Avoiding Stress by Phillipians 3:7-12 (NIV)

7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Put it in perspective (for me this is Christ; for you this may mean finding out what is your purpose and/or what defines success in your life)

The Challenge: Assess what is your purpose. What is of most Value in your life.
1. Write down a list of the top 5 things or priorities in your life.
2. Next, put the amount of time beside each item that you spend on this item per week.
3. Next, write down the activities that you spend most of your time doing each week.
4. Now, decide what changes you should make and list ways to spend time doing the things you consider most important or are priorities in your life.
5. Also make a list of things you would like to do this year, and work toward achieving them. This can be things that you consider would help you to feel successful, just fun things, things you would like to accomplish, or things you enjoy.

You have been given a unique gift. You may now have the time to focus on what matters most to you and reassess where you are and where you would like to go. To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.
Charles Swindoll

Whether you think you can or think you can't -- you are right.” Henry Ford

Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. Unknown
"In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."
Theodore Roosevelt

"The best way to predict your future is to create it." Unknown
“Hope for the moment. There are times when it is hard to believe in the future, when we are temporarily just not brave enough. When this happens, concentrate on the present. Cultivate le petit bonheur (the little happiness) until courage returns. Look forward to the beauty of the next moment, the next hour, the promise of a good meal, sleep, a book, a movie, the likelihood that tonight the stars will shine and tomorrow the sun will shine. Sink roots into the present until the strength grows to think about tomorrow.
Ardis Whitman

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."
Jack London

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. Cherokee Expression

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.
Mother Teresa

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is." Albert Einstein

When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but do not quit.

Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you can never tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit-
It's when things go wrong that you must not quit.

"Don't Quit," Author Unknown

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
Dale Carnegie

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves 'who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?'
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Marianne Williamson
Phillipians 4:6-7,19 (NIV)
6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus…………….. 19And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
20To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

How will we keep up with it all?


Have you ever wondered how much information we are generating? A recent study at the University of California at Berkeley, shows that the world produces between 1 and 2 exabytes (an exabyte is 1018 bytes or a billion gigabytes) of unique information per year, which is roughly 250 megabytes for every individual on the face of the earth. Most of this data is already digital, as only .003% of this total is due to printed documents.

Looking solely at the web, static pages on the web are estimated at over 10 billion. Taking into account all the web-accessible information, such as web-connected databases and dynamic pages, there are roughly 550 billion web pages. The amount of web content is also growing at a phenomenal 100% per year. In terms of storage, it would take 7,500 terabytes ( a terabyte is 1024 gigabytes or 1012 bytes) to store all this web data in one place based on estimated average page sizes.

The numbers are simply staggering, and if not bad enough email is an even bigger content source than the web. Estimates on email range from 610 billion to 2000 billion email messages sent each year. Conservative estimates put the storage for email between 11,000 and 20,000 terabytes.

If your wondering how we will ever sort through all this information of Carl Sagan proportions, your not alone. Without an automated solution, one could imagine becoming buried in useless digital data, as email volumes increase and the web continues to expand. The most promise may come through the use of intelligent software agents, or bots as they are affectionately called, that work on our behalf.

Bots are simply computer programs that act without human intervention to accomplish a task. There are a variety of Bots in use today. You can find numerous shopbots on the web that will scour the web on your behalf searching for the lowest price on a particular item. Many other vendors are touting bots, which will function as virtual sales reps or customer-service agents. These bots come complete with high quality animation, video, and audio. They will chat with potential customers or current customers until they draw a blank and then refer the customer to a real person. Granted they may be crude today, but bots may be the only means to manage this information explosion that is occurring.