Tuesday, November 20, 2007
@2:05 AM
Recently was just fishing around my stash of books and "Happiness is..." by A R Bernard caught my eye, and boy, was it good or good? It certainly set me thinking, so here I am to share with you some nuggets of truth, especially following the screening of "The Pursuit of Happyness" in the CGM!
(Words in bold are as quoted, words in italics are just my erm...urge to preach again with my intepretation and how God spoke to me personally. Haha! Yes, according to some, my blog is too wordy and preachy...but, it's my blog so too bad! ;))~God won't force you to adopt a positive attitude. It's up to you to THINK positively about your blessings and opportunities...or not. Happiness is a positive INTERPETATION of the world and its events...requires you to see the good in everything, no matter what happens.~>> What does being happy constitute to you? Does it mean a good family, being financially cool, good and prestigious educational background, accolades to your name, working in a 'branded' company, earning big bucks, being a good-looker, etc...? Of course these are wonderful, but whoever said that without these, we are doomed for boo days? Happiness is an intepretation, a PERSPECTIVE that we need to readjust occasionally, so that we do not lose track along the way. <<~There is always something left to love.~>> It is the gentleness of the people around me, my leaders and friends, who have made me great. If they had given up on loving the bleh side of Zoe, then I would probably have erm...let's not go into details. There is always something we can appreciate about individuals who may seem to challenge you. ;) <<~Don't feel entitled to anything you didn't sweat or struggle for.~>> We are all blessed with talents and skills, but what takes certain people beyond to breakthru lies in the power of the will, whether or not we are willing to put our hands to the plough LONG TERM. The victory will always be sweeter when mixed with the result of your sweat and tears. Dare to dream and achieve. <<~He did it with all his heart. So he prospered.~>> Simple biblical concept from 2 Chr 31. But yet it struck me, that the key to prospering in life, in being able to find the winner in yourself, in really to put 100% into what you do, giving 100% chance for the miracle to happen. <<~If you can forgive the person you were, accept the person you are, and believe in the person you will become, you are headed for joy. So celebrate your life.~>> I thought this was so beautiful. It described the essence of what pure joy and happiness is, but so oft we miss out on this because we want to move ahead and believe in ourselves without being able to really accept who we really are and our past. And life itself is worth a celebration in itself already, don't even have to wait for BIRTHDAYS. Now, doesn't that give us a reason to be a blesser and tell someone else how awesome they are to us? <<~Human emotions are highly variable, decidedly unpredictable and often unreliable. Who's pulling your emotional strings today? You may encounter a tough situation or difficult person. As a result, you may be gripped by a strong negative emotion. Distrust it. Reign in it. Test it. And turn it over to God.~>> That was a long one, stringed together from various parts of that chapter. Alot of things are done on impulse and in a haste, which have led or will lead to wrong decisions made, people hurt unintentionally, leaving things in a complete mess. If only we would take a moment to think before acting and include the God-factor in the decision, will things turn out different? Try it today. <<~Surrender to the Lord is not a tremendous sacrifice, not an agonizing performance. It is the most sensible thing you can do.~>> This made me laugh at...well, myself. I guess we could all afford to do that, and recognise how stupid we are to struggle to hard to lay it all on the altar, with tears in our eyes, yet it is the most easy way out, the most duh thing to do. Hmm... <<~Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself and be lenient to everybody else.~>> We will never grow up to be fully functioning adults until we are willing to accept responsibility for our thoughts, motives, words and actions. We need to rid our life of excuses and stop playing the 'blame game' and adopting a 'loser's limp', i.e. blaming our poor performance on imagined injuries. C'mon, it's time to grow up and be a true-blue adult! <<And that is all for Part 1 of Nuggets of Truth with Zoe. Oh no, now I really feel like some motivational speaker. Well anyhow, I assert that this is my blog, so I can say what I wanna say! ;)