You sure about that?

When is the last time you approached someone or read something that challenged your thinking? Perhaps it was a television show you watched, maybe it was something your minister said at church. How often do we analyze our thoughts and ask ourselves why we believe what we believe.
For the most part, people are attracted to like minded individuals. A group of factory workers are not necessarily going to hang out with the lawyers in the firm down the street. Is this a bad thing? No.
It might be something you really never even asked yourself. A group of teenagers aren’t going to hang out with a bunch of WWII veterans either. The reason is they don’t have that much in common. They might not have a common ground to relate with each other. After all, each group has their own interests, challenges and day to day happenings. Isn’t it more comfortable to share your experiences with whom you spend most of your time?
I just finished reading another book by Randy Gage, it is called Accept Your Abundance. This book challenged my thinking.

I know how I grew up. I know the values my parents taught me. I know the church I went to every single Sunday when I was little. And I was not going to use work as an excuse not to go to church in high school. My parent would say, you can run home real quick after church and then head to work. This is something I did not value as a teenager; but now I am every so grateful.
Why write about this?
It is not often people spend time with people or literature that challenges your thinking. Let’s take television for example, if you see something on television you do not agree with, you simply what… turn the channel. You turn it to something more… agreeable.
How often do we read articles or magazines that challenge our thinking? The papers are usually written in a way that we continue to buy that newspaper. You know what? Those newspapers might actually have information that is wrong? You know the news programs or television stations might even report something that is not accurate. But they don’t say that.
They tell you that so you can go to work tomorrow and talk to your coworkers about what happened downtown and there was that big argument and the cops got called.
The reason I am writing about this is because I feel that our society has begun to take information from whatever media source and declare that it is true.
The book that I read today really challenged my beliefs about prosperity. I have been reading long enough to distinguish his thoughts, my thoughts and hold an intelligent conversation among anyone interested. Three years ago I would not even picked up the book. Now I am reading it and understanding it and questioning it.
There are many people out there that can reason and think through it and even question it. However, I feel the majority of people will naturally avoid conflict. It is after all not comfortable to approach and talk intelligently about a topic of concern.
This posting again reminds me of Oliver Demille’s The Thomas Jefferson Education. He explains the different forms of education we have in the USA today and how education really started, why we have public schools and the direction our society is going with our current education system. It is definitely worth reading even if you think we have the greatest education system around.
The reason why is it will give you different information to form your opinion around.
I remember thinking back in college and saying, it is hard for me to have an opinion on something I really don’t understand.
I am proud to say I am learning every day and getting better every day, and with my little daily reading habits, they too will pass on to my children so they can understand and question why things are the way they are.
I challenge you to seek out somebody with a different opinion on any subject. Seek to understand them. You might really surprise yourself, or even the person you speak to. God bless, Nicholas Nighbor