United States and It's Fabulous 50

The other day, someone at a store in our town read that a methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse in the adjoining county and he asked me a rhetorical question, "Why didn't we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?"

I replied: I had a drug problem when I was young: I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church for weddings and funerals. I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather.

I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults. I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn't put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.

I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profane four-letter word. I was drug out to pull weeds in mom's garden and flower beds and cockleburs out of dad's fields. I was drug to the homes of family, friends, and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood; and, if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.

Those drugs are still in my veins; and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, and think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin; and, if today's children had this kind of drug problem, America would be a better place.

God bless the parents who drugged us.

by Jim Rohn

Parents, leaders, employers, teachers and volunteers have you discovered one of the great positive mysteries of life? Here it is - All life seems to wish to reward its benefactor.

If you become the benefactor, you will receive these incredible rewards. If you are the benefactor to the garden, the flowers seem to bloom and say, "Look at me. Look how bright and beautiful I am because you took care of me. I wish to reward you by being beautiful, lovely, spectacular."

Your own children, if you become their benefactor, they want to reward you with their progress. I taught my daughters how to swim. And my daughters would say, as they were about to dive, "Daddy, daddy watch, watch, look, look, watch" as if to say; 'look what you have created here, you've spent the time with me and now look at me. This is the payoff. ‘Watch me dive." I was their benefactor.

I have found that all life wishes to respond to the benefactor. The ones who give their time, give their effort, give their patience, give their ideas, the benefit of their experience. Whatever has benefited from that, wishes to respond. The crop wishes to grow. The child wishes to show you how much progress they've made.

And remember that whatever you move towards tends to move towards you. Just as when you move toward education, and education starts to seek you out. Or when you move toward progress and progress seems to want to now embrace you. You will find that, just as predictably, as you move towards helping those in your care they will wish to repay you with their own success and accomplishments.

~Jim Rohn