{"id":7062,"date":"2021-05-25T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/?p=7062"},"modified":"2021-05-23T17:15:10","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T21:15:10","slug":"dont-blame-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/dont-blame-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t Blame the Pandemic!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<iframe title=\"Don't Blame the Pandemic! 5\/25\/21\" allowtransparency=\"true\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" style=\"border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/player-v2\/?i=q6mz2-1044a3f-pb&#038;from=pb6admin&#038;download=1&#038;share=1&#038;download=1&#038;rtl=0&#038;fonts=Arial&#038;skin=1&#038;btn-skin=7\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>There was a very cautious man<br>who never laughed or played.<br>He never risked, he never tried.<br>He never sang or prayed.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>And when he passed away,<br>his insurance was denied.<br>For since he never really lived,<br>they claim he never died.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You cannot reach your full potential with your efforts crippled by caution. Mark Twain once said,\u00a0<strong><em>&#8220;Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><em> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>I had a widowed housekeeper 40 years ago named Kay. She told me she had a friend who kept challenging her all the time,\u00a0<strong>\u201cKay, who are you saving it for?\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019ve wound up asking myself this same question countless times over the years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jesus tells us the Parable of the Talents.<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;The man who received five talents from his Master made five more, as did the man who was given two talents. But the man who was given one talent by his Master, went and buried it. The Master is furious with him for not using his talent and casts him out into the darkness.&nbsp;&nbsp;(Matthew 25:14-30)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The one&nbsp;talent&nbsp;servant could have used that common sense advice from Mark Twain. The one&nbsp;talent&nbsp;servant did not invest himself or his resources, and thus, he inherited what he had invested, which was nothing.&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>THE TRAGEDY OF LIFE IS NOT THAT IT ENDS SO SOON, BUT THAT WE WAIT SO LONG TO BEGIN IT!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>GOD HAS GIVEN YOU TALENTS &amp; OPPORTUNITIES. SEIZE THEM TODAY \u2013 NOT TOMORROW!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>GOD GIVES US OUR TALENTS NOT TO PUT OUR NAMES IN LIGHTS, BUT TO BRING LIGHT INTO THE LIVES OF OTHERS.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There was a very cautious manwho never laughed or played.He never risked, he never tried.He never sang or prayed. And when he passed away,his insurance was denied.For since he never really lived,they claim he never died. You cannot reach your full potential with your efforts crippled by caution. Mark Twain once said,\u00a0&#8220;Even if you are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"qubely_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up.png",266,177,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up.png",266,177,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up.png",266,177,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up.png",266,177,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up.png",266,177,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up.png",266,177,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up.png",266,177,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up.png",266,177,false],"ocean-thumb-m":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up.png",266,177,false],"ocean-thumb-ml":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up.png",266,177,false],"ocean-thumb-l":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up.png",266,177,false],"qubely_landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up.png",266,177,false],"qubely_portrait":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up.png",266,177,false],"qubely_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up-140x100.png",140,100,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Man-Pulling-Sweater-Up-45x45.png",45,45,true]},"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Medard Laz","author_link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/author\/medlaz\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/category\/daily-treats\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Daily Treats<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"There was a very cautious manwho never laughed or played.He never risked, he never tried.He never sang or prayed. And when he passed away,his insurance was denied.For since he never really lived,they claim he never died. You cannot reach your full potential with your efforts crippled by caution. Mark Twain once said,\u00a0&#8220;Even if you are&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7062"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}