Wisdom-Trek © - Archive 2

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 386 of our trek, and today is Wisdom Wednesday. Every Wednesday along life’s trails, we dig for the nuggets of wisdom that are found within the book of Proverbs. Today we will explore the first half of chapter 14.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. It is good to get back to a normal schedule this week. For the past two months, I have invested my morning exercise and devotional time working on the renovation projects. While it still provided a good opportunity for physical activity, it is good to get back on the treadmill for my 5 mile run each morning. I am also able to work my other exercise routines in before the run. The morning schedule allows me to have my devotional and meditation time during my 70 minutes of exercise.

As we refocus on our client work and newer projects, I have some catching up to do to clear some of the backlogs. We will get there one day at a time. Since none of us are promised more than today, that will be sufficient.

In case you missed yesterday’s Wisdom-Trek, we have started a very short segment on Tuesday and Thursday of each week called Wisdom Unplugged.  It is a short 1-3 minute wisdom nugget featuring a wisdom inspirational quote designed to be a supplement on those days. Let me know how you enjoy these mini-treks by leaving a comment on Wisdom-Trek or emailing me at [email protected].

As we head out on our trek for today, let’s dig for those nuggets of wisdom that fill the book of Proverbs. Today we will dig into the first half of chapter 14. Today’s trek is…

1 A wise woman builds her home,

If you are wise, either as a woman or a man, you will take the necessary steps to follow Godly principles to create a home environment that is nurturing and helpful for the entire family. This requires selfless acts of love. If you are foolish, though, you will primarily think about what is best for yourself, and make decisions based on selfishness. This will result in the destruction of the home. Ideally, all members of the family should have concern for and look after each other to foster a proper home life.

2 Those who follow the right path fear the Lord;

It does not get much simpler than this verse. If you desire to be a good and Godly person, then you will learn, understand, and apply God’s precepts to your life. By doing so you will follow the trail that is best for your life. If you choose to ignore God’s precepts, then you will find yourself on the trail that leads to destruction in your life.

3 A fool’s proud talk becomes a rod that beats him,

Words are so important every time you open your mouth to speak you should do so with caution. If you are proud and speak that which is foolish, it will come back to harm you in the same manner as getting beaten with a whip or rods. In contrast to this, if your words are wise, they will be a hedge of protection to you, protecting you from harm. When you speak the truth, you will not have to remember what you said because it will be the truth each time.

4 Without oxen a stable stays clean,

When you work, life may get messy and be difficult at times, but that is okay because the fruit of your labor will be worth it. Yes, life may be easier in the short term if you are lazy or not productive, but you will soon be hungry. Work hard like a strong ox and you will produce a large return.

5 An honest witness does not lie;

If you are honest at your very core, then you will not lie regardless of the situation or cost to you. Situational ethics is so prevalent that you need to be very careful not to fall victim to that thinking. A person who practices lying will become habitual at it. Lying and breathing will become one to that person. This unfortunate person will get to the point in his life where he does not even realize he is lying.

6 A mocker seeks wisdom and never finds it,

If a person is proud and mocking of God’s precepts even if he seeks to become wise, he never will because true wisdom comes only from God. If you seek wisdom and understanding from God, then you will easily obtain knowledge, wisdom, and insight

7 Stay away from fools,

We need to be very cautious who we invest time with because we will become like them. If you hang with fools, you will become a fool. You can tell if someone is a fool by the way he speaks and acts. His lips will show they lack basic knowledge and common sense

8 The prudent understand where they are going,

When you are prudent, then you will set goals and make decisions that are wise and attainable. You will clearly know your purpose and the direction you would like to pursue in your life. If you lack wisdom, then you may think you are setting direction for life, but without a clear purpose for life, you will deceive yourself and wander aimlessly.

9 Fools make fun of guilt,

If you are foolish, you will not accept responsibility for your life and, therefore, not understand the reason to seek reconciliation when you do wrong. If you are good and Godly, then when you do make mistakes or cause harm to another person you will seek forgiveness and work toward reconciliation.

10 Each heart knows its own bitterness,

No one can fully share in sadness or bitterness that you may experience. Some people may be able to empathize with you to an extent, but it will not be to the depth that you may feel. In the same manner, when you are joyful and rejoicing about a positive situation, others may share that joy but not to the same extent.

11 The house of the wicked will be destroyed,

Eventually, if a person is wicked and does not follow God’s precepts, even if they have a grand house, it will not last. In contrast, a good and Godly person, even if they only have a tent to live in, will flourish with their family because their lives are not built on material possessions.

12 There is a path before each person that seems right,

You may make plans for your life, but if it is not based on God’s Word and His precepts regardless of how grand of plan it is, the end result will be death and destruction.

13 Laughter can conceal a heavy heart,

You need to consider and be sensitive to the needs and hurts of others. You never know for sure what another person may be going through at any point in time. Although they may appear happy and are jovial externally, it may be a mask covering deep and lasting grief. Get to know others on such an intimate level that you understand what their true heart is feeling.

14 Backsliders get what they deserve;

If a person chooses to ignore God’s Word and his laws for life, eventually they will harvest what they have planted in life. The converse is also true. If you live a good life according to God’s Word with consistent persistence, you will harvest an abundance of what you planted.

15 Only simpletons believe everything they’re told!

It is good to trust others, but you must also verify what you are told as truth according to God’s Word. You need to be prudent and consider your trails in life.

16 The wise are cautious and avoid danger;

It is certainly wise to show some restraint and caution in life so that you do not become involved in dangerous situations. Those who are foolish act before they think and will pay the price for their thoughtless actions.

17 Short-tempered people do foolish things,

Controlling your temper is always good. Losing your temper is always your choice. When you do lose your temper, you will fall prey to saying and doing things that are foolish. You will become known as someone who schemes and cannot be trusted. When this happens, others will avoid you and start to disdain you.

Today’s trail was once again filled with nuggets of wisdom that we can easily consume, digest, and allow to strengthen us each day. Don’t just listen to God’s Word. Allow these precepts to become habits in your life.

Tomorrow we will have another short segment of Wisdom Unplugged in which we will cover an inspirational wisdom quote. So, encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along with us tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our trek for today. As you enjoy your dose of wisdom, we ask you to help us grow Wisdom-Trek by sharing with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person and invite them to come along with us each day. If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek so each trek will be downloaded to you automatically. I would like to ask you to also rate and review us on iTunes or Google Play so that others will find out about Wisdom-Trek and join us.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek together, let us always:

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Wednesday!

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week, wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 385 of our trek, and today we are providing a new feature that will be available on Tuesday and Thursday of each week called Wisdom Unplugged. This will be a very short nugget of wisdom or an inspirational quote with little or no additional content for the day’s trek. Consider this your vitamin supplement of wisdom on those days. So, let’s jump right in with today’s nugget.

This is a quote from Ruth Barton which says, “As we begin to see the package God is putting together in our lives and discover his purposes for bringing us to our world, it will provide us with the framework we need to make wise choices. In addition, we will find that a sense of purpose gives hope in the midst of tragedy and difficulty, gives meaning to the mundane aspects of our lives, and helps us to make our lives count for God.”

As a recap of today’s quote remember that God has a specific purpose for your life because you matter to God. Go out today and fulfill that purpose and make a positive impact on someone else today.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek together, let us always:

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow for Wisdom Wednesday!

Thank you for joining us for our 3 days per week, 12 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 384 of our trek, and today is Motivation Monday. Every Monday we hike the trails of life that will encourage and motivate you to live a rich and satisfying life this week. Today we are continuing our trek and will hike the trail called The Realization of Happiness.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We arrived back from the Podcast Movement 2016 conference, and I have to say it was worth every minute and dollar invested in it. I realize that the information learned and the connections made will return many times the investment.

The PMx talk I gave on Wednesday was not quite as polished as what I had desired. But, the feedback I received from the audience was good, and I learned some lessons for the next time. Although Wisdom-Trek was not chosen for the Academy of Podcasters Award, just to be nominated was such a privilege. We are honored. Andy Stanley’s Leadership Podcast won the award in the Religion and Spirituality category, which was well deserved. It is an excellent podcast.

While at the event, we were able to reconnect with existing friends and establish many new friendships. The bonds and connections made this past week will last a lifetime.

After all the renovations on The Big House, a very enjoyable and successful family reunion, and then a great Podcast Movement conference, it will be nice to relax a little and then get back into our normal routine of client work and podcasting. I do have a few projects left that I was unable to complete before the reunion but will be able to leisurely complete those over the remainder of the summer. I plan to make a video tour of The Big House renovations once I get settled back in this week. I will let you know when that is completed.

With a new week facing us now and after some intense and exciting events, it is easy to fall into a lull period where it is hard to stay motivated. We do not want to fall prey to this, so today let’s hike the trail called…

Clinical psychologists believe that happiness is a product of realization. You must allow yourself to go through a process to realize happiness. While we may not experience happiness all of the time, we can take steps to ensure that we are happier in all aspects of life. It all boils down to the choices that we make in the following 14 areas:

We have hiked the trail of The Realization of Happiness. To a large extent, we are in control and responsible for our own happiness. Also, we can experience a deep sense of abiding joy in our lives, regardless of our circumstances. Let us learn the lessons from today’s trail and apply them each day. Our next trek will be Wisdom Wednesday when we will explore for the nuggets of wisdom found in Proverbs 14. So, encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along on Wednesday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our trek for today. As you enjoy your dose of wisdom, we ask you to help us grow Wisdom-Trek by sharing with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person and invite them to come along with us each day. If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek so each trek will be downloaded to you automatically. I would like to ask you to also rate and review us on iTunes or Google Play so that others will find out about Wisdom-Trek and join us.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek together, let us always:

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Wednesday!

Thank you for joining us for our 3 days per week, 12 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 383 of our trek, and today is Philosophy Friday. Every Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy. Today we are continuing our trek covering the Cycles and Seasons of Life.  In particular, we are focusing on the life season of spring.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. I am recording this episode on Monday since we will be leaving for the Podcast Movement conference in Chicago tomorrow and will be away the remainder of this week.

The reunion weekend is winding down with the final clean up and family members gradually leaving. Our final count was 76 family members in attendance which included 7 out of 9 of my siblings, my dad, our children, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews. The weather was nice, and everyone appeared to enjoy being back at The Big House for the weekend. We are blessed and humbled to be able to host it. Paula and I always enjoy being the hosts and the facilitators of family gatherings. This season of our lives allows us the opportunity to work on renovating the house and serving in this manner.

Speaking of life seasons, let’s head out on our trek for today as we continue on with the spring season within the Cycles and Seasons of Life within the section titled…

The essence of springtime is faith woven among the threads of massive human effort. Springtime is the fresh air of new opportunity, amid the dissipating clouds of winter. Spring is the time for you to enter the bleak, empty fields given to you as a new chance. When you enter those fields, you see in the adjoining fields the blossoming of nature’s flowers—the daisies, and other miracles of nature, which God planted, reminding you now that nature fulfills its promises. Already, the miracle of the seasons shows itself, for the same snows that gave you cause to huddle for warmth during the winter also covered nature’s crops, which exist now before your eyes.

Expend your effort now, without complaint, without doubt, without pessimism, and without self-pity over the severity of your winter of circumstance. Did the daisies complain because of the same cold and the same winds? No, they did not, yet they exist as either a reminder, a threat, or a promise. Do the lilies hide beneath the cover of earth, fearing an unexpected return of winter, or do they restrain themselves for fear of the coming bugs and weeds of summer? Do the daisies or the lilies of the field of nature make excuses or lie or linger? They are there because they endured circumstance and pushed aside the seasonal obstacles of rocks and hard-packed soil, and so must you if your life is to blossom.

The same God who gave life and meaning, and opportunity to the crops of nature now gives you the same blessings. Are you to say that you are less than a lily or a daisy? Do they have a brain or vision or choice? Do they converse one with another for the sharing of ideas? In His parable in Matthew 6:28-30, Jesus taught us, “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?”

God does provide everything for you, but He does expect you to use your abilities as the tools to fulfill His plan. Springtime merely says, “Here I am!” Springtime sends its life and its warmth. It sends you constant messages of its arrival—the robin, the squirrels, the return of the swallows, and the berries of the field for those whose own storehouses are empty. Springtime gives a smile to those who respond to its arrival and a tear for those who sit or who make only half an effort.

Some will work only a little—enough to give to themselves excuses for the meager results come the fall. Some will fish or play or sleep or lie among the wildflowers. Some will plant foolishly or quickly and not take the time to perform to the level of their capability or intelligence. Some will trust only in the God who brought forth the wildflowers, forgetting the admonition that “faith without works is dead.”

The warmth, the sun, and the fertile fields of the spring are but part of the formula for achievement; the catalyst that produces the final result is intense, honest, and consistent human effort, and therein lies the problem. As a human, you are given freewill—the right to choose; the right to use discipline or not use it; the choice to act with courage or huddle in fear; the choice to think or respond out of habit.

When we are given a free choice, more often than not, we choose to rest, or we choose half an effort, or we choose a convenient excuse. Sometimes we choose to remain indoors because of its comfort or by a brook rather than in the field, knowing that the intelligence that lets us perform well will also let us lie well or excuse ourselves well or blame circumstances well. Above all, the gift of human intelligence and the freedom of choice that accompanies it is not a blessing but a curse, for it allows us to even fool and lie to ourselves, which is the height of ignorance.

Choose action, not rest. Choose truth, not fantasy. Choose a smile, not a frown. Choose love, not animosity. Choose the good in life in all things, and choose the opportunity as well as the chance to work when springtime smiles on your life.

Much of the effort and opportunity of springtime rests in the depth and degree of your faith. Life provides no assurances that the planting of seeds will provide the reaping of crops. We have only the demonstrated experiences of others to draw upon. The storms of life could cancel your efforts expended in the fields of opportunity. But to expend no effort during the spring will assure no results during the fall.

Faith further provides to you an irrevocable law decreed in heaven which assures that for every disciplined human effort, you will receive multiple rewards…For each cup planted, a bushel reaped…For every good idea given to another, many shall be given to you in return…For every demonstrated act of faith, a multiplicity of the rewards…For every act of love given, a life of love in return…For each seed of encouragement given to another, a gathering of the honest effort expended during the spring and an hour of honest rest in the fall…For each act of patience and understanding rendered to another, a return of patience from another when your own acts give cause for disappointment.

It is the promise of spring that as you plant, so will you also harvest. If you plant lies, you will harvest lies; plant greed, harvest poverty; plant inactivity, harvest an empty storehouse; choose to procrastinate, and surely an infant giant will grow to become a monster rendering your future action ineffective.

The act of planting during the warm breezes of spring requires that you exert the pain of human discipline. Being unwilling to do so assures that in the coming fall, you shall surely experience the greater pain of regret—the difference is that the pain of discipline weighs ounces, and the pain of regret weighs tons. You must either plant during the springtime of life or beg from others during the fall.

A kernel of corn produces its own kind. A seed of doubt, or fear, or distrust placed in the mind also produces after its own kind. As certainly as the soil gives back the same kind that which you place into it, so also does your mind give back in the human circumstance that which you place into it by your choice of human thought. The price or effort of thinking thoughts of love, prosperity, or self-confidence is no greater than the price given to thoughts of hate, poverty, or self-doubt. Only the rewards are different.

Each day is given to you as a new season of spring. The thoughts, deeds, dreams, and efforts of today will provide tomorrow’s harvest. To neglect the opportunity given to you this day is to delay your better future. Do not use today to mentally re-live yesterday or to await the arrival of tomorrow, for tomorrow— when it arrives—will be called today. There will be no better day, no better opportunity, no better springtime, no better time to begin than the current moment. Seize the moments as you find them, and mold them into your own better future. Today’s procrastination will surely be tomorrow’s regret.

For some, the emergence of springtime is a time of great difficulty. Perhaps because of your own neglect or inactivity of past seasons, you find your storehouse and your stomachs empty. Your need for food or monies is not in the coming fall…but now. The voices of those you love echo their needs brought about by your lack of effort or results, and their eyes look away from you, lest you detect the shame and disappointment shown in them.

Under circumstances such as these, you are often given to forgetting that the seasons will neither speed up nor slow down because of your needs. The springtime will only appear, but it will not wait, nor will it transform seed into harvest. As always, the seed, as well as your needs, must await the changing seasons. You cannot ask nature for an advance. Talent, need, desire, and prayer are meaningless to those suffering the painful consequences of earlier neglect. With your empty stomachs, barren storehouse, and great regret you must enter the fields during this spring, for to neglect once again because of your demeaning circumstances is to assure a continuance of the current conditions.

Finally, become wise enough to recognize the faint glimmerings of the springtimes of life which manifest themselves each day. Take advantage of the opportunity to listen to the words of those wiser than yourself…The opportunity to lift a child upon your knee. The opportunity to walk a beach with someone you love. The opportunity to absorb the value of a good book. The opportunity to speak good things about someone when habit prompts you to find fault. The opportunity to watch the hummingbirds, or the flowers, or a butterfly perform its strange miracle.

Seize the infrequent opportunity to do nothing for a change or something for a change. Force yourself to turn off the television or computer, and embrace the opportunity for having family conversation—or even silence. Opportunity surrounds us all, appearing and disappearing just as fast, leaving behind fond memories to those who responded to its appearance, or regret to those who were then too busy to bother.

Life is truly a constant beginning, a constant opportunity, and a constant springtime. You need only to learn to look once again at life as you did as a child, letting fascination and curiosity give you a welcome cause for taking a second look, rather than taking for granted. Fortune, happiness, and peace of mind await those who learn to look for the miraculous hidden among the common. The unique blending of sun, soil, and seed at the springtime of seasons will provide predictable and miraculous results for those who will learn to take full and complete advantage of the spring.

This has been a rather lengthy trail on today’s trek, but it is one that we really need to take to heart and to consider and understand. The immutable laws of planting and harvesting are set by God and cannot be changed or violated any more than we can override the law of gravity. When you grasp this concept, then you can direct and achieve a rich and satisfying life.

Next Friday we will change our season to summer, but our next trek will be Motivation Monday where we explore how you can realize happiness in your life. So, encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along on Monday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

Thank you for joining us for our 3 days per week, 12 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 382 of our trek, and today is Wisdom Wednesday. Every Wednesday we will explore for the nuggets of wisdom that are found along the Proverb trail. Today we explore Proverbs [13:13]-25.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We had such a blessed time with the Chamberlain Reunion at The Big House this past weekend. Reconnecting with siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles was such an enjoyment. We are truly blessed to have the family and homestead that we do.

When this day’s trek is released, Paula and I will be in Chicago for the Podcast Movement annual conference. I am honored to have the privilege to speak during a PMx session, which is similar in format to the popular Ted Talks. These short 15-minute sessions are designed to inform and inspire the listeners with a topic that will be useful to help podcasters succeed in their podcasting journey. The talk that I will be giving is 10 Truths for Creating Your Living Legacy through Podcasting. My talk will be very similar to my Wisdom-Trek podcast. It is my hope and desire to provide the audience with practical tips to help them to live their legacy each day.

One way to ensure a living legacy is by obtaining wisdom, insight, and understanding. There is no better source for this than the book of Proverbs and today’s trek is titled…

Let’s begin today Proverbs [13:13].

13 People who despise advice are asking for trouble;

A person who does not seek advice from wise and tested people will end up making foolish decisions and will end up in trouble. In fact, that person is considered a fool. The fact is that to succeed you must be willing to take advice and learn from others that have proven themselves successful in various areas of life. We must respect and seek out those who are wise.

14 The instruction of the wise is like a life-giving fountain;

We need to seek out the instruction of those individuals that have gained wisdom and insight through the years of their life journey. That wisdom will be like water in a desert providing us life and sustenance to carry on where otherwise we would perish.

15 A person with good sense is respected;

It is very refreshing to be in the presence of a person with a wealth of common sense. It seems so rare in today’s world. We can respect a person who has these traits. On the other hand, a person without good sense cannot be trusted because they are unreliable, unfaithful, and two-faced.

16 Wise people think before they act;

A sign of a wise person is that they are not reactionary.  They will take the proper time to think before taking action.  This will prevent them from making decisions or taking action that would be harmful to themselves or others. In contrast to this is the fool who reacts instead of taking action and is only wise in his own eyes but whose decisions and actions prove otherwise.

17 An unreliable messenger stumbles into trouble,

A person who cannot be relied on for information or results will find themselves stumbling through life.  He falls into trouble himself and brings trouble for those he impacts. A person who is reliable is like healing to those who are afflicted. A reliable person is dependable, which soothes the soul, much like medicine would heal the body.

18 If you ignore criticism, you will end in poverty and disgrace;

No one likes to be criticized because it hurts our egos and often offends us. If you do not heed constructive criticism, you will be a poor person who continues down a path of disgrace. Criticism is necessary if we are to grow in wisdom. If we willingly accept correction, we will live a life of honor and respect from others.

19 It is pleasant to see dreams come true,

All of us have dreams and ambitions, and when we are able to achieve them it is a pleasant occurrence. God’s Word is full of wisdom and precepts that should be congruent with our dreams. When our dreams are contrary to God’s guidelines and we refuse to change them, then we shouldn’t be surprised when our dreams turn to nightmares. When God’s precepts are adhered to, then there will be a predictable outcome. When they are not, then we cannot expect God to save us from our foolish decisions.

20 Walk with the wise and become wise;

You become like those who you invest time with. If you invest time with wise people and listen to their wisdom, you will gain wisdom yourself. If you spend time with foolish and wicked people, you will become like them.  Like my mom would say, “If you lie down with dogs, don’t be surprised when you wake up with fleas.”

21 Trouble chases sinners,

Your thoughts will determine your actions, which will determine your outcomes in life.  When you choose to do what is contrary to God’s precepts, then you will have troubles in your life. In contrast, those who practice being good and Godly will experience the reward of a peaceful and pleasant life that is free from fear and anxiety.

22 Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren,

A person who is good and Godly will make wise financial decisions and, as a result, will be able to accumulate wealth and Godly traditions that will be passed through the generations to come. Not so for those who make unwise financial decisions and become a slave to the lenders. They will not have wealth nor wisdom to pass on to future generations.

23 A poor person’s farm may produce much food,

While there are situations that are completely out of our control where we lose our financial foundation, this loss, in most cases, is because of unwise financial decisions that we have made. This verse would indicate that even when a poor person has the opportunity to gain a solid footing financially because of their past unwise decisions any gain is swept away by the creditors that they are slaves to.

24 Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children.

This verse has fallen into some controversy in today’s politically correct world view. While I certainly do not advocate any type of abuse to children at any age, there are times when children and adults need to be disciplined for unwise decisions. What we lose in the word discipline is the root word to disciple. When you disciple a person, you take him alongside you to train and teach him how to make proper decisions. This is what we need to do for our children and grandchildren, to bring them alongside us, to care for them enough that we are willing to pour ourselves into their lives.

25 The godly eat to their hearts’ content,

If you have the right mindset about contentment, then regardless if you are in plenty or in want, you will still be content with what you have. Those who are not content with what they currently have, certainly will not be content with more. This applies to food or anything else in life.

That brings us to the end of our trail for today as we complete Proverbs 13. Once again, the wealth of wisdom that we are able to dig up from the nuggets contained in these verses is amazing. It certainly is true that if we walk with the wise, we will become wise. Let’s walk on today.

Our next trek will be Philosophy Friday when we will continue to ponder and study the Cycles and Seasons of Life, and in particular the season of spring.  So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along on Friday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our trek for today. As you enjoy your dose of wisdom, we ask you to help us grow Wisdom-Trek by sharing with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person and invite them to come along with us each day. If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek so each trek will be downloaded to you automatically. I would like to ask you to also rate and review us on iTunes or Google Play so that others will find out about Wisdom-Trek and join us.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek together, let us always:

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Wednesday!

Thank you for joining us for our 3 days per week, 12 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 381 of our trek, and today is Motivation Monday. Every Monday we will provide you with your weekly dose of motivation that will set you on the trail of success. Today we will hike the six steps needed to motivate yourself.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. By the time this episode is released, the 5-year Chamberlain Reunion will be winding down. Since I am recording this ahead of time, I will have to provide details on future treks.

Paula and I have put in hundreds of hours in renovations and preparation over the past couple of years so that we could provide the best venue and experience possible for the family. We were motivated by a fixed deadline to work extra hours with a focused effort to accomplish all that we had planned. While we did not complete everything that we had hoped to due to time and resources, we were very pleased with the amount of work that we did accomplish. Creating an atmosphere of unity and peace where everyone feels that they have “come home” is important to us and is part of our living legacy for the family.

Although maintaining The Big House is a lot of work and responsibility, we feel that it is part of our God-given mission for life. As Jesus spoke in Luke 12:48, “When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.” With that awareness, we carry on with the joy of being able to serve in this manner.

Because of the deadline of the reunion we were highly motivated to complete our tasks, which is a basic principle with any motivation. Today let us hike the trail that contains the six steps to…

Let’s get started on our trek for today with a quote from Andrew Carnegie, “People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.”

If you want to excel in life, self-motivation is essential. You must know how to motivate yourself. You must be able to keep your spirit high no matter how discouraging a situation is. That’s the only way to get the power you need to overcome difficulties. Those who are discouraged in difficult times are certain to lose even before the battle is over.

The question is: How do you motivate yourself? We will climb the six steps that will allow you to effectively build and maintain self-motivation.

I can’t think of a more powerful source of motivation than a cause you care about. This was the Chamberlain Reunion for Paula and me. Such causes can inspire you to give your best even in the face of difficulties. It can make you do the seemingly impossible things.

While other causes could inspire you temporarily, a cause that matters to you can inspire you indefinitely. It’s like a mountain spring of motivation that will never dry. Whenever you think that you run out of motivation, you can always come to your cause to get a fresh dose of motivation.

Karen Ravn put it this way: 

Your cause is a powerful source of motivation, but it’s still abstract in nature. You need to make it concrete in the form of a dream. For us, it was imagining how The Big House would look with the renovations completed. That image drove us on when we felt like quitting.

Having a dream is important because it’s difficult to be motivated if you don’t have anything to shoot for. Being able to host the family for the weekend and allowing them to see the Family Homestead restored to its original state is our overriding dream. While we are not completely finished, we have made good progress. We will continue with our dream in subsequent years. That is our goal which drives our ambition. Just having a dream is insufficient.

Your dream must be big enough to inspire you. It must be realistic but challenging. It must stretch your ability beyond your comfort zone.

Les Brown said, “Wanting something is not enough. You must have a passion for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.”

To be truly motivated, you need to have passion and not just desire. Having mere desire won’t take you through difficult times since you don’t want things badly enough. In many cases, passion makes the difference between the best performers and the mediocre ones.

How can you have passion? Your cause and your dream play a big role here. If you have a cause you care about and a big dream related to it, you should have the passion inside of you. If you think that you are losing passion, all you need to do is to connect again to your cause and dream. Let them inspire you and bring the passion back.

Mikhail Baryshnikov put it this way, “I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.”

Comparing yourself with others is an effective way to demotivate yourself. Even if you start with enthusiasm, you will soon lose your energy when you compare yourself with others.

Don’t let that happen to you. You have your own race so how other people perform is irrelevant. Comparing yourself to others is like comparing the performance of a swimmer with a runner using the same time standard. They are different so how can you compare one with the other?

The only competitor you have is yourself. The only one you need to beat is you. Let me ask you this question…Have you become the best you can be?

Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

When you meet obstacles along the way, there could be the tendency to quit. You may think that it’s too difficult to move on. You may think that your dream is impossible to achieve. But this is where you can see the difference between winners and losers. Though both of them face the same difficulties, there is one thing that makes the winners different – the courage to continue.

In difficult situations, just focus on taking one more step forward. Don’t think about how to complete the race. Don’t think about how many more obstacles are waiting for you. Just focus on taking the next step. Through the many early mornings and late nights working on refinishing the woodwork and floors, I had to continually remind myself to keep moving forward, just a little bit at a time. In doing so, I was able to complete the tasks that we had planned for now.

This next quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson certainly summed up my feelings most days, “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.”

Believe it or not, one of the best de-motivators is your past. Your past can drag you down before you realize it. Your past can give you a heavy burden on your shoulders.

The good news is it’s a burden you don’t have to carry. Take it off your shoulder and leave it. You might make mistakes in the past. You might disappoint others with what you did. But it’s over. It’s already in the past, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Today is a new day, and you have the chance to start again. No matter how bad your past might be, you still have a bright future ahead waiting for you. Just don’t let the burden of the past stop you.

We are nearing the end of today’s trek. These six steps, if followed, will provide you with the tools needed to motivate yourself. Don’t settle for mediocrity. Let your self-motivation take you to excellence. Go forward this week with a new sense of self-motivation to do you very best. Don’t wait for someone else to motivate you. External motivation is never lasting. Take responsibility for yourself.

Our next trek will be Wisdom Wednesday, and we will dig for more nuggets of wisdom in the 2nd half of Proverbs 13. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along on Wednesday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our trek for today. As you enjoy your dose of wisdom, we ask you to help us grow Wisdom-Trek by sharing with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person and invite them to come along with us each day. If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek so each trek will be downloaded to you automatically. I would like to ask you to also rate and review us on iTunes or Google Play so that others will find out about Wisdom-Trek and join us.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek together, let us always:

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Wednesday!

Thank you for joining us for our 3 days per week, 12 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 380 of our trek, and today is Philosophy Friday. Every Friday we will ponder the truths about life and creating your living legacy. Today we will consider The Constant, Predictable Pattern of Change within the Cycles and Seasons of Life.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. On Wednesday, we invested the day with our local client assisting with the monthly billings and other back office duties.  After we had finished with the client, we went shopping for all the food and supplies for the Chamberlain reunion that starts Friday evening and runs through Monday morning. Some of our family will only be in for a day, but overall we are anticipating 75 -100 family members in attendance. While we did not complete all of the projects we had planned, the most important ones were finished, and we are ready for family to arrive. My sister Rebecca and sister-in-law Ann helped Paula prepare the meals on Thursday. Our nephew Adam came up with Rebecca and helped me with some remaining projects that I worked on.

While change is a constant part of our lives, being able to renovate The Big House also gives us a realization how important a solid foundation in life really is. With the house being over 110 years old, it is still as grand and beautiful as ever. With all of the fast pace changes in our lives, a strong, solid, lasting foundation is an important part of the living legacy that each of us should work toward.

As part of the Cycles and Seasons of Life, today on our trek we will explore change through…

The tide comes in and then recedes; the sun rises, giving light, and then sets, bringing darkness. Drought plagues the farm fields of the world, followed by rain in abundance. On this day, we swelter under the intense heat of the July sun, and soon we clothe ourselves against the penetrating cold of the mid-winter storm. Prosperity brings her abundant opportunity and rewards, but will withdraw at a future time when confronted by a receding business climate. The smile gives way to the tear, as does the joy to the sorrow and the jubilation to the tragedy. Close friends become hated enemies. The guns and bloodshed of war are followed by the stillness of a temporary peace.

For each of us existing on this spinning blue-white sphere called earth, confidence is replaced with the passage of time, by doubt; patience is replaced by stress; expectancy by boredom; and achievement by disillusionment.

As the wheel of life continues its constant turn, all human emotions appear, disappear, and appear once again. We sit in amazement in the role of spectators, as a generation living in morality becomes an immoral generation. This gives us cause to predict the end of the world, as did our forefathers when confronted by the same dilemma generations before.

The confrontations, disappointments, and challenges of life are treated by each generation as though they are the first to experience such events, when in fact, the pre-Christian years saw the same occurrences both appear and dissolve.

In Ecclesiastes 1:4-11 Solomon describes it this way,

“Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes.  The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again.  The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles.  Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea.  Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.   History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.  Sometimes people say, ‘Here is something new!’ But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new.  We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.”

For all of us, the only constant factor in life is our feelings and attitudes toward life. A major challenge faced by us all is that we learn to experience the changing of life’s cycles without being changed by them. To make a constant and conscious effort to improve ourselves in the face of changing circumstance is to assure a tolerance for the winters of life’s events, and to permit ourselves the full enjoyment of the blessings of life’s harvest come the autumn.

Let us now hike through each season of life as it corresponds to the seasons of each year. We will begin exploring the beginning of spring today, and on subsequent Fridays, we will travel through all four seasons taking our time to ponder what each season has in store for us.

Following the turbulence of winter comes the season of activity and opportunity called springtime. It is the season for entering the fertile fields of life with seed, knowledge, commitment, and  determined effort. It is not a time to linger, nor to ponder the possibility of failure. Foolish is the one who would allow springtime to pass while dwelling upon the memory of the successful crop of last fall, or the failure to reap last fall in spite of the massive efforts of last spring.

It is a natural characteristic of springtime to present itself ever so briefly, or to lull us into inactivity with its bounteous beauty. Do not pause too long to soak in the aroma of the blossoming flowers, lest you awaken to find springtime gone with your seed still in your sack. Spring does not care if you sow or sleep, nor does it care if you plant abundantly or meagerly. It does not care if you plant the fertile kernel of wheat or useless weed-seeds. Neither spring, the soil, sun, nor other elements, care if you plant at all. It will merely present itself as the time to take advantage. Springtime will not admonish you to plant, nor will it warn of the consequences of not planting. For the tiller of the soil, springtime is without emotion. 

For the husband, father, wife, mother, or businessperson, springtime comes in the form of opportunity to enroll in a class, or to have a conversation with someone at the proper moment, to have the courage to change either occupation or residence, or perhaps even to change your mind about something or someone. The springtime of life manifests itself infrequently. Do not allow springtime to pass while you sit idly, contemplating the severity of the past winter of life.

With the intelligence, wisdom, and freedom of choice given to us as humans, exercise the discipline to plant in spite of the rocks, weeds, or other obstacles before us. The rocks, weeds, and thorns of the world cannot destroy all your seeds if you plant massively and intelligently enough.

To take full advantage of the spring, rid your soil of the weeds and rocks disguised as the opinions of those around you in the form of worry, doubt, or pessimism. It is the fertilizer of faith and enthusiasm that will overcome the worst forms of bugs and weeds. Listen not to the bearers of discouraging words—those who would have you rest with them during the work season of spring. They will find themselves starving come the fall and winter, or begging from those who recognize spring as a brief opportunity to work, and to leave play for another season. 

There is much more to share about spring as a Season of Life, but we have come to the end of today’s trail, and we will have to wait until Philosophy Friday next week. Understanding the Cycles and Seasons of Life may be difficult for you, but these truths are immutable laws no different than the Law of Gravity. You cannot defy that law, nor can you change the basic concepts that control the seasons of life. Once we acknowledge this, then we can create and live our legacy each day.

Our next trek will be Motivation Monday when we will discover the 6 steps to motivate yourself. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along on Monday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our trek for today. As you enjoy your dose of wisdom, we ask you to help us grow Wisdom-Trek by sharing with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person and invite them to come along with us each day. If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek so each trek will be downloaded to you automatically. I would like to ask you to also rate and review us on iTunes or Google Play so that others will find out about Wisdom-Trek and join us.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek together, let us always:

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Wednesday!

Thank you for joining us for our 3 days per week, 12 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 379 of our trek, and today is Wisdom Wednesday. Every Wednesday we will explore for nuggets of wisdom to help you to grow in wisdom, insight, and understanding. Today we will dig for these treasures in Proverbs 13.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. By the time this day’s trek is completed, we should have the exterior trim and front porch painted. We also need to paint the gas lamps in the yard and a table for the front porch. The details for the reunion are coming together although we were not able to complete everything in our plans. Over the subsequent weeks and months, we will continue to complete the projects on our renovation list.

Much to our surprise and enjoyment after being away for nearly a week, the two young hawks have returned. Although we do not see them frequent the nest, they appear to be practicing their calls, flying, and hunting. It has been very interesting to watch.

Another subject that I find very interesting and useful are the nuggets of wisdom from Proverbs 13. Today on our trek, we will explore the first 12 verses in what I am calling…

1 A wise child accepts a parent’s discipline;

Parents who instruct their children well are those who disciple them. To be able to disciple properly, you must also live a life where lessons can be caught, as well as taught. Yes, instructing children does require various forms of discipline through the process, but a child who is gaining wisdom will accept that discipline as part of their training for life. On the other hand, a child who is unwise rejects the discipline from a parent. He will mock and ridicule that instruction.

2 Wise words will win you a good meal,

When you are wise, your words will be full of wisdom. This will satisfy the soul like a good meal satisfies hunger. In contrast, the unwise and unfaithful person is one who is always seeking to be satisfied, but their hunger is never filled because they seek that which is wrong and cannot bring any lasting satisfaction

3 Those who control their tongue will have a long life;

As Solomon points out many times in Proverbs, speaking too much is not wise. If we can learn to speak only when it is appropriate, and we have something worthwhile to say, then it will spare us much sorrow and lead to a full and long life. The opposite of this is someone who speaks without thinking or wisdom. They also speak too often, and as a result, their lives will be full of hardship, both for themselves and those around them.

4 Lazy people want much but get little,

A person who is lazy does not understand the basic principle and direct correlation between work and prosperity. They desire to have much, but end up with little. Those who are willing to work hard and not chase fantasies or get rich quick schemes will have an abundance of all that they need. One aspect of this concept that many do not understand is that you cannot spend more than you earn. The reason so many people feel that they work hard and still do not prosper is that they are living beyond their means. We can get by in life with so much less than we realize. If we are disciplined, frugal and work hard, we will see prosperity follow. It is a basic principle of life.

5 The godly hate lies;

As you grow in your faith and become good and Godly, you will learn to hate that which God hates. One of those items are lies. Although lying seems so prevalent throughout all of history, we should not lie nor accept lies from others. Those who do not care to live according to God’s precepts have no scruples about lying. This will bring shame and disgrace both to them and those who they impact.

6 Godliness guards the path of the blameless,

As you become wiser and adopt qualities in your life that are good and Godly, those attributes will become a guardrail on your path of life to prevent you from slipping, which will allow you to remain blameless. The unwise and ungodly do not have those guardrails in place, and can easily be led down the wrong path that will lead to sin, destruction, and eventual death.

7 Some who are poor pretend to be rich;

This is an interesting aspect of human nature. In many cases, those that do not have an abundance of wealth like to give the impression that they are wealthy. They are willing to go into debt to buy those things that they do not need to impress people who do not care. It is never wise to live beyond your means. In contrast to this, there are many that are truly wealthy, but you would never know it by their lifestyles. They live frugal, modest lives that do not reflect their actual status. In many of these cases, it is because of their lifestyles that they are able to gain wealth.

8 The rich can pay a ransom for their lives,

There are many advantages to being wealthy, especially if wealth is used to impact others. On the flip side of that when you are wealthy, the responsibility that comes with being wealthy can also become a trap or a burden. Rich people may feel that it is a ransom on their lives. This is one burden that the poor don’t feel because they have little to give. Keep in mind, though, this verse does not give anyone an excuse to remain poor.

9 The life of the godly is full of light and joy,

When we are walking in the light of God’s Word and following His precepts, our lives should be filled with that light, and we should be overflowing with joy as a natural outgrowth of that light. In contrast, those who live without acknowledging God in their lives will increasingly live in darkness, and their lives will be without joy.

10 Pride leads to conflict;

Nearly all conflicts and problems in our lives can be boiled down to our pride. One sure sign of pride is the inability to take advice from others. On the other hand, a person with a humble spirit will be willing to take advice and correction which will lead to additional wisdom.

11 Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears;

We see this problem every day, and we all fall prey to it. We want something for nothing. We desire to gain wealth for our own consumption but are unwilling to invest the time and energy needed. There never will be a get rich quick scheme that works. True wealth is only gained through working hard over an extended period of time. It goes back to the basic analogy of planting and harvesting. There are certain immutable laws that must be followed.

12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

There are few things more crushing to our spirits than to have hope for something and yet not be able to obtain it. It can literally make us ill. We must have the proper hope in the only one who can give us true and lasting joy. As Isaiah 40:31, “But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” It is when our true and lasting dreams are fulfilled that we will have the joy and strength to carry on in all circumstances.

We have dug up some great nuggets of wisdom in the first 12 verses of Proverbs 13. Let’s consider these truths and then apply them to our lives so that we can live a life that is rich and satisfying. In doing so we will create and live our legacy each day. Our next trek will be Philosophy Friday where we will ponder The Constant, Predictable Pattern of Change within the Cycles and Seasons of Life. So, encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along on Friday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our trek for today. As you enjoy your dose of wisdom, we ask you to help us grow Wisdom-Trek by sharing with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person and invite them to come along with us each day. If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek so each trek will be downloaded to you automatically. I would like to ask you to also rate and review us on iTunes or Google Play so that others will find out about Wisdom-Trek and join us.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek together, let us always:

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Wednesday!

Thank you for joining us for our 3 days per week, 12 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 378 of our trek, and today is Motivation Monday. Every Monday we will provide a shot of motivation to encourage and inspire you to make it a great week. Today we will finish up a two-part exploration of A Guide to Motivation.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We had an extremely busy weekend of restoration work. All of the woodwork and floors that we had planned to refinish at this time are completed. We also are making progress on the exterior painting and hope to finish it up by Wednesday. There are some other miscellaneous projects that we desire to complete this week, but they may have to wait until later. Before the start of the reunion, I hope to get a video capture of the renovations that we have completed so far.

Some of the Wisdom-Trek and client projects have been delayed until the middle of July when we return from the Podcast Movement conference. Our focus on the renovations, Chamberlain reunion, and conference where I will be speaking, has consumed most of our time this month. Since the conference is focused on podcasting, I am sure we will be highly motivated to make good progress when we return from Chicago on July 9th.

As we think about motivation, let us head out on the 2nd segment of our trek today to explore 20 ways to sustain motivation when you are struggling…

The second half of our guide to motivation explores how to keep yourself going when you don’t feel the same excitement as you did in the beginning. Perhaps something new has come into your life, and your old goal isn’t as much of a priority anymore. Perhaps you skipped a day or two, and now you can’t get back into it. Perhaps you screwed up and got discouraged.

If you can get yourself excited again and keep going, you’ll get there eventually. But if you give up, you won’t. It’s your choice — accomplish the goal or quit. Here are 20 tips to assist you in reaching your goal:

We are encouraged to continue on in the book of Hebrews 12:11 12:11-13, “No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward, there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.  So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.”

We have come to the end of this two-part trek on A Guide to Motivation. Let us learn and apply these instructions to our daily lives. Our next trek will be Wisdom Wednesday when we will dig for the nuggets of wisdom found in Proverbs 13. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along on Wednesday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our trek for today. As you enjoy your dose of wisdom, we ask you to help us grow Wisdom-Trek by sharing with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person and invite them to come along with us each day. If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek so each trek will be downloaded to you automatically. I would like to ask you to also rate and review us on iTunes or Google Play so that others will find out about Wisdom-Trek and join us.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek together, let us always:

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Wednesday!

Thank you for joining us for our 3 days per week, 12 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 377 of our trek, and today is Philosophy Friday. Every Friday we will ponder on an aspect of life that will help us to create and grow our living legacy. Currently, we are in a multi-part series of exploring the Cycles and Seasons of Life. Today we will hike the Value of Attitude Trail.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. By this weekend, I should have all the upstairs woodwork, floors, and the front stairway coated with polyurethane. This has been quite a feat with a total of 11 doorways upstairs. Even after living here for nearly 30 years, I had not thought about the number of doorways. With applying polyurethane to that many doors and trim, it became painfully obvious that there were a lot. They do look nice, and the time invested now will bring pleasure to many for generations to come. We do consider this our passion project for the extended family and part of our living legacy.

This weekend and the first part of next week, I should be able to finish up the back stairway, and the downstairs hallway and foyer. There is much to complete before July 1st when the Chamberlain reunion starts. We will accomplish as much as we can, leave the rest in God’s hands, and realize that we can continue on as we have opportunity in the months ahead. We are blessed that in this season of life we have time and opportunity to gradually work on the restoration of The Big House.

As we think about life, let us head out on the 4th segment of our trek today to explore The Value of Attitudes within:

Regardless of your own religious or intellectual inclinations, it is difficult to believe that humans somehow came about by random chance and circumstances. For all of us, what we believe about the origin of life, and particularly humans, is based purely on faith. Scientific proof requires observation and testing. No one is alive to verify what really happened in the ages past. Recorded human history is only from the past few thousand years.  For me, it is more logical to have faith in a divine creator opposed to random chance and circumstances. I am personally convinced that the entire universe, including the earth and everything living on it, were created by God. Humans are a special creation since we are created in God’s image as describe in Genesis 1:26-27, “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.’ So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” 

Based on this belief, you were created to grow in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of God and His precepts. In light of your eternal purpose and existence, even if you live beyond 100, your life is just a speck in time. As it says in James 4:14, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”

Your life on earth is but a mere stepping stone within your eternal existence. How your earthly trek finishes is based on the choices and decisions that you make each day. The impact of those choices will remain throughout eternity.

The more that I study, read, ponder, and speculate about people, their deeds, and their destiny, I become more deeply convinced that it is by God’s design that our natural destiny is to grow, to succeed, to prosper, and to find happiness while here on earth. True happiness is the joy that we can only experience when we accept and follow God’s provisions for us through His Son Jesus. It is then we will be able to experience God’s purpose based on what Jesus told us in John 10:10, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” 

In most of the world today, opportunity abounds, and it is within your reach to find within your own life a personal realization of the very best of all that exists, which very well may include personal wealth. Contrary to the teaching of some religious circles, wealth is not bad; poverty is bad. Poverty, in most situations, is self-inflicted and represses individuals or groups of individuals who have chosen not to use their God-given talents and abilities to grow. They choose, rather, to allow those who have discovered and used their talents to take care of them.

I realize in the Beatitudes it states that God blesses those who are truly poor if they recognize their need for Him. The problem that appears to be most prevalent today with those who are poor is they are poor because of unwise financial decisions or lack of motivation. When Jesus recited the Beatitudes, it was a time when many of his listeners were slaves or indentured servants. They had a limited opportunity to advance themselves. That is not the case in most of the world today. I realize there are specific situations where being in poverty may be out of a person’s control, but to remain poor, especially in the western cultures is one of choice. Even in the face of difficulty, even severe difficulty; a person must make a total commitment to their cause, calling, or occupation in order to rectify their poverty. This situation is sad because many never even try to advance their lot in life through effort.

Imagine George Washington deciding not to try during the Revolutionary War because it looked bad across the Delaware. Imagine Abraham Lincoln giving up because he was embarrassed as a soldier, failed as a businessman, or was soundly defeated at the polls by his peers. Imagine George Washington Carver, born into slavery if he had remained a slave in his mind instead of becoming one of the foremost crop researchers and scientists of all time. Imagine John Kennedy deciding not to go to the moon—to make America first, both in our own eyes as well as in the eyes of the rest of the world. I could go on with hundreds of people who overcame severe difficulties and went on to make a huge impact on the world. Imagine, if you will, the world without the contributions of these, and other great people who overcame adversity with talent, desire, and total determination to leave behind the world slightly better than they found it.  

If I have failed to make my point, let it be known that God, did not intend for you to fail or wallow in poverty, self-pity, self-martyrdom, or mediocrity in any form. Such is not the grand design for you. God made you in His Image to be like Him. You are blessed with all those raw materials necessary for progress, such as imagination, ideas, inspiration, and undeveloped intellectual capacity…and that capacity is without limitation. The only limitation placed on your abilities is your inability to easily recognize your unlimited nature.

It does take effort to become aware of your staggering and limitless abilities. It takes effort to become enthusiastic over your life purpose, a cause, or an occupation. It takes effort to continue when your results—as well as your friends—tell you to give up trying. It takes effort to feel right about everything that happens, the joys as well as the sorrows of life. And it also takes effort to learn to love yourself above all others, especially when you are so consciously aware of your failures, doubts, and tragedies. Your capacity to love others is dependent on your capacity to love yourself. The Apostle Paul quoted Jesus in Galatians 5:14 telling us, “For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”

It does not, however, take effort to fail. It requires little else than a slowly deteriorating attitude about your present, your future, and about yourself. It is ironic that one of the few things in this life over which you have total control is your own attitude, and yet most of us live our entire life behaving as though we have no control whatsoever. By your attitude, you can decide to read or not to read. By your attitude, you can decide to try or give up. By your attitude, you blame yourself for your failure, or you foolishly blame others. Your attitude determines whether you love or hate, tell the truth or lie, take action or procrastinate, advance or recede, and by your own attitude you and you alone actually decide whether to succeed or fail.

How incredibly unique that a God, who would create the complex and immense universe, would create the human race and give to those humans the free choice that would permit them to select their own achievement or their own destruction.

This strange but all-knowing God gave to us a delicately balanced sphere called earth, and on it, he placed the intelligent human who would either develop it or destroy it. How terribly fascinating that God would leave both projects—earth as well as humans—unfinished! Across the rivers and streams, God built no bridges; He left the pictures unpainted, the songs unsung, the books unwritten, and space unexplored. For the accomplishment of those things, God created the unfinished human who, within his heart and mind, has the capacity to do all these things and more, depending upon his own choice. Attitude determines choice, and choice determines results. All that we are and all that we can become, for the most part, has indeed been left to us.

At this very moment in time, as you listen to or read these words, your attitude has determined what you are. Your enthusiasms, intensity, faith in yourself, patience with yourself and others, and childish excitement about your boundless future is a result of that single word—attitude. On the seventh day, the work of God was finished, and He rested from all his creative work. The work of creating your better future has just begun. For as long as you continue to draw breath, you have the chance to finish that work, and in so doing, complete the work in and for the earth and for yourself that God has left for you to accomplish.

We have come to the end of The Value of Attitude trail on today’s trek. We have much to consider and ponder for today. On our next Philosophy Friday, we will hike the trail of The Constant, Predictable, Pattern of Change as we continue on our trek of exploring the Cycles and Seasons of Life.

Our next trek will be Motivation Monday as we continue with A Guide to Motivation. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along on Monday for another day of Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our trek for today. As you enjoy your dose of wisdom, we ask you to help us grow Wisdom-Trek by sharing with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter or in person and invite them to come along with us each day. If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on iTunes, Spreaker, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeart Radio, and Google Play so each trek will be downloaded to you automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek together, let us always:

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Monday!