Life Coach

My parents were great singers, loved to sing in church, loved to sing around the farm. One old song, I remember so well, “No Disappointment in Heaven”.

Unless you are a very rare person, you have experienced disappointments, usually involving flawed people. It has taken an entire lifetime for me to realize that I have been hated by other people because I am different. Most individuals seek their own level just as the water table seeks a certain level. If you are different, family members, schoolmates, business and professional associates, hate you for not being on their level. God help the man of ideas, principles, a desire to rise above the crowd. We should not be surprised because our blessed Lord said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. (John 15:18)

You learn early that you are supposed to go along to get along, don't rock the boat, let sleeping dog's lie, everything will work out alright, we are just slaves on a big government plantation.

Some of the first words I remember my father saying to my mother, concerning men in the community, just plastic figurines, living day to day with the trials of life. He said, “they die and go to hell.”

Most of our disappointments in life involve the one who looks back at us in the mirror but, then there are other times, other things, other people.

For years I had wanted to worship at the Baptist tabernacle, Peachtree Street; Atlanta, GA. One weekend, I traveled from the army hospital where I was on staff, Alabama, to Atlanta. I remember that I stayed at the YMCA, on Sunday morning went to the huge historic church. My expectations were ruined because I have never been inside any building, any congregation of any type, where there was so much noise, no attitude of worship, Holiness. Finally, everything got quiet, the great choir came out and sang perfectly without one sheet of music but, at the end of the service, chaos again, laughing chatter in just a few seconds, these people having lost the sacredness of worship. A veteran, in uniform, not one spoke to me. Is it a matter of people not knowing better?, IS IT A MATTER OF PEOPLE NOT KNOWING THE BASICS OF LIVING, THE BASICS OF GOOD MANNERS?

New professionals, Life Coaches. It costs so much to talk with physicians, psychologists, lawyers, and pastors are so inept. Many people want direction, advice. Regardless of education, age, experience, we all have the need to talk with someone. In this “me” generation, most family members and friends are too busy with their own life and activities to talk with you. This is where the Life Coach comes in. In my office buildings, I have had many counseling groups as renters. One, a counseling group on “eating disorders”... another, mental health, two, job placements. For all advice-givers, the essence of a Life Coach, every patient, every person, is different. No two alike but, individuals want and need others' opinions.

Laziness, not necessity, is the mother of invention. In most activities of living, anyone who can read, can find advice. In this age of computers, self-help books (last year $693 million was spent on self-help books), there are very few answers you cannot find. Answers involving healthcare treatment, employment opportunities, investing, etc. Shopping in a store will become obsolete. You can learn to care for your body and that of your family, simply by studying, you do not need professional assistance. I can tell you in a few words, you do not need a Life Coach, that your health depends on the food an drink you put in your body.

I have never understood the fact that children are born eager to learn, go to school, college, and still are too lazy to read, search and study. Your most important Life Coach involves your eyes and hands. More important, the greatest Life Coach, your Creator, eager to advise, having given you the answer book. (The Holy Bible)

The largest money shipment in the history of the world, $40 billion US dollars, 363 tons, all in $100 dollar bills, shipped to Iraq by military transport. Trucks, military escort from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York (Geithner, chairman) to Andrews, Washington. It is known that the money, on military transport planes arrived in Baghdad., every pound, Every $100 dollar bill, disappeared.

As important as the loss of money, more important, your good sense in life choices. LONGTIME DEAD, when alive, making good choices, even without a Life Coach. Whether you are loved or hated in the world, you cannot recall or relive one second or one minute of your life and, the end of life is just one breath away.

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. (1 John 3:1)

Bags of Cash

God only had to say it once, “the love of money is the root of all evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10) History, and every problem of man tells us that nothing has changed...the almighty dollar, the peso, the yuan, the rand, the pound, whatever your currency.

This week we learned that bags of cash are taken to Hamid Kazai, disreputable President of Afghanistan, from Iran, as well as from America. Why not, what is new? Billions of dollars, bags of cash, spent in present elections. As our finest young men and women give their lives, and others forever nursing the wounds of war, the industrial/political producers of war get richer. As this blind, disabled veteran has stumbled through the exploitation at veterans facilities, I have heard many ask the question, “why does God allow this?”

God knows what He is doing. You can be sure that any person at judgment will never have a word of defense, all will know guilt, all will know that God has the goods on them. I could not worship a God which I could understand, His ways, His means; trust Him, that is all He asks. Bags of money is nothing new, in politics, in commerce, in warfare. We had two governors in North Carolina, father and son, the Scotts, you did not go to their office unless you took a paper sack filled with money. One of the North Carolina's most powerful politicians, Dr. Black, went to prison for bags of money passed in men's bathrooms. Every illegal drug seller, has a bag of money.

The one question young parents have asked me, “why are my children so defiant?” Ask any child what he wants in life, the answer always, “money”. The golden years in your child's life, the most important years for your assisting the formation of character: the ages 7-12. If you fail in those years, it is generally too late. Once a child gets on the treadmill of things, envying what others have, thinking that the most important things in life can be bought at a store, character becomes less defined. Convictions are stabilized by repetition, 26 times in the 136th Psalm: “the mercies of the Lord endure forever”.

The greatest shame of the Christian church, the Christian school, many Christian homes. Young people raised “supposedly” Christian doctrines forsake them, many never to return. This is nothing new, cradled Catholics leave the catholic church; Jews, the most family-oriented race forsake their faith. Only by the instilling of ancestral values, God's honor, encouragement to live a life of homage to family or ancestry, can you expect children to honor their name. Emphasize to your children, that if Christian, they carry in their body the name of Christ, His honor, as well as the fact that the honor of their family name is all-important. As I heard my mother say, every time before we left the house for anything, “remember who you are.”

There are some things our children will never forget about your home, I will give you something for the father of the home to read at the table, every day, or at least once a week. The great editor Horace Greeley said, “a bible-reading people can never be enslaved.” A praying family can never been enslaved by sin.

Father, we thank thee for this day,

We thank thee for this family, that before the foundation of the world, you chose these parents to have these children, who have in their genes the ancestry of two great families.

Thank You for your love. Thank You for work, for school, for home, for church, for friends, for every blessing of life.

Help us to always remember the honor of our family name, and the honor of Your Blessed Name.

Amen

In 1986, two Russian ships, one carrying 1,800 passengers, the other carrying a cargo of grain, collided in the Baltic sea. There was no storm, the weather was good, the radar was working, the reason for the collision, neither captain would change course. Both were coming towards each other on the same course.

As Christians, as family members, esteem one another. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. (Philippians 2:3) Discouragement is Satan's most effective weapon. It is so important to encourage one another, particularly family members. A young groom said to his bride, “when will you learn to make biscuits like my mother?” The bride said, with great affection and encouragement, “when you learn to make dough like my father.”