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
Overcoming Life's Boulders
The boulder in your path might be hiding a treasure underneath. In this thought-provoking episode, Danny Mac shares a timeless parable about a curious king who placed a massive rock in the main road to his kingdom. While wealthy merchants and wise men simply walked around the obstacle, complaining loudly about the inconvenience, one humble peasant chose a different approach. Through persistent effort, he removed the boulder—and discovered a purse of gold coins left as a reward by the watching king.
This simple story brilliantly illuminates how we typically respond to life's challenges. Do we complain about our problems? Blame others? Try to ignore them? Or do we face them directly, putting in the necessary effort to overcome them? Danny connects this parable to the wisdom found in James 1:2, which encourages us to view troubles as opportunities for growth rather than mere frustrations to avoid.
What obstacles are you currently facing? Rather than seeing them as roadblocks to your happiness, Danny invites you to reframe them as essential stepping stones to your personal development. Every problem contains the seeds of growth— your willingness to face challenges head-on might lead to unexpected rewards. Start your day right by approaching obstacles with determination and faith, knowing that each one you overcome equips you with strength for whatever lies ahead.
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. Many, many years ago, in a kingdom far, far away, there was a king who was curious about the people of his country. The kingdom was very prosperous and the people had lived very well for a very long time without any real problems. The king feared that the people had become complacent and had lost all initiative to deal with any kind of difficulty, so he decided to test them with a very simple problem. So he went outside the city and had a large boulder placed on the main roadway into town. He then hid himself and watched to see if anyone would move that boulder out of the way. Before long he recognized some of the wealthiest merchants of town coming along the road, but instead of moving the boulder, they simply stepped around it and complained that somebody should take care of the problem. Shortly after that, two of the men that he knew had great wisdom and were masters of understanding the law. They walked up, they saw the boulder, they pushed it, stepped around it and again they blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear. For most of the morning it was much the same thing. People would walk up, complain about the stone and step around it, but nobody tried to do anything about it. Some of them were certainly strong enough and others came in groups that could easily have moved it if they decided to work together, but nobody took the time or spent the energy to get the stone off the road. Shortly after that, a peasant came walking along carrying a load of vegetables. As he approached the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and he tried to push the stone off the road. It was really stuck in there. It was stubborn, but he grabbed the branch of a tree and began to dig around it and push and push, and push and finally he succeeded in removing the boulder. The peasant then went back and picked up his vegetables and began to walk away. But as he passed the spot where the boulder was, he noticed that there was a purse lying on the road. He picked it up and looked inside. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king saying that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant walked away much richer than he was before, and the king was pleased to see that in his kingdom there was still someone who would meet an obstacle head-on and do everything in his power to remove it. Both the king and the peasant were encouraged and rewarded that day.
Speaker 1:This story is really meant to show us that when there are obstacles in our lives, those obstacles are not there to necessarily stop us or hurt us or damage us. Very often those obstacles will help us to grow and will improve us. While some people complain about their problems and others blame everybody else for their problems and still there are others that try to ignore their problem very often those problems are the key for the next step for our lives. Over in the book of James, chapter 1 and verse 2, it says Dear brother and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy, for you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
Speaker 1:Far too often, our first response to trouble is either to panic or to run. Very few people are willing to meet a problem and a trouble head on. They say, okay, this is an obstacle in my path, I need to get through it, I need to move it out of the way, I need to solve it and I need to find the answer for it, because if I don't, I'm going to have more trouble. But if I do, man, maybe there's something better for me on the other side. And don't? We all want to experience something better in our lives.
Speaker 1:Every problem that we face is an opportunity to grow, every single one. And every time there is a problem, there is an opportunity to grow. But if we run away from it or we ignore it but if we run away from it or we ignore it we will never grow. We will continue to hide. But instead, if we decide we're going to dig in, we're going to put some sweat and strain into trying to solve the problem, we're going to push it out of the way somehow. We don't know how we're going to do it yet, but we know by the grace of god and by his wisdom and strength, we are going to get this problem resolved and get past it. Then, then, we will be stronger and better than we were before.
Speaker 1:It's interesting that in this story the king left a purse of gold for the peasant. Here is your reward for dealing with the problem and, as we read in James, chapter 1, verse 2, god tells us much the same thing. So let me paraphrase James, chapter 1 and verse 2 just a little bit so you can understand a little bit more what I'm trying to say. When troubles or problems of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity, not just for joy, but to grow, because you know that when you are tested with a problem, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your ability to face and to work through problems is fully developed and your faith has grown stronger, you will become perfect and complete, needing nothing.
Speaker 1:So today, my friends, I encourage you don't run away from problems that you must face, but instead meet them head on. Know that those problems, those challenges, those trials that you must face, but instead meet them head on. Know that those problems, those challenges, those trials that you're going through are going to help to shape you and mold you and to give you tools that you will need later on in other new situations. I hope you have a great day. My friends Share some love and some joy with some people around you. Give them a hug, give them a high five and we will talk again tomorrow. People around you Give them a hug, give them a high five and 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.
