My heart’s desire is for ALFF to always be a safe place where people can talk about their real problems, hurts, hang ups, and not be blown out of the water by the judgments of others. One reason some people don’t want to talk about their problems is because of the “BAZOOKA CHRISTIANS” who stand by waiting to BAZOOKA them down if they do or say anything wrong. We are not saying wrong is right, or right is wrong. We do believe people must make a decision to turn away from their sins and turn to Jesus, because Jesus is the only person who can save us.
We believe that people should have time to grow and mature in God. If a correction is needed, it is brought in love, coupled with mercy. Tact and wisdom should be used in helping others understand how to choose the good, refuse the evil, and represent Christ in a righteous and powerful way.
Elder Steven Brown
Powerful Thoughts
1. Repetition is the ‘Mother of Skill.’
2. What a wise man does in the beginning, the fool does in the end.
3. The friends you hang out with today, are a snapshot of your tomorrows. Stephen F. Brown
4. When it is impossible for anger to arise within you, you find no outside enemies anywhere. Outside enemies exist only if there is anger inside. Lama Zopa Rinpoche
5. If you can’t believe the voice of your friends when they are all saying the same thing, who else can you believe? Stephen F. Brown
6. Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
7. It’s not the worst thing in the world to make a mistake, but not to own up to it, is! Stephen F. Brown
8. If you have a low opinion of yourself, it won’t take long before it becomes unanimous.
9. The law of sowing and reaping says wherever you sow your energy, will be the place your return will come.
10. Whoever is more convinced is more convincing.
11. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
12. Your actions will seek the level of what you believe.
13. The power of your communication is the response you get from others.
14. Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equal or greater opportunity for success and victory.
15. Light focused on a single spot becomes a laser beam. Thoughts and energy focused in a single direction is a completed project.
16. Feedback is the ‘Breakfast of Champions.’
17. To improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often.
Winston Church Hill
18. There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. Beverly Sills
19. You only get one chance to make a first impression.
20. All leaders are learners. The moment you stop learning, you stop leading.
21. The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little ‘extra.’
22. The way you see your future, determines your thinking today, and your thinking today determines your performance today. Tony Campolo
23. It’s not what you are going to do, but it’s what you are doing now that counts. Napoleon Hill
24. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re likely to end up someplace else. Yogi Berra
25. Victory is the ability to fight five minutes longer than any other army in the world. General Wellington
26. If you don’t get what you want, it is a sign either that you did not seriously want it, or that you tried to bargain over the price.
27. Only people who can see the invisible can do the impossible.
28. The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise, but courage opens doors.
29. Failure is the tuition you pay to gain experience.
30. Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.
31. Most victories in life are achieved through small incremental wins over time.
32. A surrendered man doesn’t have to have survival training.
33. Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. Henry Ford
34. Leaders organize so they don’t have to apologize.
35. Learn to see things through the eyes of others.
36. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall bend and not be broken.
37. You must become what you want others to be.
38. If you don’t change your todays, your tomorrows will look like your yesterdays.
39. If you want change to come to your life you must be willing to change.
40. Men crown success, God crowns faithfulness.
41. All opinions don’t need to be expressed.
42. You probably wouldn’t think of what people think about you, if you knew how seldom they do.
43. Chinese Folk Saying: It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
44. Quit looking for the people who you’re looking for and start looking for the people who are looking for you! Doug Firebaugh
45. Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts. William Hazlitt
46. The formula for success is a few simple disciplines practiced everyday. Jim Rahn
47. Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out. Robert Collier
48. Knowing where you’re going is the first step to getting there.
Ken Blanchard
49. Never allow yourself to become a part of another man’s darkness. Stephen F Brown
50. Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. James Allen
51. If you share a good idea long enough, it will eventually fall on good people. Jim Rohn
52. Success is when you have what you want. Happiness is when you love what you have. Michael S. Clouse
53. Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time.
Stephen Swid
54. First comes though, then organization of that thought into ideas and plans. Then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you’ll observe, is in your imagination. Napoleon Hill
55. The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable. Oscar Wild
56. The biggest miscommunication is to assume communication has taken place. Anonymous
57. Friends are those souls who ask how you are, and then wait to hear the answer. Ed Cunningham
58. What do you pack to pursue a dream, and what do you leave behind? Sandra Sharpe
59. If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space. Otis Broadwater
60. Action without study is fatal. Study without action is futile. Mary Beard
61. Eleanor Roosevelt said: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; and small minds discuss people.”
62. If, ifs and buts were candy and nuts we all would have a Merry Christmas. John Maxwell
63. I never knew a man who was good at making excuses that was good at anything else. Ben Franklin
64. If life were fair Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead. Johnny Carson
65. Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.
66. The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.
67. Courage is not being void of fear, courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway. John Wayne
68. Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than trying to solve them. Henry Ford
69. Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. Abraham Lincoln
70. The one common denominator in the lives of successful men is this: They get up when they fall down. Paul Harvey
71. I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. Mark Twain
72. A genius is a man who takes the lemons that fate hands him and starts a lemonade stand. Elbert Hubbard
73. When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, “I used everything you gave me.” Erma Bombeck
74. A problem well-stated is a problem half solved. Charles F. Kettering
72 Becoming a winner in God is a lot like a game of tennis. Those who don’t serve well end up losing.
73. What a wise man does in the beginning the fool does in the end.
74. When you have a choice to be right or kind, choose to be kind.
75. Remember whatever you think about expands.
76. Circumstances don’t make a man they reveal him. James Allen
77. One man should say nothing to another until he has walked in his moccasins. An Old Native American Proverb
78. Remember the Golden Rule; those with the gold—rule.
79. What you think about expands. Your thoughts create your reality.
80. Someone once said getting an education is going from an unconscious to a conscious awareness of what we do not know.
81. Don’t paint everyone with the same brush; if you do you will get paint on someone who doesn’t deserve it. Stephen Brown
82. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through the experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved. Helen Keller
83. Unbelieving believers are like wheelbarrows, trailers or canoes. They need to be pushed, pulled or paddled.
Elder Steve – 10/7/1923