When needs become our wants and wants become our needs.

So, I need a house and by some miraculous events, even in this bad economy and my credit score, I get one! My need has been fulfilled. Yippy!

Opps, now I need a lawn mower to cut the grass. So, I go to the hardware store to fill that need, but once there I find lots and lots off different kinds of mowers to chose from with lots and lots of different prices…. But, I want a mower with auto-drive wheels and is self mulching so I can save time and energy not working on the lawn. Great! I got one that does it all, sure, it cost me more, but think of the savings in time I’ve created! 

Oops, now I need some shrubbery to make the front of the house look good. Same story; lots of different kinds, prices, etc…. but I want the ones that make my place look good! Course they're the most expensive ones, but I buy them anyways.

Oops, now I have to spend lots of time and energy planting and caring for my new plants, plus cutting the lawn, keeping the mower full of gas and in good working order, etc, etc….Oh, well.

During all this time, energy, and money I’ve been spending on my miracle house, there’s a young boy living in a urban community of poverty right here in the city I live in. His parents are a mess; they can’t keep food on the table or a roof over their families’ head. The neighbors are all in the same shape, poor of finances and of spirit. He is too young to see that he too doesn’t have to live that same future. He’s to young, to even understand that what he needs is the chance to see the world in a different light. He knows there is some kind of empty feeling inside him but he can’t figure out what it is.

I know what he needs, and it isn’t just a new house, mower or gorgeous shrubbery, it’s the chance to feel accepted and cared about. But what can I do about it? I’ve got troubles of my own! Doesn’t he understand how much time it takes me to pray for ways to make money so that I can have all my own wants and needs met?!

Feeling guilty? I am!

Simple Times Farm

http://www.simpletimesfarm.com/

CHAMPS is designed to inspire inner-city children to love a purposeful and significant life.

Organized around practical skills, foundational character, and love for God, this camp provides children with a chance for change.

Days are invested in riding, agricultural science, working with animals and gardening.  Our staff are selected specifically for their passion for young people. Whether you are sending your own child, or sponsoring a deserving youth, it is hard to imagine a better investment.

If you want to help fund CHAMP, please follow this link; http://www.simpletimesfarm.com/store/630 or come out and visit the farm!

Maybe I can cut back on what I spend on shrubberies so I can sponsor just one of these kids. Shoot, I hate working on the lawn anyways.

Simple Times Farm does not sponsor this blog; I have just used it as and example of one of the many organizations available for us to help fulfill the NEEDS of the children within our community.

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GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY, GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL

The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know.  I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.  I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.

She said, "Hi handsome.  My name is Rose.  I'm eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?"

I laughed and enthusiastically responded, "Of course you may!" and she gave me a giant squeeze.  "Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?" I asked.

She jokingly replied, "I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of children, and then retire and travel."

"No seriously," I asked.  I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

"I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!" she told me.

After class we walked to the student union building and shared chocolate milkshake.  We became instant friends.  Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop.  I was always mesmerized listening to this "time machine" as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.

Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went.  She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students.  She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I'll never forget what she taught us.  She was introduced and stepped up to the podium.  As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor.  Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, "I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me!  I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know."

As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, "We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.  There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy and achieving success.  You have to laugh and find humor every day.  You've got to have a dream.  When you lose your dreams, you die.

We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it! There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.  If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old.  If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.  Anybody can grow older.  That doesn't take any talent or ability.  The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change.

Have no regrets.  The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do.  The only people who fear death are those with regrets."  She concluded her speech by courageously singing "The Rose."  She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives.

At the years end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago.  One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.

Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be.

See more uplifting stories at http://www.lecontact.com/uplifting_stories_-_english.htm

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What Chicks talk about...and talk... and talk....

My wife had “The Girls” Wednesday night meeting at our home last night. I holed up in my “Man Cave” aka “Prayer Room.” Although my cave was a distance for where the girls gathered I could still hear the din of their voices and the crescendo of their laughter and giggles. It was a good sound. It felt good knowing that the women where having a fun time together away from their normal day-to-day routine.

After they toured our home and chitchatted, I could feel the house quieting down as they hunkered down within the living room. (Okay, so maybe woman don’t “hunker down” maybe it’s better to say they settled down and nested. Okay so maybe I shouldn’t use the word “nested” either, it sounds so male chauvinistic, let's just say, they all sat down.) Because of the distance from my “Man Cave” and my television being tuned to the baseball game, I could just make out snippets of conversation.  Seems like every sentence that I could make out started with…. “Then he said….” (inaudible) followed by group LAUGHTER! Or “Then he did this….(inaudible) followed by group LAUGHTER. I couldn’t identify any of the voices that started each of these sentences, but there was a multiple of them, all seemingly telling stories about the men in their lives. Now, my interpretation of these snippets of conversation as being about the male relationships in their lives may come from my own male paranoia, but I strongly believe that they were talking about us guys.  This, I then conclude, that our women find us men, amusing. Understand this, I don’t think the girls were making fun of us or putting us down, they just like to talk about us. What was especially endearing, was the times the sentences started out with the same…. Then he said this, or then he did this…followed by the voices of the other women…. “That’s so sweet”, and Ohs and ahs.

Men, here is something we might need to think about; the woman are watching us and sharing their experiences with other women. This could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how we treat our spouse or girlfriend, but, the main point is, that woman listen to other woman about their relationships and gauge their own relationships by the action, words and deeds of the men in other woman’s lives.

As the, lets call them, more experienced woman, told the stories of their relationship with men, both the good and the bad, the other ladies’ are thinking over the character of the man and judging if that is how they want their own “Man” to be like. Especial the younger girls, they listen intently to the stories and the reactions from the other women. To me this means these younger girls are building a resume of wants, can live with, and can’t live without qualities they will be looking for within the men they meet and date.

What does this revelation mean to us men? (Guess it’s not a revelation, cause its been the same way since Eve was passing-on her “Adam” stories to her daughters.) Maybe, our treatment of women is a real life reflection of our “Heart” for God. Maybe, a man’s true “Heart” for God can be gauged on our “Heart” for the women in our lives. We men are always saying that we’re striving to be like Jesus, but do we treat our own wife or girlfriend in a way that reflects that?

Ladies, have I even come close to being right on this subject or are you just shaking your heads, sighing a little laugh because I’ve given you another “Man” story! : )

Well, Ladies and Gentleman, no mater what you think about my thoughts written here, I will be retiring to my “Prayer” cave……okay, so it is a “Man” cave….and think more about how I treat my wife and the other women God has brought into my life.  Crap, this could take a long, long time. Wonder what time the ball game starts. 

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Free Minds and Hearts at Work

At the beginning of the World Series of 1947, I experienced a completely new emotion, when the National Anthem was played. This time, I thought, it is being played for me, as much as for anyone else. This is organized major league baseball, and I am standing here with all the others; and everything that takes place includes me.

About a year later, I went to Atlanta, Georgia, to play in an exhibition game. On the field, for the first time in Atlanta, there were Negroes and whites. Other Negroes, besides me. And I thought: What I have always believed has come to be.

And what is it that I have always believed? First, that imperfections are human. But that wherever human beings were given room to breathe and time to think, those imperfections would disappear, no matter how slowly. I do not believe that we have found or even approached perfection. That is not necessarily in the scheme of human events. Handicaps, stumbling blocks, prejudices—all of these are imperfect. Yet, they have to be reckoned with because they are in the scheme of human events.

Whatever obstacles I found made me fight all the harder. But it would have been impossible for me to fight at all, except that I was sustained by the personal and deep-rooted belief that my fight had a chance. It had a chance because it took place in a free society. Not once was I forced to face and fight an immovable object. Not once was the situation so cast-iron rigid that I had no chance at all. Free minds and human hearts were at work all around me; and so there was the probability of improvement. I look at my children now, and know that I must still prepare them to meet obstacles and prejudices.

But I can tell them, too, that they will never face some of these prejudices because other people have gone before them. And to myself I can say that, because progress is unalterable, many of today’s dogmas will have vanished by the time they grow into adults. I can say to my children: There is a chance for you. No guarantee, but a chance.

And this chance has come to be, because there is nothing static with free people. There is no Middle Ages logic so strong that it can stop the human tide from flowing forward. I do not believe that every person, in every walk of life, can succeed in spite of any handicap. That would be perfection. But I do believe—and with every fiber in me—that what I was able to attain came to be because we put behind us (no matter how slowly) the dogmas of the past: to discover the truth of today; and perhaps find the greatness of tomorrow.

I believe in the human race. I believe in the warm heart. I believe in man’s integrity. I believe in the goodness of a free society. And I believe that the society can remain good only as long as we are willing to fight for it—and to fight against whatever imperfections may exist.

My fight was against the barriers that kept Negroes out of baseball. This was the area where I found imperfection, and where I was best able to fight. And I fought because I knew it was not doomed to be a losing fight. It couldn’t be a losing fight—not when it took place in a free society.

And; in the largest sense, I believe that what I did was done for me—that it was my faith in God that sustained me in my fight. And that what was done for me must and will be done for others.

In 1947, Jackie Robinson pioneered the integration of American professional athletics by becoming the first black player in Major League Baseball. During his 10 seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he played on six World Series teams and was voted the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1949.

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Winning with One-Liners: 3,400 Hilarious Laugh Lines to Tickle Your Fun…








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How Did I Get So Fat!

1. You're Following Bad Advice

Sometimes the government goofs. In the late 1970s, the United States began advocating a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet. In the early 1970s, the average daily energy intake was 2,450 calories. By the year 2000, that number had risen to 2,618. Almost all of those extra calories came from carbohydrates, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

2. You Eat Fat-Free Foods

Warning: Low-fat foods may make you fat. Cornell University researchers reported that when overweight men and women were told they were eating low-fat M&Ms, they consumed 47 percent more calories than those who were given regular M&Ms (the M&Ms were actually all the same). On average, low-fat foods contain 59 percent less fat, but only 15 percent fewer calories than full-fat products.

3. You (Still) Don't Eat Breakfast

Sure, you've heard this one before. But it's important: Researchers at the University of Massachusetts found that people who don't eat breakfast are nearly five times more likely to be obese than those who make it an everyday habit.

4. You're Eating Too Much Sugar

According to a USDA survey, an average American eats 82 grams of added sugar every day. That's almost 20 teaspoons, which contribute an empty 317 calories.

5. You Don't Lift Weights

In a study at Ball State University, scientists put overweight men on a 1,500-calorie-a-day diet, and divided them into three groups -- one that didn't exercise, another that performed aerobic exercise three days a week, and a third that did both aerobic exercise and weight training. Each group lost almost the same amount of weight -- about 21 pounds. But the lifters shed 5 more pounds of fat than those who didn't pump iron. Why? Their 21-pound weight loss was almost pure fat, while the other two groups lost just 15 pounds of lard, along with several pounds of muscle.

The Mayo Clinic Diet: Eat well, enjoy life, lose weight.

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Not only was the Fat Albert show funny (Least it was when I was a kid) it taught some good life lessons.












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Some Things I've Learned.

Things I’ve Learned

26) When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?"
27) Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
28) Call your mom.
29) Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.
30) You never fail, if you remember the lesson you learned.
31) Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

 Yes, things I wish I knew when I was twenty.

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Well, since we're talking Egyptian, it reminded me of Steve Martin's song!
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Soul mates, true love, love at first sight. What do you think about things like this?

I guess I believe the line Tom Cruise used in the movie “Toby Mcguire” was right, His character says, “I love you. You... you complete me.”  We all have some missing pieces in our character that we want to have completed. True love is finding the person that you can mesh the areas you’re both interested in and then learning how their strengths fill your areas of weaknesses thereby, completing you both. Love at first sight, yup, I believe in it. Sure, I’ve heard of people that when they first meet, hated each other, only to fall in love later. That’s because the emotion of love and hate are both cut from the same cloth. You see, when you meet someone for the first time that you don’t like, it’s usually because you are seeing in them the very weaknesses you hate to see in yourself. I believe in love at first sight, I believe that physical attraction and spiritual connection can me made in an instant. I also believe that you should take action to investigate its degree of merit. (Unless your married, then it’s most likely just indigestion)  It’s like the great romantic Ronal Reagan once said; “trust your feelings, but verify.”

This might just make a good Valentines' Day Gift.

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What is your body saying to others?

I recently watched a video of a group of people talking about their different spiritual views. Very interesting, but as I watched I could not help but notice how each persons’ body language and how each, while listening and waiting their turn to speak, would either have their arms crossed or their facial expressions looked like they wanted to jump into the conversation with vengeance. I watched the video again with the sound off. I may have learned more about each of these people by their body language than by what they said. Your body language can reveal more about you than what you say.

Learn more about what your body is saying.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_language

Learn how to read other peoples body language. 

Learn to see what they're not saying out loud. 

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