You are currently browsing the Good News Journal weblog archives for November, 2009.
November 30, 2009 by Sal Termini.
If you were to write a eulogy for your life what would say about yourself? Create a eulogy that is about a paragraph or two long, no rambling. Would it be a letter of reference for heaven or for hell? In these important paragraphs, as you write about your life, would seeking God, his will, and purposes hold a prominent place?
A eulogy recalls the best things — the highlights of one’s life. A eulogy is also about honesty. How do you think other people see you? How do you really feel about your life up till now? There is something very empowering when you write an account of your life.
Here’s a few hints to get you started. Write about:
Writing your eulogy is a way to see what you have focused on in your life. It is a way to discover who or what was important in your life. What has your life meant to others, especially those closest to you? When you’re done, read it a couple of times. It will be hard at first but the point is to think about your life.
Don’t miss part two of “Eulogize Yourself,” in the next installment of the Good News Journal. it will change your life.
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November 23, 2009 by Sal Termini.
Thanksgiving is holiday for theists. The dictionary defines theist as, “Belief in one God as creator of the universe, intervening in it and sustaining a personal relation to his creatures.”
It’s quite impossible to thank a cold, unfeeling universe for life, beauty, love, hope, dreams, and friendship. It is God who has given us life and all we need on this earth to live. It is because of God that we live our lives in courage, faith, and boldness, facing life’s challenges and possibilities with excitement and expectation.
Those who believe in God are grateful to Him because they know no matter what tragedies befall us there is an eternity where evil will not reside. In that place, free from evil, we will be with God in His presence. It is for this reason that all men should be eternally grateful. The world is our temporary home. It is the place we prepare to know God, His will, and His character.
Therefore dear friends let us be ready for our eternal home where thanksgiving and praise for God will never diminish or cease. The creator and savior of mankind, from all evil and into this place of glory in God’s presence, is Jesus Christ. It is not a religious thing to be grateful to God but a right thing. If you disdain it here on earth you shall surely be out of place in heaven where worship pervades and perfumes its very atmosphere.
History of Thanksgiving
The holiday originated with the pilgrims who declared a three-day feast to celebrate their harvest and survival in the new world. Their thanksgiving was DIRECTED TOWARDS GOD. It was His providence, they believed, that led them to this new world. Pilgrim Edward Winslow described the pilgrims’ thanksgiving in these words:
“Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling [bird hunting] so that we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as… served the company almost a week… Many of the Indians [came] amongst us and… their greatest King, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted; and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought… And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet BY THE GOODNESS OF GOD WE ARE… FAR FROM WANT.”
In 1789, following a proclamation issued by President George Washington, America celebrated its first Day of THANKSGIVING TO GOD under its new constitution.
Much of the credit for the adoption of a later annual national Thanksgiving Day may be attributed to Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book. For thirty years, she promoted the idea of a national Thanksgiving Day, contacting President after President until President Abraham Lincoln responded in 1863 by setting aside the last Thursday of November as a national Day of Thanksgiving. Over the next seventy-five years, Presidents followed Lincoln’s precedent, annually declaring a national Thanksgiving Day. Then, in 1941, Congress permanently established the fourth Thursday of each November as a national holiday.
Lincoln’s original 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation came — spiritually speaking — at a pivotal point in his life. During the first week of July of that year, the Battle of Gettysburg occurred, resulting in the loss of some 60,000 American lives. Four months later in November, Lincoln delivered his famous “Gettysburg Address.” It was while Lincoln was walking among the thousands of graves there at Gettysburg that he committed his life to Christ. As he explained to a friend:
“When I left Springfield [to assume the Presidency] I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.”
As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving each year, we hope they will retain the original gratefulness to God displayed by the Pilgrims and many other founding fathers, and remember that it is to those early and courageous Pilgrims that they owe not only the traditional Thanksgiving holiday but also the concepts of self-government, the “hard-work” ethic, self-reliant communities, and devout religious faith.
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November 16, 2009 by Sal Termini.
As we get closer to Christmas I am reminded of a great American classic Christmas film called It’s a Wonderful Life. In this film, George Bailey is given a tremendous gift: the opportunity to see what life would be like without him. As he wanders through a world that has no memory of his existence, George is dismayed by the plight of his friends and family. Devoid of his influence, their lives lack the warmth and richness he is accustomed to seeing. As George struggles to come to terms with his bleak surroundings, Clarence, his guardian angel, sums up the lesson that he hopes George will absorb from the experience.”Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”
Everyone’s Life Has Importance And Meaning
There’s no denying the influence one life has on the world. In fact, sociologists tell us that even the most introverted among us will influence 10,000 people over the course of his or her lifetime. Our lives shape the people around us in profound ways. Whether we intend to or not, we affect others through our life.
Several times I have had the privilege of observing people go about their lives as quiet heros. These are people that everyday shape the lives of others. They do it anonymously without fanfare, appreciation, the spotlight, or fame. It can be a mother, father, grandparent, teacher, neighbor or a coach. All around us are quiet heros that help shape our lives, and have made our lives better by their influence. We must never forget, we interconnect in many ways making us important to one another.
To doubt your importance is to fail to understand one of life’s deepest purposes. We have been put on this earth to help one another achieve our purpose in life. We have been given a great gift to touch one another in profound ways. We have been given an awesome responsibility to care for and help one another.
The Decision To Be A Positive Influence
In everyones life there is a defining moment when we choose the person we are going to be.
To be a person of influence takes courage. It can be lonely standing up for what’s right. It will take an uncompromising individual to stand by his or her principles when others are compromising theirs. We live in a world that desperately needs heros. The dictionary defines a hero as a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.
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November 10, 2009 by Sal Termini.
I love technology. Remember the old cell phones? They were like giant bricks with an antenna. I will never forget the first time I called someone from my car. It was such a thrill. Today the new phones do much more then send and receive phone calls. In many ways they are like a mini computer.
You can play music, watch videos, e-mail, web browse, send text, and play games. The cool part is they are small enough to fit in your hand. The reception on these new cell phones is also much better then those big bricks. I can think of many areas were progress is being made: medicine, aerospace, transportation, communication and computers are just a few. We are progressing so fast that we can hardly keep up.
YOU ARE A SPIRIT
Underneath all that progress we are just people. People who must awake to their unique potential. We must discover the person we are truly meant to be. One of the most neglected areas of human progress is spirituality. Have you ever thought about the deepest and most important component of your being, the human spirit? God created us with a spirit so we can exist forever. God created you for eternity. We must prepare ourselves for eternity. The day will come when you will shed your body like an old garment. In that moment your spirit the real you will be more alive than you ever imagined.
SEEING IS NOT BELIEVING
Most people I know are very content with having a good job, a nice home, being able to take a vacation, and being part of a loving family. I think it is easier for some people to track their progress with things they can see. I can see my new car, I can see my new home, and I can go on vacation and experience a new place. I don’t think that spiritual things are any less real than the natural world that we live in.
GROW SPIRITUALLY
We all need to constantly be reminded of our spiritual nature. We need to see spiritual ideals in action and practice them in a community of people who believe in them. We need to constantly be instructed on how to live as spiritual people. To see spiritual progress we must return to the religious community. It is the function of a spiritual community to help you realize your have an eternal destiny. It is in religious communities our spiritual life can be measured for progress. True spiritual progress begins with rebuilding your relationship with God.
KNOWING GOD
Without knowing God we cannot have a truly happy and content life — not in the present nor in eternity. It is in a relationship with God we learn how to treat Him and one another with the deepest reverence and love, making this world and the world to come a better place. Now that’s real progress.
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November 2, 2009 by Sal Termini.
THE WIN-WIN MODEL OF BUSINESS
The preferred business model in many corporations today is focused on profits. The customer is made happy because the company will profit. This business model makes profits for stockholders and creates jobs for employees. It is a business model built on give and take. It is a win, win situation. This is not wrong or corrupt. It is just not the highest ideal of human love, or perhaps even business.
HIGHER BUSINESS MODEL
For some companies their vision has a moral and a spiritual component. To these kinds of companies success is more than profit — it also an opportunity for personal growth. Personal satisfaction and fulfillment for having made someone’s life better is a core value of the company. This is a higher business model because the motive is more than profit. In many cases it will increase profit because people experience genuine caring, and respond with loyalty. The motive is to make a difference and to make the world a better place.
A LIFESTYLE OF CARING
This model is about caring for those we serve on a higher level. The company, from executives to employees, see their work as important. It is more than a product or profit; it is a lifestyle of caring for others. They see themselves as making a difference in the world for the better. In this business model you not only receive profit but you are sowing happiness in the world and reaping personal satisfaction. You are also reaping spiritual capital which has an eternal reward. One system is based upon natural laws the other takes in natural laws but works on a higher spiritual law.
Too many of us have been conditioned that this business model will fail we don’t believe that people will respond to being really cared for. The true reality is, no one wants to receive services from a company that does not really care about them.
Here is an example of a company making a difference; it is taken right from their web site.
TOMS Shoe Company
ONE FOR ONE
TOMS Shoes was founded on a simple premise: With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One. Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what we’re all about.
OUR STORY
In 2006 an American traveler, Blake Mycoskie, befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by caring TOMS customers.
Since our beginning, TOMS has given over 150,000 pairs of shoes to children in need through the One for One model. Because of your support, TOMS plans to give over 300,000 pairs of shoes to children in need around the world in 2009. Our ongoing community events and Shoe Drop Tours allow TOMS supporters and enthusiasts to be part of our One for One movement. Join us.
WHY SHOES?
Most children in developing countries grow up barefoot. Whether at play, doing chores or just getting around, these children are at risk. Walking is often the primary mode of transportation in developing countries. Children can walk for miles to get food, water, shelter and medical help. Wearing shoes literally enables them to walk distances that aren’t possible barefoot.
Wearing shoes prevents feet from getting cuts and sores on unsafe roads and from contaminated soil. Not only are these injuries painful, they also are dangerous when wounds become infected. The leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted parasites which penetrate the skin through open sores. Wearing shoes can prevent this and the risk of amputation.
Many times children can’t attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform. If they don’t have shoes, they don’t go to school. If they don’t receive an education, they don’t have the opportunity to realize their potential.
There is one simple solution…SHOES. Of the planet’s six billion people, four billion live in conditions inconceivable to many. Lets take a step towards a better tomorrow.
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