LAWSON's Life's Lessons

For many years………many, many years as a matter of fact I never understood what GRACE really means! It’s in the Bible, preachers talk about it all the time. It always seemed like something mysterious and vague to me! I just couldn’t understand how something could or would be given to us for nothing. Usually there’s a catch to those kinds of gifts!

“Seek and you shall find!” “Ask and it shall be given! ” “Ye shall be as GODS!” “These things ye shall do and greater…………for in you is the living GOD!” WOW! Always telling us that stuff……………………great words but HOW do we do these things. It can’t be that simple! Why if it was, everybody would be doing it! Everybody would be happy, wealthy and wise.  WOW!

HINT: We were made in GOD’s  image no less! WOW!

We have more resources at out finger tips than we realize! We can do these things!

Believe and it shall be! THINK AND GROW RICH!

Game Plan: Believe it! Plan it! Want it! Concentrate on it! Do it! GET IT!

GRACE is the GOD given gift of “knowing that you are on the right track”! As you start doing, let your conscience and your gut feelings tell you whether or not you are doing the right things to get to where you want to go/be!  When you feel GOOD you’re on the right track! When you feel bad or uncomfortable or scared………..you’re on the wrong track! GRACE is our “guiding system” to let us know how to do these GODLIKE things we are capable of doing!

What a wonderful World this is! What a great opportunity to learn we have here!  

“Do or Do Not! THERE IS NO TRY!”  YODA

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YOUR TIME is your most valuable possession! Don’t waste it! Don’t throw it away………..don’t give it away recklessly! You don’t even know exactly how much of it you have! When we’re young………we can’t even think about being old…………..that’s soooo far off into the future! And yet people our young age die everyday! So live in the moment! NOW!

1. Think about how you spend your time everyday.

2. What 5 things are most important to you?

3. What 5 people are most important to you?

4.  List 5 things you want to be sure and do before you die.

5.  If you knew you would not wake up in the morning…………what 5 things would you be sure to do?

Wake up and smell the roses! It would surely be a waste to miss it when you run out of time!!!!!!!!!!!!

What does Thoreau mean by that quote?  Sometimes we hit a lot of things that we don’t aim at……………..literally his quotation isn’t completely true!

So what was he “getting at”? The English language (and all others) have so many similar meanings for words and gestures…………even tonal sounds and body language that it’s a wonder we don’t get more confused than we do when trying to understand others! And now with the arrival of Facebook and texting…………..communicating successfully is even more of a challange!

Thoreau’s comment means that what we concentrate on……….focus on……….really believe can happen……………really want to happen…….happens most of the time! Why are some people more successful than others in this exercise? They try harder! They REALLY FOCUS!

So create your own world…………….what do you want? Do you belive you should have it? Do you believe you can get it? Then get it!  Be specific in what you want………….if it’s a car, what color, what type of motor, automatic/shift, big/little, gas mileage, dependability, etc. Don’t just say you want a car!!!!! Then you’ll just get a car! It’ll be too late to say, “but I wanted a green 4-door one!”

If you don’t like what you have……………….change it! You can do it!

“If you can’t be with the one you want, love the one you’re with!”  Great song!

It’s a matter of opinion!

One day a farmer was working in his fields when the weather was hot and humid. As he leaned over to pick up some bales of hay that afternoon he felt a burning sensation just under his shoulder blade……immdiately he thought it was an ant bite and rubbed it. Then he felt another two or three stings on top of his shoulder. He slapped his hand over the spot and then felt another sting on his neck! By this time he was geting worried! He pulled his t-shirt over his head turning it inside out………….then he shook it hard……………..instead of an ant, a small white spider dropped to the ground. The farmer tried to stomp it with his foot but the spider got away and scurried under a tree limb.

All of the spots where the spider bit the farmer itched and burned and really gave him a fit and scared him some too! After about a week the spots stopped being a problem and faded out of sight and the farmer soon forgot about the white spider.

Several months later the little village where the farmer lived started having problems with some strange new disease that seemed to have come from nowhere! Many people were getting sick and there seemed to be no cure for them. All though the sickness didn’t prove fatal all of the people that got it had fevers and lost precious time from their jobs and farms!

The farmer who had been bitten by the little white spider kept on working his fields and made a bountiful crop that year. That fall when the crops were all in the farmer walked out into the meadow one afternoon and sat down on a tree stump to rest and enjoy the beauty of the season. He sat there for a while and put his arm up on a part of the tree limb hanging down over him.

“Mr. Farmer, how are you doing today?”…………..the farmer looked around but couldn’t see anyone…….again the voice said, “Mr. Farmer, how are you doing today?”  About that time the farmer saw a little white spider sittin on his knee! That couldn’t be the spider talking to him he thought! But yes, it was the little white spider!!!! “Did you have a good crop this year?” he asked.

The farmer said, well, yes I did. I never did get that sickness that most people had and my crops got all of the attention they needed for me to have a bountiful season.

The little white spider asked, “Did you ever wonder why you didn’t get sick when almost everybody else did this year?”

The farmer replied, “yes, I wondered many times but never could figure out why I was so lucky when many others were not!”

Mr. Spider looked at the farmer and then said, “Remember that day in the field when you get bitten several times in the field and pulled your shirt off and tried to smash me when you found me falling out of your shirt? The bites I gave you that day had medicine in them that protected you from the sickness that took over the village. I bit you to give you protection you would need to stay healthy. You and your family have given me  and my family shelter from the weather for many years and I wanted to save you from the illness this year.”

A thought ran through the farmer’s  mind……….can this really be happening or is my mind playing tricks on me?

The little white spider replied without being asked, Well, Mr. Farmer I guess its just a matter of opinion!

We create so many problems for ourselves because we keep trying to change everything………the people around us, the world, everything! But we’re focusing on the situations from the wrong end of the stick! WE have to change! Yes, the way we look at things, we way we think about things, what we truly  want to make us happy!

Waiting for things to change won’t work! Be proactive, get up, pay attention and focus on yourself. REALLY look at a flower, a butterfly, the sky, the trees, PEOPLE. THINK about them. Care about them.

Then YOU ARE changing the world!

There are two types of enablers; one kind enables people, situations, projects, causes, to continue, thrive, prosper, grow and benefit, the other enables people to remain in a rut, suffer, just exist, move backward. Both kinds of enablers may in their own minds be justified in their hearts that what they are doing is the right thing to do at the time and is of help to those whom they are enabling! Knowing the true “right” takes a lot of soul searching and thought!

If you help a young family with children who’s father and/or mother have lost their jobs keep the bills paid and food on the table while they look for new jobs is a good kind of enabling!

If you help somebody that’s an alcoholic or drug addict buy their vices or buy them for them. Or smoke with someone trying to quit, or run around with someone who’s trying to settle down and raise a family. Well, those are bad ways of enabling!

So how far do we have to go as “good people” to save others? Who is responsible?

Bottom line…………………we are each of us totally responsible for ourselves! Nobody else!

Divine Order is always present, whether it looks like it or not! Declare it!

Everyone must learn their lessons in their own way………………so when you don’t know what to do for yourself or anybody else……………Let Go and Let GOD!

RARE it is when we are touched by an Angel! But when we are we know it!

Saturday afternoon we were in an art gallery in town looking at the art objects through out the store. I went over to one side of the building to look at a painting. As I finished looking and turned around I noticed a little girl about 1 1/2 years old standing right in front of me. She had her little fist closed and faced down. I spoke to her and she held out her hand to me. I opened my hand and she moved forward, opened her fist and dropped a bright green jellybean in my hand and looked up at me with a smile!

Her Mother had been watching from a distance and rushed over and said  “Don’t eat that jellybean!!!!!!!!!!! I laughed and said, “Not to worry I won’t, I can imagine where that jellybean may have been!” The little angel in front of me just smiled!

I thanked her and told her how pretty she was………..she just kept smiling!

Her Mother smiled and took her over to the others in her group across the gallery.

The gallery has some small  suncatchers that can be hung with fishing line and hung in the sunlight or strung on a small chain around the neck. I quickly bought a small bright orange one that had a beautiful star in the middle of it, had it put in a little box and took it over to the Mother to have her give it to her daughter. Both the Mother and daughter loved the gift and thanked me for being a blessing in their lives that day………….the Mother with words, the angel with a smile!

So be alert……………….angels are around us and sometimes when they touch us…..WE KNOW!

I’ve been going to the Masters Golf Tournament  in Augusta, GA for over 50 years starting out working in the concessions stands and being a gallery guard during high school and college and then on as a spectator! I’ve seen a lot of people come and go! It’s one of the best golf courses in the world and has the class and style of royalty! The people come from all over the world! As wonderful as the Tournament is……….the people watching almost compares equally with the golfers!

When I started out going to the Augusta National…………Arnold Palmer was King of the golf world! And then came along that arrogant kid, Jack Nicholas! Gary Player was around too! Jack wasn’t popular because he was a threat to Arnold Palmar….so it took years for Jack to lead the “Jack Pack” to the front….now Jack is one of the elder statesmen and is one of the most respected and loved of all of them……..others came along and then came Tiger! Tiger is trying the comeback of the decade and many younger and different types of golfers are changing the people look time after time.

I was young, and middle-aged and now moving into the later 1/3 of my “life at the Masters! Watching today while sitting in the main “lunch area” at the main concession location……..I saw people very young on up to the “are you sure you should be out here” ages! That’s one of the great things about the Masters………….they are trying to bring in the young and still loving the old to keep golf growing.

Seeing some of the older ones brings to mind the great book and movie, The Thorn Birds……………one of the greatest parts of the book and movie is the character played by Barbara Stanwyck! She is an older woman and falls in love with a younger man who is repelled by her affections! She tells him and us all that older people still need love, still have passion, and want to be needed and loved until the day they die! Get the movie and look at it several times…………It really is classic!

Walking up the long hills (with more difficulty than I anticipated) I realized several things: This may be the last time I will be able to climb the hills on my way back to the main Club House! But the beauty of that is that as we get older……………we no longer want to do most of those things we aren’t able to do any more. That is a gift we have been given to lead us into the sunset with understanding.

A group of us at a table out there today were discussing age and several commented that,  “I really don’t want to be 20 again!” I confess that I don’t want to go back even to yesterday! Life is good……………..live in the moments and when they are gone…………move on!

Hot and Cold! Light and Dark! Good and Bad! Rich and Poor! Sick and Well!

If you accept the fact that we are here on this earth in this lifetime to learn as much as we can, then how do we learn best? You can read books. You can listen to other people who have had experiences and hear what they did or did not learn. You can jump in and do things yourself! Unfortunately this “do it yourself method” can be the hardest way to learn……………BUT for some it is the only way they can learn.

Hot/Cold…………………………you can tell someone to not touch a hot stove because it’ll burn them……………but that’s one way to learn for themselves!

Rich /Poor………………………RICH gives you more options………….more choices………….more comfort………….and many opportunities for heartaches. POOR….gives you many opportunities to learn about lack……………less options…………..less benefits…………..less opportunities to help other people and many opportunities for heartaches…………..Which would you rather be?

Knowing what BAD is makes you/us appreciate what GOOD is and knowing the opposite of things helps us decide what we really want in our lives. We learn what makes us happy.

If everything is GOOD then how can we learn about BAD?  Think about it! Does that make BAD GOOD?

THAT’s RIGHT! WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

If this or that happens, the tendency people have is to blame somebody else! If this person had done this or had not done that, everything would be o.k. If only other people would “act right”! If my husband or my wife would only “do better by me” or change the way they act! If only! IF ONLY!

NO! The only person who can make us happy or change our lives is ourself!   YES! YOU are responsible for how you feel, the way you look, the way you act, and the future you will have.

Step up to the line and take charge of yourself! If you don’t like what you have! Change it! Be proactive! Don’t wait for “things” to happen to you! Make things happen for yourself!

YOU Make your own world!

Make HAPPY! And strive for BLISS!

How do you change your world? Stay tuned…………..we’re going to take a really great trip!