To kickoff IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU, all Ada Brownell's e-books are on sale for .99
HOW DO YOU REACT TO CONFLICT?
Excerpt from
Imagine the Future You
4.
IMAGINE YOU AS AN OLDER ADULT
Your really big show!
The decisions you make now help to form your adult character
and mold your personality (and even your body) in ways that are difficult to
change. The real “You” peels off the mask when you become an adult and who you
are is revealed.
You might be surprised yourself. People who do great things
often look back in awe, because when they were young they had no idea how God
would use them. On the other hand, I’ve met people who don’t like who they
became. One old man told me he wished he could live his life over—as somebody
else.
As I’ve said before,
many people assume they became the person they are because of their parents and
other outside influences. Sure, what happens to us and around us affects our
lives, but it is how we react to
our environment that determines what kind of person we become.
HOW DO YOU REACT?
Reaction: This
word in a sense could be similar to nuclear
reactors, which can power a city. A nuclear reactor produces heat a million
times greater than an equal mass of coal. A coolant is used, thus producing
steam. The steam creates power.
What I’m saying is you might have a heated reaction to distressing circumstances,
but if you “cool it” with common sense and love for God, yourself, and others,
you emerge a more powerful person. Your reaction
to the events in your life decides your character as much as environment
and outside influences. Yes, if your mother or father is an alcoholic, your
genes may make you more susceptible to alcohol. But you can decide whether or
not you will take your first drink.
When I started as a reporter at a fairly large newspaper, I
was about the only one on the news staff who didn’t drink intoxicating
beverages. At a staff picnic one year, a photographer who had been drinking
poured beer on me. He said he did it so I’d smell like I had a good time when I
got home to my husband.
Another time when I was young, a man tried to force me to
taste beer. I just clamped my mouth shut, and although he was bigger than I, he
didn’t get it open. I never did taste beer or take a first drink of an
alcoholic beverage. Every time I see an alcoholic or a drunk, I am thankful I
never succumbed to peer pressure.
HOW YOUR ENVIRONMENT AFFECTS YOU
Your environment affects who you are as much as the genes
that held the pattern for your nose and ears. Often environment determines
whether or not you use foul language. If family, friends, and your
entertainment speak filth, those words pop into your mind. But that doesn’t
mean you have to say those words.
If you have been abused, that could affect the kind of
person you are and might help determine what kind of parent you become. It’s a
generational thing, where the sins of parents are visited into the third and
fourth generation.
But children who have
been abused are successful people, successful Christians, and good parents who
don’t abuse their kids. If you know someone in your home has had sex outside of
marriage, that knowledge could affect your behavior when you date. Yet, young
people whose relatives committed sexual sins can go into marriage as virgins
and remain faithful to their spouses for life.
It is not easy. It’s a matter of the will.
Your “will” is an integral part of who you are. Many
theologians define the “soul” as the “mind, will, and emotions.” You also have
a “spirit” and a “body.”
Understanding the will is simple. It’s the part of you that
says, “I will do something” or “I won’t.”
But what kind of
person you become goes beyond even that. In many situations it is only the power of God that can give you strength and
determination to be all you can be instead of stumbling into temptations that
could destroy your future.
We can never be good enough in ourselves. That’s why Jesus
came. The Bible says, “It’s not by works of righteousness we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:5). Because of His mercy, Jesus
bled out so sinners could be clean and live forever (John 3:16).
YOU CAN CHOOSE TO BE A MASTERPIECE OR A GARBAGE RECEPTICLE
Yes, we were formed with some of the same gene clay that
runs through our heredity, but we can become a masterpiece or a garbage
receptacle. If we allow just anything in life to influence us, we’ll probably
end up a trash can. But if we submit our lives to the master potter, the
Heavenly Father, He will mold and shape us into something beautiful.
©Copyright November
14, 2013
IMAGINE THE
FUTURE YOU SUMMARY
By Ada Nicholson
Brownell
Will you be the
person you dream of being—or someone from your nightmares?
You don’t need a
fortune teller to reveal your future. You are the person who determines who you
will be, what your life will be like, and how your hopes and dreams will be fulfilled.
Today is the time to
IMAGINE and to create an action plan for your future.
·
How harnessing your will can make you a champion
·
How to make valuable deposits into your mind, detoxify
harmful information in the brain, and avoid brain washing
·
How to look and be your best
·
How to connect with Someone who will make a
difference in your life
·
How who you marry changes everything
·
How to avoid traps that jeopardize your future
·
Where you want your name to appear
·
Why you can believe God is there and interested
in your tomorrows
·
Examples of people who grabbed their future and
held on
This book will
show how to make the right connections, how to grow you talents, and how to
begin believing in yourself and things greater than yourself—for a wonderful
Future You!
Five-star review on Amazon:
Ada Brownell pens a book challenging young readers to imagine themselves in
the future based on the choices they're making today. In 13 thought-provoking
chapters, Brownell writes in a way that not only resonates with her teenage
audience, but also encourages them. Giving insights into her life as a teen and
providing timely morsels of truth about God's Word will leave any reader (adults
included) inspired and dedicated to living a life for Christ and growing in
their walk with Him. Highly recommended! ~ Penny Zeller, Christian Author and
Speaker
Joe the
Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult
By
A.B. Brownell
Enter
an area where people are missing and radicals want to obliterate Christianity
from the earth. After Joe Baker’s parents mysteriously disappear, he finds
himself with a vicious man after him. Joe and an unusual gang team up to find
his mom and dad. The gang is dedicated to preventing and solving crimes with
ordinary harmless things such as noise, water, and a pet skunk instead of
blades and bullets. Joe reads the Bible hoping to discover whether God will
answer prayer and bring his parents home. In his dreams, Joe slips into the
skin of Bible characters and what happened to them, happens to him—the peril
and the victories. Yet, crying out in his sleep causes him to end up in a
mental hospital’s juvenile unit. Will he escape or will he be harmed? Will he
find his parents? Does God answer prayer?
The book is also
available at Barnesandnoble.com, and is listed at Goodreads.com
SWALLOWED BY LIFE: Mysteries of Death,
Resurrection and the Eternal
By Ada
Brownell
Do you
know evidence shows we’re more than a physical body? The author, a prolific
religion writer and retired medical journalist, talks about the evidence; the
wonder of life with all its electrical systems; the awesome truth about cell
death and regeneration; mysteries surrounding the change from mortal to
immortal; where we go when our body dies; resurrection; and a glimpse at what
we will do in heaven. Questions and answers make this non-fiction inspirational
book a great text for group study. It’s written for support groups, religion
classes, people with chronic or terminal illness, individuals who fear death or
are curious about it, the grieving, and those who give them counsel.
An excerpt from Swallowed by Life
was featured in the June 2, 2013,
“Reading for Spiritual Health” edition of The Pentecostal Evangel.
Where
you can find Swallowed by Life:
Christian Publishers
Outlet also has the paperback
CONFESSIONS
OF A PENTECOSTAL
By Ada Nicholson Brownell
Described as a "great look into another person's faith."
When Ada Nicholson Brownell was a child,
a faithful Christian neighbor witnessed to her mother. Not just once, but
almost every day. “The family did everything to get rid of the woman,” the author
recalls, “but she came to our house, her Bible tucked under her arm, an
enthusiastic smile on her face.”
Then Ada’s older
sister attended a Pentecostal service at the invitation of a teenage friend.
One by one all 10 members of her family were saved and received the Pentecostal
experience.
Ada’s brothers worked their way through
college and dedicated their lives to serving God. Dr. Virgil Nicholson became a
respected educator in the Assemblies of God and he was the force behind Evangel
College’s great accreditation. Dr. Joe Nicholson headed the Evangel College
music department for many years, was academic dean for Berean College, and
served in a number of foreign missions tours with his wife, Jo Ellen. Everette
Nicholson became a minister and pastored and preached 50 years, mostly in Montana. Ada, the
baby of the family, an author and newspaper reporter, and most of her sisters
were involved in music, teaching and other ministries.
Confessions of a Pentecostal was listed in 2011 and
many other years among 10 recommendations on Pentecostalism by The Library
Thing.
The book first was published in 1978 by The
Assemblies of God’s Radiant Books from Gospel Publishing House, and recently
became available for Kindle on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0088OP460
