Spirit of Success

The shopping, the decorating, the lights, the music, the food – all can be fantastic, or frustrating – depending on your understanding of the truth of Christmas. The wonderful, wise commentator, Paul Harvey, once told the following story:

“One raw winter night a man heard an irregular thumping sound against the kitchen storm door. He went to a window and watched as tiny, shivering sparrows, attracted to the evident warmth inside, beat in vain against the glass.

Touched, the farmer bundled up and trudged through fresh snow to open the barn for the struggling birds. He turned on the lights, tossed some hay in a corner, and sprinkled a trail of saltine crackers to direct them to the barn. But the sparrows, which had scattered in all directions when he emerged from the house, still hid in the darkness, afraid of him.

He tried various tactics: circling behind the birds to drive them toward the barn, tossing cracker crumbs in the air toward them, retreating to his house to see if they’d flutter into the barn on their own. Nothing worked. He, a huge alien creature, had terrified them; the birds could not understand that he actually desired to help.

He withdrew to his house and watched the doomed sparrows through a window. As he stared, a thought hit him like lightning from a clear blue sky: If only I could become a bird – one of them – just for a moment. Then I wouldn’t frighten them so. I could show them the way to warmth and safety. At the same moment, another thought dawned on him. He had grasped the whole principle of the Incarnation.

A man’s becoming a bird is nothing compared to God’s becoming a man. The concept of a sovereign being as big as the universe He created, confining Himself to a human body was – and is – too much for some people to believe.”

Are you frustrated by Christmas? Are you spending yet another year of ignoring the truth of Christmas? John wrote, “The Word (Christ) became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” (John 1:14). The same God Who created heaven and earth is the same God Who loves you so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to provide the one and only way for you to enter heaven. No other way – only a perfect substitute for your (and my) imperfect life. The perfect Gift is waiting for you once again, this year at Christmas. Let this be the year you say yes to Jesus and accept the Truth of Christmas.

“A baby’s hands in Bethlehem
Were small and softly curled.
But held within their dimpled grasp
The hope of all the world.”

-Leslie Savage, quoted in Charles R. Swindoll, Growing Deep in the Christian Life

Merry Christmas!

I hope the article on Direct Sales Priorities that Produce was helpful as you begin planning your fall calendar. Without priorities, we are just wandering aimlessly – being very busy, but not knowing what we are being busy about or why.

Family and business priorities are important to establish, honor and protect. Your personal priorities are as important, though most women tend to downplay their personal priorities – especially to focus on their children. Still, our personal health and well-being need to be attended to on some priority basis if we are to be of help to others. You can’t run a car when the gas tank is on empty, and too often we women try to do just that in our personal lives. We must put ourselves on the schedule somewhere, and it can’t always be last.

While it does take some juggling and balancing to establish all the priorities in your life – family, job, business, self – there is one priority that will never change – God. He is your #1 priority.

Now, maybe you haven’t always thought about God that way. Maybe for you He is just for Sunday mornings, or for weddings, or for funerals. Maybe God hasn’t been on your schedule in a long time – maybe since your childhood, or maybe not really ever. Well, you’ve been on God’s schedule, even if He hasn’t been on yours. You’ve been on His schedule and on His heart and on His mind – every moment of every day that you have been alive, and even before. Awake or asleep, He is thinking of you, and acting on your behalf, because God never sleeps or slumbers. It doesn’t even matter if you believe in Him. He believes in you. He loves you more than anyone ever can, because He’s God. He thought of you. He made you. He breathed life in you. He planned your parents, your family, your life.

Then, He did the most amazing thing – after He gave you all that, He gave you free will. He gave you the ability and the freedom to make choices with your life. And you’ve been making choices with your life, all your life. So, how’s that working out for you so far?

Oh, don’t worry, God isn’t surprised by the choices you’ve made – some good, but some pretty bad. God planned for that, too – remember He loves you. He knew you would make mistakes – some accidently, some purposefully. All are called sin. God knew that because of your mistakes – your sins – you would need help, big-time help. You see, no sinner can enter God’s perfect heaven when they die. And by the way, you will die one day and then you will go to live for eternity – but you get to choose where – Heaven or hell. Again another choice you get to make. But this choice has eternal consequences so you’ll want to choose wisely.

Remember that “big-time help” I mentioned? It is Jesus, God’s Son. The only way you, a sinner, can get into God’s perfect Heaven is with Jesus Christ as your Savior. God sent His only Son Jesus to this earth as a baby, who grew to become a man – the only perfect, sinless person ever on earth. Jesus showed and taught that the only way to Heaven was to believe that He is God’s Son. Many people put their faith in Jesus and believed – but many did not believe. They got angry, trumped up false charges, and crucified Jesus on a cross. Here’s the “big-time help” part – three days after Jesus died, and was buried, He arose! Jesus arose from the grave, fully alive with the scars from His crucifixion to prove it. Hundreds saw Him, spoke with Him, learned from Him.

Then the time came for Jesus to go back to Heaven, to rejoin God, where He is to this day. You see, Jesus was never guilty of any sin nor mistake. He didn’t deserve death on the cross. Jesus went willingly to die on the cross because that was God’s plan – the only way to pay for your sins was by Jesus’ blood. He paid the price. He took your punishment. And if you believe that Jesus did this for you and if you accept Him as your personal Savior, that choice will see your eternity in Heaven one day. And when you realize that God loves you so much that He sent His son to die for you to pay for your sins, then you will make God your #1 priority.

How do I know this? Because I’ve made choices in my life, too. The most important one was when I accepted Jesus as my Savior. If you have made that choice in your life, praise God! If not, it’s decision time.

“For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved… For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:9-10, 13

Check out the recent interview I did on Channel Mom on how direct sales and moms do mix!