Happy Sunday! Three scattershot thoughts for your Sunday consideration that will cause you to think about how you may impact your world next week.
- Reading. It’s a lost art that needs to be revived.
“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” ~Charlie Jones.
If you’re reading this, you are better off than much of the rest of the world. You were blessed to be taught along the way, you have access to the Internet and you are able to follow the bread crumbs to this site. Mark Twain said: “The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t.”
I began the year with a goal of reading 12 books in 2019, one per month. I started with Francis Chan’s Letters to the Church, then I re-read The Tale of Three Kings.
And then, it snowballed. Twelve books later, I’m reading the Mark Batterson classic Chase the Lion.
I’ve learned so much I can’t contain it, can’t implement it all, can’t even begin to fathom all I’ve gleaned from Batterson, Gene Edwards, Chan, the Johns (Eldredge, Mason, Maxwell), Napoleon Hill, Gary Chapman, Eugene Peterson, Charles Spurgeon and the others. Yet, but I’m working on it.
Don’t have time to read? I didn’t either until I picked up the first book. Haven’t missed Steve Harvey and Family Feud, cable news or the other things I was apparently doing. Our TV rarely comes on these days, but we crack open our books quite often. Between the two of us, Elizabeth and I have read nearly 30 books in 2019. And, we’re better for it.
Here are some good reads we would suggest. They’re reasonably quick reads and they’re books you won’t be able to put down.
- The Greatest Salesman in the World (Og Mandino).
- In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day (Mark Batterson).
- Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill). A classic. A little tougher read, but full of nuggets.
“Drink deeply from good books.” ~John Wooden
2. Little things make a big difference.
Eric Myers is a friend who works at Gerry Lane dealership in Baton Rouge. He’s in charge of fleet sales at the dealership and, on an annual basis, sells over a thousand cars to businesses, police departments, state police and other agencies and companies.
It’s a long process for Eric, from building relationships to putting together unique specs for vehicles, to presenting bids, waiting on the state’s red tape process, then delivering the vehicles. One of the final steps in the process prior to delivery is to sit in each vehicle and set EVERY radio button to the local Christian radio station. Whether the car is destined to end up in Baton Rouge, Lafayette or Shreveport, he tunes the car’s radio buttons to the local Christian station.
He says that’s just something little that he can do. We were recently talking about that and I suggested to him that there would be people coming up to him in heaven thanking him for turning them on to God.
He said, “it’s already happened!” Well, not in heaven, of course. But a lady came up to him and told him about her bad day, that nothing was going right, so she reached over and punched one of the buttons! Of course, she got Christian music and encouragement!
She punched another button and found the same station because Eric had set all the buttons to the same station. So she continued to listen, and it changed her life.
For Eric, it was just a confirmation to keep doing the little things that can make a big difference!
What little thing can you do this week that will make a huge difference in someone’s life?
3. A little Facebook moment from my son Jason.
“GOD HEARS OUR THOUGHTS: Often times I make an effort to compliment or encourage someone because I haven’t felt that same encouragement in my own life.
“Yesterday, I made that effort but still found myself wondering why I am more often on the giving side of words than the receiving side. Just a fleeting thought.
“Today, someone I haven’t seen or spoken to in YEARS sent me a random FB message with the sole purpose of encouraging me. To say that God hears our prayers would be an understatement. He also responds to our thoughts.”
Got a “random Facebook message” you can send right now to a friend to encourage them? Sounds like a good idea, no?” Sow the seed. It was Robert Louis Stevenson who said: “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant!”. Try it. Maybe it’s a little thing that makes a huge difference!
You can follow Jason on Facebook here.
Have a blessed week!