Do you remember the “secrets” you were told about as a youth? Do you remember the admonition you received by the person telling you this “secret”? Did the scenario go something like this….“now don’t you dare tell anybody what I have just told you!”

Now think about this for just a moment. The person who “told” you this new “secret” in all probability was told the very same “secret” by someone else who had been given the “secret”…together with its attached admonition to not tell anyone else about the “secret.” Well, I guess my brain may work a little different than most others, but my logic tells me that if a “secret” is really a bona fide “secret,” it is to be kept quiet as a “secret” and not shared.

Anyone violating this specific characteristic of a bona fide “secret” must not be very trustworthy to begin with,…so why would you or I or anyone else want to listen to anything that they (those type of people) were trying to tell us? Here is a Truth of Life: Secrets are to be kept just that… secrets. If they are not kept secret, i.e. you tell someone else about them,…then they really are no longer Secrets!

Never forget,…in the end, after all is said and done,…after all of the matters and events have been played out,…the Truth will always be revealed. In the long term, the “Secret” will always come to the forefront and become common knowledge to everyone. Put into plain and simple talk…all secrets, at best,…are short-lived.

Are you beginning to see and understand the significance and importance of using proper words in their correct context? Proper English is the most vital part of proper personal communications. I will tell you the truth,…it is going to take good, proper, and effective communication in order for you to achieve your desired success! Why?…Because you are going to have to work with other people in order to achieve it.

The most difficult secret for a man to keep is the opinion he has of himself.

God gives us very good advice regarding this dilemma within the pages of Holy Scripture. It is all discussed in the Book of Romans, Chapter 12, verses 3–8 NKJV:

(3) “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who
is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he
ought to think, but think soberly, as God has dealt to each
one a measure of faith.

(4) For as we have many members in one body, but all the
members do not have the same function,

(5) so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually
members of one another.

(6) Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is
given to us, lets us use them: if prophecy, let us prophecy in
proportion to our faith;

(7) for ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches,
in teaching;

(8) he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives with liberality;
he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with
cheerfulness.”

Let’s just be bald-faced honest with one another. Most of us come by the lofty and almost arrogant opinion we have of ourselves by means of comparison. In our all-too-quick judgment of other people, we eagerly reach the conclusion that….“I am not like that person over there”…or “I am much superior to those people right over there.”

The fact is that pride does not exist nor can it exist in a vacuum. Consequently, in the process of raising ourselves up on top of a pedestal, we inevitably put other people down or literally leave them in the dust.  U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln, had it so right when he revealed a truth of life regarding himself and other people. He said, “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.” I will tell you that a person cannot live the way that President Lincoln advised to live if he has a misguided or over-inflated personal view or himself. Humility will always keep a person relatable to other people.

Permit me to share with you what an anonymous poet once shared with the masses of society that strikes right at the heart of the matter of our discussion. Remember, God is no respecter of persons…He made no one man or woman any better, wiser, or greater than He made all of the others of our specie….“all men are created equal”:

I dreamed death came the other night;
And heaven’s gates swung wide.

With kindly grace an angel
Ushered me inside.

And there to my astonishment,
Stood folks I’d known on earth.

Some I’d judged and labeled
Unfit or of little worth.

Indignant words rose to my lips,
But never were set free;

For every face showed stunned surprise…
No one expected me!

If you truly do desire to become highly successful in life, never compare yourself to or against other people. Measure yourself only against your own potential. Compare yourself only against that which you are doing with the use of your life to or against that which you know you are capable of doing with it. You can always reach farther and dream bigger than you are currently reaching or dreaming.

Remember, other people are always watching what you are doing by how you act and how you live. Your example is always doing most of your speaking for you.

Peace and Love to All of You……………Poppa Bear