Learning to Trust

One of the problems that I see in contemporary American society is that people in general seem to be losing the ability to trust one another.  In general, we distrust our legislative body (who has recently been giving us many reasons to do so).  We don't trust that strangers will help us and won't hurt us.  But most importantly, we are slowly losing the trust that we should have for our loved ones.

When we don't trust people, it can lead to many difficulties in a relationship.  Pointless arguments occur on a regular basis.  We tend to want to tag along with the loved one when they want to go somewhere without us, but most of all, we can let the level of distrust we feel take us out of our character.  This is not good, because who are you, if you don't have your character?

Also, it doesn't matter the kind of relationship.  It can be a platonic one or an intimate one, the result will still be the same.  If the breakdown of trust continues, then the relationship is on an inevitable path to destruction.  Someone will be hurt, if there is no trust. This hurt can be mental, emotional, or even physical.  What can we do if we find ourselves in a place where we don't trust someone that we love?  There are several Biblical verses that speak to this very thing.  One of them is Romans 12:19, which says, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, and I will repay", saith the Lord. This verse provides specific instruction from God on how to deal with the mistrust that you feel for others.  The Bible also says in 1 Corinthians 4:5, "Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time.  Wait until the Lord comes.  For what is done in the dark, he will bring to the light."  This is also explicit instruction from the Lord.  He tells us not to be judgmental and to wait on him to show us the truth.  As with all of God's words, they will come to fruition.  It's natural law and it never fails.

So the next time you find yourself, losing your character because you don't trust someone, remember just these two verses, and revel in the fact that the Lord our God will show you what you need to see.  Find the happiness and strength you need in the fact that he is going to set all things right for you. and expose any wrong doing that has taken a course against you.

Why being thankful all year long is so important

Yesterday, we celebrated Thanksgiving.  It was an extremely special time for me.  I had the chance to see two uncles, whom I had not seen in many years.  I had the rare chance to go back in time and remember great memories shared with them and other members of my family.  We got the chance to see how we had changed over the years, it was amazing to see how time had changed us.  I was so thankful to have the opportunity to see them in person again...to hug them, hear their laughter, learn about the lives they are leading and to share about my life.

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday, because it puts the idea of being thankful at the forefront of people's minds.  As a result, they are little bit nicer, are more focused on trying to enjoy other people, and is the beginning of the season of sharing.  At the end of the day, we find ourselves exhausted from all of the good food, fun, and laughter we enjoyed all day long.  This kind of exhaustion is the kind we should be experiencing every day.  But we get so caught up in other seemingly more important things and miss out on it. We should be on purpose about being thankful everyday, because gratitude is the start of the process for you to have anything you want!  Having a giving heart all year long is the second step!

Being thankful and giving, in fact, are explicit instructions for us from God.  1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us, "In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."  And Proverbs 19:17 says, "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay unto him."  Now there you have it!  Being thanksgiving only helps you! It's benefits are unfailing and eternal.  Want proof?  Now is the perfect time to start following the steps and get it!  You don't have anything to lose by doing so.

Don't just spread the message of hope, be a modal for it

I am always elated to receive email messages of hope!  But these messages founded on varying religious sacraments are meant to do more than just spread a message of hope.  They are also meant by the original creators (in many, but maybe not all cases) to inspire other believers to become beacons of hope for others.  These messages should serve as a call to action for the utilitarian good of others, but sadly, more often than not, people miss the mark- and their opportunity to decide to become the astonishing exemplars that God intended us to be.

I get these messages and I am so glad to receive them, as I stated before, and so many of them have moved me to action!  So much so that my calendar is practically filled on a daily basis with things that I can do to help and inspire others. Volunteer work, helping a neighbor, supporting another person's efforts to improve a condition, are all things that I have found to be a personal mission for me.  I receive such a great feeling whenever I can help someone else to become inspired....to see and believe in that hope, which these messages are meant to deliver.  I feel such a connection with the Godsource- our Lord and Savior. 

In addition, (while it's really none of my business), I can't help but wonder- if the people who forward these beautiful messages, try to be excellent paradigms themselves?  And if they are not trying, what is holding them back?  Have you asked yourself recently which one you are?  Are you the uninvolved, lackadaisical messenger or are you the person that has become an exquisite model for sharing hope?

While our Father God in Heaven, likes a great messenger, he also adores a great doer.  An example can be found in the book of James of the Bible, where it says:

"And one of you say to the them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but not give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit?  Even so faith, if it hath not works is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works..." (James 2:16-18, KJV).

These verses from the good book go right to the heart of what is expected of humans on this earth as it relates to our works and charity.  Our actions are what really show our commitment, they are what help us to show the light of God in us.  While email , chain-texts, and all other forms of messages for goodwill, may warm our skin and lighten our hearts, if they don't move us to action, they are pointless.  And while being a messenger is a good thing, they are typically forgotten once the intended person has received the message.  But the unique person who gets such a message and moves mountains by his faith and works is the one who will go down in history!

Tips for developing a successful mindset

People ask me all the time what I do to keep myself motivated.  They often say to me, " You do so much! How do you keep it all together? Aren't you afraid you won't stay motivated?  What happens if you fail?"  I say to them, "There's no way I can fail, if I keep going!"  After I say that, people tend to look at me as if I'm crazy!  They then proceed to tell me things like, "People are different, you are the type of person that has always gone after certain things, I am not like that." Or I hear, "Yeah, but you're more educated, or more outgoing, etc."

These people, as I once used to, have a defeating mindset.  I don't have that mindset anymore.  I trained myself to get past the negative things that we inherently tell ourselves.  For most people, when we have a big idea, we often talk ourselves out of going through with making them a reality because we allow the negative thoughts that will crowd our minds to take over.  I was one of those people, until someone unexpected told me that I could train myself to get past the negativity.  They pointed me in the direction of literature that explained how to do this.  This person gave me a list of old and contemporary literature pieces that I could read, and reminded me that the Bible says that, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he", Prov. 23:7.  And while we shouldn't need any other confirmation, than the words written in the Bible, there have been countless other literary works that have proven the point to be so.

Here are some tips that you can utilize to change your mindset, and in essence change your life!

• Tell yourself in the mirror, that you are deserving of great things.  Remind yourself often throughout the day that you are going to achieve great things....It takes on average 21-30 days for a person to form a habit.  If you get into the habit of telling yourself that you deserve greatness, then you will be sure to accomplish it!
• Focus your attention on the thing that you want to accomplish and take action!  Keep going until you get there!  There is a natural law that never fails, which says what you think about, you bring about...whether its positive or negative!
• Tune out those people who say you can't do it!
• Keep your head by following a specific plan that is going to get you what you want!  Action, is KEY to making your dreams come true!
• Expose yourself to things (literature, things on t.v., the radio, or the Internet) that are positive.  What you expose yourself to the most, is what your mind will determine is important for you to remember.  If it's all good, then so are you!

By doing these things, you will change your thinking.  You will turn the negative switch off in your mind, and activate the positive switch.  If you believe in what God says in the Bible, then you must know in your heart that you can't fail!  Finally, track your progress.  You need to see yourself reaching the goal- it motivates you to keep going!  Go right now to a mirror, and practice it!  If you are in need of money, say "I have more money than I know what to do with" to yourself, instead of saying, "I wish I had more money!"  Because if you keep telling yourself you wish you had more money, you will be doing just that...wishing!

If you are ready to make a financial change or any other change for that matter, it all has to be set in motion in your mind first!  

Make plans to be successful

Today, I was thinking about all the things that I have accomplished in my time on this planet.  I always hear people say, "I want to do this or that, but I don't know where to begin".  So my purpose today is to hopefully help you begin doing the "this or that" that you've always imagined yourself doing.  One of the things that set the "haves" apart from the "have nots", is their ability to plan their destiny effectively.  They follow specific steps in an effort to guarantee their success.  Even God made plans in the Bible, and began doing so in Genesis, right after he separated the heavens and the earth.  Here's the plan for man:
"Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth,” (Gen.1:26).

This verse and some others from the Bible have all of the elements of making an effective plan.  Here are the steps for you to remember and to follow:

• Step One: Identify your long term and short term goals.  In the verse above, God stated the short term goal, which was to complete the making of man in his likeness.  The long term goal, to let them rule over all the other "animal" beings on earth.
• Step Two: Figure out what you need and what it would take to set the plan in action: God figured that man needed to be created in his image in order to be able to effectively rule the animals. God visualized what he wanted man to be like and he got to work on making that vision a reality.
• Step Three: Determine what is standing in your way.  Of course, the Lord God, didn't have any barriers standing in his way.  But there is instruction given to us by Jesus which states, "For which one of you when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it", (Luke 14:28-32)? 
• Step Four: Take Action! There is a very familiar saying amongst those who are super successful.  They believe that you should plan your work, THEN work your plan!  Don't just talk about it, BE about it!  Act as if you are living your dream now as you are working for it.  Eventually, what you are dreaming of and working toward will come to pass.  The promise is there for you to read yourself in the living word.  It says, "In all labor there is profit, but mere talk only leads to poverty" (Prov. 14:23). 
• Step Five: Determine the success of the plan.  Everyone needs a way to determine if their plan is working.  You can analyze your plan from a financial standpoint for example.  Or you can use different tools, depending on what your plan and its purpose is to determine if it is successful.  You can create milestones- to look at the work that you have completed thus far and list the pros and cons of the things that you have implemented, or even a software program that plots the different tasks you have by level of importance, due date, etc.  If something in the plan isn't working, you don't have to throw it away altogether...sometimes all that is needed is a little tweaking!
• Step Six: If it keeps you from working on your plan, avoid it!  There are times when things will come up which will grab your attention, even if they have nothing to do with your goal!  It can be as simple as a friend calling with a juicy story, or your favorite t.v. show is on in a minute.  These are times when you will be faced with a decision.  Do you put off work that you need to be doing now to be a chatty Kathy with your friend or to tune into that t.v. show now, even though you will see it on youtube later?  The decision is always yours, but so are the consequences!
• Step Seven: Keep going until you make it!  The Bible also warns us about giving up too soon!   Galatians 6:9 says, "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."  So in essence you are obeying the living word when you keep going!  And if you are faithful, the promise is that you will reap from the seeds you sewed!

So now that the TRUE secret to being successful is out, what are you going to do to reach yours?  Are you just going to keep sitting there, or are you going to make plans to have something great happen?



Grab onto opportunity now!

When you think of the word opportunity, what you see? Is there something that you've always wanted to do, but the time wasn't right? Somewhere you wanted to go, or something you wanted to say to someone? What if I told you that you do have the opportunity to tell a person how you really feel, or go where you really wanted to go right now!? Would you take the opportunity, or would you say that something ELSE has to happen in order before you make your move?

I am a person who once thought this way, and most of the people around me do too!  I had a shift in my thinking, and now the opportunity for me to do something right is always perfect!  Now is the best time to tell a person you love them, now is the perfect time to say good job to someone, now is the perfect time to be truthful, encouraging, charismatic, uplifting, financially responsible and everything else that you can think of!

Do the things that you would never do, get outside of your comfort zone!  If you do it for a good reason and with GOOD intention good things will happen!  What's even better is that if you do GREAT things for the good of others (and yourself), then GREAT things will happen too.  The thing is, you have to TAKE the opportunity, that you've always had to do them. Forget about your current situation, don't worry about the money...sever your emotional attachment to things, and pursue all good opportunity from a place of love and faithfulness, and you can't go wrong!  

The thing to remember to is that taking opportunity and doing bad with it, will also yield bad results.  And sometimes the effects of a good opportunity may yield results that seem bad at first.  You need these experiences, so that they can teach you to be faithful and steadfast to the journey, more than anything else.  And even if you get bad results, opportunity is there to turn them around and MAKE them good!  

Finally, the only thing that keeps opportunity from working at all, is a person not even lifting up to grab a hold of it.  So let's make today about that.  Looking opportunity square in the face, and saying, "I am going to take you, and do great!"  Opportunity is the only way to live the life you want to live!  This link is a great way to do it!  So what are you waiting for!? Grab Your Success Now!

Giving in Order to Receive

Most of the time when we think about our life, we think of it in terms of what we do not have.  We consider things such as not having enough money to buy certain things.  Next, we may consider that we don't have the time to make a commitment to giving of ourselves in one way or another.  Well, I have been using myself as a guinea pig for quite a while now with regards to giving.  I was in a very bad place mentally a few years back.  It seemed that I had the problems that I previously mentioned, I didn't have enough time to do anything, let alone any extra cash to buy anything or support a cause, regardless of how important it was.  I was introduced to a video, that talked about how the universe works and how we can make it work for us. 

At first, I thought the information found on the video was just a bunch of hogwash.  So jokingly (but seriously at the same time), I asked the Universe to make it possible for me to give more....give more of my time and money to support worthy causes. And BOY did the universe respond!  It gave me all kinds of crazy time to lend myself to supporting charities (I did so much charitable work that I decided to start my own non profit organization)!  It also started sending a steady flow of extra cash my way, and of course I supported various charities and other notable causes.  It was very much an exhilarating and surprising experience.

But what was more surprising and inspiring was how the universe responded to my "giving"- I began to feel uplifted and joyous all the time.  I also began to receive "gifts" of great magnitude from the most unexpected people and at just the right time!  It excited me so much that I wanted to utilize all my skills, talents, and resources to keep on giving!  And the more I gave of myself to the world around me, the more the universe responded.  It responded with not just material resources but spiritual ones too.  I have a keener sense of discernment and loyalty.  I am more conscious about how I relate to others and how I make them feel.  I am more conscious about how I treat myself.  I thought it would be hard to change, but I realized that it wasn't hard to change my way of thinking, the hard part was keeping my changed mindset.  Even though I backslide here and there, it still makes me happy to know that in the morning, I have the chance to do it right again!  I take that chance seriously, and in return the Universe (or GOD as I so love to refer to it as) takes me seriously.

Why don't you try it today!?  You don't have to be rich or in a position of stature to give, and everyone doesn't need money.  Some people just need a smile, so that they have a reason to smile back.  Some people need a shoulder to cry on- some people may need some advice on something you know a lot about.  Some people just need a peson to sit quietly with.  Be on purpose about your giving to others, so that the universe can be on purpose about giving back to you!

Making Your Greatest Mark on the World Comes by Being Yourself

For the past few years, I have been on a quest to find out what makes some people successful in this country we call the United States of America and why some people never find their reason for standing up and becoming the unique and individual beings that God intended us to be.  I have read many self help books on varying subjects relating to living a whole life and even did what most kids are raised to believe they should do:  Go to college and then look for a stable and secure position within a large, reputable company. 

My studies have helped me to discover many truths and falsehoods about how one should go about develping themselves into the great people they wish to become.  Of all of the things that I discovered, it turns out that the constant thing that most people who develop sustained financial wealth, balance of life and work, a well-rounded family, and great spiritual connection with the higher source is that most of them are not afraid to dig inside themselves through prayer and meditation to find who they are truly supposed to be and what their purpose is.  These great people then act immediately upon those ideals that feel right to them at their core, and I've learned that with practice you can always get the result that you focus on!

In the beginning, I didn't believe this theory, so I started testing it.  I started out with small things, like knowing that "at this moment" I will drive 20 miles without being stopped by a red light.  In the beginning my belief worked for me for maybe 3 or 4 lights, then 5-8 lights, and before long, I was driving miles "knowing that at that moment" the lights would all be green for me--and you know what, they were! 

There are a lot of very influential people whom have written books on the subject and I have read them.  I have also read some great biographies about influential people proceeding on with becoming who they are supposed to be, regardless of what anyone else thought of their decisions.  I intend to join their ranks.  I have been inspired by people from all walks of life who have made indeliable marks on the world to make my mark as well.  Lately, no one has inspired me more than the hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.  In his book, "Do You!" with Chris Morrow, Simmons shares the "12 laws that he uses to access the power within you to acheive happiness and success". 

While the book is a very easy read and quite entertaining, the true message of the book is so crystal clear that it takes the stage in the lead role- and speaks to anyone and everyone about what they can do to lead their best life ever.  While everything worth having takes effort to get, reading this book helped me to rekindle the faith I once had in myself (which actually was wavering just a little while ago), and gave me the energy and the courage to press forward with being myself!  And I realized that if I love who I am and put the "best me" on display at every opportunity, while giving God the glory for my very existence, and finally giving to others in a way that enables them to be better and lifted up, then I am creating a great brand...one for God that will last till the end of time but will also be loved by many mere mortals residing here on earth!

So, if you are looking for a powerful read, then check the book out...and if I inspired you with this post, then get started right now on becoming who you are meant to be- you will find yourself being so happy that you took the leap!

Love,

Kaye Thompson