When Life is Gray

When Life is Gray

~Rich Muller ~

Life is a funny thing. There are times when a person feels great about themselves; their self-esteem is at its all-time high, everything in the world looks and feels as beautiful as a cool, crisp fall day…nothing can be better. Then come the “down times” in life; the moments in life when an individual feel like they are beaten, battered and worthless. It seems as though nobody cares about what they say (or do), their self-confidence is gone and life just appears to be going nowhere.

It is during these rough times that two kinds of people are made; ones that dwell on the negative and are forever stuck in the quagmire of worthlessness and self-doubt or the folks that deal with bad situations by determining what they can learn from their situation and use it in a positive way to help themselves and to encourage others.

In today’s story, see how ONE PERSON saw a heartbreaking situation and decided to do something encouraging…and notice the effect it had not only on the individual that was dealing with the hardship but how it affected the other people around him. What started out as an individual act of kindness turned into an experience in which a group got involved and turned the depressing situation into a fantastic experience for everyone that was involved. Also, observe the affect it had on the person that was receiving the encouragement. It’s truly amazing when you watch the affect of what a group of people, all focused on one goal in a positive manner, can accomplish.

The power of positive thinking, encouraging others and the ability not to stay “bogged down”, not only allows a person to feel better about themselves, but demonstrate an act of compassion that can not only help themselves but enhance other peoples feeling of worth.

So, the next time you are “down and out” and life throws you a “curve ball” (or even if you are enjoying a “high” in life)…think to yourself…what am I doing with the gifts and abilities that I have been blessed to have? Am I going to wallow in self-pity or am I going to decide to try and make a difference in another person’s life and be an encouragement to the people and friends around you…like the one man started in the video? What can you do when your life is a gloomy and ominous?? Help and encourage other people. You will be surprised how quickly your view on your life will chance. So…what are you going to do?  The choice is yours.

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Have any inspiring and / or motivating stories? Please let me know:  richmullercoach@gmail.com

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Live. Laugh. Love.

Hidden Treasure

Hidden Treasure! Author Unknown

A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man so he took the bag out of the cave with him.

As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could. He thought little about it until he dropped one of the balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone.

Excited the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure.

He found thousands of dollars’ worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left. Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he just threw it away.

It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling so we discount it. We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person by God.

There is a treasure in each and every one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.

May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay.

May we see the people in our world as God sees them.

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Have any inspiring and / or motivating stories, please let me know:  richmullercoach@gmail.com

If you are getting this article via email and want to read more inspiring and interesting stories, go to my full Blog Page:  http://soup-heart.blogspot.com

Picture: Courtesy of activerain.com

 

Live. Laugh. Love.

My Best Friend....My Dad

My Best Friend….My Dad

~ Rich Muller ~

My dad's 92^nd birthday is today. I sit here and think “where has the time gone?” I think back of all the awesome times that I shared with my dad. My dad was a photographer (long before the digital age and the internet) and he would work a lot of weddings, take portraits, and snap pictures for organizations such as the local Little League or the Boy Scouts. We used to go on these road trips just about once a week, in which he would have to drive about an hour and half away to deliver pictures to a Boy Scout camp in North Jersey. He had this Ford Galaxy which he called his “sacred cow” that he loved and always took special care of. Under his driver’s seat, he had a cassette player, and he would play all this German music; the polka, beer hall, German bands, etc. He would blast the music all the time and I even got pretty good at “singing” the German lyrics. The rides home were always glorious. We would stop by the huge railroad station in Princeton to watch the trains come and go….man, how I loved watching those things whiz by! Then we would go to out to this diner and I would always get the same thing to eat….a cheeseburger, fries, and homemade lemon lime soda..hmmmm! I can still taste it to this day.

My father was an only child and he never, I mean, NEVER played sports or knew anything about athletics. He always was found reading a book and listening to symphonies but when my brother and I started playing Little League, he always came to our games, watched, and of course, took pictures. He used to take the pictures in such a way, that when he had the film developed, the pictures looked like baseball cards. We had our own baseball cards!!!!! Now THAT was AWESOME!! All the kids in our neighborhood used to congregate at our house and we would play baseball, literally, all day. It was such a spellbinding, magical moment when, for that one short time, my dad came out and tried to play. We thought that was the coolest thing ever….even if he wasn’t that good :)

My dad had his own little Photography Studio in a sleepy, seaside New Jersey town.  It was always a magical time when I walked into his shop, viewed all the pictures that he took, smelled the chemicals from the Dark Room, saw his set-ups that he would use for his photo shoots. In the autumn, every Saturday after the local high school would finish their football game, they would have a parade down Main Street if they won. It was a wonderful experience sitting there in front of his shop watching the players, cheerleaders and the band while drinking an ice cold soda.  On most Saturdays my brother and I would meet him at his shop and we would go across the street and eat awesome pizza or baked lasagna then play Pac-Man while we were waiting for the food to come out. It seemed like everywhere we went, everyone knew my dad and he knew them. It was really sort of cool. After church each Sunday, we would go to the bakery in town and get freshly made Jewish rye bread. Man, was that GOOD! The bread would still be warm from coming out of the oven. The crust would be nice and crispy and the bread itself, moist and chewy. Then we would go to his studio and watch cartoons and eat snacks while watching Bugs Bunny cartoons. On our way home, he would tell my brother and I to make sure that we ate a lot during the Sunday dinner so that my grandma and mom wouldn’t get mad.

Since we lived around the ocean, my dad would take us fishing around some boating piers and occasionally fish at the beach itself, surf casting. But most of the time, we fished by the piers trying to catch Snappers (or baby bluefish) around dinner time and stayed there until the sun went down. There was nothing better in life then to sit by those piers, drinking a Welsh’s grade soda, watching beautiful sunsets and watching the moon and stars begin their nightly dance. We would find sticks and try to hit the Jellyfish to watch them glow (that’s what they do when they get touched at night).

So, here I sit today, my dad’s 92^nd birthday, smiling to myself remembering the many special times that I shared with him. Today, his photography studio is gone, the bakery sold out years ago, the diner is no longer there, the Boy Scout camp was disbanded a long time ago and all of my neighborhood friends have all moved away. He lives by himself in a retirement home reading books and listening to symphonies just like he used to do. My love and admiration of my father will never go away and will forever be in my heart…..for my father will always be more than my dad….he will eternally be my best friend.

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Have any inspiring and / or motivating stories? Please let me know:  richmullercoach@gmail.com

If you are getting this article via email and want to read more inspiring and interesting stories, go to my full Blog Page:  http://soup-heart.blogspot.com

Live. Laugh. Love.