Tag Archives: Positive Affirmation

The 01/04/13 ‘Joy Jar’

3 Jan

What makes the difference between those who are successful and those who could have accomplished what they intended. There are two two traits, perseverance and endurance. Today’s deposit into the “Joy Jar’ is endurance.

“Endurance: It is the spirit which can bear things, not simply with resignation, but with blazing hope. It is the quality which keeps a man on his feet with his face to the wind. It is the virtue which can transmute the hardest trial into glory because beyond the pain it sees the goal.”
Anonymous, Come Be My Follower

“On the second floor was the office in which Houston pounded an ancient typewriter with two fingers, always setting an example of unceasing hard work for his admiring students. They had no hint of the fact that their hard-driving dean had contracted tuberculosis while serving as a GI in France in Word War I. Houstan always seemed vibrant and impassioned in the chase for justice as he tried to expose his students to everything relating to the law that might give them an advantage.
. . .
“I never worked hard until I got to the Howard Law School and met Charlie Houston,” Marshal told me. “I saw this man’s dedication, his vision, his willingness to sacrifice, and I told myself, ‘You either shape up or ship out.’ When you are being challenged by a great human being, you know that you can’t ship out.”
So Houston rescued Marshall and launched him into a career as one of the greatest lawyers in American history.”
Carl T. Rowan, Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Justice Thurgood Marshall

Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.
William Barclay

“If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes.”

Corrie Ten Boom

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The 01/03/13 ‘Joy Jar’

2 Jan

What makes the difference between those who are successful and those who could have accomplished what they intended. There are two two traits, perseverance and endurance. Today’s deposit into the “Joy Jar’ is perseverance.

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
Maya Angelou

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”
A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
Confucius

“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”
Ovid

“People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest person with the smallest mind.
Think big anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack if you help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you might get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.”
Dr. Kent M. Keith

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

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The 01/02/13 ‘Joy Jar’

1 Jan

The ‘Joy Jar’ is a year-long exercise based upon the proposition that one can choose to have a good attitude no matter one’s circumstance or whatever events life throws at a person. As many athletes play through pain, a successful attitude means that one plays through feelings and circumstances. Today’s deposit in the ‘Joy Jar’ is wisdom.

Proverbs 16:16  “How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!”

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life.” I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Maya Angelou

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.
Nelson Mandela

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
William James

Be happy. It’s one way of being wise.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.
Lao Tzu

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The 01/01/13 ‘Joy Jar’

1 Jan
Moi started her ‘Joy Jar’ in response to what some interpreted as ‘The Mayan Apocalypse ‘ which was supposed to occur on December 21, 2012. This is the deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ for January 1, 2013:
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (NLT)
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul”
G. K. Chesterton
Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!
This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!
I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!
– William Arthur Ward

New Year’s Day now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.
Mark Twain
Let’s begin the year hoping Mark Twain will not be proved right.

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The 12/31/12 ‘Joy Jar’

30 Dec
The first definition of enthusiasm in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is:
: belief in special revelations of the Holy Spirit
Today’s deposit in the ‘Joy Jar’ is enthusiasm.

Chief Tecumseh’s words of wisdom

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion;
respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,
even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and grovel to none.When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.

Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools
and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled
with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep
and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

Chief Tecumseh 1768-1813 Shawnee Nation

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The 12/30/12 ‘Joy Jar’

30 Dec
The ‘Joy Jar’ is a year long exercise which began on December 21, 2012 when moi realized that she was still here and the Mayan doom advocates were wrong. As the new year 2013 approaches, the frame of reference for any new year should be to expect the best. Today’s deposit in the ‘Joy Jar’ is to expect the best.
A little girl walked daily to and from school. Though the weather this particular morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her trek to the elementary school. As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up, along with thunder and lightning.
The child’s mother, concerned that her daughter would be frightened and possibly harmed by the storm got into her car and drove along the route to her child’s school.
As she did so, she saw her little daughter walking along happily but at each flash of lightning the child would stop, look up, and smile.
Stopping the car, the mother called to the child to get in with her. As they drove toward school, the girl continued to turn toward each lightning flash and smile.
The Mother asked, “What are you doing?”
The child answered, “Well, I must do this, God keeps taking pictures of me.”
— Author Unknown
“You begin by always expecting good things to happen”
Tom Hopkins quotes (American best selling author known as the world’s leading sales trainer.)
Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting a bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian”
Dennis Wholey
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
Lao-Tze
“If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.”
Abraham Lincoln
The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.
A. A. Milne
We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Aristotle
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.
Marcel Proust

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The 12/29/12 ‘Joy Jar’

30 Dec
According to the Phrase Finder:
Been there, done that

Meaning

To have experienced the topic under discussion, to the point of boredom or complacency.
Really has anyone really been there, all of there? Has anyone really done all of that? Really. Today’s deposit in the ‘Joy Jar’ is surprise.
“Would you like to know your future?

If your answer is yes, think again. Not knowing is the greatest life motivator.

So enjoy, endure, survive each moment as it comes to you in its proper sequence — a surprise.”
Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.”
Mae West
“Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“I know enough of the world now to have almost lost the capacity of being much surprised by anything”
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.
Henry Ford

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The 12/28/12 ‘Joy Jar’

30 Dec

Sometimes as you walk along the paths of life, there is a presence walking beside you. Sometimes it feels as if the presence is not there and you wonder where the presence has gone. But, you know the presence is always with you and has not left. Today’s deposit in the ‘Joy Jar’ is faith.

 

“When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. “Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you you’d walk with me all the way, but I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why when I needed you most you would leave me.” The Lord replied, “My precious, precious child, I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”
Mary Stevenson
“Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be… a prudent insurance policy.”
Elizabeth Gilbert
“God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas but for scars.”
Elbert Hubbard
“Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right.”
Max Lucado, He Still Moves Stones
“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”
Søren Kierkegaard
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
Corrie ten Boom

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The 12/27/12 ‘Joy Jar’

30 Dec
Everyone likes to think it is the big things that make one happy. But, for many happy people, it is the small things strung together like pearls that bring a smile to one’s face. No, many of these small things are not the same as giving a speech at the UN. Instead of bringing peace to nations, small things that make you grateful bring peace to your soul. Moi just loves going into Bartell Drugs and finding Lindt chocolate is on sale. Wow, what a feeling. Today’s deposit in the ‘Joy Jar’ is about the small things.

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.” Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
and the pleasant land.

Thus the little minutes,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages
Of eternity.”
Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney

For the person for whom small things do not exist, the great is not great.
Jose Ortega y Gasset

“Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things. I am tempted to think there are no little things.”
Bruce Barton

There are some things that you can fulfill with money, but at the end of the day these are not the things that make you happy. It is the small things that make life good.
Sebastian Vettel

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The 12/26/12 ‘Joy Jar’

30 Dec
All of us need grace and we all hope that people will grant us grace. It is harder to give others grace and forgiveness, but that is what we must learn to do. Today’s deposit in the ‘Joy Jar’ is grace for ourselves and others.

“By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

“Our worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.”
Jerry Bridges

“Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day’s chalking.”
Frederick Buechner, The Alphabet of Grace

“You must pay for everything in this world one way and another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God. You cannot earn that or deserve it.”
Charles Portis, True Grit

“The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you.”
Frederick Buechner

“When grace moves in… guilt moves out”
― Max Lucado, Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions

“If I’m not showing grace . . . have I forgotten the grace I’ve been shown?”
― John F. MacArthur

“Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.”
Confucius, The Analects

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