"Are you carrying a load...and don't know it?"

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One summer, on Lake Isabella, located in the high desert an hour east of Bakersfield, California, some folks, new to boating, were having a problem. They couldn't get their brand-new 22-footer going no matter how hard they tried. It was so sluggish in almost every maneuver, no matter how much they opened up the throttle.

After about an hour of trying to make it go, they putted to a nearby marina, thinking someone there could tell them what was wrong. They found someone there who did a thorough topside check that found everything in perfect working condition. The engine ran fine, the outdrive went up and down, the prop was the correct size and pitch.

So, one of the marina guys jumped in the water to check underneath, and came up choking on water, he was laughing so hard. Under the boat, still strapped securely in place, was the trailer.

Are you carrying a load…and don’t know it? Check underneath your spirit as you listen to life today and make a life, not just a living.

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"Do you know someone who grumbles all the time?"

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There once was a farmer who was an incurable grumbler. Hiram grumbled about everything all the time. He was never satisfied.

One fall, he had the best apple crop for miles around. The apples were plentiful. There was a bumper crop. And there were hardly any bugs on them. You just couldn’t ask for a better apple crop than the one Hiram had that year.

Well, one of his neighbors stopped by to congratulate him, saying, "Well, Hiram, you sure ought to be happy now. This is the finest crop of apples ever raised in this county."

Hiram shuffled his feet, grunted and then grumbled, "Well, I s'pose they'll do. But where's the rotten ones for the hogs?"

Some of us just have to grumble no matter how great things are around us, don’t we? So I guess happiness isn’t a matter of how things are around us, but how we choose to react to them—grumbling or grateful. As you listen to life today and make a life, not just a living, try not to grumble. Instead be grateful for all of your blessings.

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"Do you see the obvious?"

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Someone called me recently and said that he’d read my book, Listen to Life with Dr. Joey Faucette: The First Book, that he’d really enjoyed it, and had started listening to his own life.

"What’s going in your life now that you’re listening to?" I asked him.

"Well," he said, "just the other day I went to a new service station in town. It’s one of those pay-at-the-pumps places. I put my credit card in okay, but I couldn’t make the pump come on.

"So I went inside and asked the cashier what to do. She said for me to press the PRESS HERE button.

"When I went back to the pump, there it was in huge letters, PRESS HERE. I did, and the pump came on and everything was great…

"…except I felt really dumb after missing that sign. But then I said to myself, ‘Hey, Joey said to listen to life today for what God has to say.’ So I did.

"And I realized that’s what listening to life is all about. God’s love for us is so obvious, but we miss it. Then God sends people to point it out to us."

See the obvious as you make a life, not just a living today.

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"Does your child eat sand?"

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I spoke recently with a group that included some childcare providers. Our topic was "Building on Strengths—Confronting Challenges." I had shared some stories, and then I asked the group to share some of their stories.
One childcare provider told the story of how one of her students, an autistic child, sat down in the sand box and began eating the sand…a lot of sand.

So his teacher called his mother. Now the teacher wasn’t upset; she knew how things would turn out, but she really wanted the mother to know then rather than waiting until the end of the day, afraid that she would get upset.

As it turns out, the mother of this autistic child wasn’t upset at all. Instead she said when told about the sand, "Wonderful! He’s discovered textures!"

This mother made a choice to be positive, to see the best in this situation; to celebrate something that at first appeared to be a problem. Remember this child’s mother as you build on your strengths and confront your challenges…while you listen to life and make a life, not just a living today.

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