A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water? "

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.
"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

"In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes." He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. "

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. "

"Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it!' And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see them again, it ! was prob ably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

* Never buy a car you can't push.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once. (My favorite!)

* We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

* A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply.

Speak kindly.

Leave the rest to God.

A woman named Vicki once knew a young person at church named, Susan. Susan always seemed effervescent and happy, although Vicki knew she had faced struggles in her life. Her long-awaited marriage had quickly ended in divorce. She had struggled to get a grip on her single life. She hadn't chosen it, but she decided she would live it with utmost enjoyment and satisfaction. Susan was active in Sunday school, in the choir, as a leader of the junior high girls' group, and in the church renewal movement. Vicki enjoyed knowing Susan. Susan's whole face seemed to smile.

One day Vicki asked Susan, "How is it that you are always so happy, you have so much energy, and you never seem to get down?"

With her eyes smiling, Susan said," I know the Secret!"

"What secret is that?" "What are you talking about?" Vicki asked.

Susan replied, "I'll tell you all about it, but you have to promise to share the Secret with others."

Vicki agreed, "Okay, now what is it?"

The Secret is this: "I have learned there is little I can do in my life that will make me truly happy. I must depend on God to make me happy and meet my needs. When a need arises in my life, I have to trust God to supply according to HIS riches. I have learned most of the time I don't need half of what I think I do. HE has never let me down". Since I learned that Secret I am happy.

Vicki's first thought was, that's too simple! But upon reflecting over her own life she recalled how she thought a bigger house would make her happy but it didn't! She thought a better paying job would make her happy but it hadn't. When did she realize her greatest happiness? Sitting on the floor with her grandchildren, playing games, eating pizza or reading a story, a simple gift from God.

Susan knew the secret, Vicki learned the secret, and now you know it too! We can't depend on people to make us happy. Only GOD in His wisdom can do that. Trust HIM! And now I pass the Secret on to you! So once you get it, whatcha gonna do? YOU have to tell someone the Secret, too!

                   That GOD in His wisdom will take care of YOU!

 i have a daughter that thinks she is control of her life when really, she has no control on her life at all. she hasn't learned THE SECRET as of yet but i am praying that God do whatever it takes to teach her THE SECRET. i have learned THE SECRET. i am trusting God and believing in Him that He will take care of her and me. my other daughter is in the process of learning THE SECRET.

trusting God truly is an easy thing. holding on to Him and His Word is worth everything i am. it is He who makes what i am. i praise Him and choose to keep my eyes focused on Him so i can be the best i need to be for Him, my family, and those i come in contact with every day. if u read my other blogs, especially the msn one, u can c the struggle i have had with my oldest daughter. but she will soon have to make a choice. God is wooing her to Him. so far, i can c that He is using her circumstances and those around her. my youngest is growing and allowing Holy Spirit to help her. when the children finally understand THE SECRET, it will be well with them and they will live a more fulfilling life.

I REFUSE

I refuse to be discouraged, To be sad, or to cry;

I refuse to be downhearted, and here's the reason why:

I have a God who's mighty, Who's sovereign and supreme;

I have a God who loves me, and by grace I'm on His team.

He is all-wise and powerful. Jesus is His name;

Though everything is changeable, My God remains the same.

My God knows all that's happening; Beginning to the end;

His presence is my comfort; He is my dearest Friend.

When sickness comes to weaken me, To bring my head down low,

I call upon my mighty God; Into His arms I go.

When circumstances threaten to rob me of my peace;

He draws me close unto His breast, Where all my strivings cease.

When my heart melts within me, and weakness takes control;

He gathers me into His arms, He soothes my heart and soul.

The great "I AM" is with me. My life is in His hand.

The "Son of the Lord" is my hope. It's in His strength I stand.

I refuse to be defeated. My eyes are on my God;

He has promised to be with me, As through this life I trod.

I'm looking past all my circumstances, To Heaven's throne above;

My prayers have reached the heart of God I'm resting in His love.

I give God thanks in everything. My eyes are on His face;

The battle's His, the victory mine; He'll help me win the race.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!!!!

-- Author Unknown

i will stand on God's word and remember that He has everything under control. I will walk in His assurance and stay in His strength.

DancingHandz

i got this from cbn.com. if u would like to read more articles like this, please click on the link.

Boulders on Your Dreams

By Julie Ferwerda

CBN.com – Amputation or Death

Life changed instantly and dramatically for one man in the spring of 2003. It was a day not unlike many others in his life that Aron Ralston ventured into a canyon in southern Utah in search of some good rock climbing. He didn’t tell anyone where he was going, a decision he would soon regret.

Scrambling over an 800 pound boulder, it came loose and sent him hurling down the canyon wall. Following him down, the boulder came to rest on top of his hand, pinning him securely.

Over the next few days, Aron tried everything he could think of to get his arm free, but to no avail. Having exhausted all reasonable possibilities by the sixth day, things were becoming hopeless. Panic was setting in. The choice had become narrow: Either cut his arm off, or die.

Aron describes what happened next when he went forward with his decision to live. Using his body as a lever, he snapped the bones of his arm in half. “I bent my arm farther and farther, and then finally, this cracking, splintering sound, kind of like a cap gun, then POW! It echoed up and down the canyon. I knew that I had broken my bone. And yes, it hurt. It hurt a lot.”

After the break, he began the process of cutting through his tissue, leaving arteries until last when he could tie them off with a tourniquet. He likened the pain of cutting through nerves to that of submerging his entire arm in a vat of hot magma.

The outcome? To this day, Aron is alive and well, and still climbing with the aid of prosthesis. His life was saved, and in many ways, it is better than ever before. Faced with death, Aron says, “I was transformed as I was in that canyon.” Undoubtedly, life will never be the same. Every day is now a day that he is really alive…fully living in the joy and understanding of what he’s been saved from.

Boulders on Your Dreams

What are the “boulders” in your life? What are the things that you have engaged in that have become a trap, keeping you from really living out your God-given purpose and dreams? Where have your secret thoughts taken you that, in the beginning seemed harmless enough, but ended up jeopardizing any hope of being found?

Worry? Fear? Lust? How about procrastination and laziness? Negative thoughts? Pride? Uncontrolled anger? Lack of priorities? Maybe you say, “I just don’t have enough time to figure out my purpose or to chase after goals and dreams. I can barely get by now.”

How much television do you watch in a given day? The average American watches four hours of T.V. every day. I know, I know, it’s relaxing. You need that time to unwind after a hectic day. At four priceless hours a day, you could spend a whole lifetime of opportunity watching someone else’s life—a life that doesn’t even exist—and miss living your own. That would be a real tragedy.

Whatever is holding you back, it’s time to make the break. It’s time to cut yourself away. Yes, it’s going to take a radical decision and drastic measures. But without it, your opportunity to experience really living with passion and adventure will surely die.

Will a decision to make a big change in your life hurt? Yes, speaking from experience, quite a lot. At first. But know this: making the decision to stay the way you are, pinned down by life-hindering obstacles, will hurt a lot more and for a lot longer as you watch your dreams fade away forever. That is, unless you decide to do something about it now. Ralston made the decision and just went forward with it. He understood that the pain was only temporary compared to the long-term outcome. “The pain was just one more thing I had to do, and it was, in some sense, a very beautiful feeling too…it was liberation.” For Ralston, one drastic decision was freedom. It was life.

I’ve had to be cut away from several boulders in my life. Fear has been a very debilitating factor that I wasn’t even aware of until recent years. I can’t begin to tell you all of the opportunities I missed and mistakes I’ve made because of being driven by it. Fear of failure, fear of being alone, fear of pain, fear of the unknown, fear of consequences, fear of missing out. Fear of the future, fear of the past coming back to haunt me. Fear of trusting God with my future, fear of not. Fear of what others will think, and fear of taking risks. The list goes on.

I’ve also struggled with addictions and hidden sins. Food, attention from men, rage, and lust are all battles that have waged on, some pinning me down for years. In fact, at some time or another, every obstacle I mentioned earlier has been a struggle for me. But with much humility and gratitude, I can say that God has given me the strength, little by little, to painfully cut myself away…and to heal. I’ve been set free. I’ve had the opportunity to go on to higher places in my life—places I’d only dreamed about—because of sober-minded and radical decisions to get myself free no matter what the cost. The peace and joy have far outweighed the pain getting here!

Ashes of Joy

So now, you’ve been offered an opportunity. I encourage you to go ahead and make your move. Whatever threatens to steal your life away, it’s time to be ruthless. Destroy or be destroyed. Whatever is holding you back from those things you have only dreamed about, or from the purposes God dreams about for you, it’s time to act. Ralston said, “I had to make a decision to go forward, not knowing what was going to come. And that was important, that I took action in that moment, overcoming fear.” Ralston didn’t have time to wait. You and I don’t have time to wait either. This life is passing fast. Tomorrow may be too late. Twenty years will seem like next week.

Aristotle once said, "Count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.” I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to sit back and let my dreams and purpose die. For the short time that I remain on this earth, I’m going to live…and live on purpose. Having made that decision some years ago, I can join Ralston in his sentiments when he returned to the canyon to sprinkle the ash remains of his cremated arm. “I sprinkled some of the ashes up canyon…and I cried tears of absolute joy that I was alive. Being able to complete that circle is a beautiful part of that whole experience.”

As Aron moves forward in his life with renewed passion and gratitude, he says that the drive to climb the next mountain sustains him. Recently he climbed nearly 23,000 feet to the summit of Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina, the highest peak in South America.

What about you? What new summits are you ready to climb? The pain of breaking free from the old life will only be temporary and little by little, you will begin to heal and to discover what new adventure is waiting. As you sprinkle your ashes of the past from up top, looking back at the old canyon where you could have died, I guarantee that the view from up there will be more than worth it!

God’s Love Is...

Stronger than any evil that Satan can throw at us

Stronger than the day is long.

Stronger than the highest mountain we may face

Stronger than the worst hurt we might feel

Stronger than the worst sickness.

Stronger than the loneliest moment you might know

Stronger than anything that might happen to us.

God’s love never fails even when we fail Him.

That’s what God’s love is.

i received this through email and wanted to share it. this will make u think.

THE HUMMINGBIRD

Once, long ago, there was a young boy who lived in a distant land called Tandow. He was a cheerful lad with not a care in the world. A special friend had he, the little blue hummingbird. Now this little boy didn't have a lot of great friends, but the little bird and the boy were inseparable friends. The boy loved the little hummingbird so, he built him a home. The bird also loved the boy and would follow him wherever he would go. As time went by their love grew and grew.

Then one day the young lad met a pretty young girl in school. The girl had long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a cute little smile. This was about the time of the biggest dance of the year. All the boy could think about was how he would love to take the girl to the dance. He gathered his courage all day and at the end of school approached the girl and asked her to go with him to the dance.

Now, this young girl was very popular and did not want to be seen with the boy who cared for her so, but she did not want to hurt his feelings and so she figured out a way to avoid saying "yes" or "no". She told the boy that if he brought her a red rose she would allow him to escort her to the dance. This hurt the little boy because he knew that in the land of Tandow there had never been a red rose, in fact, the only roses in the land of Tandow were white.

On the way home the boy kept mumbling to himself, "why couldn't she have asked for a white rose." There were hundreds of them in his front yard. Feeling sorry for himself the boy didn't even notice his friend, the hummingbird, fluttering above him. Now the bird loved him so, that it could tell instantly the boy was, troubled. The bird hovered closer as the boy mumbled on home. Now the bird knew why the boy was so troubled.

The bird could not rest all the night long, it pondered all night, a solution to the boy's problem. Finally as the sun began to rise, the answer came to him, how the bird could help his best friend entered his mind. The little hummingbird flew to a rose bush and searched for a large rose with a stem bearing thorns directly above it. The bird chose a thorn and with all the power in his wings cast his small body against the sharp thorn. It entered with great pain, drops of his blood fell upon the white petals of the rose, and it began to turn blood red.

As the boy was ready for school, he left the house, and saw the red rose. He could hardly believe it, he ran to the bush and plucked it. In his excitement he failed to notice the lifeless little body that lay below the bush in a puddle of blood. Happy as could be, he began with his red rose on his way to school. Before he got there some other boys playing football in a field called to him and asked him to come and play.

His first thought was, no, he had something more important to do. But they begged him and said they really needed him to even the teams. He looked at the rose, then them, then back at the rose. He said to himself. Awh!!! she didn't really want to go with me anyway. So, throwing the rose down, the boy went and played football...

~ Unknown ~

how many times have u and i thrown down the gifts given to us by God? how many times have u and i not noticed the sacrifice made by Him and/or others to help us thru our problems/trials?

these r the questions that came to mind thru tears when i read this story. what will the answer to these questions be? only u know because each of us has our own story to tell.