Lifes Victories Carnival

So here we go for round two of the Lifes Victories Carnival. Victory is attainable as we set a vision for ourselves. Every time I have won in a game or anything in life I’ve always been focused on the goal or vision I’ve set. In a team situation the whole team needs to be on board with the vision you’ve set. Knowledge is absolutely necessary to get the victory. Some of the posts you are about to read have knowledge in them that will help you achieve victory. Other posts are stories of people winning in different categories of life.

Harold presents Cash for Clunkers – An Uncertain Future posted at The Car Enthusiast.

Michael presents Protect Yourself from Useless Auto Warranties posted at Car Information. Tips To Buy, Maintain, And Insure A Car..

Finances

Ashley presents Easy Ways to Save Money at the Gas Station posted at Saving Money Today. 

Ashley presents Money Saving & Goal Setting posted at Saving Money Today.

Debt Wizard presents Savings and Timeframes posted at Money Tips. Help With Money.

Joshua presents Teaching Your Kids About Money posted at Family and Parenting: Information For Families.

Jenny presents Stop The Credit Card Madness posted at Stop Spending Money.

Neal Schaffer presents LinkedIn Profile Tips: The 10 Mistakes You Want to Avoid and Why posted at Windmill Networking.  

Jeremy presents Things to Do After a Car Accident posted at The Car Spot. Jeremy presents How to Lower Your Car Insurance Payments posted at The Car Spot.

nissim ziv presents How to Reach your Career Goals and Objectives posted at Job Interview Guide.

doug boude presents Buying a New Home is Easy! Part 2 of 2 posted at Doug Boude (rhymes with ‘loud’).

Health- Eating and living in a healthy manner is so important to being victorious.

Cory presents Diet Vs. Exercise posted at Eat Healthy, Live Healthy.

Dr. Wilson presents How Chiropractic Can Help With Fibromyalgia posted at Tree of Life Chiropractic.

jonojonothan presents Scrawny? posted at Sambasixtytwo’s Blog.

Relationships and Self Improvement

This next post is interesting because it’s talking about your biggist critic yourself.

Karl Raats presents 5 ways of dealing with your inner critic posted at Pinching the Ostrich.

Ben presents How to be Assertive and Increase Your Confidence posted at Self Help Gold.

Victoria presents It’s Time To Call His Bluff | Tips To Get Married And Find Love. Dating Help For Women. posted at Time To Get Married.

Wise_Bread presents The Best Book I’ve Ever Read About Making Changes Stick posted at Wisebread.

Sarah Clark presents The Mother Load: Cleaner living through mom’s cooking posted at The Mother Load.
 
michael fehlauer presents When You?ve Lost Your Swing posted at Mike N Bonnie.

self_help_devotee presents Read This Today And Change Your Life Tomorrow posted at Things That Teach Us.

Ruda Krishna presents Live and Let Live posted at The Pathless Mind.

Health

I included this article on Tourette’s syndrome because the author could help someone who has just been diagnosed with the syndrome.  Anyone who has a disease like this could use the help in understanding what they are in for.

Janette Hanagarne presents New Series: How To Have Tourette’s posted at World’s Strongest Librarian.

Victory is Overcoming

I stepped onto the ice and started to skate towards where the puck was going to be dropped as I got into position I realized I was in way over my head. I had skated a little bit as a young child, but this was the first time I had skated in perhaps 20 years. As the puck dropped I pivoted on my borrowed skates (which were to large) and slowly skated down the ice after the puck. My ankles were turned in, as I moved along the ice at a snails pace. People were whizzing by me at what seemed like 90 miles per hour. I don’t think I ever touched the puck that night and I’m sure to the casual observer I was a laughing stock that brought plenty of humor to the hockey game. The night however was not in vain. It was the beginning of an over all resolve to overcome and be victorious at playing the game of hockey.

Victory for me began with learning how to skate with speed and  control. In order to do this I needed to purchase a pair of skates that fit my feet like shoes. So I went to the local sporting good store and found skates and hockey equipment that fit me perfectly. Each day after work I would head to the local out door skating rink and practice skating and stick handling. I would race back and forth across the ice practicing starts and stops. Then I’d practice crossing over as I practiced turning. I would stick handle and practice shooting and get a friend of mine to help me with passing.

Thankfully the guy who I had filled in for that first night I played hockey, decided that he no longer wanted to play in the league. I took his spot, and never looked back.  Through out the year I gradually got better and better even to the point that I started scoring goals. The guys that played with me were amazed at how hard I had worked to improve and voted me the  most improved player in the league.

Victory is overcoming by having a mindset of a champion. One who works at whatever job he is doing until he is the best he can be.  A true winner  recognizes that there is always room for improvement. Michael Jordan exemplified this truth in his work ethic. As great as he was throughout his career he was never satisfied with resting on his past victories. He continued to work hard at improving his basketball skills until he retired from playing the game. I’m sure that in his post basketball career he is relentlessly working at improving at his new career position.

Stay vigilant and constant at improving at whatever you choose to do. Look at the big picture of what you want to accomplish, but attain that goal by setting smaller short term goals. You will achieve whatever you set out to do if you stay persistent in acting upon your positive confession.  Take the necessary physical action to reach your short term goals, but always with a view to the ultimate long term goal you set. VICTORY IS OVERCOMING!!

The Benefits of the Worst Days of My Life

The Beginning

The day began like any other day but concluded like no other. I remember punching the time clock and leaving my job. It was a crystal clear day as I opened the door and spotted our silver and blue GMC Safari conversion van. As I walked up to the door to greet my wonderful wife, she blurted out the worst words I have ever heard. “Your father collapsed at work today and is in the hospital in a coma.”  I wanted to believe he was going to be ok, I prayed and did every thing I knew to do in order to help facillate this.  My heart and believing were to no avail.

My dad was a great guy though I can’t say that I always agreed with him on certain topics.  He stood tall for me, and I still miss him. He had a dry sense of humor similar to mine. When he was nervous he would oftentimes get out his comb and comb his hair in a certain way to help relieve the stress of a situation he was confronting. All in all he was a gentle and kind man that the whole community loved.  The fact that the line of well wishers to get into the funeral parlor stretched out the door and down the street  is witness to the fact that he was a well respected man in his hometown.

So when my wife arrived at my job that August day, the beginning of the worst days of my life began. After finding out, I immediately booked a flight up to New York to visit my now in a coma state father. I have a few  visuals of my father that I still see in my head . One of them is from this trip which I tend to want to forget. Suffice it to say that going to the hospital is never a good scene when your loved one is in a coma. Another visual I have of him is him combing his hair while trying to confront me on something I still firmly believe in. The third picture  of him is one from a fishing trip where we had a great time just he and I sharing with one another and enjoying some father son time.

The Second Worst Day

After the visit in the hospital, I had to return home to wait and see exactly what was going to happen with him.  Eventually doctors determined that he was brain dead and would never recover. My heart sank that day as we got the horrible news from the neurosurgeon.  I especially hurt for my mom who had a terrible decision  to make. So my dad passed away in September the month of his birthday. He was sixty nine years old and it was time for me to return to New York to attend his funeral.  Now that I’ve totally brought myself to tears again while writing this, it’s time for me to move to the benefits of the worst days of my life.

Sharing the Benefits

You ask how in the world could there be any benefits from someone so close to you dying? So here we go!! I firmly believe that the Word of God has all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Many people question what happens in death, but I don’t! I developed a standard that I want to go by and I’ve utilized it to gain a knowledge of what actually happens when a person dies, or as the bible calls it fall asleep. Though those were the worst days of my life I had comfort because I know I’ll  see my father again at the return of Jesus Christ because he believed Romans 10:9&10.  I was able to share this with my mom and those attending the funeral and bring them comfort. Now I know that not everyone is a Christian and that’s ok. You can always become one. I also realize that not everyone is going to agree with me. Even Christians at times will dispute what I’m about to write and the atheists probably quit reading when the word God was first mentioned.

Here’s the Skinny on the Benefits when a Loved one Dies

The truth is when a loved one dies, they go to the grave to await the return of Jesus Christ. There is no consciousness in the grave, the book of Ecclesiastes makes that clear as a cloudless day.

Ecclesiastes 9:⁵For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. ⁶Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
¹⁰Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

So there you go, the dead know not anything, this means that they can’t be looking down on you which should be a benefit, if their looking down on you when you’re victorious in sports they are also looking down on you when you do something wrong or when you’re making love. Would you want dead grandma looking down on you while you are making love? This also shuts down the psychic theory that your dead Grandma  could come and visit you. If there is no consciousness in death and they (the dead) know not anything how could they find their way to visit you?  Remember there is a counterfeit spirit realm out there that wants to snowball you into believing lies. In truth a psychic can only know something about you that has been brought to them by the counterfeit spirit realm. Which is why it can seem so genuine because they can know things about you that no one else knows.

Most Christians believe that when you die you go straight to heaven to be with God,  but this can’t be true. If there is no consciousness in the grave how would they know that they were with him.  There are some verses that make the implication that there is immediate life after death but the truth is those verses must fit in with what the Word says in Ecclesiastes. If you are immediately in heaven upon expiring then why would God bother to have the return of  Jesus Christ to get your body from the grave?

 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 
¹³But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.  ¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. ¹⁵For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: ¹⁷Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. ¹⁸Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

The truth the benefit  and comfort that you can have when someone dies is the knowledge that you will see them again at the return of Jesus Christ. It’s like my dad went on a long vacation but the benefit is I know that I will see him again at the return of Jesus Christ. Right now he is in the grave in a state of unconsciousness, but his next waking moment is the return of Jesus Christ. For him the moment of his death is the return of Jesus Christ, Because there is no consciousness in the grave. It’s like going to sleep at night your next waking moment is the morning. Folks because of this knowledge I no longer fear death. I hurt terribly when someone dies but I know  that I will see them again. 

Conclusion

 

Though these were the worst days of my life I was able to share some of this information  with  people attending the funeral and bring comfort to their hearts. Let’s face it the  death is a sting, but thanks be to God which gives us the victory through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I’m believing that the truth here brings comfort to your heart.  The knowledge that you will see your loved one again is worth its weight in gold. If  it this brings you comfort to you, then you to will benefit as I benefited from the worst days of my life.