Saturday, December 28, 2013

Insights from the pediatric neurosurgeon who gained national attention for his speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast.

Gifted Hands by Dr Ben Carson"I was a horrible student. Most of my classmates thought I was the stupidest person in the world. They called me 'dummy.' I was the butt of all the jokes.

"Now admittedly, it was a bad environment—single parent home. My mother and father had gotten divorced early on. My mother got married when she was 13. She was one of 24 children, had a horrible life, discovered that her husband was a bigamist—had another family—and she only had a third grade education. She had to take care of us in dire poverty.

"I had a horrible temper, poor self-esteem—all the things that you would think would preclude success—but I had something very important. I had a mother who believed in me, and I had a mother who would never allow herself to be a victim, no matter what happened. Never made excuses and she never accepted an excuse from us and if we ever came up with an excuse, she always said, 'Do you have a brain?' and if the answer was 'Yes,' then she said, 'Then you could have thought your way out of it. It doesn't matter what John, or Susan, or Mary, or anybody else did or said.' And it was the most important thing she did for my brother and myself because if you don't accept excuses, pretty soon people stop giving them and they start looking for solutions and that is a critical issue when it comes to success.

"We did live in dire poverty and one of the things that I hated was poverty. Some people hate spiders. Some people hate snakes. I hated poverty. I couldn't stand it but my mother couldn't stand the fact that we were doing poorly in school and she prayed and she asked God to give her wisdom. What could you do to get her young sons to understand the importance of developing their minds so that they could control their own lives?

"And you know what? God gave her the wisdom, at least in her opinion. My brother and I didn't think it was that wise because it was a turn-off-the-tv. She let us watch only two or three t.v. programs during the week and, with all that spare time, read two books a piece from the Detroit Public Library and submit to her written book reports which she couldn't reach, but we didn't know that. She put check marks and highlights and stuff but, you know, I just hated this. My friends were out having a good time. Her friends would criticize her. They would say, 'You can't make boys stay in the house reading books. They'll grow up and they'll hate you,' and I would overhear them and I'd say, 'Mother, you know they're right,' but she didn't care.

"After a while, I actually began to enjoy reading those books because we were very poor but between the covers of those books, I could go anywhere, I could be anybody, I could do anything. I began to read about people of great accomplishment and, as I read those stories, I began to see a connecting thread. I began to see that the person who has the most to do with you and what happens to you in life is YOU.

"You make decisions. You decide how much energy you want to put behind that decision. I came to understand that I had control of my own destiny and, at that point, I didn't hate poverty anymore because I knew it was only temporary. I knew I could change that. It was incredibly liberating for me. It made all the difference." —Dr. Ben Carson, Professor of Neurosurgery, Plastic Surgery, Oncology, and Pediatrics, and the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

Ben Carson resources:
http://bit.ly/Y5xNXp

Monday, December 2, 2013

680 million people in the world have never heard the name of Jesus mentioned.


http://www.swissvalleydiscount.com/item/claire-h-goodwin/compelled-to-tell-a-fascinating-journey-from-a-new/5982846.html

Compelled To Tell is the biography of a burden that will captivate the heart of any who long to find God's will and to become an instrument in his hands.

If a spiritual fire is growing inside your being and you hunger for more of God's power to work in your life, then this book is for you.

If you long for something to set aflame a passion for souls, you've found it! Get ready to dig in and absorb the heartbeat of this book. Claire Goodwin speaks fervently about evangelism to many churches. She and her husband Bob reside in Dallas, Texas, and are international evangelists actively involved in witnessing.

680 million people in the world have never heard the name of Jesus mentioned. Let the stories within the cover of this book stir your soul to action for there's something better than going to Heaven. It's taking someone with you!

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Sleeping or anxiety problems?

Alternative Cures: The Most Effective Natural Home Remedies for 160 Health Problems by Bill GottliebAre you having problems sleeping or problems with anxiety? Do you like hot herbal tea? Here's what you can do:

Go ahead and buy a bag of valerian root tea at your local health store. It will cost you about $11. You'll also need one of those metal teaball strainers.

Put a half teaspoon of valerian root tea in a teaball. Place it in one cup of boiling water and let it boil 2-3 minutes. Afterwards, let it steep 5 minutes. It makes a great, natural antidepressant.

Read a bedtime devotional to give you peace and fall asleep praying for the members of your family, your church, your co-workers, etc.

Try it. Hope it works for you. if needed, add a calming, candlelit bubble bath and soothing music before bedtime.

For more help, I recommend reading Alternative Cures: The Most Effective Natural Home Remedies for 160 Health Problems, written by Bill Gottlieb, the former senior vice president and editor in chief of Rodale Books.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Turning lemons into lemonade

Turning lemons into lemonadeGot to do a personal connect with a customer today. Turned a frustrating circumstance into a positive opportunity and, in the process, got to meet one of the finest 19-year-olds on the planet—a really heartwarming experience!

The girl had used her smartphone to place an order and had mistakenly hit a wrong number in the zip code, causing the shipment to be return, undeliverable. I could have easily let myself get pretty upset over it but, instead, determined to turn this into a positive experience.

I noticed it was homeschooling materials that were ordered so I asked her to tell me about her child(ren). Come to find out, the customer wasn't the mother, as I'd assumed—it was the oldest daughter, a sibling of 13 homeschooled children.

What really warmed my heart was to see the beautiful attitude of this young lady. For one, she was so happy for the opportunity to personally connect with me but, most of all, she is already discipling her younger siblings and making plans to disciple others God brings across her path. She told me how she's been busy building a library of what she calls her "discipleship books." She's also invested in a children's library of character-building storybooks.

What she wrote next really made my day:
I am excited about what the Lord is already doing in my life as well as in the lives of my wonderful sisters, just by letting me personally make the investment, but also opening some opportunities to recommend these books to others who have no clue where to start for this kind of influence, input, instruction, guidance, and examples.
Character building resources | Discount home education resources

Tell me how you turned a lemon into lemonade today. I'm eager to hear.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Add My Book to Your Store

Please do not call me! Often I receive requests from authors, wanting me to add their book to our store, eager to learn ways to promote their book. The last thing an author wants is a garage full of their books! To save time answering one author at a time, I have spent a great deal of time collecting a list of resources that I pray would be a help and encouragement to you as an author.

Our store is supplied by 40+ distribution warehouses so the chances are you will find your book already listed in our store. If you see your book in our store, please check the description for accuracy. If you don't see an author bio, please send us one and we'll be happy to add it to your book listing. If your book cover is blurry, please supply me with a good photo and I will upload it to your book listing. Be sure to mention the ISBN number so I can easily find your book.

If you don't see your book listed in our store, number one, go back and make sure it's tagged as a "Christian" book, because we are a Christian bookstore, not a secular one. Contact your publisher if you don't know how to fix that label yourself. Mailing a copy of your book to me will not help, because we are not a brick and mortar store but strictly an online store.

To have your book added to our network of stores, it needs to be added to one of our distribution channels. Below are our three biggest ones. Find their contact page and get in touch to see what you need to do to have your book added.

Anchor Distributors
STL Distribution
Ingram Distribution

As an author, you need to educate yourself. Here are some great resources to help you learn how to get your book marketed:

365 Ways to Market Your Christian Book. Specific People, Places, Procedures by Bette E Filley

Christian Writers Market Guide 2012 by Jerry B. Jenkins

Faith-Based Marketing: The Guide to Reaching 140 Million Christian Customers by Bob Hutchins and Greg Stielstra

Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt (formerly CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers)

You Can Market Your Book: All the Tools You Need To Sell Your Published Book by Carmen Leal

Your Guide to Marketing Books in the Christian Marketplace, Second Edition by Sarah Bolme

Below are websites you should find of great help:

* Excellent tips on how to promote your book
* 12 Tasks Every Author Should Tackle Before Publishing a Book
* How to select the right publisher
* 25 Things You Need to Know About Self-Publishing a Book

Our parent company, DeeperCalling Media is now giving away free online stores to charities, authors, churches, ministries, broadcasters, and CBA bookstores. If you would like to have an online store to sell your books, CDs and more, then visit our parent company's website here and ask for details. I do not personally have that information.

Hope this helps! Please let me know if you would like to receive an occasional newsletter from us so we can stay in touch.

Helping you make a difference,
Barbara Haas

Swiss Valley Christian Bookstore
Redirecting the buying power of the Christian community back into the Kingdom of Christ!
www.swissvalleydiscount.com
440-941-1008 Mon.-Sat. 10am-10pm Eastern (Wed. 10am-5pm)
barbara@swissvalleydiscount.com - Available 24/7
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