GIVE IT YOUR BEST
God expects us to give our best in whatever he has placed on our hands since we are accountable to him. People who have used there talents properly are always remembered. In order leave an impact in this world, we have got to think. We need to think for ourselves and make time to do so. Thinking involves talking with and listening to others, being open to ideas, suggestions and information that people offer you. Roy Thompson in After I was sixty (1975) talks about how he would deal with a problem when it arose in the following manner:
“When a new problem arose, I would think it over and if the answer was not immediately apparent, I would let it go for a while and it was as if it went the rounds of the brain cells looking for guidance that could be retrieved, for by the next morning, when I examined the problem again, more often than not the solution came up right away. That judgment seems to have come to me almost unconsciously, and my conviction is that during them time I was not consciously considering the problem, my subconscious had been turning it over and relating it to my memory.”
If you read further Roy Thompson advices people that to be successful one must think “one must think until it hurts.” John dewey also observes that:
“We do not think as long as things run almost smoothly for us. It is only when the routine is disrupted by the intrusion of a difficulty, obstacle or challenge that we are forced to stop drifting and to think what we are going to do”
As human beings we love staying in “our comfort zones.” As long as things are okay, we do not bother to stretch a bit to think about what we would do if the unexpected happens. Its time that we came out of this problem, and be prepared to face whatever happens be it good or bad. This is one of the important components of giving your best remember Prevention is better than cure. Knowing our weaknesses and strengths is part of this exercise. By knowing our weaknesses, we will know who to consult to assist us to deal with them and knowing our strengths amounts to knowing our purpose.
The next important thing is decision making. By this time you have collected enough information about your life and you have generated feasible options. You need to open your mind into wide focus to consider all possibilities and this involves generating ideas. Assess the risk of your decision and the consequence and then implement and evaluate. As you make the decision, remember to look at every little thing that you own as an asset, something of value that can be used to improve your life.
Do not despise or disregard however small it is because one day it might turn out to be of benefit to you. Use the little that you have to create more. Do you remember the song “Count your blessings name them one by one, count you blessings see what God has done” those little or small things that you own could be your blessings and the moment you will discover that, you will be amazed at how God can create great wonders out of small things. There is this story I came across about some Junior high school students in America who were studying the Seven Wonders of the World . At the end of the lesson they were asked to list what they considered as the Seven Wonders of the World and most of the gave the following;
The Taj Mahal in The The grand canyon in The empire state building. St peters Basilica. While gathering the list, the teacher noted that one student, a quiet girl, hadn’t turned in her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The quite girl replied, “yes, a little. I couldn’t quite make up my mind because there were so many.” Teacher told her “well, tell us what you have, and may be we can help.” She hesitated, then read, “I think the seven wonders of the world are:
1.) To touch…
2.) To taste…
3.) To see…
4.) To hear…
5.) To laugh…
6.) To feel…and
7.) To Love.
The room was quiet; you could have heard a pin drop. What’s the moral of the story? Sometimes in our lives we tend to overlook simple and ordinary things that are around us and look at some of the great things that other people have achieved. The story serves as a gentle reminder to all of us that the things that we overlook as simple and ordinary are often the most wonderful and we don’t have to go far to witness them. They are within us!
We are the legs, we are the hands, and we are the minds that God intends to use in order to reveal his strength and to show how wonderful and marvelous he is. This does not mean that in giving our best we will not make mistakes but in the contrary, we are born with weaknesses which sometimes tend to be a stumbling block to the achievement of our dreams. But lets take time and look at some of the leaders in the bible, am talking about Moses the stammerer, Jacob the liar, David the murderer, and the list goes on and on all this people God was able to use them and they left a big impact in peoples life. Do you Remember Saul, whose name was changed to Paul in the New Testament?
