The Power of NotesWritten by Roger Carr
Notes are very powerful. They express your thanks, encouragement, sympathy, apology, congratulations, feelings, and requests to others.Many people create notes on a computer and print them or send them through Internet. However, I believe most effective notes are handwritten. A handwritten note is personal and rare. Due to this, it will be given more attention by reader and have maximum impact. A few weeks ago I was in Michigan for my dad's funeral. While there I attended my mom's church on Sunday and met her pastor for second time. While talking to him, I learned that his mother died a few months ago and his dad was critically ill. On my way home to Virginia, I had a stop at Chicago O'Hare Airport. While waiting for my connecting flight, I pulled out a box of note cards and wrote several notes and mailed them. One of those was an encouraging note to my mom's pastor. I found out later that he was so touched by note that he took it to his church and read it at a meeting. He made it clear to those in attendance how much of an encouragement it was to him. What I didn't know when I wrote note was that during following week not only did his dad pass away but his wife was diagnosed with cancer. I believe God used my note to help him during a very difficult time in his life. I also wonder how many others he talked to were changed because of that note. Maybe some of them are now writing notes as well. What if I hadn't written that note?
| | The Benefits of Learning How To ConcentrateWritten by Ruth Ritchie-Farmer
We all know that being able to concentrate on a given task is, in most cases, a necessary part of completing it. Without focus our mind wanders, and body soon follows – to kitchen for a drink or snack, to den to check on kids, outside for a breath of fresh air... list of distractions is endless, especially for people who work at home. Without ability to focus our minds, we just don't get anything done. And it's easy to see why!North American society has instilled ‘quick fix' mentality into us since we were children. Sound bites, video clips, and headlines all play their part in making sure our focus is dragged from one thing to next at breakneck speed. Is it really any wonder that so many children and adults suffer from things like Attention Deficit Disorders? Our minds have spent a lifetime being programmed to be attention deficient. (Note: I am fully aware that ADD and ADHD are serious illnesses and I am not trying to make light of that here. What I am trying to point out is that our society as it exists today gives these disorders an environment in which they can flourish.) From a purely practical standpoint then, first benefit of learning how to concentrate is that it allows us to complete tasks which we set out to do. By learning how to focus our mind on controlling our body we can keep our butt in chair long enough to get job done. Mental concentration is also a key component in our ability to create life we desire. It is beyond scope of this article to go into too much detail other than to say that "Thoughts are Things" and they have an energy all their own. What we focus on is what we attract into our lives, and we are continually making choices and acting based on mental images that form in our minds. If we don't (or don't know how to) concentrate on thoughts we allow into our mind, we run risk of creating things and circumstances we would really rather not have in our lives. Without concentration, our lives become little more than an existence which is ruled by subconscious.
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