Faith in action - Quotes from Unstoppable

It has been some time since I post a journal entry.  I had been reading Unstoppable by Nick Vujicic.  What he says is inspiring, and some parts make more sense to me now than if I had read it many years earlier.

Here are some quotes which I copied from the book.  On 23 September, the words seemed to leap out from the page because that line of thought was what occupied me for some time now.  What is my purpose and meaning in life?

“When I could not find the meaning and purpose in my life, I surrendered the need to do that, and God stepped in and He gave my life meaning when non one and nothing else could provide it….

… My victory comes in surrender.  It comes when every day when I acknowledge that I can’t do this on my own.  So I say to God “I give it to you” and when I yielded, God took my pain and turned it into something good, which brought me real joy.

..Faith in action means looking outside of yourself to the souls around you who need to know that there is hope.  It means trusting Christ to fulfil your needs and then getting up and helping to fulfil the needs of others.

There is nothing quite as soothing as accepting that you don’t have to work it all out because God will.  You can surrender yourself to this end and wait patiently.  Through Him, everything is possible.  If my life is spared, Christ has a purpose for it.”

 

I sat there typing in the comfort and privacy of a single room in an air-conditioned ward in hospital.  My father, who isn’t well, is sleeping.  I am thankful that he has survived this far. Precious last lap of time to allow me to look after him.  Too many years had been spent doing my own things and looking after my career.  I didn’t have time to hold his hand and look at his face in detail as he sleeps, grasping my hand.  Is this my purpose? Yes.

 

From the book, on page 110 – “Researchers found that many, who have successfully dealt with physical adversity, actually grow in positive ways.

·       They realise that they are stronger than they thought and they tend to recover more quickly from future challenges.  

·       They discover who truly cares about them and those relationships grow stronger.

·       They put greater value on each day and on the good things in their lives.

·       They become stronger spiritually.

And the following paragraph really took the cake

“Whatever circumstances you face, GOD will use it for HIS purpose.  It may be years before you understand what that purpose might be.  IN some cases, you may not know the full extent of HIS plan or why HE allows some things to happen to you.  That is why it is necessary to put your faith in action knowing that GOD is with you.  Even though bad things may happen, they do not change the fact that HE loves you.”

I cried.    

In times of fear

Here are some more words of encouragement from Unstoppable.

You and I cannot see what GOD has in store for us.  That is why you should never believe that your worst fears are your fate or that when you are down, you will never rise up again.  You MUST have faith in yourself, in your purpose and in GOD’s plan for your life.  Then you must put the fears and insecurities aside and trust that you will find your way. You may not have a clue of what lies ahead but it’s better to act on life than simply let life acts on you.

When you put your faith and beliefs into action, you will discover the life for which you were created.

When you find yourself super stressed, highly emotional and unable to function because of something that has occurred, it is important to separate what has happened to you from what is going on inside you.

We all bear emotional scars from past experiences.  Sometimes, those scars are not fully healed. So when you hit hard times, the old wounds reopen.  The deep pain you feel may be aggravated by past hurts and reawakened insecurities.  If you sense that you may be overreacting to a bad situation, or if you feel overwhelmed and unable to cope, you should ask yourself “Why is this hitting me so hard?”

Am I reacting this way because of what is actually occurring or am I reacting so strongly because of what has occurred in the past?

One of the lessons I learned is that you have to keep things in perspective even when you are in the middle of a personal crisis.  FEAR BREEDS FEAR and WORRY BUILDS UPON WORRY.  You can’t stop the feelings of grief, guilt and anger and fear that wash over you during difficult times but you must recognise them as pure emotional responses and then manage them so that they don’t dictate your actions.

Maintaining perspective requires maturity and maturity comes with experience.  I had never been through a situation like this and because I was physically drained… I had a difficult time handling this crisis in a mature manner.

PASSION

A life of passion and purpose. 

This is how I want to live.  The big question that faces me every day – Am I living that life of passion and purpose.  If yes, good. If no, why not?  And how do I go about to fill the missing gaps?

From “Unstoppable”, Nick Viujcic says that “you will know that you have found a passion when your talents, knowledge, energy, focus and commitment all come together in a way like a child with a favourite game or toy.  Your work and pleasure become one and the same.  You feel that the opportunities are endless.  What you do becomes part of who you are, and the rewards that come to you are far less satisfying than those that come to others because of you. 

Your passion leads to your purpose, and both are activated when you put your faith in your gifts and share them with the world.  You are custom-made for your purpose, just as I am for mine.  Every part of you – from your mental, physical and spiritual strengths to your unique package of talents and experiences – is designed to fulfil your gift.

You put your faith in action by following your passion, defining your purpose and building your life around developing and using your gifts to their fullest.  What drives you?  What makes you excited about each day?  What would you do for free just to be doing it?  What would you never want to retire from doing?  Is there something that you would give up everything else for – all your material possessions and comforts – just to do because you feel so good doing it? What do you fee; a sense of urgency of accomplishing?

Scripture tells us in John 9:4, “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me.  Night is coming, when no one else can work.”

 

Amazing photograph

One of my friends likes uploading amazing photographs.

Here's one of them.

Looking out for another

This week, I managed to catch an OKTO Channel documentary - Penguins, Spy in a Huddle.  It is very good.  Highly recommended and a very good resource to use clip for teaching values in action.

The value of looking out for another.   

There were two scenes - a duck, and a penguin of another species went beyond their comfort zones to fend off marauding predators from the brood of the penguin chicks as they made their way awkwardly to the sea.   

Learned optimism

 

In the book “How children succeed” by Peter Tough, he mentioned a researcher by the name of Martin Seligman.  Seligman is one of the main scholars behind the school of thought known as positive psychology, and the book originally published in 1991, is the movement’s founding text, teaching that optimism is a learnable skill, not an inborn trait.

Pessimistic adults and children can train to be more helpful.  Seligman says, and if they do, they will likely become happier, healthier and successful.

In learned optimism, Seligman wrote that most people, depression was not an illness, but simply a “severe low mood” that occurred “when we harbour pessimistic beliefs about the causes of our setbacks.”  If you want to avoid depression and improve your life, Seligman counselled, you need to refashion your explanatory style” to create a better story about why good and bad things happen to you.

Pessimists, Seligman wrote, tend to react to negative events by explaining them as permanent, personal and pervasive. E.g. of the 3Ps – Failed a test? It’s not because you didn’t prepare well; it’s because you are stupid.  If you are turned down for a date, there’s no point in asking someone else, because you are simply unlovable.    

Optimists, by contrast, look for specific, limited, short term explanations for bad events and as a result, in the face of a setback, they are more likely to pick themselves up and try again.

How can we help our children succeed?

I am enjoying this book now.  By Peter Tough – “How children succeed with grit, curiosity and the hidden power of character”.  In his book, Mr Tough related studies that support the teaching of character education to help pupils succeed in schools.  These ideas resonated on how best to educate our children for their future.

In the past 20 years, I have seen many pupils succeed and some pupils fail.  Though… “Fail” is a taboo word in recent years… substitute term … “Did not do so well”.  Some of the successful pupils were those who took pains with their studies, persevered in the hard times in their lives; had brave hearts and despite their own problems, had the compassion and willingness to help others.  I have also  successful pupils who had much resources at their beck and call.  They had breezed their way through their examinations with much pampering in their lives, got away with minimum work done in school and were ill-behaved and selfish.  I am glad that these pupils graduated and got out of my school.

There is a lot of anxiety among parents nowadays.  All of them want their children to do well in school.  However, parents with healthy children at least - most of them had only a narrow definition of success in the school – their children must obtain the highest academic score and ratings in their subjects at school.  This is probably a hangover of expectation from my generation and society. 

In my generation, the term “excellence” is defined in terms of number and type of awards. Most rewards given are based on academic merit.  Parents with children of learning disabilities and / or special needs also yearn for the best in their children though they know that their children would never be able to “beat” the present system. 

For example, my student told me that in a recent art competition, candidates in her level were chosen based on their grades - the number of As for their art work. Most of the candidates were from another high ability class, and my student who comes from the low ability class did not stand a chance of being selected.  Such is an example of an unfair yardstick in one school.

In the Straits Times of 15 June 2013, there is an article “Engaged pupils = successful workers” by Fron Jackson-Webb.  The article says that “the children’s interest and engagement in school influence their prospects of educational and occupational success 20 years later, over and above their academic and socioeconomic background.  The more children felt connected to their school community and felt engaged, rather than bored, the greater their likelihood of achieving higher educational qualification and going on to a professional or management career say the researchers at Menzies Research Institute in Tasmania, Australia”. 

Immediately to our parents’ minds would be the notion of doing well in academic studies.   No, the researchers are saying something else.  “The study reinforced the importance of school curricula to promote active, rather than passive learning styles that engage both the mind and body, and involve humour, music and movement.  It is important to recognise that the patterns of engagement begin very early, much earlier than formal schooling,  The notion that a school should be about sports, music, drama – not only numeracy and literacy, is important.  The students enjoy it, they like being there… the link between educational and occupational outcomes also extended to better health outcomes and well-being later in life.”     

So what research says reinforces what we know all along.  Doing well in early school affects one’s adult life.  It is just that, what does “doing well” refer to?