....winner

 In 1962, four nervous young musicians played their first record audition for the executives of the Decca Recording company.  The executives were not impressed. While turning down this group of musicians, one executive said, "We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out." The group was called "The Beatles"

In 1944, Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modeling Agency, told modeling hopeful Norma Jean Baker, "You'd better learn secretarial work or else get married."  She went on to become an actress named Marilyn Monroe.

In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired a singer after one performance. He told him, "You ain't goin' nowhere son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck."  He went on to become the most popular singer in America, named Elvis Presley.

When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it did not ring off the hook with calls from potential backers. After making a demonstration call, President Rutherford Hayes said, "That's an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?"

Wilma Rudolph was the 20th of 22 children. She was born prematurely and her survival was doubtful. When she was 4 years old, she contacted double pneumonia and scarlet fever, which left her with a paralyzed left leg. At age 9, she removed the metal leg brace she had been dependent on and began to walk without it. By 13, she had developed rhythmic walk, which doctors said was a miracle.

That same year, she decided to become a runner. She entered a race and came in last.   For the next few years, every race she entered she came in last. Everyone told her to quit, but she kept on running. One day, she actually won a race. And then another. From then on, she won every race she entered. Eventually this little girl, who was told she would never walk again, went on to win three Olympic gold medals.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through the experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened.  Remember, the finest steel gets sent through the hottest furnace. A REAL WINNER is not one who never fails, but one who NEVER QUITS!

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4

 

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 3:12-14

-steve blair