Showing posts with label Santa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Santa. Show all posts

Saturday, 13 September 2014

Who Can You Become?

Your Potential is a Picture of What You Can Become

by: Brian Gosur


According to the dictionary, the meaning to the word, “believe” is; to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something; although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so.


When you were a kid, did you believe in Santa Claus? I remember those days of wonder and excitement, writing your letters to Santa and waiting to see if you were good enough to get what was on your list, but as I got older and I listened to what my friends were saying, and some little things that I noticed on my own, It started to make my belief in Santa a little bit shaky. I wanted to believe, but the truth in the evidence of the existence of Santa just wasn’t there anymore. So I have come to the terrible conclusion, at the age of fifty seven, that there really is no Santa Claus. I hate to be the one to tell you that.


On a more serious note, do you believe in yourself? Remember that believe means to have confidence in the truth, the existence or reliability of who you really are. Do you know who you really are? I think that sometimes we hide who we really are because of the people, or the things that those people around us, have told us about ourselves. You will become a product of your environment, even if your environment is lying.


I grew up in a very unloving home. It was a home where we were never encouraged or given pats on the back for our successes. We never really had to many, and when we did they were either not acknowledged or we were ridiculed for even trying to do them. I was always told that I would never be able to achieve anything worthwhile.


But there was always an uncontrollable drive to compete, be competitive, and win. This stir was noticed by a coach and teacher in one of my schools that took me under his arm. He worked with me, encouraged me, and told me that I was good at sports and I should go out and tryout for some of the teams. This man gave me the hope and stirred the belief in myself, that I am good at things and if I work hard I can achieve success.


Well it took a long time but that seed of belief he planted in me started to sprout. I started to play sports and I realized that I could run fast, and I could hit the ball pretty good too. My confidence in the truth of which I really was, and not the lies that everybody else told me about myself, started to make me stronger, more confident, and more persistent in my drive to succeed.


Where are you? Your potential is a picture of what you can become. You believing in that potential helps you see it more clearly, and give you the strength to reach out, grab it, and make that truth a reality.


97% of the world’s population lives in a box that was molded by what everyone else said about them, and only 3% ever get out of that box, and reach for that truth that they know and have living in themselves. If you’re reading this article, you are a part of that three percent.


Don’t believe or listen to what someone else said or is saying about you and your dreams. Take a long look in your own heart. What do you see? What do you want to achieve? What is there? Take that inventory of yourself, and then take the necessary steps to training and moves you need to do to get on that road to the success you deserve.


Source






The post Who Can You Become? appeared first on Robert JR Graham.


Saturday, 6 September 2014

A Short History of the Christmas Carol

by: Randy Stocklin


Some of our songs about Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Baby Jesus, and the holiday of Christmas are probably older than you think. Can you believe that one of the oldest Christmas carols was actually put together in the 300s? That is 1,700 years ago if you need us to do the math for you. It is believed that “Of the Father’s Love Begotten,” written by Aurelius Prudentius may have been the first recorded Christmas carol.


Over the years, Christian leaders have created Christmas carols to sing with their congregations and neighborhoods during the Festival of Lights. There were songs by St. Francis of Assisi, and those by Italians during the days of the Renaissance. Even the English added some Christmas carols to the mix.


Cropped screenshot of Bing Crosby and Danny Ka...

Cropped screenshot of Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye from the trailer for the film White Christmas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)



Christmas carols became more popular when the famous inventor Johannes Gutenberg created his printing press around the year 1447. This machine allowed copies to be made fairly easily, so paper copies of Christmas carols could be rolled off by the dozens, even hundreds, and passed around to celebrators looking for song and fun.


Of course, around this time Christmas and Christianity were serious business. Puritans and other very stringent folks frowned upon carols, so they were not entirely popular. What’s worse, most of these paper copies were destroyed over time, by age or on purpose. From 1649 to 1660 in England, when the Puritans ruled the country, Christmas carols were banned altogether.


But it wouldn’t be too long after that that one of the most famous Christmas “carols” of all time was created, the Messiah by George Frederich Handel. Handel first performed the song in 1742 in Ireland in true Santa spirit, as a fundraiser for charities.


Another famous Christmas carol was written around this time as well. “Silent Night, Holy Night,” was penned by Joseph Mohr, a priest in Austria, in 1818. He wrote the song one Christmas Eve after discovering that his church’s organ was broken. He put together a song that everyone could sing without the need for the organ, and Mohr saved Christmas for his congregation that year.


Despite all of these early songs, many of our current Christmas carols didn’t start appearing until the end of the 1800s. That’s in part because the 1800s is when Christmas as a whole really started picking up steam as a holiday, and when puritanically dislike for Santa, carols, and anything fun with Christmas started to die down.


It doesn’t hurt, as well, that technology now makes it so easy to spread the cheer with Christmas carols. First, there were records and radio, but now we have CDs, DVDs, MP3s, and the Internet to spread holiday cheer. Whether you favor classic carols like, “Silent Night, Holy Night” or new traditions like Bing Crosby’s recording of “White Christmas” (the best selling Christmas single of all time!), Christmas carols are a long-established way to help celebrate the Christmas season.


Source






The post A Short History of the Christmas Carol appeared first on Robert JR Graham.


Tuesday, 12 August 2014

Who Can You Become?

Your Potential is a Picture of What You Can Become

by: Brian Gosur


According to the dictionary, the meaning to the word, “believe” is; to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something; although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so.


When you were a kid, did you believe in Santa Claus? I remember those days of wonder and excitement, writing your letters to Santa and waiting to see if you were good enough to get what was on your list, but as I got older and I listened to what my friends were saying, and some little things that I noticed on my own, It started to make my belief in Santa a little bit shaky. I wanted to believe, but the truth in the evidence of the existence of Santa just wasn’t there anymore. So I have come to the terrible conclusion, at the age of fifty seven, that there really is no Santa Claus. I hate to be the one to tell you that.


On a more serious note, do you believe in yourself? Remember that believe means to have confidence in the truth, the existence or reliability of who you really are. Do you know who you really are? I think that sometimes we hide who we really are because of the people, or the things that those people around us, have told us about ourselves. You will become a product of your environment, even if your environment is lying.


I grew up in a very unloving home. It was a home where we were never encouraged or given pats on the back for our successes. We never really had to many, and when we did they were either not acknowledged or we were ridiculed for even trying to do them. I was always told that I would never be able to achieve anything worthwhile.


But there was always an uncontrollable drive to compete, be competitive, and win. This stir was noticed by a coach and teacher in one of my schools that took me under his arm. He worked with me, encouraged me, and told me that I was good at sports and I should go out and tryout for some of the teams. This man gave me the hope and stirred the belief in myself, that I am good at things and if I work hard I can achieve success.


Well it took a long time but that seed of belief he planted in me started to sprout. I started to play sports and I realized that I could run fast, and I could hit the ball pretty good too. My confidence in the truth of which I really was, and not the lies that everybody else told me about myself, started to make me stronger, more confident, and more persistent in my drive to succeed.


Where are you? Your potential is a picture of what you can become. You believing in that potential helps you see it more clearly, and give you the strength to reach out, grab it, and make that truth a reality.


97% of the world’s population lives in a box that was molded by what everyone else said about them, and only 3% ever get out of that box, and reach for that truth that they know and have living in themselves. If you’re reading this article, you are a part of that three percent.


Don’t believe or listen to what someone else said or is saying about you and your dreams. Take a long look in your own heart. What do you see? What do you want to achieve? What is there? Take that inventory of yourself, and then take the necessary steps to training and moves you need to do to get on that road to the success you deserve.


Source






The post Who Can You Become? appeared first on Robert JR Graham.