The $5K Prize Winner

Posted in Attitude, Business principles, holiday, Thankfulness by PCraig on November 25, 2015

I heard about the owner of a large department store that offered a prize of $5,000 to the one giving the best answer to the question: “How can my business be most speedily and surely improved?”  Many students of economics submitted different lengthy answers.  A guy by the name of Roy McCardell received a check for $5,000 for simply writing on a postal card, “Tell your clerks to say ‘Thank you!’”

Many of us could greatly improve our marriages, homes, families, extended families, jobs, offices, schools by heading the same advice.

Wishing you and yours a most blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!

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Resting In Him

Posted in energy, Humility, Margin, Rest & Refreshing, Strengths, Time by PCraig on November 19, 2015

I don’t know about you, but I just am not as good of a person when I’m tired.  Some people act like they need very little sleep and they can perform fantastic – I don’t like those people.  Then, I wonder, are they only fooling themselves and really don’t understand how much better they could be with more rest?

It’s interesting that the Bible has a lot to say about rest.  God even through in an extra day in every week for that very purpose.  Jesus, God in the flesh, intentionally pulled away from the crowds, went off on retreats (40 days in a desert), prayer times in a garden.  So, who am I to think I don’t need to do similar?

My problem is that a strength of mine (according to StrengthsFinder) is achiever.  Therefore, I want do it all.  I want to work really hard, see progress, exercise to be as healthy as possible and be a great husband and super dad.  Unfortunately, there isn’t always time to feel accomplished in all of those areas at the same time (and those aren’t all the areas).  Do you ever feel that way?  Strung out, pushed to the limit, going 100 miles an hour in many directions, everyone needing a piece of you.

Let this be a reminder to all the achievers and people who tend to push it as fast as possible that our Savior calls us to rest.  Take your foot off the accelerator, find a quiet place to meditate and pray, get to bed a little earlier tonight, leave work a little early and hug your kids, and enjoy the earth that God put you on.  I think we’ll find that He will honor our act of wisdom and bless our humility in acknowledging that He is God and we are not.  Plus, we’ll probably be more pleasant to be around, I know I am.

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To Be Or Not To Be

Posted in Attitude, Character, Thankfulness by PCraig on November 5, 2015

It seems like this week, I’ve been reminded of the importance of being over either knowing or doing.  Knowing to do good for someone is great, but if that’s all it is, then it really didn’t help.  And, won’t we do the things we ought when it is a part of our being, or who we are as a person?

So, when the Bible says things like, “Be thankful,” it’s saying more than just say a kind word to someone today, or think thankful thoughts.  It’s saying from the core of your “being,” let thankfulness ooze out.  When a person is a “be-er,” they more naturally show thankfulness more so than either a “know-er” or a “doer.”

A visual might be squeezing a tube of toothpaste and how whatever is inside comes out.  Same thing with us, when we are thankful (or generous, loving, merciful…), then it will come out of our lives.  I think it’s easier to know something or even do something than it is to be something.  But, will we step up to be what Scripture calls us to be?  That is the question.

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