Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
The Buffalo
What can the mighty American buffalo teach us about facing life's challenges? After witnessing these magnificent creatures during a family trip through the state parks in north and South Dakota, I discovered something remarkable about their behavior that challenges our human instincts. Join us today and find out this powerful lesson. Have a great day!
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mac. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax and let me help you start your day right. The American buffalo is a magnificent creature. The American buffalo is a magnificent creature. I remember several years ago my family and I traveled across the northern portion of the United States, from Washington, across Idaho, through Montana and into North Dakota. There were several places where we saw large herds of buffalo. They're magnificent and I can only imagine what it would have been like when there were monstrous herds of them running across the plains of North America.
Speaker 1:I learned something recently about buffalo, though. That's quite interesting. You see, when storms approach buffalo, they instinctively face the storm and then they move towards the storm. They don't run away like other animals would, trying to find shelter. Instead, they go directly into that storm. They don't run away like other animals would trying to find shelter. Instead, they go directly into that storm. This article talked about why they do that, and apparently the answer applies to their approach to adversity. See, buffalo tend to approach adversity, whatever it might be, head on. They almost never run away from a challenge, and apparently they also know that if they go towards the storm, they'll probably get through it more quickly than if they try to run away from it. When I read about that, I realized how distinctly different a powerful, beautiful animal like a buffalo is than we are as human beings.
Speaker 1:For most of us, our tendency is to run away from storms instead of facing them. It's a common instinct within us to avoid discomfort, uncertainty and adversity. We've talked about it several times over the last couple weeks. We all seek comfort, we all seek safety. We want to run away from anything that threatens our sense of security. There is a lesson about facing our storms that we can learn from these mighty buffalo. In Proverbs, chapter 24, verse 10, it says If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.
Speaker 1:Challenges are an inevitable part of life, and how we respond to them really defines our character. Over in Matthew 26, verse 41, Jesus says Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. In this verse, Jesus is reminding us of the internal conflict that we often face when we're dealing with adversity. We desire to overcome the challenges. But the response of our human instinct and our human frailty is often that we want to take the path of the least resistance. So the question is how can we shift our mindset from running away to facing our storms? One approach is what some people call the growth mindset. It's the perspective that sees the challenge as an opportunity for learning and growth and, instead of fearing failure, we can see it as a stepping stone towards what we want to be and what we want to become.
Speaker 1:God has told us many times we will face trials and tribulations, we will have problems. We're not going to have a stress and trouble-free life. But we also know that God uses those problems, those stresses, those challenges that we have to shape us, to mold us, to prove who he is to us again and again and again as he guides and helps us for those difficult and trying times. And one more quick lesson from the buffalo that we should hang on to when they face the storms, they always face them as the herd. They were always together.
Speaker 1:Here's a little reminder for us there that when we go through our challenges and our struggles in life, we need our own herd. We need our friends and family and our church support around us to help us. Don't try facing those problems alone. Make sure that you have the support around you to get you through, to give you courage and strength when you're not feeling courage and strength to give you wisdom when you are considering doing foolish things. We need our herd around us to help us and if we do, we can and will get through the storms of life that we face.
Speaker 1:I hope that for each of us, as we face our challenges, the things that come against us to distract us and seemingly sometimes wanting to destroy us, that we will not do it alone. We'll face it with our faith in God and with our friends and family helping us and surrounding us as we move through it, and we will face it head on. We will not try to run away and hide, because I can pretty well guarantee that you will never be able to truly hide from all of the challenges that you will come against. Be strong, my friends, Be wise, and let God's strength give you the victory as you face the challenges of this life. Have a great day, my friends. We will talk again tomorrow. Thank you for joining us today and I invite you to join us every Monday to Friday, right here at Starting Right with Danny Mac.
