David Welsh was determined to be a lawyer. The only problem was that he had dyslexia, a learning disability that causes letters to appear exactly the opposite of the way they should.
In elementary school, David’s parents spent long hours reading his class assignments to him. He dictated his answers to them, and they typed them out. No doubt, many shook their heads at David’s dream to become an attorney.
David entered Westminster College and taped his classes on a recorder rather than taking notes. He typed all of his examination. David graduated from College. No doubt several shook their heads at his ambition to enter law school.
But David Welsh is a positive thinker. He entered the University of Tulsa Law School and recorded every lecture, listening to each again and again. He spent hours in the legal library reading his assignments, painstakingly working through them word by word. He dictated term papers and even dictated exam answers, all at his own expense.
David Welsh eventually made it as an attorney. Was it hard? Yes! Were there problems? Absolutely.
Many told him he couldn’t do it. But his dream was to become an attorney, and he was willing to do what was necessary to make that dream come true.
Are you still doubting the possibility of that dream of yours coming to reality? Read the story of David Welsh again. If you were this young man, would you have given up on your dream of becoming a lawyer?
If you pay a closer attention to the story of David, you will discover that what made it possible for him to accomplish his dream was his ability to communicate with others. You cannot rule out the power of communication if you really want your dreams to come true.
According to a wise man “Communicating when it really matters – with colleagues, at meetings, during disagreements, at negotiations – requires skills, thoughtfulness, and an ability to take responsibility for others’ understanding. Communication is not something that should be left to chance.”
Dear reader, do you want to master the art of communicating effectively? Do you want to stand out to be counted and be recognized? Do you want to position yourself for promotion to the next level? Do you want to be a leader and not a boss? If yes, then master the art of effective communication.
To our success!
Uju Onyechere
As simple as this question sounds, many of us do not have an idea of what we really want. At age 35, I had no clue. At age 40, I was beginning to have an idea, but I was all over the place. I was not sure. Now 6 years later, I am crystal clear what I really want. It might change later, but for now, I am not double minded. If you wake me up 2am in the morning and ask me what I want, I will tell you without blinking. I am tempted to tag the 15 plus years I wandered in cluelessness and financial wilderness – the wasted years. I have come to realize that they are not indeed wasted. Who I am today and the passion I feel about this subject is as a result of the pain of those years of going round in circles. I feel I have a duty to warn others that we do not have to wander 40 years (age 20 – 60) in the financial wilderness. There is a better and shorter route to our promised land instead of the traditional aimless wandering, retiring poor and wondering what our life is about. You may have noticed that a disproportionate number of retirees die within 10 years of retirement. Without a job, they start to wonder what is there to live for. Their job was their life, literally.
One amazing thing I have discovered is that when you know what you really want, you start to move towards it – often unconsciously. Scientists, psychologists, motivational speakers and folks in the personal development industry have all come to one conclusion – we move in the direction of our expectations. It should not be amazing, because the Bible stated clearly that the expectations of the righteous shall not be cut off (Proverbs 23:18, 24:14). If you aim for nothing, you will achieve it. If you are going nowhere, you will get there surely. If you don’t know what you want, you will have no clue what you will get.
When it comes to personal finances (as in other areas of our lives), we need clear unambiguous goals. It has to be explicit. You have to know what you really want, and why. How do you know when you get there, if you don’t know what you really want?
How do you see yourself in the next 5, 10, 15, 20years? Which city do you want to be living in? What kind of house do you want to live in? Do you have a clear picture? What type of car do you want to ride in? What income do you want to earn per month, per year? What will you do with the money? Which lives do you want to impact? What problem do you want to solve? How will the world become better because you achieved your goals and dreams? What impact do you want to make? How do you want to be remembered? What do you want written on your tombstone? At what age do you want to take a bow? How do you want to be at that age? – Bedridden? Using a walking stick? Overweight? Fit and agile? What do you really want?
God has given us the awesome power of imagination to create the future we desire. We have the power of memory to replay the past, and imagination to pre-play the future. Only humans have this ability. What are we using our imagination for? To imagine vain things?
We can literally use our imagination the way children use Lego blocks to create things – to create a compelling future, the future of our dreams. We have the power to declare things, and they will come to pass. We have the power to plan and get to work. We have the power to focus and persevere in the face of adverse circumstances. We have the power to rise up each time we fall. What more do we want?
What is your dream?
What are your goals?
What do you really want?
God has given us a blank cheque to write what we really want, what have we written?
What have we done with our power to choose?
After all is said and done, the expectations of the righteous, whatever that is, will surely come to pass. It will become a self fulfilling prophecy.
-Usiere Uko is editor of www.financialfreedominspiration.com and author of Practical Steps to Financial Freedom and Independence – www.amazon.com/Practical-Steps-Financial-Freedom-Independence/dp/147006832X .
Usually, disciples (followers) act in the same manner as their masters. They talk like their master and do the things they see him do. This explains why the disciples of Jesus spoke and taught with authority after His death just as their master used to do while He was with them. (Acts 4:13). In our contemporary society, one can easily know the denomination a Christian belongs to either by the way he/she dresses or the way or things he/she says. In most cases, for example, the women in a church emulate the pastor’s wife in dressing and fashion. This means that a minister’s lifestyle go a long way to affect other people’s lives. If so, it then follows that a minister of God must live the kind of life that God wants his followers to live. The only way to achieve this is to be a doer of the Word yourself.
I once heard a preacher telling his listeners to do what they hear him say and not what they see him do. This is ridiculous and does not conform to what our Lord Jesus taught us. In the book of Acts Chapter 1 Verse 1, we saw what the life of Jesus was and how that of a minister of God should be. “…of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach”. Note the Scripture above didn’t say he began both to teach and to do, rather He started by doing it, then He taught others to do the same thing. That is a minister. “…but whosoever shall DO AND TEACH them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven”. (Matthew 5:19). Apostle Paul is another example of a typical minister of God, and he is always bold to tell the churches to do the things they see him do. “Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me; those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard and seeing in me, do” (I Corinthians 4:16, Phil. 4:9).
As a minister of God, you ought to do the word of God, and teach others to do the same. That is where the progress and maturity come from (I Timothy 4:15, 16). Do you preach godliness? Then live a godly life. Do you preach healing and miracles? Do it first. Do you preach prosperity? Live a prosperous life first. Do you preach faith? First put your faith to work.
Whatever you are teaching others, make sure they are what you are doing.
– segun eshorun
The reason you are not in Heaven after believing Jesus Christ is to carry out a work. This work otherwise called the ministry is to let every man understand what it is God has done in Christ Jesus.
It may come in various forms, through separate means but the aim is to get another person to partake of this glorious grace that we have been called into. The only means however is by preaching the Gospel to them. It has pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those that would believe.
How would they believe friends if they don’t hear? How would they hear if no one goes to tell them? All of us big, small, known, unknown, clergy, laity has been given this responsibility. This is work for the congregation and for the pastors, for leaders and for followers. No one is left out.
The aim here friends is not primarily to make a man a member of your church. While this may serve as a means to him hearing the truth of the lord and saviour Jesus Christ, the issue more importantly is for him to hear the message of salvation. This is of paramount importance. So much the more that barely after being told of who we have been made in Jesus we are immediately informed of this new responsibility.
Don’t wait for a congregation. Don’t wait for a pulpit. Tell that person beside you. Tell him about the glorious work of Jesus.
– Dr bolaji akanni