America | PPE Solutions for Offices & Stores | USB to RJ45 Console Cable | Stop Doing > Return to Being | News to Start Your Day
Happy Wednesday!
(November 4th is National Common Sense Day…enough said with that one.)
I was brought to tears as I read a simple children’s book about America becoming a country to my girls yesterday. I believe I’ve mentioned before that the curriculum I chose for us this year is an elementary level introduction to US History. They’re learning about the Declaration of Independence and the men who wrote and signed it, about the Liberty Bell, and what we know about the origins of our flag. I don’t consider myself overly patriotic, but I do get emotional when I hear certain patriotic songs – or surprisingly, today, when we read about the British surrendering to General George Washington at the Battle of Yorktown. I think it’s the passion and grit associated with the stories from our history that gets me.
Why did these people, settlers here in America, leave England and other countries in Europe to travel to a new, unknown, unfamiliar land? What drove them to choose a hard season of life for hopes of an ultimately better one? Did they ever regret the decision to come over?
Where did the passion displayed by people like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson come from? Were they all passionate people by nature — or did they long for something different enough to do whatever it took to make it happen? How did it feel to lead an army for 8 years against another more well equipped and trained group of soldiers? Surely the thought of being defeated crossed General Washington’s mind, yet he pressed on.
Gumption. Passion. Grit. I admire these traits.
I hope that I am known to have gumption, to be passionate and have grit in the things I set out to do. But there’s more for me. More than these things that I admire and can bring me to tears, more than the things that helped create the start of a whole new country. For me – I hope that I am known for my enduring faith, a faith that brings about righteousness that only God can give. And it’s for this reason that I press on.
“…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:13-14
(I would encourage you to read Philippians 3 for full context of what Paul is saying here.)
Today, tomorrow and beyond, I pray for my country. I pray for America.
Christin
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I’d like to leave you today with the lyrics to America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee):
My country, ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From ev’ry mountainside
Let freedom ring!
My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom’s song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.
Our fathers’ God to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright,
With freedom’s holy light,
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God our King!
Today’s Product Updates from Rebecca:
Happy Wednesday! Have you taken a look at our Dispenser Pumps!? Our pumps have a 9” dip tube and 4cc output with a neck diameter of 38mm and a neck height of 400mm! We offer these for purchase individually, as well as in packs of 10 or packs of 500!
Remember that we also offer Hand Sanitizer Dispensers! We offer a wide variety of dispensers, everything from Desk Top Dispensers to Wall Mount Dispensers to Floor Stand Dispensers! These dispensers are a must-have for modern offices! Keep your employees and customers safe with conveniently placed hand sanitizer dispensers. Perfect for home use as well!
Reminder: Get free shipping on your PPE orders by using coupon code PPESHIP at checkout!
Main Safety Supplies Landing Page: https://www.cablesandkits.com/c/safety-supplies
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Today we’re taking a look at a super popular, but underappreciated product… the USB to RJ45 Console Cable! We offer a 6 foot Cisco compatible USB to RJ45 console cable that will console your IT network by helping you communicate and configure a networking device. Our cables feature a USB A 2.0 connector on one end, an RJ45 connector on the other, and an embedded FTDI chip! These cables and plug and play and are 100% Cisco compatible!
If you want to learn more about console cables and what they’re used for, check out our Learning Center Article!
Stop Doing > Return to Being – By Gary, our Chief Administrative Officer:
Now What? At the end of any intense period of life this question confronts us? You may have recently been laid off, completed a huge project, closed a big deal, sent your child off to college, lost a loved one, or suffered any number of major life dislocations. The periods preceding these life events can often be so defining or consuming that their absence leaves a troubling void.
How should we react during these personal voids? This much is certain; how we respond during such voids determines the course of our remaining life. We can wallow in pity, or we can make the times of rejuvenation that restore and prepare us for what lies ahead. The key is using this respite from doing to return to being. Let me suggest three phases for responding to a void in our lives.
Remember – Return to your core purpose for living. Remind yourself of the guiding principles upon which you have chosen to order and direct your life, family or business. This will likely involve investing significant time in rereading and revisiting passages, people and places that have previously inspired you. Set aside a private space for this remembering time. This is a great time to write out (or update) a personal mission statement.
Reflect – Significant people reflect on the past to learn from it, not wallow in it. Condemnation is unhealthy. Convictions are empowering. Evaluate where your recent life/work aligned with or wandered away from your guiding principles. Identify triggering events or behaviors that helped you stay aligned or caused you to wander off the track. Examine each relationship in your life and ask whether that relationship challenges and encourages the fulfillment of your purpose or distracts from it. Reflect (and possibly even solicit input) on the impact my life has had on others. It is impossible to over emphasize the value of capturing your reflections in writing. Making time to write down what you’ve learned both crystallizes that learning in your own heart and mind and also creates an invaluable resource for remembering during future life voids.
Renew – At this point in the thought process we should face forward and ask the following three questions in my core being and each major role in my life:
- What am I committed to continue?
- What should I eliminate, quit or stop?
- Where do I want to learn, grow or start?
Apply each question to your private world (body, mind and spirit) and every role in the public world; such as, spouse, parent, sibling, friend, neighbor, citizen, volunteer, student, profession, or employee/employer, etc.
I’d like to give a shout out to my pastor @JonStallsmith for his talk on Nehemiah 8-10 from which arose the core ideas in this blog post.
News to Start Your Day With:
- Right at 47,998,900 cases worldwide, with 34,434,200 people who have recovered, with 1,222,896 deaths AND 9,694,200 cases in the US with over 6,237,300 people have recovered, with 238,656 deaths.
- The current “projected” electoral count as of this morning is 238 for Biden and 213 for Trump with a lot of votes left to be counted in all states so anything is completely possible. It could this weekend before we know for sure., if then.
- Hand sanitizer temporarily jammed a ballot scanner at a polling place in Iowa, while a tent for unmasked voters collapsed in New Hampshire and injured a 72-year-old poll worker. These were just two reports from multiple media sources of wild “coronavirus
- David Andahl, a North Dakota Republican who died of covid-19 in October, won his race for the state House of Representatives on Tuesday.
- A top scientist involved in the development of Oxford University’s vaccine candidate said there is “a small chance” that the vaccine could become available by late December, according to Reuters.
- Voters in Florida approved a graduated minimum wage hike that would raise the starting rate for workers in the Sunshine State to $15 per hour by 2026. The measure, known as Amendment 2, will raise the minimum rate to $10 per hour on Sept. 30, 2021. In the years that follow, there will be annual $1 increases until $15 per hour is reached.
- Oregon became the first state to decriminalize hard drugs like heroin, cocaine and meth in a 59-41% vote as of early Wednesday morning, according to the Associated Press.
- Hurricane Eta weakens to a tropical storm as it sets course toward US Gulf Coast after slamming Nicaragua as a Cat 4. Tropical Storm Eta could approach South Florida this weekend after bringing a threat of potentially catastrophic flooding rainfall to Central America the next few days.