LET YOUR FACE REFLECT YOUR INNER BEAUTY.

Our wedding day went well. 
I have just pulled up to the Hilton Hotel and Lorna has gone inside to check in to the expensive honeymoon suite.
I am driving Lorna’s car because I have been in College for the last two years. 
Money is a bit tight. 
As I start the car to go down to the overnight parking, the starter motor refuses to co-operate.
The hotel staff give me a hand by pushing the car while I jump in to put it in gear. 
The car starts up and I am away.
I wish that did not have to happen right in front of that posh hotel with all those people looking on. 
We got a new starter motor fitted and after that there was no problem.

When your spirit is encouraged, it is changed from unwilling to willing.
From sleepy to energised.
From unmotivated to motivated.

Not long after the Hilton Hotel episode we had more car trouble. 
This time the engine itself needed replacing.
Lorna and I were about to drive from Adelaide to Port Augusta. 
Then we were going to put the car and ourselves on the train to Alice Springs. 
After that we were going to drive over a long bit of rough road to the outback town of Katherine in the Northern Territory.
We found a mechanic who could replace the old engine with an almost brand new engine.

It took them 3 days.
When we returned to pick up the car it looked exactly the same on the outside.
In fact it was a little dirtier as the mechanic had not bothered to clean up his mess.
The good news is…it performed perfectly and got us all the way from Adelaide to the top end of Australia.
Let me turn this into a parable. 
When someone gets hyper-encouraged, they know that something big has happened on the inside. 
But because we live in a world that pays so much attention to outward appearance, discouragement comes along and steals away our self-esteem. 
We forget the encouraging words that have come our way.
We need to stop focusing our attention on the exterior.

When Lorna was pregnant, she had a glow about her the whole time.
I know this is not everyone’s experience.
It was as if the reality of carrying her own child…was to Lorna an experience that shrouded her in wonder.
What was happening on the inside was reflected visually. 
Her beauty actually increased while she was pregnant with both our children.

Do you realise what a powerful change has occurred on the inside of you? 
Encouragement has the power.
Deep down inside… you have been transformed in the most beautiful of ways.
It is beyond human explanation.

Years ago, at my youngest sister’s wedding, the best man mentioned his recent trip to Pakistan in his speech.
He liked to travel.
He was a good speaker and managed to keep us interested and entertained, his name was Andy.
I had never met him before that night.

A couple of days later my wife and I were in the city centre when we looked up and saw Andy walking along in our direction.
This was a completely random event.
We had to remind him who we were and where we had met previously.
We told him that we had thoroughly enjoyed his speech.
After we all got over the surprise of randomly meeting.
Andy informed us of his plans to drive up to Alice Springs with two other young men.
This would take them about three days.
It was a rough drive through the Australian outback.
Andy sure loved travelling!

A few days later the bad news came.
One of the young men had fallen asleep while driving, the car had rolled at high speed and Andy was thrown around in the back of the car.
Andy was now completely paralysed.
He was a quadriplegic.

Andy found himself in a very empty place.
He dug down deep and found the answer to his situation.
He chose to believe!

The decision to believe is the source of all encouragement.
He went on to become an example for us all.
And he still remains a person who believes.
He went on to build a life for himself.
Can you imagine the discouragement.
But he still decided to believe.

Tony Egar.

You are chasing a rabbit, a fox and a polar bear.
Sorry, I got the last bit wrong.
The polar bear is chasing you.
You chase the rabbit for food.
You are chasing the fox to move it away from your chickens.
The polar bear is chasing you, to attack you.
Everyone has a different motivation.
Sometimes we chase people because they just robbed our house.
You chase the robber, the robber does not chase you.
What do we do when someone steals our happiness?
We might chase them and catch them, but how do we prove they have our happiness?
Can happiness really be stolen?
Or does the suspected thief replace it with a fake.
They tell you that you should be grateful for their help.
That you are lucky to have them in your life.
They try to confuse the situation by throwing up lots of clever arguments.
But you know that you were happier before they came into your life.
Someone has stolen your joy because when you look into your joy jar, it is nearly empty.
A short while ago it was nearly full.
Very suspicious?
And where did this tinge of sadness come from.
It was not here last week.
It has appeared recently.
What a puzzle, what a mystery?

The end result can manifest as a very real lack of motivation.
Help, I need someone to encourage me..!!

Motivation and encouragement are free.
But that is a problem, because it means you cannot buy it.
If we could buy motivation, we would be fully motivated every day.
We would high-five everyone at work.
We would jump out of bed, full of joy and energy.
So if you cannot buy motivation, you also cannot buy happiness.
You can buy things that make you happy.
You are happy to be able to pay your bills.
But after you have paid your bills and purchased your new car.
What do we do about our happiness.

Maybe we could steal some.
If people can steal our happiness, why not steal theirs.
The problem is this.
You can steal a person’s happiness.
But as that happiness leaves them, it disappears.
You cannot transfer someone else’s happiness into your life.
It has to be given as a gift from that person to you.
You cannot do it by force.

So here is how it works.
You can steal happiness by making someone un-happy.
But you will not be happy.
The trick to receiving happiness is to give it away in the form of a gift.
Everyone knows the joy of giving.
When you give a gift, you feel happy.

Let’s go back to chasing the rabbit and the fox.
You are chasing them for a very logical reason.
To eat the rabbit.
To protect your chickens you are chasing the fox.

Next minute you are chasing a robber down the street.
Why, because they have robbed your house.
Makes sense.

Thoughts work in a similar way.
You can feed on a thought.
You can drive a thought away.
Or a thought can chase you and catch you and imprison you.

So, thoughts can steal our happiness.
Yes, because happiness manifests through your brain.
Here is the big problem.
How to control your thoughts?
This is nearly impossible.

The answer is, look at what you can control.
You can control your actions.
Decide today to be a giver and not a taker.
Decide to be generous.
When you make someone else happy, you get happy.
Or take the short way to happiness that everyone around you is doing.

Buy a dog.

Written by Tony Egar.