Thomas Edison overcame adversity many times in his life. A classic example of this occurred in 1914, when a fire ravaged the phonograph factory at his West Orange, New Jersey complex. The 67 year-old Edison lost approximately $5 million that night – the equivalent of $75 million today. His son Charles raced to his father’s side, thinking the sight of the blazing factory would be too devastating for him. Instead, Charles was amazed to see his father smiling. He told his son, “Go get your mother! She’ll never have a chance to see anything like this again in her entire life!” Edison then called a meeting with his key staff members and immediately began organizing the recovery campaign. He urged his team to focus on rebuilding the phonograph factories in a way that “took advantage of the latest improvements in factory design.”

Edison’s response to the fire demonstrates his irrepressibly optimistic nature. As biographer Dr. Paul Israel describes it, “Where others might see disaster and failure, he was always optimistically looking for opportunities and seeing the possibility of new directions for improvements.”

“When you grow up in a developing country like India, as I did, you instantly learn to get more value from limited resources and find creative ways to reuse what you already have. Take Mansukh Prajapati, a potter in India. He has created a fridge made entirely of clay that consumes no electricity. He can keep fruits and vegetables fresh for many days. That’s a cool invention, literally.

In Africa, if you run out of your cell phone battery, don’t panic. You will find some resourceful entrepreneurs who can recharge your cell phone using bicycles. And since we are in South America, let’s go to Lima in Peru, a region with high humidity that receives only one inch of rainfall each year. An engineering college in Lima designed a giant advertising billboard that absorbs air humidity and converts it into purified water, generating over 90 liters of water every day. The Peruvians are amazing. They can literally create water out of thin air.” — Navi Radjou

It doesn’t matter where you are in life today, you can move forward because life itself declares that potential always exists. God always loves you and believes in you, so love yourself! Believe in yourself and get started!

Jesus was born in a manger, but He did not stay there. You might have been born in a poor family in a poor neighborhood, with poor neighbors and a poor education, but you do not have to stay there! There is no one limiting you. You are not a prisoner of your past, your neighborhood, your status or lack of education.

When Christ comes to live in you there is a new power in operation. You no longer live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud: A new power is in operation!

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

Even though you might be starting off in an obscure place, there is a place in the sun waiting for you! They said of Jesus, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” The answer is, Yes, the Savior of the world! A good thing is coming out of your city – YOU – because you and Jesus are a dynamic duo that can’t be defeated!

Scripture: Romans 8:2 (NKJV)

My husband, Kevin, shares his personal story on how he overcame adversity:

“When I was a young lad, an old Ford factory shift worker came to my grade school looking for boys who wanted to learn to play tennis. That idea jumped in me and I pursued it, despite having a bad case of pigeon-toed feet and starting the game with the racket in the wrong hand!

The coach made an instant determination that I would not make it. He devised a tournament to eliminate some of the boys whom he thought were hopeless and would not make the grade. I was scheduled to play the best player. I was facing immediate termination and it was assumed I would quietly disappear into the night.

However, the day before the tournament began, the star player was hit in the head by a baseball and knocked unconscious. The next day he couldn’t play, and I ended up winning the tournament, which turned the thinking of everyone upside down! Where they had seen no promise of success, they were now forced to acknowledge there was more than a promise of success!

That first tournament victory was followed by over 100 more! Those days of adversity prepared me for the challenges of today. I am confident that a living God can give an idea to every one of His chosen children, but it is critical what we do with it.

Follow your dream! Don’t let your pigeon-toed feet or lack of knowledge hinder your opportunity for victory!  “You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom.”

Scripture: Galatians 5:7-8 (NLT)

Have you ever been told you are not creative? Or has your creativity gone unrecognized? Take encouragement from these stories of people who persevered in the face of criticism and apathy:

Margaret Knight is remembered as “the female Edison.” She received 26 patents for a diversity of items such as a window frame and sash, machinery for cutting shoe soles, and even improvements to internal combustion engines! Her most significant patent was for machinery that would automatically fold and glue paper bags to create square bottoms, the results of which we still enjoy to this day. It is said that the workmen who were installing the equipment she invented refused her advice in the process because, “after all, what does a woman know about machines?”

In 1886 Josephine Cochran declared, “If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I’ll do it myself!” She proceeded to do so, inventing the world’s first practical dish-cleaning dishwasher. She unveiled her invention at the 1893 World’s Fair, expecting the public to embrace it.  Unfortunately only the hotels and large restaurants were buying her ideas, and it was not until the 1950s that dishwashers became popular with the general public. Josephine Cochran’s machine was a hand-operated mechanical dishwasher, and she eventually founded a company to manufacture these washers. The company eventually became KitchenAid.

Marion Donovan was a young mother in the post-war baby boom era. She came from a family of inventors and had inherited their creativity. Unhappy with leaky, cloth diapers that had to be washed, she first invented the ‘Boater’, a plastic covering for cloth diapers she had made from a shower curtain.

A year later she carried her idea further, using disposable absorbent material and combining it with her Boater design. Marion Donovan had created the first disposable diaper.

Manufacturers were not interested in her design, saying her product would be too expensive to produce.  Unable to sell or license her diaper patent, Marion Donovan went into business for herself. A few years later, she was able to sell her company for $1 million.

During World War II, a military governor met with General George Patton in Sicily. When he praised Patton highly for his courage and bravery, the general replied, “Sir, I am not a brave man . . . the truth is, I am an utterly craven coward. I have never been within the sound of gunshot or in sight of battle in my whole life that I wasn’t so scared that I had sweat in the palms of my hands.”

Years later, when Patton’s autobiography was published, it contained this significant statement by the general: “I learned very early in my life never to take counsel of my fears.”

If you are to do anything in life you will face risk of failure. There are healthy fears that protect you, like a fear of jumping off the garage roof. These type of fears protect you, but there are many unhealthy fears that paralyze you, like fear of tomorrow, fear of poverty, fear of sickness, fear of failure, etc.

We have been given the weapons to live a fear free life, but we must use those weapons to address the fears. Patton had it right. Don’t take council of your fears.

For God hath not give us a spirit of FEAR; but of power, and of love and a sound mind. (2 Tim 1:7 KJV)

These are encouraging words for challenging times! Did you know that fear is a spirit? Did you know that each day you can make a decision to either yield to fear, or to the power of GOD? I am amazed how many times the phrase “fear not” or “do not fear” appears in the bible. I counted 84 specific instances where these phrases are followed immediately by a promise or reward if we do not fear!

I want to encourage you today to research these 84 bible promises for yourself until your heart is full of all the promises you need!

FEAR NOT, nor be dismayed: for the LORD God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee! (1Chron 28:20 KJV emphasis mine)

Temperatures got to the upper 20’s recently in my hometown. As I looked out the window I could see a thick layer of frost on the grass outside my home.

These kind of temperatures and conditions are brutal on plant life and vegetation. However, bright little flowers line the front sidewalk of my home today, seemingly unaffected by the harshness of winter. Can you guess what they’re called? Pansies!

Pansies are one of very few flowers that can survive the harsh conditions of early winter. They can even stay alive buried under inches of snow. Which leads me to this thought-provoking question: Why, in America, do we associate the word ‘pansy’ with weakness and feebleness?

Armed with this knowledge about pansies, I think the next time someone calls me one I will say “Thank you” and take it as a compliment!  Get out there and don’t let the harshness of life get you down…be a pansy!

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season AND ITS LEAF DOES NOT WITHER; And in whatever he does, he prospers.   Psalm 1:1-3 (emphasis mine)

Scripture tells us that King David was not even considered by his family to be a prospect for anything other than being a shepherd. Yet the prophet Samuel chose him as the one whose destiny was to be King of Israel!

What did he do when he received this great announcement and anointing? He just went back to shepherding. The difference was that he now began to dream of himself as a king. The idea was birthed in his heart.

It was neither the prophet nor the dream that made David a king. It was the victory gained through the challenge of Goliath that put him on the path to kingship. Confronting this giant was a decision he had to make alone, but something within him rose up to move him to face Israel’s enemy. Again, where others only saw a young boy tending sheep, the Lord saw a mighty man leading Israel to greatness in the future!

Your challenges are your own, but God prepares you for them! What challenges are you facing today that you do not realize God has already equipped you to conquer? Search your heart, seize the moment, and be bold because of the Great One Who is within you!

Wesley Autrey, a 50-year-old construction worker and Navy veteran, was waiting for the downtown local train at 137th Street and Broadway in Manhattan.  It was lunchtime, and he was taking his two daughters, Syshe, 4, and Shuqui, 6, home before work.

Suddenly, a young man standing nearby collapsed to the ground, his body convulsing. Mr. Autrey and two women rushed to help.  The young man, Cameron Hollopeter, managed to get up, but then stumbled to the edge of the platform and fell onto the tracks between the two rails.

Within seconds the headlights of the No. 1 train could be seen approaching. Making a split second decision, Mr. Autrey leapt into the drainage trench on top of Mr. Hollopeter, pressing him down in a space roughly a foot deep.

The train’s brakes screeched but could not stop in time, and several cars rolled overhead within inches of Autrey’s blue knit hat, smudging it with grease. Mr. Autrey heard the onlooker’s screams. “We’re ok. down here,” he yelled, “but I’ve got two daughters up there. Let them know their father’s ok!”

Power to the tracks was cut, and crews worked quickly to get them out.  Mr. Hollopeter was taken to the hospital with only bumps and bruises, police saying it appeared that he had suffered a seizure.

Mr. Autrey refused medical help, because, he said, “nothing was wrong.” But he did visit Mr. Hollopeter in the hospital before heading to his night shift. “I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help,” Mr. Autrey said. “I did what I felt was right.”

Act on your instinct to help! Don’t be a bystander in life when you can be a participator! You can find the courage to care and you can change your nation, your family and your life! Don’t ask what life can do for you, but rather ask, “What can I do to better the lives of others?”