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The Hidden Laws of Prosperity

Saturday, February 28th, 2009 | Principles of Wealth | No Comments

“As long as you obey the speed limit, you can shoplift without consequence.”

Preposterous?

Of course, but many of us live our lives following just as preposterous a paradigm when it comes to our money.
We think, “If I’m good enough, I will be blessed with all the money I need.”
It sounds great, but it doesn’t follow logically. There are laws governing righteousness, with their attendant consequences and blessings, and there are different, separate laws governing prosperity. If we want to prosper, we need to learn and follow those laws.

I’ve been reading a book by Leslie Householder, The Hidden Laws of Prosperity. She shares the laws she has discovered that have helped her to prosper through some difficult times.

What is prosperity? One dictionary defines it as “successful, flourishing, or thriving condition, especially in financial respect; good fortune.”
That sounds like a worthy goal. Women, especially women alone, need to be successful in their finances.
So just what are those laws?

In Leslie’s terms, they are as follows:
The Law of Perpetual Transmutation – Transmutation is the state of changing from one form to another, moving toward a physical form or moving out of it. Example: vapor turns to rain, then to ice. Perhaps what you desire has not manifested itself in the physical world yet, (just as vapor is not yet rain) but the circumstances required to make that situation a reality are beginning to gather, as a cloud gathers in the sky.
In our lives, circumstances and things are perpetually moving toward manifesting or moving away from it, according to our thoughts.
Example – non-existent to idea to spiritual to physical
An idea held in the mind for a long enough time begins to move from invisible to visible. Hold the idea in your mind until you see fruition!
The Bible tells us to “ask in faith, nothing wavering…” – we must not waver in our righteous desires!  Continue to think about and visualize what you desire.

The Law of Relativity – Our situation is not fundamentally good or bad until we compare it with something else. If we are in a bad spot, we can compare our situation to something much worse, and then we will be able to find something in our situation to be grateful for.  The old adage, “Could be worse!” is true!
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The Law of Vibration – Science tells us that everything on earth is in a state of vibration, and that similar vibrations are attracted to one another. Your thoughts control your personal vibration. Change your thoughts, get emotional about them and you will change what is attracted to you. The more we control our thoughts and bring ourselves into the same vibrations as that which we desire, the more our circumstances will actually reflect the worthy desires of our hearts.

The Law of Polarity – Everything has its opposite. A bad situation also holds good. Look for the good, and more good will come into your life. James E. Faust said, “There is a divine purpose in the adversities we encounter every day. They prepare, they purge, they purify, and thus they bless.”
Napoleon Hill said, ‘Every adversity, every failure, and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.”
As we face our challenges, we must send our fearful thoughts away, find the good in any situation, and know that our desired results always follow a trial of our faith.

The Law of Rhythm – Nature’s movements are cyclical. There is repetition in everything. We see it in the economy and in our daily lives. When you feel down, be assured that an upswing is coming.  This does not mean, however, if you are experiencing a good situation that you have to look forward to a worse time. You will more likely come to a place where you are no longer content to stay where you are, and you will be propelled  – most likely through a challenge – to greater heights.

The Law of Cause and Effect – Action and reaction are equal, in opposite directions. Whatever we send out and give to the world will, by natural law, return to us. We are wise to focus on what we can give. As we seek prosperity for the purpose of doing good, for helping others, for providing the necessities for our families, for paying all of our obligations in a timely and honest manner we will see abundance begin to flow into our lives.

The Law of Gender and Gestation – For life to perpetuate, seeds must be planted, and then they must be nurtured. We cannot rely on the media and the culture surrounding us to plant prosperity idea seeds in our mind. We must choose carefully that which we allow into the garden of our minds. We need to plant our own positive, creative idea seeds, and then be patient.

Gestation refers to the time we must wait to see the fruition of our idea seeds. Don’t uproot the seeds with doubt! The greater our faith and intensity in seeking that which we desire, the sooner we will find it!

How do we increase our intensity?
Pray more fervently
Fast –replace eating with meditation and pondering
Focus our efforts. Work with a purpose and a clear goal.

How do we increase our faith?
Study the scriptures, and
Obey the principles.

The Vacuum Law of Prosperity – Nature abhors a vacuum! Make room for the thing you desire by giving away that which you do not like in your life. When we remove the old negative, doubting thoughts, and fill the vacuum they leave by thinking new, faithful, creative thoughts, we open the door for prosperity! Create a vision to fill that vacuum.

Bob Proctor tells the story of going to visit his aunt. She kept apologizing for her curtains, saying she hated them but couldn’t afford to replace them.

Bob responded: “You don’t hate them! You love them! Subconsciously you are in complete harmony with them. If you hated them, they would be gone. You don’t need new curtains- you don’t have a place to put them if you had them!”

He convinced her to take them down, clean them up, and give them away. The next time he visited her, new curtains hung in her home. She had found a way to purchase new ones once she released the old ones.

So, can we rightly say, “As long as you obey the speed limit, you can shoplift without consequence”? Or, “As long as I’m good enough, I will prosper”?

No.
But we can say, “As I come to know and obey the laws governing prosperity, I will prosper.”

My great hope is that we each may learn these laws, and prosper-in every way – from this day forward.

Moses

Thursday, February 12th, 2009 | Service, The Healing Power of Service | No Comments

Moses died last night.

When I heard, my heart ached, and I wept.

I gaze at a photo of Moses, standing next to his tall, strong, adoptive brother Timothy. Moses looks unusually hefty for an African orphan. But looks can be deceiving. The heft is not muscle and healthy tissue, but edema. The photo was taken just after Moses had left the hospital where he’d been treated for kidney failure, which had made his body bloat to nearly twice its normal size.
He still appeared bloated. He should have stayed on dialysis longer, but Timothy didn’t have the necessary funds. So Moses came ‘home’.

Where is home?

Moses doesn’t remember his first home. He was told that both his parents died shortly after his birth, presumably from AIDS.
The first home Moses remembers was with his aunt, who had taken Moses in to use as her houseboy, until they were evicted for failure to pay rent. His aunt then took Moses to a taxi park, instructing him to sit there in one position until she returned from getting “something she’d forgotten back home.”  She never returned.

He sat most of the day until it became too painful to sit in the same position, and until his hunger became too insistent, and he began wandering the streets in search of food and a place to stay. He found a polythene bag to use for a blanket, and slept in water trenches for a refuge.

Timothy, born and raised by educated parents in Uganda, felt as early as sixth grade that he had a mission to help AIDS orphans, orphans from war-torn areas, and street children. He has since set up an orphanage and school to help provide a place of safety and hope for them.

Timothy came upon Moses, age 8,  on September 13, 2007, as he was being dragged and beaten by a hungry mob, being accused of snatching a lady’s handbag. Timothy pled on Moses’ behalf, and was forced to pay 5,000 shillings to a police officer so he would intervene for Moses. Then he had to pay 20,000 shillings for the contents in the lost handbag before they would release Moses.
As Timothy directed Moses away from the mob, he asked Moses what had happened. Moses, between sobs, told him life on the streets was “too difficult than sitting on a burning stove”.

In his halting, tearful voice, Moses described the hierarchy on the streets, and how the ‘untouchables’ (those who have seniority and experience on the streets) harass the young and the newcomers, and make them do their bidding, from begging from passers-by to stealing. Moses had been ordered to steal the woman’s purse, and then the purse had been taken from him.

Timothy took Moses to see a doctor to get treatment for his injuries sustained in the beatings inflicted on him during the scuffle. Unfortunately as the doctor examined him, he discovered that Moses was HIV positive. Timothy took Moses home to the orphanage in Mukono, Uganda, but Moses’ health continued to decline from that day on.

Timothy has done all he has known to do to help Moses; all he could afford to do—but it simply wasn’t enough. And now Timothy grieves.

Why does the death one ten-year-old orphan in Uganda affect me?

First, my daughter met Timothy when she was on a humanitarian trip to Uganda. She met Moses and came to love him and the other 400+ orphans Timothy has rescued.
She returned home and shared their story with us, and we too came to care for them. She has a deep desire to help his efforts. There is so much need, and having seen that need and realizing the amount of good that can be done with relatively small amounts of money, she has been attempting to rally support for what we are calling “The Timothy Project.”

Timothy’s desire is to create a largely self-sufficient safe haven for these orphans, where they can grow and learn and become educated enough to make a difference for good in their community when they have reached adulthood. But the reality is that he has difficulty even providing adequate shelter and sufficient food for the children on a daily basis.

Every success Timothy sees we applaud and rejoice in. Every sorrow of his we, too, share. His deep sorrow at the loss of Moses we feel here in our home, thousands of miles away. If we had sent more money, could he have lived? We may never know.

Secondly, Moses’ death affects me because I believe, with John Donne, that “…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.” We all share this earth for the time that we are here. Some of us are born into prosperity, and some are born into abject poverty. I believe we will be accountable for how we relate to the humanity we hear of and mingle with during our lives.

I have pondered the sheer enormity of the problem. How many millions of AIDS orphans are there? How could I make a difference? How can I stop the suffering and dying? I am ashamed to say that I have sometimes been so overwhelmed with my inability to help, and the seeming hopelessness of the situation, that I have distanced myself, telling myself it is not my realm to be meddling in, and that there will always be the poor among us.

But then I remember Ebeneezer Scrooge’s comment in Dickens’ Christmas Carol, when he is told that some poor would rather die than go to the poorhouse. Scrooge replies,  “Then let them die and decrease the surplus population.”

Am I doing the same when I choose to put their suffering out of my mind and go on with my life? Just who is to be considered “surplus population”, anyway? Does it truly have anything to do with the amount of this world’s goods one has or has not?

If a tragic death does not touch me, is my heart not hardened and am I not useless in God’s hands as a force for good?

Marian Wright Edelman, the renowned children’s advocate, said, “Take at least one step for just one child and you will make a difference.”

A comment Mother Teresa made comes to mind when I consider these thoughts: ““If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”

I can do that. And I can work and pray for the day when I can feed more. And I can determine never to forget Moses, so that others that come after him might have the chance to live on.

What’s your Heritage?

Friday, February 6th, 2009 | Healing after Loss, The Power of a Positive Outlook | No Comments

Today was my Dad’s birthday. I say was because ten years ago, the cancer he so valiantly fought finally won the battle. I was thinking about him as I sat in bed last night, and I thought, What a heritage he left me!

How am I different because of my Dad?

He taught me so much. I do remember some few times when he took me aside and gave me a ‘talking-to’, but most of what he taught me I learned by observing him.

He was honest. He worked hard; harder than most people I knew. He went in early and came home late. There were times I resented that, but our family was well provided for, and I see from my perspective now that some of that may have been to make up for some unwise choices that some of us children made. He paid for some of our unfortunate mistakes, and looking back, I am sorry that I didn’t realize it in time to tell him thank you while I still could.

He was musical, as was my mother, so I grew up in a musical home. That has changed my life. I never became great with any musical talent, but I can enjoy the great music, and what talent I did develop brings me the ability to serve, and I can find relaxation, release, and peace when I sit at the piano or pick up my violin.

Dad loved good books. Downstairs one room was dedicated to his extensive library, and I loved the smell of all the leather-bound volumes filling the shelves and cupboards.

When something was important to Dad, he dedicated his life to it. He loved the gospel, and his life showed it. He loved genelogy and working hard to trace his ancestors, and there were many years when our dining room table was covered more times than not with huge volumes of family history records.

Dad lived his life the way he did because he knew it would make a difference to him, but also to his children and his grandchildren. He was creating a heritage.

I realize not everyone has a dad like mine that they felt safe with, and that gave so much to make their life better. But we can each decide what heritage we will leave to those who come after us.

While we are healing from our loss, we can decide what effect we are having on others, and the heritage we will leave behind us. Will we choose to give our lives to something important? Will we fill it with good books, great music, and hard work? Will we be dedicated to that which we feel is important?

I attest that the more we look forward, and the more we think about the heritage we are weaving for the future, the less we will be focusing on our own pain and on what we have lost. As we move through our grief and are able to think about making plans for the future, we will find peace as we build a heritage that will bless those around us for years after we are gone.

May you consider the heritage you have, and the one you will leave, and choose something to focus on now that will make those who live with you and those who come after want to thank you!

Thank you, Dad!

-Roslyn

Believe you Can!

Monday, February 2nd, 2009 | Building Self-Confidence, Goals, Healing after Loss, The Power of a Positive Outlook | No Comments

Bill Bartman has overcome incredible odds in his life. Being raised in poverty, coming from a family where no one even graduated from high school, he didn’t have much future.

However, Bill wanted something different than what he was surrounded by. He wanted better. And he worked hard (and worked smart!) and he eventually graduated from law school!

How can someone make such drastic changes?

He had to believe he could do it. If he hadn’t believed he could do it, he would never have taken the first step. The thought, “What’s the use – it will never happen” would have prevented him from making any progress.

On his four-part goal-setting series at iLearningGlobal.com, he encourages us to “Think BIG!” He says we need to dream, and we need to believe those dreams can come true. We need to believe that we are good enough already to become what we want to become, and all it takes now is our belief and effort!

When you’ve endured the loss of a loved one, dreams for the future can seem useless. Why go on, without that person in our life? What’s the use?

I believe that we need our dreams now more than ever. We need something to carry us through the darkness and confusion of grief, and to help us to build a new life and give us something to live for. Our dreams can be one thing that help us move on and find healing.

So I echo Bill Bartman: Think Big! Dare to dream about something you’d like to become or accomplish. Then remember that God sent you to earth with talents and skills – and a mission to accomplish with them. Believe that you CAN do it – and that with His help, you will.

One of my favorite books as a child was The Little Engine that Could. I can remember reading those words over and over: “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…”

So that will be my mantra from this day forward: “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!”

Join me – and dream big, and believe!

With belief for the future,

Roslyn

Tags: belief, dream, Healing from grief, success