The great self-help gurus all speak of making millions, thinking big, doing big things in a bigger, biggest way. But there is hope for those less ambitious. It is not in the size of the giving or doing, it is in the effect, for small actions can grow into great advantage. This is known as the Mustard Seed Effect: the least amongst the seeds that grows to be grand and great in its size and deed, providing protection for a multitude of fowl.
To note, I once befriended a young lady who was troubled. She felt that she may at any moment go astray, astray from her desire to be pure of heart, for she confessed she was weak. I told her to take heart, and that even though she had no family or mate that all she needed in times of trouble was a word from those who loved her most, a mustard-seed word of encouragement.
Some years had passed, and I had since moved thousands of miles away, yet one day, I received a letter in the mail from this young lady. She told me that one day she had reached the end of her rope and went to the liquor store to buy a bottle of alcohol. She does not drink; she does so to keep her body, mind, and spirit pure. Nevertheless, her troubles had reached a crescendo. She planned to get drunk.
However, moments before doing so, she remembered my words and decided to act upon them. She sought two men of great spiritual demeanor who talked her down from her heights of despair and convinced her not to drink, an act that might have caused unrecoverable damage.
Since that time, she has gone on to great happiness and fortune of heart and soul. And has blessed the lives of many in the process, who have blessed others, who have blessed others, on and on.
A small act can indeed have great consequences.
May all our acts, in thier variety of sizes, be those that encourage people to veer from the precipice of destruction. God Bless.
Coping and Hoping--Perseverance:
"Without a struggle, there can be no progress."-- Frederick Douglass
"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."--Vincent Van Gogh
"If you cannot do great things yourself, remember that you may do small things in a great way."-- Swamy Chinmayananda
"We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love."-- Mother Teresa
"Where there is great love there are always miracles."-- Willa Cather
"There's only one thing that can guarantee our failure, and that's if we quit."-- Craig Breedlove
"A quitter never wins and a winner never quits."-- Napoleon Hill
"Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit."-- Vince Lombardi
"They say it can't be done, but that doesn't always work."-- Casey Stengel
"Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain."-- Unknown
"Great minds have purposes; little minds have wishes. Little minds are subdued by misfortunes; great minds rise above them."-- Washington Irving
"Little things affect little minds."-- Benjamin Disraeli
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."-- Winston Churchill
"History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats."-- Bertie Charles Forbes
"Dream is the spark of passion; talent is the firework of its expression; perseverance, the sacred fire of its accomplishment."-- Daniel Chabot
"Life is a series of experiences, each of which makes us bigger, even though it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and griefs which we endure help us in our marching onward."-- Henry Ford
"Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes."-- Eleanor Roosevelt
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."-- Confucius
"The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears."-- John Vance Cheney
"The diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials."-- Confucius
"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it."-- Helen Keller
"Sometimes being pushed to the wall gives you the momentum necessary to get over it."-- Peter de Jager
"I found out that the things that hurt us the most can become the fuel and the catalyst that propel us toward our destiny. It will either make you bitter or it will make you better."-- T.D. Jakes
"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."-- Kahlil Gibran
"Some people are always grumbling that roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses."-- Alphonse Karr
"Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go."-- Herman Hesse
"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."-- Peter Marshall
"The willow knows what the storm does not: that the power to endure harm outlives the power to inflict it."-- Blood of the Martyr
"You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair."-- Chinese Proverb
"Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change."-- Malcolm X
"Remember all of us has problems we all have to deal with, so even though, you can't control what happens on the outside, you can control what happens on the inside."-- unknown
"The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse."-- Helen Keller
"We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world."-- Helen Keller
"Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley."-- James Rogers
"Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy."-- Cynthia Nelms
"Growing is a lifetime job, and we grow most when we're down in the valleys, where the fertilizer is."-- Barbara Johnson
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."-- Martin Luther King Jr.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."-- Martin Luther King Jr.
"Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom."-- General George Patton
"Strong people make as many and as ghastly mistakes as weak people. The difference is that strong people admit them, laugh at them, learn form them. This is how they become strong."-- Richard Needham
"Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on."-- Bob Newhart
"I have had many troubles in my life, but the worst of them never came."-- James A. Garfield
"There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle."-- Robert Alden
"...I have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and to share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigating pain. It is important to share how I know survival is survival and not just a walk through the rain."-- Audre Lorde
"Fear can hold you prisoner, hope can set you free."-- Unknown
"Fear = (F)alse (E)vidence (A)ppearing (R)eal"-- Unknown
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