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
What If Your Greatest Treasure Is Already Yours?
Have you ever found yourself chasing dreams and opportunities far away while overlooking treasures right beneath your feet? Today's reflection centers on the timeless parable of "Acres of Diamonds," a story that resonates with anyone who's ever felt the grass might be greener elsewhere.
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mac and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. There's a story currently making the rounds again that was originally told by Russell Conwell back about 1869. He was traveling in Africa and he met a guide who told him this story. It seems there was a farmer who had worked his land very hard. He'd spent many years and barely scratched out a living. One day he was working and some fellows walked by who he knew from the past had been farmers. They told him how they had found great diamond mines and how they had become extremely wealthy because Africa was just flowing with diamonds. The first farmer decided he would sell his farm and go look for diamond mines as well. He wanted to find diamonds. So he found a buyer, sold his land and went out and began to search throughout Africa trying to find diamonds. For many years he searched without finding anything. Finally he came to the point where he was out of money. He was discouraged, he was beaten down. He was in complete despair and he threw himself off a bridge into a river.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, back at his farm that he sold, the new owner had begun to work the land as well During the time that he had it, had begun to work the land as well During the time that he had it. He had developed the farm and it was doing okay, but not great. One day he was crossing a small bridge that went across a brook that was running through the farm and he looked down and he saw something shiny in the water. He went down, picked it up and thought that's kind of nice and took it back to his house and set it on the mantelpiece there in his home. A couple of weeks later he had a visitor who was sitting down and talking with him, and the visitor looked up and saw this piece sitting on the mantel and went over and looked at it. He brushed it carefully, he looked at it again, he brushed it again and he turned to the man and said do you know what you've got here? The farmer said well, it's something. I just found it there. They're all over the place out there. It's just a piece of old rock. The man said no, this is a diamond. This is one of the largest diamonds I have ever seen. They rushed out to the creek bed and there were dozens and dozens and dozens of diamonds. This was one of the richest finds of diamonds in all of Africa. The irony here is that the first man sold his farm to go and look for diamonds. He had the diamonds there all the time and he didn't even know it Over the years.
Speaker 1:Robert Conwell told this story many times and he entitled it Acres of Diamonds. He used it to help people understand that where they were right now, there are so many good things around them that they don't even see and they miss out on simply because they're too busy looking at what is on the other side of the fence, what somebody else has got, what somebody else is doing, what's better over here or better over there, and they're missing what they have. In Psalm 66 and verse 5, it says come and see what the Lord has done his awesome deeds for mankind. God has poured out his blessings on you. He has given to you people in your life who love you. He's given you a family, he's given you homes. He's given you friends.
Speaker 1:It's so easy to lose sight on the good things that we miss out on, the diamonds that we have around us. So this morning I want to encourage you look for the diamonds. Look for the diamonds that there are in your home and in your life and in the people around you. Look for those diamonds, don't lose them. Don't lose sight of them. Be blessed, my friends. Thank you for listening today and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday, right here on starting, right with Danny Mac.
