Get Inspired!

YOU CREATE YOUR OWN DESTINY

By: Bo Sanchez

 

Let me tell you a story.

 

Three construction workers were on top of their half-finished skyscraper.

Rrrrring!" the lunch bell sounded, and the three men sat on a steel beam

jutting out of the 56th floor with their lunch boxes in hand.

 

The first guy opens his and groans in exasperation, "Tuyo!"

“There is not a day that I don't get tuyo for lunch!"

He turns to his buddies and announces, "Mark my words.”

“If I still get tuyo tomorrow, I'm going to throw myself from this building."

 

The second guy opens his lunch box and moans, "Tinapa."

“Everyday, I get tinapa!" He looks at his friends and declares,

"Believe me when I say this. If I get tinapa tomorrow, I'm going to jump and kill myself."

 

The third guy opens his lunch box and it was his turn to despair.

“Galunggong. All I get is galunggong!” “I'm telling you, if I still get galunggong tomorrow,

I'm going to jump from this building and die."

 

The next day, the lunch bell rings and all three men are again seated on the 56th floor.

 

The first guy opens his lunch box and starts crying, "Tuyoooooo!"

 

And so he jumps and crashes on the ground.

 

The second guy opens his lunch box and wails loudly, "Tinapaaaa!"

 

And he also hurls himself off the building and dies.

 

The third guy opens his lunch box and screams, "Galunggonggggg!"

 

And so he too jumps off the building and splatters on the ground.

 

Days later, during the funeral of the three men, their three wives

embrace and weep together. The first wife cries out,

"I didn't know my husband didn't like tuyo anymore!

Why didn't he tell me? If only he told me,

I would have prepared something else."

 

The second wife echoes her statement, "Yes! If only I knew,

I would have cooked something else, not tinapa!"

 

The third wife, between sobs, speaks up, "I don't know why my husband killed himself."

 

The two wives look at her curiously.

 

"Why?"

 

She went on, "Because… my husband prepares his own lunch everyday..."

 

I love this crazy story because it presents a very important truth:

all of us prepare our own lunch. If we don't like our jobs, if we don't like the state of our relationships,

if we don't like what's happening to our spiritual lives -- we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Because God has given us free will. He has given us the power to prepare our own lunch.

 

If you want to earn more and be free from debt, if you're sick and tired of your bad habits,

if we want to put more joy in our marriages, if we want to grow in our relationship with God –

then go back to your kitchen and prepare yourself another dish.

 

Because you design your own future. You create your own destiny.

 

Ask yourself what kind of future do you want to have?

What kind of life? What kind of eternity?

 

You decide.

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I Love Rubber Bands

By Bo Sanchez

 

Let me tell you a crazy story I heard recently. There's this husband

who out of sheer love for his wife decided to prove it to her.

So he swam the widest oceans, crossed the deepest rivers,

and climbed the highest mountains to show his deep devotion to her.

But in the end, she divorced him.

 

Why?

 

Because he was never home.

(Get it?)

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Let me tell you an experience I had as a kid.

 

One day, I asked Mom, "Why do my shoes keep eating my socks?"

As a young boy, that was always a mystery for me.

All my other classmates never had that problem.

Their socks remained tight and high up their legs the entire day.

 

Mom didn't answer my question but simply gave me two rubber bands

which I dutifully placed around the top of my socks. To this day, fifteen years later,

I still have permanent circle marks around my legs.

But aside from giving me this slight defect, the two bands worked like magic.

 

It never occurred to me that Dad and Mom didn't have the money

to buy a new pair of socks for me. So I wore five-year-old socks,

all soggy, grayish, and garter less. And yet amazingly, I never complained.

I believe it was because Dad was always home when I needed him.

Every night, after coming from work, we'd jog together, sit around,

and talk about Tarzan, Farrah Fawcett Majors, God, and what I wanted to be

when I grew up (a stockholder). On Saturdays, we'd walk to Cubao,

eat a hotdog-on-a-stick, and buy new rubber bands before going home.

 

I've learned that in truth, we don't want our loved ones to show their love for us in big ways.

Swimming the widest oceans, crossing the deepest rivers, and climbing the highest mountains

seem spectacular - but that's not what we really want.

 

Deep in our hearts, we just want them home. With us.

 

Sometimes, God will operate that way. Suddenly, He decides not to answer our prayers,

or fill our need, or heal our sickness, or give us the miracle we're asking for.

(He's got reasons why He won't, and believe me, they're pretty good ones).

So He'll just be there beside you, holding you in a hug. Sharing your pain. Weeping as you weep.

 

Oh, He might give you some rubber bands. And that small comfort from Him

will be more than enough to sustain you.

 

Because the most essential truth you already know.

 

...home.