The Most Important Statistic

We know that when employment is up, crime rates go down...

So then why would anyone want to keep anyone from working?

What this says to me is:

"When people have better lives, we ALL have a better life!"

You must remember that we don't have to like each other to respect each other as a person and respect a person's space.  You don't have to like your employees if they get the job done well.  You don't have to like your neighbor and still want your neighbor to well.

If we thought of each other in the same way we think of home values then we could all be living in better neighborhoods.  Most of us don't really know all of our neighbors, but we want then to take care of their house because if they don't, it adversely affects all of the houses nearby.  So, we want people to do well, whether we know or not, whether we like them or not, whether we want to live next to them or not, but because we all (most of us, anyway) want the same thing, to be able to have a comfortable life made from our own choices.  

Prayer is for us

I used to think that it was silly to bother God about frivolous little things (in the grand scheme of things).  Like winning a game or a prize.

As I got older and really started to think about and exercise my faith more as a forethought, I realized that because God already loves us and knows what we want and need before we do, payer time is us tuning out the rest of the world and saying to God, "Please, come into this part of life."  Even if it is a little thing in the grand scheme of things.

The more we take that prayer time and allow God's light in, the easier it is to see what's really important and good in our lives.  The more time we take with God the harder it is for things to jump out of the dark corners and surprise us.

Prayer time is a time to put worldly things aside, if only for a few minutes and calm our minds, hearts and souls so we can purposely let more light into those little things that we think don't matter.  It all matters, to God!

If you think you don't know what to pray about, try this:

• God, please help exercise my faith as fervently in good times as I do bad times.
• God, please help me recognise the devil's shenanigans and deceptions sooner rather than later. 
• God, please help me be the person you know I can be.
• God, please help me stay on your intended path.

Those last two can be scarey because what you think you know about you may be very different than what God intends for you. God can make anything happen so you have no idea where He may take you but, I know we'll be better for it, as long as you keep the faith. 

Think about this, we believe that God can do anything so, isn't it silly to think He can't handle frivolous. I think people say that because humans have a habit of projecting our own shortcomings upon others, including God.  

Remember, prayer is for us because God loves us as we are and He knows us from beginning to end.  We don't have to do anything to prove ourselves to Him.  We do it because He loves us unconditionally and we want to better people.  Prayer is our time with God whenever and wherever.  There's no special way or place to do it, just do pray!  Even praying for frivolous things gets us in the habit of praying.  When you're sincere and your heart is open to receive the word then He'll deal with the frivolous and help you mature in your faith.

Know that God answers ALL prayers...it's yes, no, or wait! You may not like the answer but, it's an answer. 

Even if you are unsure about God's existence or you don't believe in God, it's alright because He most certainly believes in YOU!

The idiocy of arrogance

YES!  Arrogance makes you stupid!

Arrogance make you stupid by leading you to believe a false perception of yourself. Blinding you to the reality of the situation or your own abilities.

No one should be arrogant, no matter how good you are at whatever.  There is always someone that does it better, faster cheaper.  More importantly, being arrogant will cause you to stop improving.

You see, when you know that there is room for improvement, you keep trying to improve.  You are aware that there is something more to learn.  When you are arrogant, you think that you know everything you need to know, you are doing everything you can do, or worse, you think that no one can do it better.  When you're arrogant you don't know what you don't know and you stop trying to learn, grow and get better.  You fail to listen to reason and good advice.

Let me give you an example;  I know how to change a tire or change the spark plugs in my car, but I know that I don't know how to fix the other more complicated parts in my car.  Understanding this, I will either take it to someone who does know these things or go learn it myself.  Believe it or not there are some people out there that are arrogant enough to think "I know how to do all those other little things on my car so, I can work on the engine."

See what happens when you're arrogant, you don't think you need to go learn something.

The irony of this post is that the people who really need to read it are too arrogant to think it applies to him/her.