Your attitude, excellent or arrogant?

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle

Today, I want to focus on 'attitude', yours and mine and so I decided to begin this article by quoting Aristotle. I quite agree with this quote and I look at my own personal life, in particular, my habits or let me just say my character generally. I am convinced just like Aristotle that excellence indeed can be a habit or a way of life, and not just an act.

According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, attitude is defined as "a settled opinion, or a way of thinking; a behaviour reflecting this way of thinking". It is also defined as; "truculence; a lack of cooperation; arrogance; style, swagger".

Now then, let us zero in on the dictionary definition and the quote by Aristotle. Where are you at with your attitude? Excellent or arrogant? Take a sober examination of your attitude. Which one of these two manifests prominently and how does it affect your relationship with your family and friends, your school or work mates etc.

I have come to learn that any kind of attitude begins with the real you inside of you. You are the architect of either a positive or negative attitude. I have had to learn the hard way especially as a young man growing up. I used to be very sarcastic and proud. It did not bother me at the time. I did not care if my sarcasm offended people or not, I enjoyed it, especially in the company of the opposite sex. I thought it was charming to be sarcastic. I used to overhear people who did not like my attitude talk about my bad behaviour. I did not care. I was too proud. They could keep their opinion for all I cared!

Hey, remember that I said you are the architect of your attitude? Yeah? Sometimes we all need a little 'nudge' to be pointed into the correct direction especially when we are bad. For me this happened when I said 'YES' to the Lord. I 'sobered' up. I realised that I had been a 'bad boy'. I took a very serious reflection of my life and in particular my attitude towards people and things around me. I felt ashamed to look back at my past life. Nothing much to write home about in this area. I then made a conscious decision to 'salvage' my relationships with my family, friends and colleagues. I just had to change my attitude. That is why I can now confidently say, "you are the architect of your arrogant or excellent attitude". You can take authority and choose to be the real good person that you are. I have experienced it and I am living proof that you too can come out of that bad attitude and cultivate one of excellence.

Now imagine these points among several others:

• ... joy and goodness every time you do good,
• ... if you are in business, your customers are always happy to do business with you because you have such a positive attitude. You are not just in business for the money but to see that you deliver goodness in your clients' lives. This is a real asset, bankable.
• ... you always appreciate and celebrate those around you and they appreciate your friendship;
• ... hey and you know what? A positive attitude always walks hand in hand with humility and integrity. People begin to see that you are a person of integrity when your attitude is excellent and humility inclined. True.
• ...out of humility you are always willing to submit yourself in service to others; always willing to give of yourself for the benefit of others, such a wonderful feeling I must add.

You know, I could go on and on but the bottom line is I want you to enjoy peace and joy by taking authority over your attitude if you have been struggling in this area. Turn your attitude into a bankable attribute. You have the power within you to do the right thing and the right thing is the right attitude. The power to determine the seasons you enter is within you. Let excellence be your habit not an act. Cultivate it, now!

I pray peace and prosperity in abundance to you.

Did YOU spring out of bed today, or you crawlled out of it...?

Did you spring out of bed this morning full of purpose, or you reluctantly crawlled out of it?

Did you get out of bed this morning ready to soar way up, full of purpose even when you know about the very critical challenges you face today which seem insurmountable? Or, you woke up this morning feeling downcast and not ready to take on the day ahead of you. Do you feel you have already lost the day's battle even before you begin to fight?

Listen up, if this last part of the paragraph above describes you, I want to say to you right now that YOU and YOU alone must fight your way out of this negative feeling. First and foremost YOU have to fight this by yourself from within YOU, before you enlist outside help. How.. you ask? Because within you is a fighter. A very strong willed person, YOU. Why? Because you have purpose and it is just waiting for you to tap into it and walk into abundance. Period.

Discover the purpose for getting out of bed everyday and you have already won your daily battle. It does not matter what seems like a challenge in your day's path. You are already a winner. Many times the challenges we face are not really as big as we make them out to be. Nothing is ever as difficult as it first appears. A lot of times it is our runaway imaginations that magnify anthills into mountains. In any case if you have a challenge which you are not ready to face and fight, how will it go away, especially today? If you cannot tackle today's challenge in today's time frame, be rest assured that it will not disappear today and the likelihood that it will be part of tomorrow's challenge(s) is high! Tomorrow is tomorrow, today is today. Two different days! So, what to do? Burn your yesterday's bridge and soldier on into your tomorrow which begins at the end of today.

As a believer now, in God's Kingdom, I confidently can say, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!" I remember not too long ago in my past, when faced with serious challenges, how I would be sulky, panicky, fearful, angry all the time, you name it. Every kind of negative barrier would be so vissible that in the midst of it all I would see no escape route. My vision would be nothing but foggy. Then one day I was set free. I decided enough was enough. I was not going to 'run' any more. I was going to face each day squarely one at a time. Guess the biggest discovery I made? I will tell you. The fact that God had willed it for me to be alive each day, meant that for the particular day that I was alive, well and kicking I had hope that I was going to overcome through Him. Such a wonderful feeling, I tell you. I do not know the future one minute from any given time. But He who has allowed me to be alive today, also knows where I shall be one minute from any given time. Now for me that is an encouragement beyond any reasonable doubt. The Lord is indeed my confidence. So even for you, take each day you are alive as a day that is live and awash with many opportunities. Some of the opportunities are solutions to the challenges you face today. You have opportunities for abundant health and wealth, peace and prosperity. For all you know these are the carats you will find in the challenges and in time you will be the sparkling gem you are meant to be.

Still feeling challenged? Discover your purpose today and everyday will be a motivation enough to look forward to. It is not too late, even for you. You have an exciting tomorrow ahead of you once you take care of today's lessons that have come in form of challenge. As for the past, there is no way you will ever go back in there. Forget it. It is gone, forever. Step into today confidently knowing that you can use the positive lessons from your past to help you discover your today and tomorrow. And don't forget, God has not left you. The fact that you are awake means He is standing by, waiting for your call. He assures that when you call to Him, He will be there, ready to answer and to deliver you from all manner of circumstances. Do you want to 'take it off your chest?' Just do it! Come one, cry if that's what you want to do. He has a broad shoulder you can lean on, you know. Remember that His grace is sufficient for YOU all the time. In your weakest moment, God will come riding high to you with all His strength. Just for YOU.

Did you miss this earlier? Once again hear me. Nothing is ever as difficult as it first appears. Say Yes to the Lord and He is ready to be your confidence. Listen to this. "The best place to be right now in this entire universe, is in God's will!" So discover your purpose and be in His presence.

Now that you have heard, do not be one track minded. Don't dwell on the tail. Flip the coin and see the other side, the head side. You are the head. Go be the head. For in every challenge you face today is an opportunity to secure your tomorrow. Now go out there and manifest who you really are. A success!
Peace and Prosperity to YOU, in abundance.

TheWordSmith.

P.S. Ever since I discovered that God's word is true and alive, my life is totally transformed and everyday I get motivated to spring out of bed, come rain or shine, focused and always at peace each day that I wake.

Is your Life PURPOSE driven? ...my testimony

Is your Life PURPOSE driven? ...my testimony.

In this post I begin by quoting the words of the Lord to Jeremiah in chapter 1:5.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you: Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations."

Decipher the code in this verse and you will be empowered and inspired to live purposefully! A lot of times I hear and "feel" these same words ringing true in my life. Today I have accepted that I too am God's messenger. My assignment is to the cyberworld. But hey, like most people, I fought off this thought for several years until quite recently, hence this site. The religious world would refer to me as an "Apostle to the Internet". But in God's superior Spiritual Faith Kingdom, I am just His servant, His messenger. I am merely a tool for His pleasure, to be used as He has pleasure. My part as a messenger/servant is to carry out His command as I hear His Voice. Period. Ohh.. and this gives me a lot of joy knowing that I am on His side and He is MY Mentor.

You see my dear friend, (is it ok for me to call you friend? You agree, good!),
"YOUR PURPOSE IS NOT YOUR DECISION, BUT MUST BE YOUR DISCOVERY, EVERYDAY". Decipher this code and you too will have joy that surpasses all understanding. You and I were created for a purpose and given a specific assignment to accomplish. You are not here by chance or some coincidence. I don't care what you have heard or what you have been told about you. It does not matter whether the world calls you 'illegitimate' or legitimate. As far as I am concerned you are in this world because God willed it and He has a big plan for your life! I will repeat this once again, God has a purpose and plan for your life. You are not here by accident. It has nothing to do with your parent's situation at the time of your conception. It does not matter whether you have not known your mother or father or both. Let us reason together here. No self pity or self debasement! Stop everything you are doing with your life right now (if you have not already done so), and make a conscious decision to discover your purpose and assignment. Are you struggling with the plans you have put in place? Nothing is working out for you, eehh? You have tried this and that, still no progress? Ofcourse you will
struggle. They are your plans. They have no authority as a basis for success! God's perfect laws have the final say in His universe. So wisen up. Stop! Halt! It is a setup!!! I pray you will receive your revelation and walk in it. God wants you to succeed and you can only succeed when you discover your purpose and assignment. Within your purpose are all the plans, the templates are already laid out for you to walk in and succeed, be it in business, in your marriage, in your career, your health, etc; just imagine, all these for you to walk into with boldness, confidence and divine ability to overcome barriers as He leads you by His mighty hand!

Let me share a personal experience and hasten to say that God does not begin to speak into your life after you make a pledge to follow Christ, No, no, no, but it all began when you were just a thought in God's mind, when the Lord decided to create you. Several years ago (perhaps seven or eight years now) I had just made contact with the internet which henceforth I will refer to as the cyberworld, (see my first post "Here I am finally ..."). I learned how to dial up and how to enter an internet address and behold the wonder of connectivity! I was so excited that every 'free' opportunity I had, I made sure I connected! Then one day I had this distinct thought. I saw myself using the internet to reach out to millions of people, pointing them to a purpose driven life in the Lord. Strangely enough at this time I had not even "given my life away to the Lord", I was miles away from Him, busy doing "my own thing" in the other world! It is only now that I am able to see that this was a setup by God on my life.

In 1996 after we both 'retired' early from our careers (my wife as an accountant in one of the banks in our country and me as a computer manager in another bank. We were set to enjoy life after forty, as the world says it. We set up a family consulting business in Accounting and Information Technology. This was a set-up too, but we were still blind at the time to see it that way). The very following year we had some nasty experience in our business life which negatively impacted upon us as a family so much so that we experienced tremendous hardships in our daily lives. It could only have been by His grace that we managed to pull through each day. Ironically it was through information that we got from the internet that we got "baptised" into trauma. We lost a lot of money which led to the grounding of the start-up.

This affected especially the children's school fees, our daily sustenance, you know, the usual stuff. (Thank God that today these are not our hurdles anymore, we have handed them over to Him who is able.) Ummmhh.. our God is able.

Anyway, 2 years later the nasty business trauma eventually drove my wife into totally surrendering her life to God. That's how 'bad' it was. As for me? No! I was macho. I had to show the world that I could turn around the business. I mean I was an 'expert'. I still had youth and vigour on my side. What and who could stop me? So I continued with life as usual, just like before and trying to "fix" things.

But my dear friend, it was not to be. Everything I tried just came to nothing, zero, ziltch! Eventually... yes you guessed it, the family business or 'cash cow' had to be taken down. At this time it was just taking in more grass than the milk we were getting out of it. The milk from this cow had even stopped converting to butter and cheese! When it went down, we could not even salvage any 'meat' out of her. Strangely though, the hide survived. Read on!

My wife by now had found a new rhythm (hey, we had not heard of iTunes and the iPhone was miles away to come!) and she kept listening and dancing to it. After a couple of months, I began to notice a change in my wife. She was no longer downcast like before, she now had so much peace and joy all over her. But me? You know what, I began to mock her and make fun of her "new found rhythm of peace and joy". Little did I know that this too was a set-up! Before long I too succumbed. What had happened? Where did I lose it? I must confess here and now it was because I saw a positive character change in her. The transformation was real. Too real to ignore. (this is something worth giving attention to for you married people who have spouses still struggling with making that decision! I pray one of these days the Lord will inspire YOU to testify too.) With hindsight now, I have come to realise God called me out ages ago and the same word to Jeremiah (which I have quoted in the opening part of this post) is true for me as it was for Jeremiah then.

Today my wife and I have a peace and joy that we truly cannot understand. We can only ascribe this to God's Love for our lives. We still have problems in our lives but the joy is in knowing that we have handed over our lives to Him. We have the assurance in these words in the book of Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future". With this assurance I am certain that all things that happened in my life prior to my 'giving up' have been a carefully calculated set-up of events engineered by God to get me into the palm of His plans. I am truly rested in Him.
Now, coming back to the subject of this post, I have identified the code in God's call to me and have deciphered it and it is good! I am inspired and truly empowered. Today I go about life each day knowing who I can put my trust and hope in. Because He knew me before I was formed in my mother's womb all I do now is to wait upon Him to unfold His plans for my life each day. And you know what? A few ghosts and skeletons from our "past lives" still try to haunt us, but hey! we are no longer shaken with fear and trauma because we know that the one we believe in is greater than the little kings of this world!
Friend, if he has performed another miracle today in my life, it is the miracle of being alive today. I cannot take it for granted that I will be alive tomorrow, which transforms into today. So my life today is truly a gift of life, a miracle which I must cherish today whilst it lasts today. I will say, thank you Lord for the life you have given me today and I will praise you and honour you today.
Hey remember the hide that remained over from our cash cow? Yeah.. the lord preserved this into real leather! From the time I succumbed and "killed" the family 'cash cow' which I talked about earlier, the Lord has been wonderful. We are no longer in full time consultancy, but hey listen to this. In 1997 just before I "fell" to the Lord's authority over my life, we had done some one off small jobs with some two to three clients. Wonder of all wonders! The lord has kept three of these going up to date. This is how the Lord has been working it out for us ten years on! Ten years since we closed shop! Every time we get to a crunch point with our daily sustenance, we get a call from one of these three companies especially for me to go and do some maintenance with the software we originally supplied. All of them still use the software we originally supplied. Ten years ago! We have been upgrading to latest versions as and when the need arises. Now two of these clients are small to medium and the third one is a large bank. In all cases the reference point is the work we did for either one of them just before we killed the family cow. What is interesting is that all things considered, we do not "qualify" to continue to get these jobs. We no longer have a "physical" presence in the business world. There are established firms that can easily do what we are doing. But friend, we don't deserve it but God's divine intervention continues to bring us this favour. We are no longer in "formal" business now as our efforts are now concentrated elsewhere.., in doing His bidding wherever he commands us for that day. Glory be to God!!!!!
I pray today that you too will 'succumb to Him' and discover for yourself the purpose for your life and your true assignment here on earth. I pray too that you will have a fulfilled life as you follow your purpose with passion, after discovering it. Go and truly accomplish. Go and manifest God's Love for your life.
In the upcoming posts (hey, I urge you to subscribe to the feeds so that you don't miss the coming posts) I will be talking about issues that are components of purpose and assignment and how they relate to various areas of our lives inter-alia, business, relationships, marriage, career, finances, health, parenting faith etc; etc; and etc.
This is it for now. Keep tuned. I praise the Lord for you, for having been allowed to visit this blog today and lending your ear. Come again soon. Do not delay.

May He richly bless you and yours and give you the ability to succeed henceforth.

TheWordSmith
3rd August 2007
Lusaka
Zambia

P.S. Have you said yes to Jesus Christ yet? I have.
Do so TODAY, if you haven't yet. He is the way, the truth and the life. Let's fellowship one with another today.

PP.S.
Recently the Lord permitted me to start an online business and interestingly I have ended up signing up with a company which was one of the few I took an interest in at that time, I mean soon after my discovery of the internet around 1996/97. At that time I saw great potential in this company but well I never did anything about it because it was not in my "line of business interest". So recently, almost 10 years on, I went back to check them out and discovered that the company is still alive and growing. They have no hype about them.

Their products are truly impressive and being an IT person myself, I see a lot of integrity in their line of products which including, site designing (you do this without knowing any coding), hosting and much more. They have one of the best online affiliate programs too! When I returned to the internet recently, I knew it was again the Lord's setup. I did not hesitate. I joined the affiliate program and bought the site builder product. the price is good too for the quality! Hey..lemme not push you after all seeing is believing right, yes? Yes! There is a lot here to benefit from, especially trust and integrity. Go check them out. You won't regret. I am still happy. The support is fantastic.
The main product is called Sitebuildit! Check it out here.

So, here I am, finally! Hello cyberworld...

Finally, the thought has landed in cyber...cyber what? Oh whatever this place is called. I have decided that for the purpose of this blog I will call this place cyberworld. I see you nodding, are you agreed? Good, Praise Good!
Now back to that thought. Sometime back I had this thought about starting a blog to share my Word experiences. Unfortunately, the thought got lost before it became word and from word to the written word.

So I prayed, Lord please help me to be like you and crystallise the thoughts like this: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made.... "
Believe me, I heard this still small voice say to me, "OK son go and testify to the goodness of my Word in your life and extend this to the cyberworld as well". (Now you see where I got this cyberworld name from!) Being the sheep that I am, I could not miss the shepherd's voice. I quickly shouted Hallelujah!!! Suddenly I realised all this was in a vision. So I said to myself, were all those just thoughts in my vision? But just as my thoughts were about to wander off, I had this re-assuring goodness that if I truly believed I was being guided by the great Teacher Himself, then I too could crystallise my thoughts into words. I was once again reminded as follows, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth".

So, eventually I gathered courage and confidence and declared that my thoughts were going to become flesh sorry I mean ink! I will let Him that has given me this ability to guide my thoughts with His Word so that I will dwell in cyberworld and that God's glory will be beheld even as my feet are firmly planted on planet earth in some part of my home, hunched over my computer. Ahhh..so the wonders of technology!!

So, this is how it all begun for me. In the coming days and weeks I will be sharing with you some of my experiences and teachings of the inspired word. You should share yours too. I must quickly add that even though I have been commissioned by my Shepherd to cyber kingdom to share His word, I will not be setting up church as usual here. No, that is not in my mandate. My assignment is to share my experiences as and when I am directed and it will be up to my great Teacher and Counsellor the Holy Spirit to convict (not just convince) you into submission to the Greater Kingdom way of life.

So, all you my cyber visitors, neighbours (mmm..talking about neighbours I wonder who my immediate neighbours are in cyberworld! Hellooo neighbours are you there? I am your new neighbour, next door! I pray I was heard or did not wake up anyone!) you are all welcome to this bloghome. Please leave your comments, they are safe with me but for security reasons (one cannot be too sure about who is coming to their door these days), I will ask my chief of security to scrutinise all comments!) However if you come "clean" you have nothing to fear I will manifest your comments in the appropriate area of this blog.

Do you have a thought about doing something? Fear not, go for it. Use your ability. Remember if you don't loose those thoughts from your mind into words and deeds you will not get far. Listen to this wise adage from Africa, "Little by little an egg will walk." Got it? Hallelujah, Praise God! Let me know when your thought egg takes the first step.

Ok, that is it for now. See you soon.
Peace and Prosperity to YOU.
The WordSmith.