw him one more grain of rice. The great one turned, entered his chariot, and was gone. The beggar—angry, empty, and crushed—fingered the remaining rice he had hoarded in his bowl. He felt something hard, different from the rice. He pulled it out. It was one grain of gold. He poured out his rice, caring nothing for it now. He found one other grain of gold. Had he trusted the great one, he could have had a grain of gold for every grain of rice.

 You could receive by begging or asking a favour. But the best way to receive is to give.

Giving Opens Hearts

WISDOM NUGGET: Giving a gift can open doors; it gives access to important people!

 

Source: Photopin

“People don’t want to know how much you know, until they know how much you care,”

                                                                                                   - John C. Maxwell

 

 One of the most effective ways of winning people over is through giving. Giving has the power to melt hearts, encourage the embittered and battered. Giving can encourage people who wouldn't even be patient enough to hear a sermon.

A man bought a field next to a farmer who had been engaged in a long-standing dispute with the former owner about the exact boundary line between this field and his own property. When the new owner saw the farmer near the fence one day, he greeted him with the words, "I'm your new neighbour; and I would like to talk to you about the boundary line between our properties." The farmer assumed a belligerent attitude and said, "What about it?" "How much of this field do you claim as belonging to you?" asked the new owner. "I claim that your fence is a good two feet over on my property," replied the farmer. "Well, then, I want you to reset the fence four feet back on my side," replied the new owner. This completely took the fight out of the farmer and was the beginning of a new spirit of concession on his part also. A week letter both men had become such good friends and the Christian began to share his philosophies with his new neighbour.

Let your giving go before you. It has the ability of opening doors and making hearts receptive. Carson McCullers said “The closest thing to being cared for is to care for someone else.” Giving is the most powerful expression of care.

Lovers Only

 

WISDOM NUGGET: "Perhaps the greatest gift is a portion of thyself."

                                                                                          - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Rule No. 5 of giving is the rule of love. Have you noticed that giving flows freely & lavishly when it has to do with someone you love? That is the natural order. Amy Carmichael once said “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.” In other words, not every giver is a lover, but every true lover is a helpless giver. What naturally followed was that “He gave…”

The story is told of the husband of Mary Kay Ash, who used to be a man heavily addicted to smoking. All efforts by Mary Kay to help her husband stop smoking proved futile. That notwithstanding, he was a man that loved his family. Years had come and gone, but the man was still at it. Then one day, he saw a program on TV, where the devastating effects of second hand smoking was being discussed. Then it dawned on him, the dangers he had been exposing his family to, especially his wife, as they inhaled the smoke of tobacco, to which they were exposed when he smoked at home. There and then, the long standing appetite for smoking died a natural death. His love for his family infused him with seemingly invincible powers to give up his smoking habit and strangulated his appetite for tobacco. It must have cost him a lot to deal with, but for the love he had for his family, it was not a struggle. He gave it up freely. His family entered into another level of bliss and joy that perhaps they had never known.

You can’t love without giving. The reason why many struggle with giving is because of their lack of love. In fact, the extent to which you are not giving is the extent to which you are love deficient. This is how Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it, "Perhaps the greatest gift is a portion of thyself."

 

The Fourth Rule Of Giving

Wisdom Nugget: "He who observes the wind and waits for all conditions to be favourable will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap."

Source: Photo Pin

"The smallest gift is greater that the greatest intention."

A church member was expecting $300,000 in a will from a family member. The member said to the pastor, "If I get the $300,000 I will give one-third to the church." The pastor said, "How will you give one-third of this amount when you can't give one-tenth of what you now earn?"

It's not what we would do if we had much money—it's what we are doing with what we have now!

The fourth Rule of Giving is "Eliminate all excuses !" Our nugget below captures it succinctly:
"He that observes the wind shall not sow; and he that regards the clouds shall not reap.

When it comes to doing the right thing, have you noticed how your mind is bombarded with a million and one excuses why you shouldn't? You hear things like: have you paid your bills? what if have an emergency & may need the money? What if you loose your job etc ? Truth is the weather will never be perfect for you to do what is right. Excuses are tools of the incompetent, monuments of nothingness and those who use them are not wise.

A minister was talking to a man who professed conversion. "Have you united with a church?" he asked him. "No, the dying thief never united with a church and he went to heaven," was the answer. "Have you ever sat at the Lord's table?" "No, the dying thief never did and he was accepted." "Have you been baptized?" "No, the dying thief was never baptized and he went to heaven." "Have you given to missions?" "No, the dying thief did not, and he was not judged for it." "Well, my friend, the difference between you two seems to be that he was a dying thief and you are a living thief."

Giving Is Loving

PHOTOPIN: Giving

“It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
                                                                                                 ―     Mother Teresa

 

A man prayed fervently every morning, during his family’s worship, for the poor in the community, but he was never known to give anything to the poor. One morning at the conclusion of family worship, after the usual prayer had been offered for the poor and destitute, his little son said, "Father, I wish I had your corncrib." "Why, my son?" asked the father. "Why, because then I would answer your prayers for the poor myself."

It'd be nice to imitate the barber who one week noticed that there was a good increase in his business. And discovered that his competitor, another barber in the village, was ill. When the week ended, he took all that he had made above his average earnings and carried it to his competitor with love and sympathy.

True love is showing our neighbours support and kindness. We cannot claim to love God if we do otherwise.