83a – How to Crash Your Career
Think a minute…It can take years to find the right job and career, but only days to lose it! Here are some negative character traits and attitudes that can crash your career. These simple yet serious faults can sabotage, even destroy, your job security and ability to provide for your family.
The number one way to ruin your career is to have weak or negative people skills. Most people prefer to work with someone who is less-skilled but who is kind and enjoyable to work with—rather than be stuck working with a highly-skilled “jerk.”
A second way to crash your career is to work only for yourself and your own personal gain rather than being a team player. Don’t keep trying to outshine your fellow workers, or simply use them to climb higher in your workplace. Instead, try to help your boss and fellow workers also do well. This in turn will build your network of friendships, as well as a happier work environment every day.
A third way to ruin your job security and future is to be unreliable and irresponsible. My friend’s father taught him: “Son, always work hard and do your best so you are worth your wages. Then your boss will never want to lose you.” Ask yourself: “If I was my boss, should I trust me as a loyal, productive, and honest worker?”
A fourth way you can ruin your career is to have no goals. You will not have a career to crash if you don’t even want to get it off the ground. If you have no purpose or passion for your work, you will have to endure your unhappy, unfulfilling career every day of your life.
A fifth and final way to hurt your successful career is if you’re afraid of risk or failure. Remember, “The greatest risk is never taking one.” If you do not believe in yourself, no one else will! Instead of saying, “I’ve never done that,” you should say, “I can learn how to do it.” Always look for the opportunity to grow and learn from every situation and experience.
You were created to succeed. Won’t you ask your Maker to help you reach your potential by changing your wrong attitudes, habits, and character traits? With Him in charge of your heart, He can daily lead you into the life of personal and professional success He created you to have and enjoy. Just think a minute…
83b – Make Someone Happy
Think a minute…There were two sick men who shared a room in a hospital. The man whose bed was by the window was allowed to sit up for an hour each day to help drain the fluid from his lungs. But the other man had to spend all of his time lying flat on his back.
These two sick men talked for hours every day. They talked about their wives and children, their jobs, and their many life experiences. Each day when the man by the window sat up in his bed for that hour, he told his roommate all the things he could see outside the window, especially the park with its lovely pond and gardens. This made the other man so happy that he eagerly looked forward to that one hour every day as he listened to his roommate talk about the people and beauty of the world outside their hospital window.
One night the man by the window died in his sleep. The other man who shared his room was deeply sad. He greatly missed his roommate who had shared with him about the wonderful world outside their window. The other man asked if his bed could be moved to the window where his friend had been, so he himself could see the beauty outside. But when he turned his head to look out the window, he was shocked to see nothing but a dirty blank wall!
When he told the nurse all the things outside their window that his roommate had described to him, the nurse said to him: “Your friend who sat by the window was blind. He could not see anything. I think he wanted to make your life happier.”
Jesus teaches that we are much more blessed and satisfied when we give to others rather than just receive for ourselves. The only way to be truly and fully happy is to make others happy. The only way to find a life of real meaning and purpose is to give your life away by loving and helping others. “Life makes sense when we make a difference.” This is how our Creator lives. He became a human to make all the difference in our lives. Our Maker loves us so much that He gave His sinless life as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sinful, self-centered hearts. That was the only way He could give His forgiveness and abundant life to us. Won’t you ask Jesus to forgive you and start changing you from the inside out? He will give you His power to enjoy living for others the way He created you to. Just think a minute…
83c – Take Time to Teach
Think a minute…A policeman made this observation: “From the disrespect, violence and destruction of property by kids today, you would think they have no fathers.” Late one night a young man was involved in a crime and his father came to the police station upset about his car being held as evidence. The shocked policeman said to the father: “You’re more worried about your car than you are about your son’s bad behavior!” But the father just shrugged his shoulders and said: “Just close my car windows in case it rains.”
Thankfully, other sons are blessed with a mature, caring father who takes the time to love and teach his son well. Like the man who testified: “The biggest influence in my life was my father. He spent a lot of time teaching me how to be an honest, good man. When I was a boy, every evening my dad spent an hour with my brother and me teaching us, including reading something from the newspaper and then explaining it. This hour with my dad every evening lasted until I became an adult. It’s all the more amazing since my father had only an eighth-grade education.”
A father can even help his son find his career—but only if the father takes the time to help his son discover and develop his natural abilities. Mickey Mantle, one of the greatest professional baseball players ever, was deeply influenced and inspired by his father. Mantle wrote: “When I was just five-years-old, my dad began to teach me all my baseball skills…Every day after work he spent hours playing with me. And when I hit the ball over the house, he and my grandfather counted it as a homerun. But my dad did more than teach me baseball—he taught me confidence. When I was just 15 years old, he let me play with him and the other mature men on the local baseball team.” Mickey Mantle’s father took the time to teach his son.
Dad, your influence will never rub off on your son if you’re not close enough for it to sink in to his heart and mind. You only get a few years to build his character and confidence, so each and every day is the time to teach. The time you waste and lose with your son is gone forever. You only get one chance to love and teach your son how to be a real man who is honest, kind, and courageous. Dad, don’t lose one more day! Today, ask Jesus to forgive you for not being the father your son needs. Only Jesus can start changing your heart and character, so you can make the most of the time you have left to show and teach your son well. Just think a minute…
83d – Overcoming Obstacles
Think a minute…Jesse Owens was a world-class athlete in track and field in the 1930’s. He was told that because he was a black, African American, there was no way he could win against the white Nazi German athletes at the Olympics in 1936.
That year the Olympics were held in Berlin, Germany. Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator, refused to even look at the African American athletes. The white German athletes were praised and cheered on the field, while Jesse Owens and the other American athletes were insulted and ignored. Yet Jesse did not let Hitler’s cruel, evil prejudice intimidate or stop him. In fact, he was determined more than ever to reach his goal of doing his very best. “One of the joys in life is doing what people say you can’t.”
Jesse made mistakes in his first two long jumps, but he didn’t let that discourage him. Then, on his last jump, Jesse won! He went on to win all 3 other events in which he competed. Jesse Owens came home to America with a record four Olympic Gold Medals!
A Japanese proverb says: “If you fall down seven times, stand up eight times.” We all fail and fall down. That’s OK. But to stay down and not even try to stand up again is to truly fail. It’s a sad and serious state of the heart, because you give up hope. Remember: “We all fail—at least those of us who are brave enough to try something new.” Just because you may lose sometimes does not mean you’re a loser. The famous inventor Thomas Edison said: “Many people who failed in life did not know how close they were to success when they quit trying.”
When challenges come your way, even when you fail, you still have the choice to keep going and reach your goal. “What you do with a great opportunity depends on what you already are; and what you already are depends on your years of daily choices.”
This is why we need Jesus to develop in each of us His inner strength and perseverance that is greater than any obstacle we face. You will never regret asking Him to take charge of your heart and way of living from this day forward. Just think a minute…
83e – Finding a Lost Masterpiece
Think a minute…In your heart and mind, you are not one person but three: The person you think you are, the person others think you are, and the person you truly are.
One day a man was looking in a used art shop. He picked up a painting that appeared very cheap. Then as he looked closer, he saw another painting hidden underneath the cheap one. He knew that many valuable, lost masterpieces were hidden this way; so, he bought it and hurried home to begin taking off the top cheap painting. After many hours of careful work, he could finally see a beautiful masterpiece of art that had been lost for years. Now it was finally restored to its original beauty.
Each one of us is like that masterpiece painting. The original person you and I were created to be is hidden by what others think we are—and especially by the person we ourselves think we are. Our own wrong thinking about ourselves stops us from becoming the person we can truly and fully be. Almost everything we are and do in life comes from the way we see ourselves in our mind. If we want to change, we must go much deeper than just changing our actions and behavior. We must change what we think about ourselves. True success and satisfaction is an “inside job.”
Other people usually just see the surface: how we appear and act on the outside, or what we have achieved in school, our job and career. But that is just a part of you. Only your Maker knows the complete, real person you are, hidden underneath what others see, and even what you yourself see. Only your Creator knows all the facts about you, inside and out. He is the One Who custom-made you to be a one-of-a-kind masterpiece who fills a special place in His world.
Jesus is the only one who can show you the person He designed you to be, and then empower you to actually become that person. Won’t you ask Him to forgive you for your wrong thinking and living? He can start changing your mind and heart today, so you can start becoming everything He created you to be. Just think a minute…