Bring Me Another Jar

I recently read the story of a poor widow and her two sons.  The widow was not doing so well financially and was having hardships.  As you can imagine, her husband just passed and she has two growing teenagers to feed and creditors were calling her daily!  Things were getting very tight for her financially and she's pretty desperate and need some help.  And all she has is a flask of olive oil.  Out of nowhere a man comes along who happens to be a prophet named Elisha.  Elisha tells the widow, "borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors.  Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you.  Pour olive oil from from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it's filled."

The goal was for the woman to gather jars and use her own flask of oil to fill the jars; then sell the jars of olive oil to make money and pay her bills.

The widow did as she was instructed in great desperation and had her sons go find jars.  The story continues, she filled jars as long as her sons brought them.  One after another, the small flask of olive oil she had in her home filled numerous jars.  She then told her sons: "bring me another jar," and her son responded "there aren't anymore!"  And immediately the oil stopped flowing from her flask.

Here's the funny thing:  As long as her sons were bringing jars to pour olive oil in, the oil kept on flowing.  And the moment that there was not another jar to pour olive oil in, immediately the flow of olive oil ceased!

In life, we must be careful that we have enough to catch all that we desire from God.  Sometimes we pray to God for help and for the blessings of God, but in actuality we're not prepared to catch all that He is capable of bringing.

What things are you desiring from God... and are you equipped to handle them if and when He grants them?

Source of story: 2 Kings 4: 1-7

Brain Food

Every year many of us map out audacious goals, dreams, and resolutions for the new year.  What I'm learning is achievement is 10%  the stuff we do and 90% mindset.  My personal thoughts are if we can control how we think and what goes into our mind, we can do anything our minds set out to do.  Mental food or food for thought is the books we read.  In high school and college I may have read 9 books throughout my entire time... total!  Once graduating from college one of my mentors shared with me the power of reading and the impact it has on our thoughts and our future.  I'm grateful for him influencing me to read. If we change our mind, we change our world.  

Below you'll see this year's book list I've committed to reading for 2014.  I've already read a handful of these and will re-read because they were so powerful, and others will be completely new reads.  Here are the core topics of the types of books I read:  leadership, personal development, business, real estate, spiritual growth, and of course my favorite, the Chronological Life Application Study Bible - NLT version (this version of the Bible has made the Bible come to LIFE for me).   My reading habit is 10 pages of the Bible daily and 15 pages of a book daily, 5 times per week.  Romans 12:2 urges us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds...

I'll be posting recaps of each book as I complete them.. so check back throughout the year. 

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What books are you planning to read this year?