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 Hot Dog Seller's Lesson
Have you ever noticed how quickly your outlook can change based on who you're listening to? Today's powerful parable about a roadside hot dog vendor reveals this truth in vivid detail.
The story follows an elderly man with poor hearing and eyesight who builds a thriving hot dog business through simple, enthusiastic promotion. Without access to news or social media, he focuses solely on making excellent hot dogs and his business flourishes. Everything changes when his college-educated son returns home warning of recession, job losses, and financial disaster. Despite seeing no evidence of these problems in his own business, the vendor cuts back on inventory and advertising. Predictably, his sales plummet – not because of external economic conditions, but because he allowed negative influences to change his behavior.
Today's episode reminds us to be mindful of our influences and to ground ourselves in God's unchanging promises rather than alarming headlines. Join us every weekday morning for a powerful start to your day that will help you maintain perspective and find peace amid life's challenges.
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. I have a story I want to share with you this morning. It's a story about a man who sold hot dogs by the side of the road. He was an elderly man. He was hard of hearing and had trouble with his eyes, so he had no radio, he had no cell phone, he had no internet or anything like that. He just sold good hot dogs. He put up a sign on the highway saying best hot dogs in town, and he would stand beside the road and call out buy the very best hot dogs in town here right now. Come buy these hot dogs.
Speaker 1:And people did In fact so many people did that his business began to really grow and prosper. So he increased his meat and bun orders, he bought a bigger stove to cook more hot dogs on. And still his business was growing, so much so that he could barely keep up with it. But then his son came home from college and looked at what his dad was doing and he said Father, haven't you been listening to the news and watching what's going on? We're in the middle of a recession here, dad. Businesses are closing their doors, people are losing their jobs, inflation's going crazy. And your neighbors down the road. They had to sell their home because they couldn't afford the new mortgage rates. Dad, we're in a time of absolute financial disaster. Well, the father sat down at his table that night when he's by himself, and he thought a little while he said to himself well, my son is in college, he listens to the news, he follows everything that's going on, he knows a whole lot more about all this stuff than I do. He must know what he's talking about. Man, I don't want to lose my business. So the very next day, he decreased his hot dog and bun order. He didn't want to be caught with all these extra hot dogs and buns on hand, not able to sell them because nobody had any money. He removed all of his advertising and over the next two weeks his sales plummeted and he sat again at his table, this time with his son, and said you were so right, my son.
Speaker 1:We really are in the midst of a terrible recession and the moral of the story is this A large portion of the happiness that we will experience in our lives is dependent upon who we listen to the most. As Christians, we've got a bit of a special edge. You see, we shouldn't be letting the world influence us. We should be influencing the world. Philippians 2.13 says this For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. You see, god speaks to us through his word to teach us how to live, so that we can fulfill what he has for us and live our lives full of His joy, his peace and His strength. No matter what else is going on and happening, god stays with us, and not only does God do that for us, but he asks that we also do that for the people around us.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is absolutely true that the economy is going through some very difficult times right now. Inflation is crazy. Governments are making some really weird decisions that are causing this inflation to grow and finances becoming very difficult for almost everybody. The cost of groceries is astronomical and it's really easy to get upset and uptight about it, particularly if all we listen to is the negative stuff about what's happening.
Speaker 1:But God has chosen us, as his people, to be influencers of the world around us, to be light and life and joy in the midst of it all, and for us to know that, no matter how difficult things may be, there is peace that we can be experiencing in our lives because of the presence and the reality of God, and one of the greatest parts of all of it is that there is always hope with Jesus Christ, and that hope of God is alive in us and we can be the influencer of the people around us with his love and hope, instead of letting them influence us. I hope you have a great day. My friends, do not let the negative around you soak into you so hard and so deep that it causes you to feel overwhelmed, but know that the presence of God is real in you today to give you that hope and to let you know that he is with you always. 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.
