A new day has dawned in the United States of America, we have installed a new president, Joseph R. Biden Jr. I don’t know about you, but I can get back to my life, sleeping good at night and reading. I’ve purchased several books that I’m excited about reading.
I purposely chose to write about a different topic for my column: “12 Things That Make Men Rich” something that will help you be the best person you possibly can.
Allow me to elaborate just a bit on the first set of principles featured last week. Before sharing with you the second set, let me remind you that a positive mental attitude can be controlled by you, even in this pandemic.
Born the daughter of two Pentecostal preachers, let me assure you the Holy Bible has been an integral part of my life for as long as I can remember. This research is combined with Scripture. Google Napoleon Hill and learn his story. I heard him say in a video how he would get up three hours early each morning to read and study the Holy Bible. Then again at night, he studied another three hours. Bible scholars will be able to see how he weaved Scripture into his work. These 12 things that make men rich are no different.
Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right!” Thoughts are things, and powerful things at that. They can affect our health, our journey and, ultimately, how we end up at the conclusion of our life.
Studies show much worse health for those with less-than-positive attitudes. Those folks with more optimistic outlooks live longer, with more favorable health during the aging process. Now for the next four principles:
Number four is Freedom from Fear. Someone who lives in fear can never accomplish anything. In the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” the Cowardly Lion was the opposite of what a lion is known for. The lion is considered the “king of beasts.” To be a cowardly lion is just as bad as each of us who live our lives in fear.
Scripture tells us that God made man a little lower than angels and a little higher than the beastly. We have more power than we can imagine when we tune in, live without fear, live by His Word, and consider the Great Commandment — love God first and love your neighbor as yourself.
Finally, Scripture also reminds us of how He didn’t give us a spirit of fear. When we feel fear, we must get on our knees and pray, a rebuke the spirit of fear, because it is not from God.
The fifth principle is we have Hope of Future Achievement. First, let’s see what Scripture has to say about the subject of hope:
And now, Lord, what do I wait for and expect? My hope and expectation are in You. — Psalm 39:7.
But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure, Romans 8:26. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life. — Proverbs 13:12.
The sixth principle is The Capacity for Applied Faith. To have faith is one thing, but it is only when faith is applied when things change for us.
Capacity means the ability to hold, to have room enough to receive. The capacity for applied faith simply means, how much you can believe in something without seeing it. As I read a biography of Oprah Winfrey by Kitty Kelly, I noticed how Oprah talked throughout her childhood about how she would be famous someday. Everyone knew her for that saying, and look at her now. Her capacity for applied faith was rather huge. Not only did she have faith, she applied steps toward achieving those things for which she dreamed.
Finally, the last principle for this week is Willingness to Share One’s Blessings with Others; to be Engaged in a Labor of Love. When you discover that something that pleases you to a point when you will do this work gladly, even without any pay, you have discovered the principle of willingness to share one’s blessings with others, and more often than not, that work could possibly turn into your life’s work. Wouldn’t that be worth it all — to be doing the work you love, and get paid to do so? That’s what I call unspeakable joy.
Lyndia Grant is a speaker/writer living in the D.C. area. Her radio show, “Think on These Things,” airs Fridays at 6 p.m. on 1340 AM (WYCB), a Radio One station. To reach Grant, visit her website, www.lyndiagrant.com, email lyndiagrantshowdc@gmail.com or call 240-602-6295. Follow her on Twitter @LyndiaGrant and on Facebook.