In my area of work, I come across many people in emotional pain created by a wide variety of circumstances.  Each of us, at some point during life, go through periods when we feel oppressed, almost crushed by the weight of the circumstances.  In Scripture, Paul talked about his feelings in such circumstances,

We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, yet not destroyed. (2Cor.4:8)

Since we each face “crushing” circumstances at times, it would definitely be beneficial to be able to go through them as Paul did, not denying the gravity of the situation, but not allowing the situation to destroy him emotionally. Paul’s faith, or hope, kept him from losing heart in trying times.  Faith is defined in Scripture as not only believing God exists, but that He responds positively to those who seek Him. (Heb.11:6)

It is knowledge of the nature of God that gives one hope during times of brokenness or oppression.

It is the difference between knowing without a doubt that someone cares about you and what is taking place, especially Someone with greater abilities and resources, as opposed to feeling there is no one to care at all.  Jesus purpose while on earth, other than the plan of salvation, was to illustrate in living form the nature of God to us.  Listen to this quote of how He did that:

Jesus…with the Holy Spirit and with strength and ability and power…went about doing good curing all who were harassed and oppressed. (Acts10:38 Amp)

Jesus both illustrated the nature of God to bring us out of oppressing circumstances and broken hearts, but proclaimed it to be a part of God’s nature.

This is a quote of Jesus speaking to those who are broken hearted, oppressed, and crushed by calamity:

Father God has anointed Me to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed, who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity, to proclaim the year of the Lord, the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound. (Lk.4:18,19)

Notice a couple of points from this quote:

 -It is God’s desire to help you and bring you out of that hurtful situation, ie. “send forth as delivered”

 -God wants you to not try to handle the hurt yourself, but look to Him for help, as is meant by the references to God’s intervention, “year of the Lord,” and the “day of salvation.”

 -The type of help God wants to give you is not minimal, but “profusely abounding,” or more than you would expect to receive.

Looking at this quote a little more closely brings an even greater realization of how personally involved God wants to be in your circumstance.

I decided, for my own benefit, to look up the definitions of certain words in the Greek, since this passage was originally written in Greek.  The term “year of the Lord” actually means “a whole new age (1).”  Through Jesus, God proclaimed a whole new age of His involvement in your life.  What is this involvement like? 

First, it is continuous.  The Greek word for day in this passage means, “perpetually present,” or continuously present. In this whole new age, God’s help is continuously present to deliver you, and bring you profuse salvation and free favors.

Second, the word for salvation includes deliverance, provision, rescue, aid (1).  God’s perpetually present help brings you whatever you need in your oppression and broken heartedness.

Third, though many people who seek after God still struggle with the question of whether or not God will help them or whether they can possible earn His help, the phrase “free favors” is defined as unmerited gifts (1)!  No, you do not need to struggle under condemnation feeling that you must try to earn God’s help and still fall short; God has proclaimed to you that the help in your crushing circumstance is an unearned gift!

Let’s look at a paraphrase of this quote, including the Greek definitions:

Father God has anointed Me to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed, who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity, to proclaim to you the whole new age of the Lord, the perpetually present time when salvation – deliverance, provision, rescue, aid — and unmerited gifts from God profusely abound.

You can be free from emotional harm though dealing with life’s oppressive circumstances. 

Hope is there for you, as it was for Paul, to be hard pressed, yet not crushed, not in despair.  The realization that God, through Jesus, announced a whole new age of God’s continual offer of profuse unearned gifts, deliverance, provision, rescue, and aid for you!  Believe His offer!  Ask Him for what you need in your circumstance!  Look for the answers with expectancy!

1. Strong’s Dictionary of Greek New Testament Words

Each of us desires a long, abundant life with our loved ones. Yet, do your daily decisions work for or against that desire?

These past 2 months have been one of those seasons of life that come to all of us. Tomorrow is a funeral for a friend that died suddenly and unexpectedly. Another friend has been in ICU for weeks. The first person had lived a life that was very abusive to his physical health for years, having just made a change in the recent past. The other friend has lived the more typical unhealthy life of too many sodas and mostly processed foods. She has had many health issues that have drastically affected her family and friends for the whole past year and has now been in ICU for a good part of 2 months and still has life-threatening issues going on. Both should have had a good 20 to 30 more years of living an abundant life, loving life and loving family, but the choice of poor daily health habits stole the precious gift of long abundant life not only from them, but from their friends and families.

We need to be reminded of how essential the little daily choices regarding health-food, sleep, exercise-are truly the ultimate decision for a long life.

Every day that you get up, you make seemingly insignificant choices regarding what you eat, whether or not you skip exercise, how you deal with stress, if you get enough sleep. These decisions come so frequently that one usually makes them almost without thinking. Each little decision not to do what is beneficial to your physical health is, in actuality, a decision of whether or not to embrace a long abundant life, with time to live life, enjoying and loving your family and friends, and giving them the gift of that time to love you and enjoy your presence on this earth. Isn’t that what each of us want? Yet it seems so easy to choose otherwise. There is a quote worth remembering,

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Ps. 90:12

Being aware of your daily health choices is an aspect of wisdom. This quote is a prayer to God asking for the ability to be wise in making choices that affect the number of one’s days on this earth, to value each day with its gift of life enough to be wise in how those days are used and how not to unnecessarily shorten them.

Life events such as funerals are moments that cause one to re-evaluate how wisely he or she is living life.

I, myself, this week was again brought to a point of evaluating how fleeting and how fragile the precious gift of life is, and which daily choices I and my family need to change to so that valuable time together living an abundant life is not lost. What does it take to remind you that your little daily health choices are, in effect, the overriding decision of whether or not you want to live a long abundant life with family and friends? Do you really want to deprive yourself of long life with those daily, thoughtless choices? Do you really want to deprive your loved ones of long life with you-your spouse, children, and grandchildren?

After decades of being a great, effective leader of millions of people, knowing he was about to die, Moses spoke to the Jewish nation about the things that were most important to their lives, guidelines for daily living so that they would live long, prosperous lives with their loved ones. The events in my own life brought these words back to mind. I want to share them as a challenge with you:

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.  Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. Deut. 30:15,19

Recently I was doing a study on Ephesians 3:20, one of my favorite verses,

“Now to God Who, by consequence of the action of His power that is at work within you, is able to carry out His purpose and do superabundantly, far over and above all that you dares ask or think, infinitely beyond your highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams. (Amp)

The main phrase in the Greek is more accurately translated “superabundantly above the greatest abundance.”  Let your mind try to fully fathom that concept.  Whatever your need, whatever your desire, God’s power in you is able to do in supernatural levels of abundance beyond the best you can imagine for an answer!

Adams Clarke Commentary explains it well-

We can go beyond the limits of all human descriptions; we can imagine more than even God has specified in His word; and can feel no bounds to our imagination of good: and after all, God is able to do more for us than we can ask or think; His ability here is so necessarily connected with His willingness, that the one indisputably implies the other; for, of what consequence would it be to tell the Church of God that He had power to do so and so, if there were not implied an assurance that He will do what His power can?

Stated more simply, God would not bother to tell you that His power in you can do supernatural levels of abundant provision, intervention, revelation, wisdom, etc., beyond what you can possibly imagine unless He meant that He was willing to do exactly that in whatever area of your life you desire and/or need to be revolutionized.  He is challenging you to ask and believe for exactly that!  

Realizing this, we usually ask and believe far below the power and willingness of the power of God.  William Burkitt says, ”O! how narrow, short, and poor are our prayers, compared with the power of God!”

 Now come back to my original question to you. 

What do you need God to revolutionize in your life now?  What do you desire Him to transform now?  Imagine the highest you can imagine, then by faith realize that God’s power within you is able to do that; He’s told you to dream, believe, and ask it because He delights to give you infinitely beyond it!

You can choose to respond to fearful situations in ways other than panic, being withdrawn, or some other solely, defensive protective mode. You have the option of choosing not to react to your fear, letting it manipulate you, but to think creatively, outside of the box, and discover responses that will actually enhance your life.

A recent study of the economy illustrates that most people react to fear instead of being creatively proactive.

The present economic situation in the US has affected all kinds of businesses, large and small. One of the categories of institutions largely affected is charitable organizations. Statistician George Barna of the Barna Group recently posted 3 articles with the results of his year long study of how the economy affected churches and other non-profit organizations, as well as how the churches responded to the fearful economic situation.

What stood out to me was Barna’s comments that most churches responded, in my terminology, by reacting to the economy, rather than seeing opportunities to respond creatively and actually enhance their situation and the lives of the people in their communities. Many churches adjusted budgets, cut spending, and cut staff. While it is the right thing to do to re-evaluate the budget and eliminate unnecessary spending, Barna notes, “For the most part, church leaders seem to have been in a hunker-down mode, attempting to get through the tough economy…”, a protective fear response. Similar to most people in fearful situations, few organizations set fear aside enough to think proactively and see where the current economic situation was actually providing new opportunities to interact with the community in helpful ways. Regarding this Barna says,

When pastors were asked to identify the changes they had made as a result of the economic downturn only about one out of every eight church leaders (13%) identified what might be described as activities that proactively position the church as a valuable resource to churchgoers and to those in the community.

This included hosting support groups and classes for those with have lost jobs, classes for those experiencing money problems, increasing the amount of prayer, provide financial counseling, and offering special talks on how to handle money problems. This next quote is not to speak negatively of the church organizations in any way, but to notice how often each of us respond the exact same way to crises situations in our lives.

Yet, the surprise is how few churches seem to have clearly and intentionally developed a proactive response to the downturn. Perhaps they have been so busy keeping the programs running that they have failed to see the significant opportunities as well as unique challenges represented in the new economic reality… Like so many others, church leaders have been focused on surviving; now is the time, though, to calibrate ministries and strategies to the opportunities brought by the new economy.

Similarly, whatever your fear situation, you do not want to just survive but thrive by seeing and implementing new opportunities.

Make a new effort to step back emotionally from your present fearful situation. Sometimes it helps to think about it as if it were someone else’s problem and what you would advise them to do, viewing it from the outside. If you cannot do this on your own, you may need to get help from a counselor, pastor, or a trusted, wise friend. Open your mind to the option of thinking creatively; take the offensive and look for ways to be creatively proactive, taking life-enhancing measures that will put you on the road to conquering your fearful situation, or at least living life a level above it.

Quotes are from “The Economies Impact on Churches (Part 2 of 3): How Churches Have Adapted” by Barna Group, Barna.org

Do you have a clear perspective of daily being grateful for the life you are now living—in spite of any unreached goals—and for what you already possess?  Or do you become easily disgruntled due to comparing your life and possessions with those of others’?

The other day I read an illustrated lesson for children on thankfulness in which the teacher had hidden various amounts of candy under the students’ chairs in the classroom. As the children came in and sat down, they settled in for the day’s lesson, content in their present circumstances, having nothing extra beyond that with which they entered the room. After the teacher announced that there was candy hidden under each chair, the students immediately became discontent upon discovering that the amounts of candy were not the same. The main points the teacher drew out for the students’ from that experience were:

1. Each student was content when he or she came in the classroom, having only the things that were already in their possession. They could have easily continued to be content by being grateful solely for what they already had.

2. When the students’ compared the varying amounts of candy they had received, they were immediately discontent; yet, each of them now possessed more than when they came in the room. Each of them could have felt appreciation for the fact that they had received a gift and had more than they did a few moments before.

When you start the comparison game between your life and the lives of others, you will frustrate your own ability to be grateful.

Though the above illustration seems humorous to us, as adults, we really are not much different than the children.

1. Once you start the comparison game, your ability to be grateful is greatly hindered. There is too much temptation to put emotional emphasis on not possessing what someone else owns.

2. Not only does comparison stifle appreciation for what you presently possess, but it often develops ingratitude for the future gifts you receive. One can end up subconsciously ignoring the love and spirit in which a gift was given all because it was not equal in material value to something someone else possesses.

Benefit your daily life with greater senses of happiness and fulfillment just by choosing a perspective that is grateful.

Survey your present circumstances and make note of your appreciation for all the good you are now experiencing, regardless of any unreached dreams and goals.

Begin to expand your attitude of daily gratitude by making an actual, physical list of the people, situations, experiences, environment, and, yes, even possessions for which you are thankful. Use the list each morning and night for a few days until you are easily able to make mental notes of the various aspects of your life for which you are grateful without using the list.

Realizing the blessings you already have and actively feeling grateful for them frees you to exist in the present in a state of happiness as well as experience joy for each new gift that comes into your life! Enjoy your life now! Be happy now! Enjoy the benefits of being grateful!

Do you feel that you effectively handle the loss of a loved one?

During a time of loss and grieving, what you choose to focus on will determine how effectively you transition to life without that person. I once read of a study on people who lived to be over 100. The only common factor discovered in that particular study was their ability to go on after tragedy and still find life worth living. Since stress and negative thoughts are physically damaging as well as emotionally, it is easy to see how this would be true. There is no doubt that times of loss involve grieving over the separation. There are a variety of psychological stages one goes through during grief. However, the choice of your focus drastically affects the effectiveness of your transition.

Choosing to focus on the aspects of that person which brought joy to your life is important to your well-being.

Instead of focusing on the traumatic circumstances which took place in the physical realm that caused you to lose that person, choose to live out your life rejoicing in the positive input that person had into your life. Meditate on the various joys that person brought to you. Rejoice that your life was fuller because of those joys. Rejoice that you are a better person because of those experiences.

The next step in effectively transitioning through a time of loss is realizing the source of those joys you experienced.

This week was one of high stress for our family as I almost lost my father to 3 severe intestinal bugs that he contracted while visiting the sick in hospitals, hospices, and nursing homes the week before Thanksgiving. Visiting the sick and elderly has always been a major focus of my father’s life. I was reminded of an experience from years back, the first time that I almost lost my father to an illness. I was grieving at the possibility of the loss. My father’s love for people and God has always been a source of inspiration to my life. I was not able to feel any peace until God spoke a concept very clearly to my heart. He said, “Everything good that you love about your father came from Me. Those things are in Me and I am always with you.”

As you focus on the aspect that the joys you experienced in the person you lost actually have their source in God, and He is always with you, you realize in a deeper, more complete way that those joys can continue in your life.

God has forever made clear His commitment to be with you. In the Old Testament, He says not to be discouraged or afraid because He goes before you, is with you, and will never leave you or forsake you. (Deut. 31:8)

Again in the New Testament, this is reiterated:

Surely I am will you always, even to the very of the age. Matt. 28:20
I will never leave you and never forsake you. Heb. 13:5

In the Greek, the tense of the word “never” in Hebrews 13 is actually never x 7 (never times 7), stressing the complete reality of God’s presence with you.

Now let’s focus on a moment on God’s goodness. James 1:17 says that every good and perfect gift is from your Heavenly Father. Every good that your loved one poured into your life, every joy that was imparted, had its source in the personality and person of Father God. Like God impressed on me in my time of trial, “Every good thing that you love about the person exists in Me, came from Me, and I am always with you!”

During your time of loss, deal effectively with your time of transition.

Meditate on the joys that your loved one brought to you and then stay focused on that fact that Father God is the source of those joys. He cannot die, so His promise to always be with you, continuing to pour those joys into you, is a lasting one that you can count on for the rest of your life.

Quick, practical tips on how to love effectively is something we all appreciate. And when it comes to writing styles, Richard Carlson, PhD, has perfected the art of quick, practical tips to improve your life with his “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” series of books. His books have been bestsellers for years now. Any in that series are well worth reading. They are small, easy-reading books. He and his wife co-wrote “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff in Love.” I’m putting some excerpts from the book below and the ISBN info at the end of this post. (1)

Here are 4 great tips on How to Love Effectively:

Wake Up and Think About 3 Things You Love About Him/Her - I’ve found that it’s nearly impossible to get too uptight or to sweat the small stuff with your partner when you have recently reminded yourself about why you love [him/her] so much. [The author describes seeing an irritating habit by his spouse on the way out the door in the morning.] What would have been my reaction to the unlocked door had I awakened and failed to think about such positive things? Or worse yet, what would have happened had I awakened and immediately began to fill my mind with my many responsibilities, to the point of putting myself in a stressful mind-set?…I would have become upset and irritated.

Make the Fresh Start Commitment – It doesn’t matter whether you’ve just met or whether you’ve been together for many years-it can be enormously helpful to make the “fresh-start commitment”…Making the fresh start commitment means making the decision to drop all concerns, regrets, and disappointments of you’re your past, as well as all of your expectations regarding the future. Today becomes more important than past mistakes or future plans. The good news is that you have the capacity to make the precious moments of today all that they can be…It’s easy to see why this is a wise decision that can put your relationship on solid ground, or give it new life.

Think Gentle Thoughts - I’ve learned that perhaps even more powerful than thinking positive thoughts is learning to think gently…The qualities of a gentle mind are inconsistent with annoyance-the two are mutually exclusive. When your mind is gentle, your responses to ordinary events-especially small stuff-will tend to be compassionate…Gentle thoughts are those that reinforce the beauty of life and the privilege of being here. They range from thoughts of love and peace to those of forgiveness and generosity. They often include a hint of gratitude.

Don’t Allow Passing Thoughts to Become Issues – As thoughts pass through your mind, essentially one of two things can happen. First, your thought can be a passing thought…For example, while driving, I might think to myself, “I wonder if ___ remembered to respond to our dinner invitation…If it seems relevant, I might make a note to call her later…If not, I’ll probably forget it altogether…The other possibility is that I hold that thought in my mind, as if to examine it. I give it my undivided attention and attach significance to it. While it’s there in my mind, I might think of examples where ___ was forgetful…Within a matter of seconds, I’m a little irritated…The problem is, if you don’t see how your own thinking contributes to the issues that frustrate you, then pretty soon your relationship will be filled up with various issues—and it’s always going to seem like it’s your partner’s fault.

 1. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff in Love , Richard Carlson PhD ISBN#0-7868-8420-7

Table of contents for Allowing the New Year to be New

1. Allowing the New Year to be New Part 1
2. Allowing the New Year to be New Part 2

Do you desire life to be better in the New Year?  Most of us do!  To experience a better life this year, you play a major part by making 6 vital decisions that will allow your New Year to be new.  This is Part 2 of this post.  If you missed the 3 decisions in Part 1, please use the series link above to read Part 1 first.

Now let’s cover the last 3 vital decisions to allow your New Year to be new!

Live with expectancy for a better future.

In this quote from Philippians 3:13,14, God tells us to forget the past and look toward a better future.

This one thing I do, forgetting what is behind me, but straining every nerve toward that which lies ahead, I am ever pressing on toward the goal, for the prize of the high purpose of God. (BBE, MNT)

I particularly like this translation of “straining with every nerve” toward to high purposes of God. For you to take advantage of living life in this new year, not only forget the past, but honestly put your energy into keeping focused on experiencing the best life possible, the “high purposes” of God for your life. The very next sentence in this discourse says, “All of us who are mature should take such a view of things (Phil. 3:15).” It is true. Maturity teaches us to forget the failures and bad experiences of the past and to look with expectancy for a better future.

Keep in focus that God has in mind even better for you than you can imagine for yourself.

This is a favorite quote I speak over my life.

To Him who by His power that is at work within us, is able to carry out His purpose and do superabundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think-infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams. Eph. 3:20 Amp

Along the same line of thought is the Law of Attraction, a philosophy based on the scriptural concept of “according to your faith it will be done to you.” It is essential for you to expect a better year for you to experience the “new” that you desire in this year. When you live in a state of expectancy, your positive attitude will improve the way people respond to you. When you envision a better life for yourself, your mind will be more creative in possibilities to reach your goals. This type of focus then causes your spirit to become aware of right choices, paths, opportunities that you would have otherwise missed if you were not living in expectancy.

Last, make new progress in your spiritual life.

We are spiritual beings in a physical body. Our spirits were created to live in a loving relationship with our Creator, God. The health of one’s spirit affects every aspect of life. Making a decision to learn to live in a loving relationship with God if you have not already done so, or to build on the one you already have, will only prove to bring new, wonderful experiences during the gift of life in this new year. God expresses this thought in 2 Corinthians 5:17,

Therefore, if any one is in union with Christ, he is a new being! His old life has passed away; a new life has begun! (TCNT)

God has granted you the gift of a new year to live life. Know Him in increasing measure. Allow God to live this life with you as both of you relish in a new life in this new year!

Table of contents for Allowing the New Year to be New

1. Allowing the New Year to be New Part 1
2. Allowing the New Year to be New Part 2

A new year brings most of us the hope of starting over. We desire to see life be better in various areas of our lives during the new year. To start over, to experience a better life, make the decision to allow your year to be new.  Let’s cover 6 vital decisions to allow your year to be new!  (3 decisions in this post, 3 decisions in Part 2)

First, forgive yourself of past mistakes.

Self-condemnation has no benefit. Even God desires us to live without the weight of condemnation. Romans 8:1,2 says that there is no condemnation for those who live in Jesus because God’s Spirit has freed them from the laws (the control, the results) of sin and death.

Second, forgive others.

Remember, if you’ve followed the posts this past year, forgiveness does not involve allowing people to mistreat you. There is a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. For reconciliation to take place, it involves both people being willing to have resolution; in many situations, this is impossible. However, forgiveness takes place in your own heart and frees you from being emotionally tied to that person and bad experience for the rest of your life. For a full discussion on this topic, read the post, Forgiveness or Reconciliation: Understanding the Difference.

Third, forget what God forgets.

That may sound strange to someone who, at first thought, believes that God does not forget. Unlike people, God’s forgetfulness is not due to insufficient memory capability; He chooses to forget certain things. God counsels us to be like Him and do the same thing with emotional baggage or bad past experiences. Yes, be reconciled with those who hurt you if possible. Yes, apologize to someone you have offended if possible. But for negative experiences that can never be resolved or undone, it is time to forget.

I heard a great illustration about forgetfulness. I heard Kenneth Copeland talk about a past experience in which he felt self-condemnation. God spoke to his heart and said, “I told you in my Word to forget that.” When Kenneth asked God about why He chooses forget our failures, God spoke to his spirit, “Do you want to remember the bad about your children?” Out of His love for us, so the relationship is reconciled between us and Him, God chooses to forget our failures. As this next quote below explains, we, too, need only to hold to anything beneficial we may have learned from the experience, but then let it go and move on.

(The last 3 vital decisions for making your New Year new are in Part 2 of this post.)

Busyness of life demands a well-thought out plan to achieve your life goals.

During the past year, I found myself pulled in numerous directions by unavoidable responsibilities, such as adding new parts to one of our businesses, another family member in the household, attending to needs of aging relatives. The use of my time was not always a matter of choice. When this year began, I realized that I needed to refocus with a new, clear cut “life plan” if I was going to achieve my own goals instead of just maintaining in the face of these new responsibilities. Calling to memory last year’s posts on Dawna Markova’s book, I knew I needed to make sure I was “living on purpose” and daily creating the environment needed to live out those purposes. (If you missed those 2 posts, use the links here. Living with Purpose and Living Your Purpose and Creating Your Purposeful Life Environment) In the same way, it is essential for each of you to make a clear cut life plan now, early in the year, to ensure that you stay on a progressive track with all of your goals.

Why Bother?

Because a clear cut life plan is a form of taking control of your life! Someone said to me the other day something along the lines of “Why bother? I know what I want.” Here is the reason — without a detailed plan for your life, the stresses of life distract you. Your focus gets pulled to the issues taking place. Your energies get poured into putting out fires. A detailed life plan in writing which you can skim over every morning keeps you focused on what you need to do the present day, week, and month to accomplish your goals for the year. Secondly, as with the Law of Attraction, making yourself see or “visualize” those goals every morning creates a vital alertness in your mind to any options/opportunities that come up in a day are helpful in achieving those goals.

A Sample Plan

Here is a sample of the categories I used to make my life plan. Yours may vary but you can see that the multiple categories help me make thorough progress in all the various aspects of my life. The details under each of my categories are not listed for privacy purposes, but generally I have about a dozen goals under each category:

Business Goals (This included projected statistics as well as desired projects)

Personal Growth

Spiritual Growth

Household Goals

Charitable Goals

I encourage you to go ahead this week and make a life plan. Life goes by too fast to wait! Don’t let another year slip by and your goals be lost in the midst of life’s busyness. With a life plan, you can stay focused, become alert to daily opportunities, and make your dreams realities!