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Day One:
I’ve read “dogs don’t bark at parked cars” is a Black Proverb, however, I can’t verify where this statement of truth originated. Yet, it can become a mantra for living a successful life.
What does this thought-provoking proverb mean? It means when the wheels of acquiring a successful life begin to turn, the dogs begin to bark! And as long as a person and or a group is stagnant they go unnoticed.
I’m hoping for the next 7 days to post something that is inspirational/motivational for people that live stagnant lives and as a result forgo reaching their greatest potential.
Have a good day! And! Remember the greatest love ever could happen or is happening inside of you! ~Annette
Photo taken at Rocky Mountain National Park by author, Annette Harrison
“Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives. Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness. Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life. Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples, and pears. Show them how to cry when pets and people die. Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand. And make the ordinary come alive for them. The extraordinary will take care of itself.” ~William Martin
1st Corinthians 15:13 states: Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Your word says “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.” Please help those that continue hanging out with people that aren’t good for them. Put your loving arms around them. Whisper in their ears that you love them and you want better for them. Open their eyes so they can see the true character of their so called friend(s). Give them your courage to leave and never look back. Amen
In every crisis there is a message. Crises are nature’s way of forcing change — breaking down old structures, shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take their place.— Susan L. Taylor
Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not at all surprised by your birth. In fact, he expected it. Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God. He thought of you first. It is not fate, nor chance, nor luck, nor coincidence that you are breathing at this very moment. You are alive because God wanted to create you! The Bible says, “The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me.” God prescribed every single detail of your body. He deliberately chose your race, the color of your skin, your hair, and every other feature. He custom-made your body just the way he wanted it. He also determined the natural talents you would possess and the uniqueness of your personality. The Bible says, “You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.”
Because God made you for a reason, he also decided when you would be born and how long you would live. He planned the days of your life in advance, choosing the exact time of your birth and death. The Bible says, “You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your Book!”
God also planned where you’d be born and where you’d live for his purpose. Your race and nationality are no accident. God left no detail to chance. He planned it all for his purpose. The Bible says, “From one man he made every nation, … and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”
Nothing in your life is arbitrary. It’s all for a purpose. Most amazing, God decided how you would be born. Regardless of the circumstances of your birth or who your parents are, God had a plan in creating you. It doesn’t matter whether your parents were good, bad, or indifferent. God knew that those two individuals possessed exactly the right genetic makeup to create the custom “you” he had in mind. They had the DNA God wanted to make you.
While there are illegitimate parents, there are no illegitimate children. Many children are unplanned by their parents, but they are not unplanned by God. God’s purpose took into account human error, and even sin. God never does anything accidentally, and he never makes mistakes. He has a reason for everything he creates. Every plant and every animal was planned by God, and every person was designed with a purpose in mind.
God’s motive for creating you was his love. The Bible says, “Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love.”
God was thinking of you even before he made the world. In fact, that’s why he created it! God designed this planet’s environment just so we could live in it. We are the focus of his love and the most valuable of all his creation. The Bible says, “God decided to give us life through the word of truth so we might be the most important of all the things he made.”
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
Our real concern with others should not be “Are they doing what I would do or what I want them to do?” but “Are they really making a free choice?” When we accept others’ freedom, we don’t get angry, feel guilty, or withdraw our love when they set boundaries with us. When we accept others’ freedom, we feel better about our own. —Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend
Let me first start with, I was hesitant to write the below paragraphs. And I surely was nervous about posting such a bold quote on America.
But please understand I read loads of material each day. Because of what I choose to read everyday I find myself fighting the blues on some level or another. However, I’m not sure if I choose to read everything and anything or if my hobby as a blogger demands I read an array of subjects. But whatever the case maybe I know one thing is for sure, it really bothers me when I read nasty comments about America and Americans. And as an American it really angers me when Americans makes unpatriotic remarks about the country they call home.
As a pet free home I recently learned: neither dogs nor pigs will shit where they live! And with that said, I found a suitable quote for those that feel America and its people are contemptible:
Photo credit: Internet
America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn’t standing still. —E. E. Cummings
Black Women Have It Going On 