I like to read. I read new things everyday. It is a good habit to develop and is also a great source of knowledge and inspiration. You can always learn something new everyday if you have a reading habit. While you are learning, internally you are growing. As long as you continue to grow on the inside, you will also be able to grow on the outside. It is just the way that God designed man to work.

Life can indeed be wonderful and replete with joy and enthusiasm when you have a positive and reasonable attitude toward yourself and what it is that you do for work.

Life truly is a matter of individual perspective. Your personal values and beliefs will always be born out in the manner and way that you conduct your life. You will live the way you think because thoughts precede all human actions and efforts.

God has given man specific guidelines as to how He desires a person to live their life, what roles people are to perform, and what the purpose is for living the way He instructs us to live. He wrote all these type things down within the pages of the Holy Bible. God gave us His Word. God gave us the ability to communicate, orally and in writing. You have all that you need to start discovering the answers to all of the questions that will come up as you live your life. But God will not read the instructions to you. He expects you to provide some of your own personal assistance which will enable you to better prepare yourself for the life ahead.

This is not an unreasonable expectation. You see, God’s Love for you is definitely unconditional. He loves you no matter who you are, what you have or have not done, how you have lived in the past and how you are living in the present, and the manner and way in which you live today. He loves every one of His creations unconditionally.

He created you,…therefore He loves you. His love is eternal, it will never die or end.

His Promises to you, however, are totally conditional. In order for you or anyone else to receive the blessings and benefits of God’s Promises, you must first meet and satisfy all of the conditions of the Promise. Now, this seems to be a real rub for many people, particularly the ones who expect something-for-nothing. They usually scream “unfair,” “not right,” or “discriminatory” whenever there is work involved or change required in order to qualify for a gift, blessing, or reward. God Almighty listens to none of it. His rules apply equally to everybody…no exceptions!

So you see, what you do with the gift of life that God gave you is really your personal “thank you” back to God for His gift of life to you. What you choose to and work for to become definitely speaks volumes about how much you value His gift of life.

God is a Servant Leader. A Servant’s Heart is the real secret to all lasting success. You were not born with such a heart. You have to develop one. That, of course, is your personal responsibility.

A great piece of this sort of solid personal life philosophy comes to us today from out of the historic past…..from the 1950s. An old one-time major league baseball star, Bobby Doerr, highly successful and highly decorated in his profession, said some very significant things about success and living a successful life over sixty years ago. Mr. Doerr played for the Boston Red Sox and was also a member of nine All-Star teams and a participant in the World Series. Please permit me to share his words with you so that you may use his words as a guide to make any necessary adjustments to your own life and how you are living it:

“It seems to me that what any man’s beliefs are depends upon how he spends his life. I have spent a good part of mine as a professional baseball player and the game that I play for a living is naturally a very important thing to me. I’ve learned a lot of things on the baseball diamond about living–things that have made me happier and, I hope a better person. I have found that when I make a good play and take my pitcher off the hook, it’s just natural for me to feel better than if I made a flashy play that doesn’t do anything except make me look good for the grandstands. It works the same way off the ball field, too.

Doing a good turn for a neighbor, a friend, or even a stranger gives me much more satisfaction than doing something that helps only myself. It’s as if all people were my teammates in this world and things that make me closer to them are good, and things that make me draw away from them are bad.

Another belief very important to me is that I am only as good as my actual performance proves that I am. If I cannot deliver, then my name and reputation don’t mean a thing. I thought of this when in the spring of 1951 I told my team that I would not play in 1952. I reached the decision because I realized that I wouldn’t be able to give my best performance to the people who would pay my salary by coming through the turnstiles. I don’t see how anyone can feel right about success or fame that is unearned. For me, most of the satisfaction in any praise I receive comes from the feeling that it is the reward for my real effort I have made.

Many baseball players talk a lot about luck and figure that it is responsible for their successes and failures, on and off the field. Some of them even carry around a rabbit’s foot and other good-luck charms or they have little rituals that they go through to make sure of things going the way they want them to. I’ve never been able to go along with people who believe that way. I’ve got a feeling that there’s something much deeper and more important behind the things that happen to me and whether they turn out good or bad. It seems to me that many of the things which some people credit to luck are the results of Divine Assistance. I can’t imagine an all-wise, all-powerful God that isn’t interested in the things I do in my life. Believing this makes me always want to act in such a way as to deserve the things that the Lord will do for me.

Maybe that’s the most important thing of all. Doing good in order to deserve good. A lot of wonderful things have happened to me in my lifetime. I’ve had a long, rewarding career in organized baseball. The fans have been swell to me and I have always liked my teammates. But what really matters is that I’ve got just about the best folks that anyone could ask for. Doing what I can to make things more pleasant for my father and mother and for my wife and our son has been one of the things I have enjoyed most because it seems to be a way for me to pay back something of what I owe them for all the encouragement and pleasure they’ve given me.

I guess the best way to sum it all up is that I am happy to be around and I’d like to be able to make other people glad of it, too.”

The best use of your life,…is to so live your life,…that the use of your life,…will out-live your life.

What will they write about you on your tombstone?

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