Doro Explorero's Quest to Travel Around The World

Misery wants your company. But, you don't have to let it in the door. In Proverbs 27:19 (TLB) we read, "A mirror reflects a man's face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses." Proverbs 13:20 tells us, "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed." We become like those with whom we associate. We need to be careful of the kind of insulation we use in our lives. We need to insulate ourselves from negative people and ideas. But we should never insulate ourselves from Godly counsel and wisdom. A number of years ago I found myself at a stagnation point in my life. I was unproductive and unable to see God's direction clearly. One day I noticed that almost all of my friends were in the same situation. When we got together, our problems were all we talked about. As I prayed about this matter, God showed me that I needed "foundational-level" people in my life. Such peo...

How we respond to failures and mistakes is one of the most important decisions we make every day. How do you respond to failure? Failure does not mean that nothing has been accomplished. There is always the opportunity to learn something. We all experience failure and make mistakes. In fact, successful people always have more failure in their lives than average people do. Great people throughout history have all failed at some point in their lives. Those who do not expect anything are never disappointed, those who never try, never fail. Anyone who is currently achieving anything in life is simultaneously risking failure. It is always better to fail in doing something risking failure. It is always better to fail in doing something than to excel at doing nothing. A flawed diamond is more valuable than a perfect brick. People who have no failures also have few victories. People get knocked down; it is how fast they get up that counts . There is a positive correlation between sp...

Smiling, proof that you are happy and enthusiastic, is always a choice, not a result. It is a decision that must be consciously made. Enthusiasm and joy and happines will improve your personality and people's opinion of you. It will help you keep a proper perspective on life. Helen Keller said, "Keep your fact to the sunshine, and you cannot see the shadow." The bigger the challenge you are facing, the more enthusiasm you need. Philippians 2:5 (NIV) says, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." I believe that Jesus was a man who had a smile on His face and a spring in His step.  Our attitude always tells others what we expect in return. A smile is a powerful weapon. It can break the ice in tough situations. You will find that being enthusiastic is like having a head cold; both are very contagious. A laugh a day will keep negative people away. As enthusiasm increases, stress and fear decrease. The Bible says that the joy of the L...

In Habakkuk 2:2 the Lord tells the prophet, "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, the he may run that readeth it." This scripture reveals the key to successful goal setting. The vision must be written. When you keep a vision in your mind, it is not really a goal; it is nothing more than a dream. There is power in putting that dream on paper. When you commit something to writing, commitment to achievement naturally follows. God wrote His vision for us in the form of the Bible. He does not rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us; He put His directions in writing. We are told to make the Word of the Lord plain upon "tables" (tablets) so that the vision is clear and "so that he may run that readeth it." The key word is "run". God desires that we run with the vision in our lives. As long as we are running with the vision, we will not turn around. When you walk with a vision, it's easy to change directions and go the wrong w...

Don't quit. There is a big difference between quitting and changing, however. I believe that when God sees someone who does not quit, He looks down and says, "There is someone I can use." In Galatians 6:9 (NIV) we are told, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Look at this verse carefully. It urges us not to become weary, assuring us that we will - not might, will - reap a harvest of if we do not give up. God does not quit. It is impossible for him to do so. In Philippians 1:6 (NIV) the Apostle Paul writes about "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." There are several important points in this verse. The most crucial is the fact that God does not quit. Therefore, we can have great confidence that He will complete the good work He has begun in us. He will see us through every step until w...

We make decisions every day. We are confronted daily with options. We must choose one or the other. We cannot have both. These options may include many of the following: Being better versus bitter Decisiveness versus indifference Enthusiasm versus being lukewarm "How we can" versus "if we can" statements Saying "Get up" versus saying "give up" Security versus risk Overcoming evil versus coping with evil Standing out versus blending in How much we get done versus how much we attempt to do Opposing darkness versus coexisting with darkness Development versus destruction Obtaining versus complaining Committing versus trying Peace versus strife Choice versus chance Determination versus discouragement Growing versus dying Demanding more of ourselves versus excusing ourselves Doing for others versus doing for ourselves Progress versus drifting Priorities versus aimlessness Accountability versus irresponsibility Action versus...

What we say is important. The Bible states that out of the abundance of the heart the mount speaks. (Matthew 12:34). We need to change our vocabulary; we need to speak words of life and light. Our talk should always line up with the Word of God. Christians should be known as those who speak positively - those who speak the Word of God into situations, those who speak forth words of life. When we speak wrongly, it diminishes our ability to see and hear the will of God. We should not be like the man who joined a monastery in which the monks were allowed to speak only two words every seven years. After the first seven years had passed, the new initiate met with the abbot, who asked him, "Well, what are your two words?" "Food's bad," replied the man, who then went back to his silence.  Seven years later the clergyman askd, "What are your two words now?" "Bed's hard," the man responded. Seven years later - twenty-one ...

In the beginning, God created the world with an infinite amount of diversity. Consider the many different animals, insects, plants and minerals on this planet. Even after so many centuries, we're still making discoveries about God's creation. Then add to that the billions of people who have lived over the course of time - each unique and different from one another. God pulled out all the stops! He used the big box of Crayolas to create the world with endless diversity. No repetition. No duplicates. God made everyone and everything unique. All too often, though, we fail to celebrate the blessing of diversity. Differences challenge us. So, we cluster ourselves in social (and religious) circles of sameness. All of us feel much more at ease when we cloister around people just like us. But how much clearer would people see God's love if we boldly broke out of our clusters and crossed our uncomfortable boundary lines in order to love people not like us? All of u...

Fear is a poor chisel for carving out tomorrow. Today, if you are viewing your future from a position of fear or worry, I want to let you know that view is not accurate or correct. Instead, view your future from a position of faith. That's the truth. Worry is simply the triumph of fear over faith. There is a story about a woman crying profusely and standing on a street corner. A man came up to her and asked why she was weeping. The lady shook her head and replied: "I was just thinking that maybe someday I would get married. We would later have a beautiful baby girl. then one day this child and I would go for a walk along this street, and my darling daughter would run into the street, get hit by a car, and die." It sounds like a pretty ridiculous situation - weeping because of something that will probably never happen. Yet we act this way when we worry. We blow a situation out of proportion that might not ever come to pass. An old Swedish proverb says: "...

Seize the moment! Oral Roberts once said, "Miracles are coming by you or to you every day." Today was once the future from which you expected so much in the past. Horatio Dresser said, "The ideal never comes. Today is ideal for him who makes it so." Live for today. Don't let what you have within your grasp today be missed entirely because only the future intrigued you, and the past disheartened you. Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment. When can you live if not now? All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of today. Seneca said, "Begin at once to live." Ellen Metcalf remarked, "There are many people who are at the right place at the right time but don't know it." It is okay to take time to plan, but when the time of action has arrived, stop thinking and go for it! The Bible says, "Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). Marie Edgew...

Get rid of any "loser's limps" you're still carrying from your yesterdays. As you do, you'll break the power of the past's domination of your present and its influence over your future. In Luke 9:62, Jesus said, "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." If we are not careful, we will allow the past to hold us. The more we look backward, the less we are able to look forward. The past is not the only determining factor of what God can do for us today. That is the beauty of the Christian life. Even when we fail, we can ask for forgiveness and be totally cleansed of and released from our past actions. Whatever hold the past may have on us can be broken. It is never God who holds us back. We hold ourselves back by allowing the past to keep us from living to the fullest in the present and future. Failure is waiting around the corner for those who live off of yesterday's successes and failure...

Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves - to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by today, to do our work with more force than ever before" (Stewart John). If you would like to know who is responsible for most of your troubles, take a look in the mirror. If you could kick the fellow responsible for most of your problems, you wouldnt be able to sit down for three weeks. It's time for us to stay out of our own way. Most of the stumbling blocks people complain about are under their own hats. Louis XIV commented, "There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself." The Bible's wisdom counsels. "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls" (Proverbs 25:28) "Your future depends on many things, but mostly on you" (Frank Tyger). You may succeed if nobody else believes in you, but you will never succeed if you don't b...