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Have you ever needed wisdom for life decisions? I think the answer would be yes. Do you know that you can get the wisdom you need just by asking. Are you wondering who would you ask? Well, true complete wisdom for all your needs and wants is available, but not just from anyone. Maybe you could find the wisdom you are looking for from a mentor or colleague. Maybe you could find it from a book, podcast, video, or conference. But real complete and true wisdom comes from above. Let me explain.

Most of the world has heard the stories of the wisest king of all the world, King Solomon. Many study and put into practice the wisdom gained from such a wise King. The historical accounts found in the Quran, the Talmud and Midrash, the Kebra Nagast, the writings of Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews), and the Testament of Solomon all offer diverse interpretations on his wisdom, from his leadership to his legendary powers. However, the true source of King Solomon’s wisdom is virtually overlooked.

As the story goes, Solomon, the son of King David was promised the throne of his father upon his death and in fact did inherent his fathers throne, (see 1 Kings chapter 1 in the Holy Bible). Before moving on King David served the Lord God of all the earth, the creator of all that was created both seen and unseen. He had learned to fear the Lord God and to serve him only. He developed a relationship with the Lord God, a man after God’s own heart, (1 Samuel 13:14) and depended on him for all his needs. Solomon grew up under King Davids love and dependence on the Lord God and leaned from his fathers example.

The evidence of King Solomon’s wisdom overshadows all the wisdom of the ages or that will ever be except for one and that is the son of God Himself, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. For He is the power and wisdom of God, (1 Corinthians 1:24). But let me digress for the historical account of King Solomon tells us that God himself appeared to King Solomon in a dream and asked him what he wanted and that he would give it to him. King Solomon through the course of the dialogue wanted an understanding heart so he could govern God’s people well and to know the difference between right and wrong. He knew he would need God’s help in governing.

The Lord God’s response for King Solomon asking for wisdom and not asking for long life or wealth, or the death of his enemies was to give him what he asked for and for what he did not ask for, riches and fame.

As you have read, loving the Lord God and following his degrees matter. In doing so, you can ask God for wisdom and he will provide. But who is this Lord God? He is the creator of heaven and earth. He is love and light and he came into this world in the form of a man, Jesus Christ to save the world from their sins. He and He alone is who you ask for wisdom. If you want to learn more about the Lord God pickup a Bible, ask the Lord God to give you understanding, begin reading and learn about the greatest truth ever told.

There is an historical account of a man who once ask the question, “What is truth?”. If truth matters and it is what you are searching for, I would encourage you to read the historical account of Pilate’s interaction with a man named Jesus, who said, “…Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.” Your can find this historical account in, “The Works of Flavius Josephus”, “Tacitus’ Annals”,and the Bible, Matthew 18:28-19:16.

Truth certainly is important, but it can be distorted, exaggerated, key information can be omitted, and it can be presented with misleading context to manipulate others. Therefore, in searching for truth there has to be single starting point of truth. So, what is the basis of all truth?, it is a person! But let’s dive a little deeper into the subject before we reveal the person.

Truth can be seen in all of creation. Truth can be read in the Bible, Truth can be known through revelation, Truth can be found while searching, Truth always was, is, and will be, but man trust more in himself than in the truth. Why, because truth can be uncomfortable, revealing, even pointing out error. Knowing this man has a tendency to leave the path of truth. You see truth stands firm with a sure foundation if its God’s Truth. God’s truth, that’s what man has trouble believing. But if you are truly searching for truth, then the sure foundation just mentioned should be paramount in your search. Look to God, from where your help will come and ask him to reveal truth to you and he will. Just ask!

So, who is this person who is the sure foundation of all truth, its Jesus! He said, he was the way, the truth, and the life…” found in John 14:6 of the Bible. If you really want know truth, it is a person. Read all you can about him and then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:32).

Have you ever wondered who you are, why you even exist, does your life even matter? You’re not alone! Most people go through life drifting, trying to understand life itself. They just muddle through until they come to understand their true identity.

So, lets begin with identity. Who are you? To begin with you are unique, there is no one like you. You are special and irreplaceable. You were born for a specific purpose. This is why you exist and your life truly matters. Our world and the people who exist and will exist need your uniqueness. This uniqueness is wrapped up in your gifts and talents.

You might say, ok, I get the uniqueness part, but where did I come from, where did I get my start? Those are great questions and until you get a firm understanding of your beginning you may never step into your unique space.

It’s possible you may have trouble understanding life itself, but if you will be opened minded and allow these next printed words to impact your thinking your mind itself will be renewed to truth. For instance, “In the beginning…”. You may ask was there truly a beginning and if so how did the beginning begin? Well, if you were to read a little farther the words quoted “In the beginning…” go on to say, “…God created…” (Genesis 1:1). Once you can wrap your thinking around this truth, who you are and how you had your beginning will make a lot more since.

You see, without a creator, you have no uniqueness, you’re not special, and you’re not irreplaceable. Your nothing, you don’t even exist. Once you turn to the truth of a creator, the one true God and acknowledge His existence the truth of your beginning and uniqueness will lead you to an understanding of you being special and irreplaceable. Not only that but you will come to understand the love of the Creator, God!

Wondering about tomorrow has a tendency to cause much anxiety even though we have been cautioned not to worry about our tomorrow’s. Many of our worries stem from poor financial decisions based on learned financial behaviors and or a lack of financial education, the desire to impress someone we are pursuing or maybe just to keep up with the “Jones’s”. Which ever the case, anxiety in the financial realm alone is more than enough, but can be put in check or overcome totally based on a few right decisions.

There have been many experts from the past and even today that possibly have some of the answers, but have a hard time getting anyone to listen to them for a variety of reasons. It could be their personality, politics, age, religion, ethnic background, technology of their day, poor marketing, etc. You get the point. However, even when they do get a few to listen and follow their advice the majority stay in their poverty and anxiety. The biggest reason for this anxiety is the individual, that’s you and me. We are so ingrained with poor financial education and no desire to better our position in life that we have basically given up. But with today’s technology and the new information available there really is little room for excuses.

Our financial heroes of today are telling everyone they can to get out of debt and to invest in themselves. When they tell us to get out of debt they also mean for us to stay out of debt. When they tell us to invest in ourselves they mean the brain not our stomachs or our physical appearance.

Many blame their past on their current situation and are unwilling to change the present for a better future. But if you are going to have a better future, anxiety free, you are going to have to change the present. The only way to do that is to make the first right decision, by determining to get out of debt and investing in yourself.

You may be asking, where do I start? When you click on this link: http://www.lifeleadership.com/61281368/Products/FinancialFitnessPack.aspx  you will be directed to information that will give you the answers to help you become debt free and information if used properly could lead you to financial independence. Let’s put our financial anxiety away once and for all and create the future we really desire.

Since all of us think about all sorts of things on a daily basis it might be good to leave just a thought or two about the subject. For our major thoughts impact our daily lives and our future more than we might think.

Thoughts are creative, they are the beginning of additions to our lives that cause us much pain or joy. They determine if we are going to be a pessimist or optimist throughout the day. For how we think is everything!

That being said and without getting into a long drawn out blog on positive thinking, let’s just look at a couple of ways to change our day, which in turn will change our lives.

1. Start everyday with good positive thoughts. If a negative thought appears replace it with a positive one.

2. Read from a good book. The Holy Bible would be a great way to start. If your not into the bible there are plenty of books written by some wonderful authors. (“The Confidence of a Champion” by Tim Marks would be a great start.)

3. Listen to good information. (Stay away from the TV and or the news paper.)

4. Visualize success in your life each and everyday. Visualization is a key to success.

5. Get around positive people.

6. Watch what you say. Your words are powerful!

7. Have a plan. Create a plan for the day, week, month and year. Where do you want to be? Then you have to have a plan.

The list could go on but this is a great start. So get started right now changing your thoughts and thus changing your future.

Barry Futch-Husband, Father, Grandfather, Business Owner and Life Member

As I sit here reading and all the while listing to Britt Nicole’s CD, I’m struck by the thought that most of us need a break through. A break through in our thinking about fear. Fear hinders our endeavors, drains our dreams, clouds our imagination, keeps us from fulfilling our destiny. Fear is a distractor which with the right information can be overcome. We need to be educated that fear can be defeated. For example, professional athletes put fear in its proper place, thus defeating it by their disciplined work ethic which increases their self-confidence that is developed by perfect practice.

So how can we overcome this monster of fear? We’re not professional athletes. How about by being re-educated? Education is the key to our success. Learning that the majority of what we hear, see, and read through our media is negative and causes much worrying is a start. Then, we need to realize that we associate with people who have been hearing, seeing and reading the same negative mess we’ve been absorbing too.

But what if we began to re-educate ourselves. Let’s say we started by disciplining ourselves to stop watching the news, reading negative articles in magazines and papers and quit hanging around negative people. Then we would replace these areas with positive fillers,  like good self-help books, personal development cd’s and association with people who are wanting to overcome this monster of fear. If we put to perfect practice what we are learning and absorbing our self confidence will soar and the monster of fear will diminish.

Barry Futch…. Husband, Father, Grandfather, Business Owner and Life Member

The defenition of Investment defined in Dictionary.com is “the investing of money and capital in order to gain profitable returns, as interest income or appreciation in value. The same word is defined in Investopedia as an asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future. As much as I love these definitions most people do not have the extra income, assests or items that will make them the kind of profit needed to live the life they truly want.

The majority of people live “lives of quite desperation”,  just barely making enough money to meet their monthly obligations. So, would investing be an option? Most would follow that question with a comment like: “How can I invest?, I just barely have enough money to survive.” Well maybe they should look at investing from another angle, investing in ones self.

Investing in ones self is seen everyday in one of two ways, either as an expense or an assest. It’s easy to tell which defines you just by looking at what you do each day. If your trying to better yourself by schooling, reading  good books, listening to self-help and personal development cd’s etc. then you consider yourself valuable and thus treat yourself as an asset. If on the other hand you live day to day doing nothing to enhance yourself then your just an expense and every dollar you spend on yourself is like throwing money into a bottomless pit.

Start seeing and treating yourself as an asset and not living as an expense. When you do this your entire life will change. You will have a chance to live the life you always wanted.

Barry Futch, Life Member