Our God is Big Enough to Care.

The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) from Earth, as part of the solar system Family Portrait series of images. In the photograph, Earth is shown as a tiny dot (0.12 pixel in size) against the vastness of space.[2] The Voyager 1 spacecraft, which had completed its primary mission and was leaving the Solar System, was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around and to take a photograph of Earth across a great expanse of space, at the request of Carl Sagan.



And to think that God knows every hair on your head and knitted you together in your mothers womb is truly an Awesome thought. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, who was sent by God because He loves us, because we matter to Him. The God who created ALL of this loves you enough to die for you. Merry Christmas. Mark and Jill.

Move TOWARDS Your Resistance

Thomas Edison, American Inventor, said, "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

As humans, we seem to have an almost biological drive towards the path of least resistance. Chalk it up to days when food was scarce and the number of predators were high; if we could conserve energy and make it through the day, we'd do so every single time.

We have a lot of good instincts when it comes to self-preservation. Pain is a hard reminder that something is wrong, or we shouldn't try something again. The "fight or flight" response is always there to spark us into action when we feel our lives are threatened. But at times, it's best (and even necessary) to overcome our natural responses.

Usually when you contemplate a task - be it getting to the gym, calling a client with bad news, or avoiding that second piece of holiday pie - your mind does a quick cost/benefit analysis of the idea. The problem is, our brains usually look at the immediate short-term cost without an adequate assessment of the long-term gains. Or, our brain pushes the short term pleasure (sitting here) versus the projected costs (wind sprints on the treadmill). Pie is delicious. Watching people eat pie is no fun.

Here is a useful exercise to do to try and overcome "the short and easy path". It's called "Move Toward Your Resistance." It goes like this: Every time you think of something you should do, and your brain triggers that lazy little "I'd rather not" response, you immediately tackle some aspect of the task at hand. In other words, when you'd rather not do something, recognize it as something you must do and coax yourself to do it.

Here's the thing: I always feel better AFTER moving towards my resistance. The "good feeling" you desire FOLLOWS the action. By doing so, I break the loop of "I should do this/I'll do it later/I wish this was done/I'll do it later." And if you always wait for the good feeling to happen before you move towards your resistance, then you will NEVER move towards your resistance. This behavior will cost you personal growth and could cost you relationships as well.

As you plan for the year ahead, make a conscious effort to recognize when you feel resistance around an idea or task. Note the resistance and make an effort to move toward that which sounds unpleasant. It's a great way to force yourself to attain higher level of productivity, and the mental boost you'll experience from knocking unpleasant tasks off the list is fantastic.

The only caveat: Don't go walking into fires or wrestling mountain lions. Some instincts are worth obeying . . . . the rest, however, is You avoiding resistance. You're the project!

Paying the Light Bill Syndrome by Ron Simmons

Since my business for the last 25 years has been dealing with money I continually get family and friends asking me about money and for help in thinking about their finances. One of the consistent characteristics with the people that I have talked to, who really want to have a sound financial game plan but can't seem to make any progress, is that they focus almost entirely on "Paying the Light Bill". What I mean by this is that they design (albeit unknowingly) their entire financial actions and decision making process around being able to meet their most basic of needs - like electricity. While it is a give that we must have food, clothing and shelter to survive at any reasonable level, if we design our financial life around those things - that is exactly all we will have - food, clothing and shelter. To go from "Paying the Light Bill" to living at a level of financial security and even abundance, we must organize our lives and our expenses such that our basic needs are met without thinking and that most of our thoughts - and therefore most of our actions - are spent on the long term growth of our financial security and what will be required of us to obtain abundance.

Now don't go all "sanctimonious" on me and tell me I'm materialistic. I happen to Believe that God has put into place many opportunities for people to have abundance financially and that by using our finances wisely, we can and should bring Glory to His Kingdom. However, I've found that people who have not been wise their finances and gifts that would have created more abundance have 2 things on their minds . . . . money AND how do I get more. (I'm not talking about people who have had disaster thrust upon them).

People who have chosen to listen to mentors, follow Biblical financial principles and use their money to make money are not thinking about money anymore. They're more likely helping someone else and teaching that person how to do more than just "Pay the Light Bill."