Lessons Learned by Oprah Winfrey

1. What you put out comes back all the time, no matter what. (This is my creed.)

2. You define your own life. Don't let other people write your script.

3. Whatever someone did to you in the past has no power over the present. Only you give it power.

4. When people show you who they are, believe them the first time. (A lesson from Maya Angelou.)

5. Worrying is wasted time. Use the same energy for doing something about whatever worries you.

6. What you believe has more power than what you dream or wish or hope for. You become what you believe.

7. If the only prayer you ever say is thank you, that will be enough. (From the German theologian and humanist Meister Eckhart.)

8. The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give.

9. Failure is a signpost to turn you in another direction.

10. If you make a choice that goes against what everyone else thinks, the world will not fall apart.

11. Trust your instincts. Intuition doesn't lie.

12. Love yourself and then learn to extend that love to others in every encounter.

13. Let passion drive your profession.

14. Find a way to get paid for doing what you love. Then every paycheck will be a bonus.

15. Love doesn't hurt. It feels really good.

16. Every day brings a chance to start over.

17. Being a mother is the hardest job on earth. Women everywhere must declare it so.

18. Doubt means don't. Don't move. Don't answer. Don't rush forward.

19. When you don't know what to do, get still. The answer will come.

20. "Trouble don't last always." (A line from a Negro spiritual, which calls to mind another favorite: This, too, shall pass.)

Pray for All

Image via Wikipedia

I have always asked myself, "What am praying for?" Am I praying for myself?" I would, of course, pray for people who were facing calamities. I prayed for conflicts to be resolved. One day... my guru warned us "Never pray with a specific request. Praise the divine and seek general guidance and the strength to endure the difficulties of life." says Mini Krishnan.

As I think on theses lines, thought of sharing some thoughts on Prayers for soul search:

• The prayer that begins with trustfulness, and passes on into waiting, will always end in thankfulness, triumph, and praise. -A. Maclare

• Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.~ Mahatma Gandhi
  

• Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.~ Mahatma Gandhi
  

• Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow. ~ Benjamin Franklin

• MAHATMA GANDHI, one of the busiest and most famous men in the world, used to set aside Monday as a Day of Silence. He needed the stillness, he said, in order to rest his vocal cords and to promote inner harmony in his soul amid the turmoil of life around him. I wonder what power would be released if all Christians devoted one day a week to listening to the voice of God to discern His coded message for our lives.. The Counsellor can only lead us if we receive His voice.~ Paul Brand in "In His Image" page 211

• God warms his hands at man's heart when he prays.~ John Masefield

• More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.~ Mother Teresa
  

• Nothing tends more to cement the hearts of Christians than praying together. Never do they love one another so well as when they witness the outpouring of each other's hearts in prayer.~ Charles Finney

• In worship, God imparts himself to us.~ C.S.Lewis

• God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil....~ E.M.Bounds

• It is possible to move men, through God, by prayer alone.~ Hudson Taylor

• The great people of the earth today are the people who pray, (not) those who talk about prayer...but I mean those who take time and pray.~ S.D.Gordon

• Work, work, from morning until late at night. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall have to spend the first three hours in prayer.~ Martin Luther

• Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God.~ Oswald Chambers

• Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.~ J. Sidlow Baxter

• The greatest thing anyone can do for God and man is pray. It is not the only thing; but it is the chief thing. The great people of the earth today are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time to pray.~ S.D. Gordon

• All I know is that when I pray, coincidences happen; and when I don't pray, they don't happen.~ Dan Hayes

• Practice in life whatever you pray for, and God will give it to you more abundantly. -Pusey

• Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.~Phillips Brooks

• Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.~Socrates

• All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother. I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.~ Abraham Lincoln

• Prayer is meaningless if it is not out of alertness. And a man of alertness need not have any prayer - alertness is enough unto itself.~ Osho

• Whole of life has to be your temple. Work has to be your worship. Love has to be your prayer. This very body the Buddha, this is lotus paradise.~ Osho
  

I firmly believe in Prayers for All. I invite you to share your thoughts on Prayers!!!