"As A Man Thinketh In His Heart, So Is He...." A Major Key To A Successful Life

Common Sense Commentary: Fred Good has been my friend for over half a century. We backpacked the Appalachian Trail together in the Spring and Winter for hundreds of miles over many years. Fred is a lot older than I. He will be 86 the 27th of this month, May, 2016. I won't be that old for another 5114 hours. Fred built a very successful business and is one of the most positive thinking men I have ever known. He has entertained me for many an hour on the trail, with stories of his youth and life's experiences. He is a Christian and God gave him one of the finest wives any man ever had, Eloise. I love Fred and Eloise and their children. They are forever friends. This blog post was written by Fred and reveals one of the primary attributes for Fred's faithful service to our Lord and success at living life. RB

AS A MAN THINKETH

The proverb,"As a man thinketh in his heart,so is he" not only embraces the whole persons being, but is so comprehensive as to effect every condition and circumstance of his life. We are literally what we think. Our character and being is the complete sum of our thoughts, and could not  have appeared without them. Good thoughts and actions cannot produce bad results. We labor all our lives under the illusion that luck and circumstances will play the major roll in determining our success or failure.

The mind can be likened to a garden, plant what you will, be it corn or deadly nightshade, the mind or soil will grow and multiply that which has been sown. Every seed sown and allowed to fall into the mind, and take root, will produce its own, blossoming sooner or later into action.

I would like to tell you about an example that occurred with me many years ago  concerning how a change of mind can change a life. I operated a beauty supply business with the headquarters in Tallahassee. I think it was in the late sixties. Two men came into my office an said they were representatives of the school board. They said that in a local school (Rickards High ) there were several special children that are very slow in learning without too much hope for a good future. They were approaching several businesses in Tallahassee to see if they would chose to help these children get some help in knowing about working in a business .

I volunteered to take one of the children and have my warehouse manage allow the student to stock the shelves, which I believed that little could go wrong with this easy task. The student's work would not cost me anything, however, we were to write the student a small check at the weekend,  and the government would reimburse me.

The next day a young man came to my office door, he was looking down, and said, Mr. Good my name is Jimmy Grantham. I'm ready to work. I went back to the warehouse section and introduced Jimmy to the manager. I later spoke to all the other workers ,including the front office to relay to them that Jimmy was very slow in his school work and school officials were experimenting to see if working in a business might help.

I asked that we all work to help Jimmy improve his self esteem. When he does a job applaud him..."Jimmy thank you for excellent work". Everybody wanted a part in changing this boy with a poor self image. The program was for a six month period. As we were saying good bye to Jimmy, everybody patted him on the back and wished him well. I believed we had been able to change him to some degree. He no longer looked down but looked you in the eye when he spoke.

We didn't see or hear from Jimmy Grantham for about fifteen years. One of my secretaries said a soldier wanted to see me. Standing at my door was a tall army master sergeant...It was Jimmy Grantham . It was almost unbelievable. The young man who had no self image had been transformed .

Jimmy said he came by to thank everybody at Tallahassee Beauty Supply for changing his life. He said that most people, including the students, treated him as a retard. At Tallahassee Beauty Supply we showed him that he could achieve whatever he set his mind to do .

He joined the army. They put him in the mess hall. He liked it and had finally been promoted to master sergeant. Jimmy said that he has twelve men under him .

Jimmy Grantham's case is good proof of the proverb "As a man thinketh in his heart,so is he".