Thoughts and Prayers for Moore Oklahoma Tornado Victims and Survivors

AP photo by Sue Ogrocki

A massive tornado ripped through Moore Oklahoma City this afternoon leaving much damage and many injured in its wake. According to CNN, the tornado is estimated to have been nearly two (2) miles wide, and more than 171,000 may have been its' path, including at least one elementary school. Unfortunately the primary medical center in the area was also damaged and evacuated, which means that the injured will need to be transported to other nearby hospitals.

The tornado today isn't a stand-alone event. Over the entire weekend large areas of Oklahoma were hit by devastating storms that have left several people dead, as many as 300 homes damaged and destroyed, and entire towns leveled.

The AP photo above by Sue Ogrocki of Moore Oklahoma, truly is just one of the many heartbreaking images. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who have been affected by this unimaginable tragedy.

Creating An A+ Workforce: 10 Ways for Building Employee Empowerment

In the modern business landscape, it is recognized that in order for organizations to survive, the focus can no longer be about meeting the bottom line, high annual returns or dividends. The key to its strength and ultimately its continued existence, will be heavily dependent upon having an A+ healthy, positive, skilled, motivated employee workforce that have been equipped with the necessary resources to get the job done effectively and efficiently and have been empowered to serve with a spirit of excellence. 

A note of caution. If it seems like I've digressed a bit from my usual blog columns by having today's discussion, you are not totally correct in making that assumption. I am motivated to shift into this direction on the basis that if we limit empowerment to just a specific group or class of people, and we define it as simply giving top executives and managers power and authority, then it might be easy to see why so many employees do not believe they are empowered. Hence, its relevance and timeliness.

The Week That Was Series 5: My Breaking Moment, My Turning Point

This past week was a very interesting one for me. Most of it, I've had some very high and proud moments and then the in between, what I would call my breaking moment when I had to quickly surrender myself to God, give Him the situation once again and say, 'Daddy, will you take care of this for me?' 

I walked away from sitting at His feet, feeling comforted by His word that this too shall pass, stay focused my child, what they meant for evil watch God work it out for your good. The pit that they dug for you to fall in, they are setting up themselves for them to fall into it. Not you.

Now that's a real Dad! That's the Father every child should have and must long for in their lives.

Do not get me wrong. God do not let me have my way at any given time and when there is need for it, He corrects me in love. But speaking of who He is and what he stands for - He is a just God and He rules in your favour not because you are His child, but because, He sees and He knows what goes on in the heart and mind of man that we cannot see, and therefore rules according to the standard of His word.

But the light that signalled my turning point was when I came across this quote today which says:

The 3 P's On Your Journey To An Empowered Life

"There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it." ~ Napoleon Hill

There was a time in my life that I was totally ignorant of what it meant for me to be fully developed and to become the person that God really intended me to be, much less to know what it meant to live an empowered life. Many of my past experiences were from my perspective, unbearable. I even equated them with strokes of bad luck, worst yet, curses on my family. Nothing made sense to me. At times I was very confused.

Other times it was living life aimlessly and just waiting for the next bad thing to happen. Not knowing any different, I thought of the experiences as the norm. Why not? I looked at my peers, and others in the neighbourhood and they too seemed to be having pretty much the same situations that I was having. There were no dots to be connected - just a series of events, incidents, occurrences in our lives that were totally independent of each other.

9 Powerful Quotes of Encouragement

Beach front at Fort Recovery, Tortola Virgin Islands (British)

Individually, we have a responsibility to be our brothers keeper, to watch over the lives of each other, to do whatever we can to protect, to pray one for another and to love and support each other. It is not always the case as often times, we find ourselves going through our own personal difficulties and challenges and therefore tend not to focus on anyone or anything else but our own situation. 

I recall so vividly the days when I needed someone just to give me an encouraging word, someone to just hold my hand, to encourage my faith and to reassure me that it will work out in my favour. Sadly, it did not happen when I needed it the most and so I had no choice but to reach out and cry out to the Lord after which He heard my cry and He rescued me from my fears, my hopelessness and despair. He gave me life, a new of thinking that I can speak positively over my life and that of others.