There is a gymnast from Great Britain who, in her training for the 2008 Olympic Games, was trying to complete a particularly difficult move on the uneven bars. Her coach explained it to her, and she attempted to follow his instructions. She tried over and over, but she was unable to master the move.
Her coach wisely called a halt to practice and suggested that she step back and practice the move in her mind. She spent 30 minutes just looking at the uneven bars, again and again imagining herself completing each step perfectly. When the coach finally called for her to try once again, she stepped up confidently to the uneven bars and succeeded on her first attempt.
One explanation is that scientists have discovered that muscle memory can be created not only by performing a physical act, but also by visualizing yourself doing it. The same is true in the spiritual realm. If there is an area of life where you are strugglingâyour marriage, your health, your finances - wherever you may be having difficulty, we encourage you to see yourself succeeding. Once you begin to look at life through your eyes of faith, your actual physical existence will come in line with what you see.
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Joel Osteen: You have a lot to be thankful for
Are you enjoying life? If not, maybe it's because you are taking for granted what you already have. You may think, "Well, I can't enjoy my life. I've got too many problems." Let me encourage you not to focus on what you don't have, and begin focusing on the good things in your life. Take just a moment today and thank God for your health and strength. If you suddenly lost your health and felt miserable, you would be overjoyed to be in the same position you are today. Thank God for you job, it may be difficult at times but it's one source of God's provision for your needs.
Thank God for the blessings you have right now. Nothing will hinder your relationship with the Lord and stop you from going further to the next level than having an ungrateful, unthankful attitude. Make a decision that you're going to start being happy right where you are. The Apostle Paul was content. This mighty man of God had discovered the secret of true happiness â enjoy life regardless of your circumstances.
If you don't get happy where you are, you will never get to where you want to be. Learn to enjoy every stage of life's journey. Have a grateful attitude and be content no matter where you are. If you do, God will take you to victory and you'll live the abundant, joy-filled life He has in store for you.
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Joel Osteen: Bringing Out the Best in People
I want to talk to you today about bringing out the best in people. I believe that God puts people in our lives on purpose, so that we can help them succeed and help them become all God's created them to be. Most people will not reach their full potential without somebody else believing in them. That means you and I have an assignment. Everywhere we go, we should be encouraging people, building them up, challenging them to reach for new heights. And when people are around us, they should leave better off than they were before. Not negative, discouraged, defeated. No, challenged and inspired. The scripture says here in 1 Corinthians 13:4 that "Love is kind". One translation says "Love looks for a way of being constructive". In other words, "Love looks for ways of improving somebody else's life".
I want to encourage you today to take time to make a difference. Don't just get up in the morning, thinking about yourself, and how you can make your life better. Think about how you can make somebody else's life better. Our attitude should be Who can I encourage today? Who can I build up? How can I improve somebody else's life? See, you have something to offer that nobody else can give. Somebody needs your encouragement. Somebody needs to know that you believe in them, that you're for them, that you think they've got what it takes. If you look back over your own life, most likely, you'll see someone that played a very pivotal role in helping you get to where you are today. Somebody had confidence in you. Maybe a parent, or a teacher, they made you believe you can do what you're doing. Maybe it was a boss who put you in a higher position, even though you didn't feel qualified. Or a school counselor, who said you've got what it takes, you can go to this college, you can be successful in this career. But most of the time, they saw something in you that you may not have even seen in yourself. And they helped you get to that next level. Well I'm asking you to do the same thing for somebody else. Who are you believing in? Who are you cheering on? Who are you helping to become successful? Friends, there's no greater investment in life than in being a people builder. Relationships, are more important than our accomplishments. And I believe that God's going to hold us responsible for the people that He's put in our lives. He's counting on us to bring out the best in our spouse. The best in our children. The best in our friends and our coworkers. We need to ask ourselves Am I improving somebody's life? Giving them confidence? Or am I just coasting along, doing my own thing?
I remember when I was in middle school, I was on the basketball team, and one of our first games was coming up later that week. And I was one of the smaller players. And we were playing this real good team, they had a bunch of big guys. It was very easy to be intimidated. I can't say that I had that much confidence. But I was walking through the hallways of school one day in between classes. And I'll never forget my basketball coach called me over to where he was in front of all of my other friends. He was a big, strong, tough coach. Kind of a gruff guy. And he said, "Joel, you're not that tall. But let me tell ya, size doesn't matter. What counts is right down in here". He pointed his finger and he said, "Joel, you've got a big heart, and you're going to do great this year". Man, when I heard that, I stood up tall, put my shoulders back, you would've thought I was Michael Jordan. I thought to myself This coach believes in me, and my confidence shot up to a whole new level. And do you know I did better that year than I'd ever done before. It's amazing what we can accomplish when we know somebody really believes in us. That coach, he didn't have to do that. He could've stood over there, all by himself. But no, he took time to make a difference. He took time to instill that confidence in me.
If we're going to bring out the best in people, we've gotta learn to sow these seeds of encouragement. Well, you say "Joel, nobody's doing it for me, why should I?" No, if you want your life to increase, if you want your life to get better, then you need to sow a seed by helping improve somebody else's life. If you will help somebody else become successful, God will make sure that you are always successful. That's one thing I've loved about Victoria. She's always believed in me. She's my biggest supporter, my biggest fan. Victoria thinks that I'm the greatest person on the face of this earth. And I know that's not true, but I like the fact that at least she thinks so. But listen, don't you dare tell her anything other wise. :) But Victoria thinks that I can do anything. She's always bringing out the best in me. I remember one time, we were going to build a house. We had sold our other house and bought this property, and it came time to build. And so I picked up the phone to call our builder friend to get everything lined up. She said, "Joel, what are you doing that for? We don't need a builder, you can build the house." I said, "Victoria, I don't know how to build a house. I don't know anything about construction." She said, "Sure you do Joel. You were at our other house, practically everyday. When they were building it. You saw how they did it. You can get those sub-contractors lined up as good as anybody else." Sure enough, she talked me into it. I ended up building our house. It turned out pretty good. I forgot the plumbing. But other than that, it's okay.
