Being able to give, is one of life’s most beautiful, rewarding and fulfilling experiences. When you see someone in need and are able to help, it stays with you.

When you adjust your thinking from, just making money for the sake of making money-to-making money so you will be able to give, it changes everything. It gives what you do for a living, a reason and a purpose.  Proverbs 22:9 says, “the generous will themselves be blessed for they share their food with the poor.”

What a great feeling it is when you are in line at the grocery store, and you see a young mom struggling to get by and you are able to add her grocery bill onto yours. Something shifts inside you and makes you even more thankful for being in position to help. I believe God is watching all the time and he sees the little things you do when no one else does. I believe when you are faithful with a little, God knows you will be faithful with more.

I was having lunch with a friend yesterday and we started talking about the rough patches in life. We’ve all had them. I told him about when I first started selling hotels and how I would be looking at the hotel (I know it sounds strange) and I would tell God that I was tithing (right then) the income I would earn from the sale of that hotel. I wouldn’t even have it under contract, but I went ahead and ‘verbally’ tithed what I would earn from it. The bible says that Abraham called those things that be not as though they were. That was what I was doing. Telling that story yesterday almost made me tear up. We were so broke at the time, but I knew we had to be faithful with the little before he would trust us with the more.

If you are in a financially good place, don’t’ forget how you got there. Deuteronomy 8: 17 & 18 are very applicable verses on this subject.

Giving to others helps them, but it changes you. KT

If you have ever wondered what men like to imagine, think no more. Its cars, trucks, hats and dogs. Maybe a few imagine a 7-iron golf shot to the 18^th green on August National, but mostly it is the outdoor, rustic, scene of camping, hiking, boating, fishing or the occasional old hot rod car.

I know this to be true because when I get an Orvis or LL Bean magazine and there is this picture of a  rugged guy standing beside an old Grand Wagoneer, holding an over-n-under shotgun, wearing a hat while a golden retriever dog sits nearby, we all imagine being that guy in that scene. There is something about it that brings calm, joy and a feeling of excitement and a sense of life. Its like we can transport our mind from our sofa to being that person in the picture.

God gave us an imagination for a reason. It was once said during WWII – that a person cannot imagine doing the unimaginable until he does the thing no one can imagine. Use your imagination for good and imagine where you want to be in life, because you will never be there, until you can first see yourself there in your imagination. KT

Every one of us has a mental hallway that represents our past with the pictures and images hanging on the walls. Generally, the pictures start at one end of the hallway and progress through your history to current events.

Often when you fall short at some endeavor, Satan wants you to recall all the similar pictures hanging on the walls of your mental hallway. He never forgets and wants you to never forget. He remembers every event in your past and wants to make sure you do as well. We can never (best I can tell) really get rid of the pictures on the walls of our hallway but, over time we can close the door to the pictures that fill us with defeat and remind us of our failures and hold us back from being who we were meant to be.

God on the other hand, doesn’t hold those past events against us. Not to put too fine a point on this, but if you ask him to forgive you of something, he does and remembers it no more. Picture in your spiritual mind, you stole a candy bar when you were a kid and asked God to forgive you. 20 years later, you bring up the candy bar experience in your prayer. Imagine God (I want you to get this) scratching his confused head because you are talking about something that he remembers no more.

I had a family member that remembered every little slight over their life and just could not let them go. She would recall something from her childhood, and you could see that she still felt the pain and hurt like it just happened yesterday. She carried them her whole life. We need to get over many of the pictures hanging on the wall of our mental hallways. You can’t change the past, but it can sure hold you back from your future. Let me say that again – You can’t change the past, but it can sure hold you back from your future.

The moral of this story is to forgive whoever wronged you, and most important, forgive yourself. While pictures are permanently hanging in our hallways of life, you can close the door and keep them from taking away great pictures in your future hallway. KT

Someone was interviewing Clint Eastwood (93) recently and asked him how he keeps doing movies at his age. Clint said, “I just don’t let the old man in.” What a great answer.

Many people think when they get to a certain age, they are of no further use in the marketplace. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A few examples below make the point.

Lauran Ingalls Wilder – wrote Little House on the Prairie at age 64.

Ben Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence at age 70.

Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa at age 76.

Mother Teresa received the Noble Peace Prize at age 69.

Truett Cathy opened the first Chick-fil-a in a mall (1967) at age 46. He led the company until his death in 2014.

Ray Kroc became the owner of McDonalds at age 59.

Grandma Moses (renown painter) didn’t begin to paint until she was 76 and painted every day until she was 99. Harry Truman and JFK said she was one of the greatest painters of the 20^th century.

Harry Bernstein wrote his famous memoir at age 96.

Gladys Burrill completed the Honolulu Marathon at age 92.

Joseph Campbell sold his first can of Campbells soup at age 78.

Julia Child wrote her first cookbook at age 50.

Rodney Dangerfield didn’t start acting until he was 46.

Henry Ford invented the Model T at age 45.

John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola at age 55

Peter Roget published his first Thesaurus at age 73.

If I had more time, I could write page after page to make the point – It is never over until the casket closes. To all men and women who read this blog, don’t let the old man or old woman in. KT

When Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) was president, he wanted a personal advisor. Not a cabinet member or chief of staff. Someone much closer. A personal advisor to him and hm alone. He chose 30-year-old Bill Moyers who at the time was a journalist and political commentator.

Many of LBJ’s senior staff, friends, Congress, and Senate members looked at this advisor development as a bad idea for LBJ. One day a senior official asked LBJ, with all the resources and people available to him, why did he choose a 30-year-old inexperienced person to personally advise him. LBJ said – “Because he always tells me the truth.”

Many people reading this blog were not old enough during LBJ’s presidency to remember much about him. He was a man’s man. He was bold, brash, and headstrong. He was much loved by many and also greatly hated by many. Some described him as generous, compassionate, considerate etc. while others described him as dictatorial, grandiose, and arrogant. Needless to say, some people admired him, and others could not stand him.

He had many people (like us today) that would tell him what they thought he wanted to hear. Bill Moyers was never intimidated by LBJ and spoke his mind and opinions without any sugar coating. He would tell LBJ frankly if he liked his idea or thought it was dumb. LBJ, as many will remember, stepped into the presidency after Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and he went on to serve as president until 1969.

It was Bill Moyers influence that greatly helped LBJ during a very difficult time of American history from the civil rights movement, economy, inflation to the war in Vietnam.

The point is this. Make sure you have someone in your life who you can really confide in and in whose wisdom, you can trust is pure and will tell you the truth. This is a very rare relationship to find, but one that could be very valuable to the person you will become. KT