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“So [David] became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.” 1 Samuel 22:2
Most people recognize that investing in a team brings benefits to everyone on the team. Here are ten steps you can take to invest in your team.
Continue reading “An Investment for the Future”
“Everything under heaven belongs to me.” Job 41:11
Dr. James Dobson shares the story of when he was a four-year-old boy, his grandmother gave him a one-dollar bill.
Continue reading “God Owns It All”
If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. Psalm 139:8-10
THE ETERNAL NATURE OF GOD—past, present, and future—is clearly revealed in Psalm 139. In beautiful and powerful poetic language, David explains that God is omnipresent. God is never bound by the limitations of time and space like those experienced by mere mortals. Continue reading “God Is Everywhere”
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. (Proverbs 25:11) Continue reading “Speaking the Right Word at the Right Time”
Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings. – William Arthur Ward
Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. (1 Chronicles 16:8) Continue reading “Do You Have a Life of Gratitude?”
Some find it hard to say “thank you.” A farmer was sitting on the porch with his wife. He was beginning to realize how much she meant to him. It was about time—for they’d lived together forty-two years, and she had been such a help. She had shared the joys and the hardships of their marriage. She had worked hard and loved him unconditionally. One day as they sat together, he said, “Wife, you’ve been such a wonderful woman that there are times I can hardly keep from telling you.”
Continue reading “Effects of a Right Attitude”
Steve lived in a large house in a pleasant suburb. It was a great place to raise his family of five, but his children have long since married and moved on. 15 years ago, Steve’s business failed, and although it would have made financial and practical sense for Steve and his wife to downsize, they loved their home and always put off the tough decision. Continue reading “How Are You In The Decision Making Process?”
A great Proverbs bible study is found in chapter 6 verses 6-11. It reads as follows:
You lazy fool, look at an ant. Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do. All summer it stores up food; at harvest it stockpiles provisions. So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing? How long before you get out of bed? A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there, sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, poverty your permanent house guest!
Everybody should study ants and their philosophy—it’s simple, but it’s powerful! When was the last time you saw ants reach an obstacle and give up with their heads down and head back to the ant hole to relax? Never. Continue reading “Need Inspiration? Look To The Ant”
If you are not comfortable with yourself, you cannot be comfortable with others! If you do not believe in yourself, you will sabotage relationships.
John Maxwell teaches in “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” a concept called the Law of the Lid. It simply states, “Leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness.” Here is what that means: no matter how hard you work, or how big you dream, you can only go so far professionally if you are a poor leader, or if you have a poor self-image. Continue reading “4 Ways To Grow Your Business and Your Self Image”
Will the United States be an Entitlement Society or an Opportunity Society? It’s not a new question. It’s roughly the same question Americans have been asked for decades.
Let’s begin with definitions:
OPPORTUNITY: a favorable juncture of circumstances; a good chance for advancement or progress.
ENTITLEMENT: the condition of having a right to have, do, or get something; the feeling or belief that you deserve to be given something (such as special privileges); a type of financial help provided by the government for members of a particular group.
What made America great? There are many factors to our greatness, but no one can deny the driving force of our greatness is the slogan: “America, the Land of Opportunity!” I mean, think about it, why do millions of people from other countries around the world risk everything, even their lives to get to America? Opportunity!
Since the Depression, Americans have generally had to choose between a political leader whose goal was to expand government (Entitlement), or one who wants to strengthen the private sector (Opportunity).
In an Entitlement Society, the government plays the role of a policeman who uses his power to ensure economic equality.Think of the policies during the 1930’s that prolonged rather than ended the Depression. Think of the War on Poverty, which never halted the poverty cycle. Think of the current president’s campaign theme about fairness, which he’s called “the defining issue of our time.”
An Entitlement Society requires wealth distribution — which requires government force. While hailed on the left as a panacea, a remedy for all difficulties, redistribution is a drain on an economy because it weakens a society’s motivation to work, invest and innovate. It moves capital from the private sector, where it would otherwise stimulate economic expansion, to the public sector, where money is spent so inefficiently that government spending is actually a drag on growth.
If a recent Gallup poll is to be believed, Americans aren’t that interested in reducing “the income and wealth gap between rich and poor.” Only 46% say that it’s “extremely” or “very” important that government should follow an equality agenda. At the same time, 82% say economic growth is either “extremely” or “very” important. More than half (52%) say that a wealth gap is an “acceptable part” of the economic system. Only 45% say it isn’t.
Only in open economies do shop owners, managers, workers and entrepreneurs have the incentive to create more wealth. On the other side is the Entitlement Society, in which the state guarantees that some or all of that wealth is divided among others who are considered more “entitled” to the wealth than the creators. In an Opportunity Society, however, creators keep what they produce, which is an incentive to produce more.
Today, America’s economic system is mixed. It’s neither a full Entitlement Society nor a complete Opportunity Society. But we’ve moved hard toward a predominantly Entitlement Society — and ignored constitutional limits in doing so — where the special interests that have captured the government are the beneficiaries at the expense of the productive.
This is unsustainable. Greece, where the entitlement mentality has caused a fiscal collapse of the government and an economic breakdown, proves that handouts and state expansion can’t go on forever. Sweden, thought of by many on the left as having the right mix of welfare-state socialism and capitalism, saw this problem coming to its country years ago and quietly reversed its path.
Will America be smart enough to make the same adjustment?
