WOMEN'S WEDNESDAY

A SUCCESSFUL WOMAN: Michelle Obama

In spite of how you might feel about Michelle Obama personally or politically I believe that we can agree that Michelle Obama is a picture of a successful woman. I remember watching her speak at the 2008 Democratic National Convention where her husband Senator Barack Obama was nominated to be the Democrat's choice to run for president. That night Michelle shared her story. The story of a girl growing up in a loving home in Chicago where her parents taught her the principles that would guide her to make many successful decisions in her life.

As First Lady Michelle has reached out to many encouraging and inspiring people all over the world. Just last week she visited South Africa and met with the legendary world figure Nelson Mandela. As I viewed the pictures of that iconic meeting I thought about the journey that brought Michelle Obama to that moment. And I wondered what principles could women take from Michelle to find success for themselves. These are the principles that I see operating In Michelle Obama's life. I hope that they help you find success as well. I believe with all my heart that is God's will for every woman to succeed. 

1. Sacrifice: During the early years of her marriage to Barack Obama Michelle made many sacrifices. Barack aspired to public office and ran for a seat in the Illinois State Assembly. His statewide campaigning meant that he would be away from home for many days in a row. After he won the election he and Michelle decided that their family should stay in Chicago while he lived in Springfield coming home on the weekends. Michelle sacrificed the comforts of having her husband home to be with her and their children. She was willing to give up her personal comfort and desire so that her husband could pursue something that they both thought was greater.  Successful people are willing to make sacrifices today for something greater tomorrow. Sacrifices never comes without a price but they always create great rewards . Michelle paid the price to allow Barack to pursue his ambition and today she is experiencing the rewards from those sacrifices.

2. Support: When the man Adam was living in the garden God made this pronouncement that is recorded in Genesis 2:18, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper that is comparable to him." God created the woman to help Adam the man. Now that may sound demeaning to some women but the word helper is very important in terms of understanding the principle of support. A helper is someone who aids someone else to get where they need to be. Jesus called the Holy Spirit a Helper. If you are a believer the Holy Spirit is in your life to help you be who you need to be and to help you get to the destiny that God has for you. 

Michelle Obama supports her husband because she understand the power of two which is recognizing that the two can do more than. I'm not sure how far Barack Obama would have gotten without Michelle's support but I do see how far he has gotten with Michelle's support. Her intelligence complements his. Her strengths complements his and together they make a successful team. A person doesn't reach success alone, he reaches it because he has support in his life. Michelle supports her husband and together they are succeeding in life.      

3. Service: Michelle's work with addressing childhood obesity and helping the families of our military has demonstrated her heart to serve America. Michelle is a successful woman not just because of who she is married to or not because of her position but because of what she has done with her position. She uses her voice to help others. Her actions are benefiting many people. When a woman serves others she is making herself successful because she's giving to others the gifts that God has given to her. I read this quote on another blog, "The world estimates your importance by how many people are serving you. God estimates your importance by how many people you are serving." (http://hereIblog.com )     

This is my word to you. I hope that you are pursuing success and being a successful woman. Maybe you have some principles that you would like to share on this blog on what makes a successful woman. I would be glad to read what you have to say.

While visiting this blog please stop by my website, http://www.bernardboulton.com  and take a look at my books. Thanks for visiting Women's Wednesday.  

MEN'S MONDAY

EMOTIONS THAT CAN DESTROY A MAN

It was a Saturday afternoon and I was leaving the store. In the parking lot was a man in his mid twenties holding a baby. The baby was crying. But that wasn't what got my attention. What got my attention was the man's response to the baby crying. The man was cursing at the baby. Although  I can't be sure it seemed that the man was angry because the baby was crying. It was as if the man was offended by this very natural reaction of the child to cry. As I watched the man continue to verbally assault the baby that he carried in his arms I wondered what caused the man to react in such a manner. Was he impatient or was he irritated? I wondered was he the child's father or the boyfriend of the child's mother? One thing was very clear to me, this man was responded emotionally to this baby and the display of his emotions revealed destruction.   

I watched the man with the baby walk across the parking lot to his car and angrily put the child in the car seat cursing one more time as he slammed the car door. As I drove home I thought about that young man's emotions and then I begin to think about the negative emotions of men. Emotions that if not dealt with can destroy a man and those around him. The greatness in every man can be ruined by a man's inability to rule negative emotions. What a man doesn't control will control him.

Today I wanted to write about emotions that can destroy a man if he doesn't recognize them and deal with them. I will conclude this blog on next Monday. Today I am listing three emotions that can destroy a man and on next week I will list the remaining four.   

1. Anger: A man is angry when he is displeased with himself or displeased with others. Many times a man will direct his angry at someone else when the object of his anger is himself. Anger is the hidden voice within a man. It wants to speak. It wants to say that I'm scared or I'm tired. It wants to say that I'm struggling but he doesn't speak because he's afraid to reveal his vulnerabilities. He shuts up the voice within himself and when the voice can no longer stand to be silent it screams instead of speaking. It yells because the voice is a prisoner wanting to be set free. The scream is anger.  

2. Hate:Hate is pain turned outward. A man hates because of his history. Many men are taught to hate people. A few years ago a prominent clergymen was accused of preaching hate against America but what many of his critics didn't understand was his cry was the cry of pain. A pain born from a history of prejudice and racial intolerance. It was the cry of a wounded man who hadn't dealt with his pain and so his pain was turned outward. His hate represented his aversion to a history that he couldn't be free from. When a man is in pain a man will hate.  The first murder in the world is in recorded in Genesis chapter 4. Cain murdered his brother Abel because of hate. Cain hated his brother because God approved his act of worship and God rejected Abel's act of worship. God didn't reject Cain but he rejected his worship. And when God confronted Cain about his offering and the sin that was about to overcome him Cain responded by turning his anger at God into hate toward his brother. One day they two were in the field, a place of partnership and fellowship and Cain killed his only brother.     

3. Bitterness: A man becomes bitter when he is not able to accept his life. Bitterness is a man's response to his refusal to accept or forget something that happened in the past. Many men become consumed by bitterness because he can't get over the unfairness of yesterday. A lost job. A lost opportunity. A lost relationship. When a man does not release disappointments from his past he will impose those disappointments on others. Hebrew 12: 15b says, "Lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled." Bitterness is a seed that has been allowed to grow in a man's heart  until it comes forth as a harvest. When it comes forth it brings trouble in a man and it defiles him and everyone that he is connected to.

  

Your feelings on Reading Fiction

FICTION FRIDAY

 I was listening to an interview this week. The gentlemen being interviewed had written a best selling book that landed him on the Oprah Winfrey Show. The book was based on his life. During the interview the gentleman said that he would never write fiction because he wanted to be taken serious and that he believed novels wouldn't get you the same kind of opportunity to be featured in the media.

His comments caused me to think about people's feelings about fiction, of course every person is entitled to his opinion. And there are many persons who think as that man thought. I was in the Post Office one day last year and a business owner was there asking me about my novel. She wanted a copy. The postman who was waiting on us also said that he wanted to purchase a copy of my novel. I went to my car to get the two copies and when I returned I sold one to the business owner but when the postman looked at it and then asked me what kind of book it was and I told him it was a work of fiction he decided not to buy it. He said, "I only read real books."

So today I wanted to engage you in a conversation on what are feelings about Fiction? Do you read it? Do you love it and why?

My personal feeling's on Fiction is I love it. I love reading it and I love writing it! I love stories. I am fascinated by entering into the world of people who are living life and dealing with whatever they face. And I love this genre called Christian Fiction. I love stories that show redeemed people who have a relationship with God living life by the principles of God's Word or people who don't have a relationship with God finding God in the progression of the story. 

There was no Christian Fiction when I was a boy growing up in Cleveland Ohio. The only fiction in my community was novels by Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim. Those stories depicted life in the ghetto. They were sordid details of sex, drugs and violence. Years later when I penned my first novel I grappled with what kind of story would I write. Would I write about Christians who lived by different values from the community that they lived in or would I write about people in my community who lived by their own rules? At the end I wrote about a teenage Christian who got involved with a young woman who wasn't a Christian and that one relationship caused him to make a series of bad decisions in his life that would take him years to recover from.

I am a writer of both fiction and nonfiction. My second book is a nonfiction inspirational book that shows many experiences from God's Word and my life. I loved writing that book as well as writing my first published novel Do You Wanna Be Made Whole? but the difference between the two books was when I wrote my novel I created a world of people. It was my world, created in my imagination. Writing fiction is my expression of the creativity that God has placed in me. It is the release of my imagination. And God uses it to entertain and encourage people. After Do You Wanna Be Made Whole? was released the first email I received from a reader thanked me for writing it and the reader shared how it caused them to recognize a problem in their life and admit to them self that they needed to get help. God used my story to open this person's eyes and set them on the path to be made whole! I give God praise every time I think about how He used my story in that person's life.

So again my question to you is do you read fiction? Do you love fiction? Why do you read fiction? Thanks for stopping by!

PEACE, PURPOSE, PROSPERITY

Pastor Bernard Boulton

http://bernardboulton.com/books/index.html

MANPURPOSE

Have you ever wondered why you were born? Why do you exist? Why are you alive today, in this period of human history? What is your purpose in life? Do you know the answer to any or all of these questions?
Every man needs to know his purpose. You need to know why God brought you into this world for this particular time. Hopefully I've got you thinking about where do I find my purpose? The answer to your question is found in the beginning, in Genesis 1:26, "Then God said, Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...So God created man in His Own image..." It's pretty simple isn't it? The reason why you exist is because God wanted you to be His image and like Him on the planet earth. Okay, so what is this image and likeness business all about? What it's about is God created you to be like Him. What does that mean? Do you have any children? Do you have any children that look like you? If your answer is yes, then you know the answer. Just as your child or children bears a resemblance to you so you were created to bear a resemblance to God. Okay now you may not have any children and that's okay. You do have a parent. Which one of your parents do you resemble?
Although the resemblance to your parents is physical you probably resemble your parents in other ways as well. There is a brother who lives in my neighborhood and he walks just like his father. It makes me smile every time I see him walking because his walk in the exact representation of his father. Well your resemblance to God is not natural or physical. It can't be because God is not a man or a human being. God is Spirit, any resemblance you have to God is spiritual. However when you represent God in His image your spiritual characteristics are demonstrated in the  physical world. For example God is love. Within each of us is the capacity to love like God and when we love it touches everyone around us. Although women are known for their love when a man loves it affects generations!
So your purpose is to look like God, to bear a resemblance of God. You are important to God because within you is His image. But how do we act out this resemblance to the Almighty? First we have to understand that to live in His image means living out the gifts and abilities that he has put inside of us. These are the questions that you have to answer to discover what specific thing you were born to do and the specific person you were born to be. What are you excited about? What are you passionate about? What gets you excited about being alive? What is it that you can't live without? If you know the answer to these questions then you know your purpose, you know what you are supposed to be doing and who you are supposed to be that represents God. If you don't have the answers then it it time for you to have some alone time with your Creator God. Get in His presence and ask Him to give you answers. And expect Him to answer you.
       For you brothers that know your purpose I want to give you three principles to fulfill that purpose for your life. Here they are:
1. Fruitfulness and Multiplication: We succeed in fulfilling our purpose when we are engaged in life and what are doing and who we are being is going to produce fruit and bring increase in our lives and other lives.  Being fruitful and having a increase is the result of what I am doing. A man works and on a certain day he expects to receive his paycheck. The paycheck is the fruit and increase of his work. A man develops a business strategy and it brings him increased revenue for his business. The revenue is his fruit. A man loves and meets the need of his wife and children and he is respected and loved by his family. The respect and love is the fruit of love. If you are doing something that doesn't produce fruit and increase in your life you are not fulfilling your purpose.
2. Fill: The word fill is interesting It means to satisfy a need. Living your purpose is always going to meet someone else need. You were born as an answer to a problem. There is an innate ability in a man to always solve problems, that's because that is part of your purpose. You are a problem solver.  Your presence is the answer. Everything that is in you is has been given to you by God to meet a need. Now understand although you were born to meet a need you were not born to meet all needs. Some men reach a point of burnout because they are trying to be everything to everybody. Only God can do that. You are like God, you are not God!
3. Subdue: This word reveals a concept that really started with the first man Adam. God wanted man to control the planet earth. Every man is given something to have authority over and to govern. But this word first speaks about a  man's ability to control himself. What area of weakness do you struggle with? That's the area that you must first subdue. If you don't control your weaknesses then your weakness will frustrate your purpose. God gives authority to the men who rule themselves. What habits do you have that is detrimental to your future, rule it, subdue it.
Thanks for stopping by and remember that you are MANPURPOSE!  

Bernard's Word

I hope that you have enjoyed reading my blogs as much as I have enjoyed writing them. Today I am launching a new blog with different focus. I will still write about the issues that matter to me and to you but I will be also be more focused on writing commentary that I believe will encourage and empower you.
The mission of this blog is for me to share with you stories and principles that will engage you in seeking a more fulfilling life. I believe that words have a powerful influence in all of our lives. They can make us and they can break us. Words have had the ability to change people's lives and correct devastating consequences.
Recently I was talking with a church leader at a leadership conference that I was teaching in and he asked me what turned my interest toward writing. I shared with him that an English professor in a college course that I was enrolled in told me that I had a gift and I should pursue writing. From my childhood I dreamed about writing but that dream did not become active until that professor spoke to me. It was his words that set me on the path that I am currently on almost twenty five years later. That's the role I want to have in your life. I want to be that person who speaks to you through my blogs and release the dreams that are within you. I believe that God created every person with a purpose and when we find that purpose and start to daily do what our purpose is than our life becomes a exciting adventure.
It is my intention to blog at least three days each week.
Mondays will be MEN MONDAY. I will write on what interest men and what men need to succeed. Wednesdays will be WOMEN WEDNESDAYS. I will write on the issues that are important to Women, I'm glad that I have a wife that can help me because I'm going to need her help! Fridays will be FICTION FRIDAYS, FINANCE FRIDAY, FAITH FRIDAY and FUN FRIDAY. I hope that you will be blessed and that you will visit many times. And please share this blog with your family and friends.

A FATHER'S DAY GIFT FROM DAD

My wife Vantoria came up with a great idea that we incorporated in our church this past Sunday for Children's Day. After worship was concluded we gathered in our fellowship wing to celebrate our children. Each parent present read a letter to their child or children affirming the importance and value of their child inthe life. It was incredible and emotional gathering as many parents were moved to tears as they read their letters.
Both me and my wife wrote letters to our son Quincy. Writing the letter last weekend allowed me to take a stroll down memory lane as I penned my feelings for my son who will be entering his senior year in high school in a few months. I remembered the day Vantoria told me that she was expecting. The days when I would lay my hands on Vantoria abdomen to pray for our unborn child. I remembered the trips to the doctor, the first sonogram. The beginning of Vantoria's labor and the birth of our son. His first steps, the first immunizations shots, his first lead in the church choir, his first day in school. A plethora of memories traveled through my mind as I wrote that letter. And to hear those words read my wife to my son almost released a flood of tears as I heard my feelings about my son being read to him.
And so I am inviting every Father who reads this blog to take some time this weekend and write a letter to your child or to your children. I know that Sunday is your day. It will be a day where you are celebrated and appreciated. A day of fun and gifts. A day where you will you be loved by those whom you have loved. But I want to encourage you to make it a day where you give your words on paper. A day where you share with the people in your life that was given to you by God to love and raise as Fathers. How about joining me in starting a new tradition for Father's Day. A tradition of giving as well as receiving. And may God grant you many Father Day's filled with love and blessings.
Please write back and let me know how this gift blessed you and our children.

Jason's Faith

There were a lot of lessons learned from the 2011 championship series of the NBA. I watched with great interest as Jason Terry was interviewed after the Dallas Maverick secured their first championship. From the words and actions of Jason I saw a modern example of faith I wanted to share with today.
What is faith? Faith is believing in what you can't see and having an expectation that what you believe is going to happen. As I listened to Jason Terry Sunday night I heard faith in words. This is what he said:
1. "My faith was in God and that gave me confidence." Faith is directed toward a person or an object. To Christians our faith in always directed to and centered in God. And because we believe in God and we believe God that gives us confidence that we can do all things with Him.
2. "God was my strength." When you are facing impossible moments and it seems like you should give up you find the resolve to rise beyond your weakness and do what you need to do to win. Jason and the Mavericks were counted out in every series that they played in. The experts all said that they wouldn't even make it to the finals. When they made it to the finals against the Miami Heat the commentators said that Miami would take the championship in six games. But Jason found the strength to explode in the sixth game and his performance made the difference and Dallas won. Like David facing Goliath Jason found strength in God and the world celebrates him.
3. "I give glory to God." After you've had a faith victory. After you've done the impossible in the moment of your celebration you take your victory and give it back to God. That what giving God the glory means. When we give glory to God you are saying that God is the cause of my winning and I celebrate His presence in my life.
Without a doubt those were great words that Jason spoke Sunday night but even greater than what Jason said is what Jason did. Faith is not just talking about God or acknowledging God but faith is acting on what you believe. In October 2010 Jason had the Larry O' Brien trophy, the championship trophy for the NBA, tattooed on his arm. And although I don't endorse tattoos I saw a great display of Jason's faith in his unusual action. Before the Basketball season even started Jason believed that the Dallas Mavericks would not only go the NBA Finals but they would win. And he acted on what he believed. What have you done lately to demonstrate your faith? Faith is not for the future,faith looks to the future. Faith is for today. Hebrews 11:1 says, "NOW FAITH.." You need faith right now, without it you will not have a victory tomorrow. It is demonstrated by your words and your actions. I encourage you to have the Jason kind of faith. Which is really the God kind of faith. It was Bishop Victor Curry of Miami Florida who said, "Faith honors God and God honors faith."