The Glenn Beck Program

The Glenn Beck Program

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You Will Rise NOT to Your Expectations, But to Your Level of Preparedness — So Prepare

I wrote something when I got out of church Sunday. I went home, and I wrote something that I want to share with you. This was really known before the Greeks were around in philosophy, but it just hit me clearly that this is where we are.

In life, but especially in times of strife, you will not rise to the level of your expectations or desire.

So think this through with me. In life, we all think or expect that when things get tough, we’re going to stand up, we’re going to be the one. Oh, we’ll do that. Oh, I would have stopped slavery. And we all expect to rise to a certain level. But it is true that in life, especially in times of strife, you’re not going to rise to the level of your expectations or desire. Instead, you will fall to the level of your preparation. You’re not suddenly going to become Hercules. You’re going to become the person that you’ve prepared yourself to be.

So what have you prepared for? What have you mentally done the homework on?

It goes back to my father and one of the most important things he ever taught me. One of the things he taught me was, “Glenn, you don’t want to be like me? I promise you, if you don’t replace everything that I have taught you about being a father, you’re going to be exactly like me.” And that is true. I was very much like my father — a good dad, just not a dad that was very present, in any way.

I started to replace that image of what it means to be a good dad with things that I could see, things that I could understand, things that I could follow in good times and bad. I prepared myself to be a better dad than my father. I had to prepare myself for it. I had to do the things other than just say, “Oh, well, I’m just going to be better than that.” No, you’re not. You are not going to be better than your mom or your dad. You’re not, unless you’ve done the homework to be better.

You’re not going to be the person that stands up and saves the world, unless you’ve prepared to be that person. You’re not going to be the person that can rally everyone around the cause and lead them away from the cliff, unless you’ve prepared to be that person. Corrie ten Boom, Paulina in Poland that saved all of those Jews, she’s the one I quote all the time. The righteous didn’t suddenly become righteous, they just refused to go over the cliff with everyone else.

Well, why is that? If you look at those who saved people, those who were really, truly righteous, there was always something else.

Oskar Schindler, what was his motivation? At first, it was to make money. He had prepared himself to be a great capitalist. And to be a great capitalist and prepare himself to succeed no matter what was going on, at first, Oskar Schindler just took advantage of the cheap labor. He didn’t rise to the expectations. He fell to where he was prepared. He saw an opportunity, and he took it.

Paulina, Corrie ten Boom — their parents prepared them to be those kinds of people because they studied the Scripture, because they prayed all the time, because they used real examples. Because they actually went out and helped people, and their compassion for others was fostered. You just don’t have compassion for others in this society, you learn it, you prepare for it.

We’re swimming in a sea of filth. We’re swimming in a sea that shows no compassion. Our video games are deadening compassion because they’re not real. Nothing is real to us anymore.

Where does food believe from, gang? Food comes from the supermarket. When you go and talk to kids, especially in the cities, and you ask “where does meat come from?” They will tell you “from the store.” Yes, but where does the store get it? From the meat place? What is meat? They can’t tie it to a farm. They can’t tie it to an animal. We’re not preparing our children for anything.

You will fall to the level of your preparation. You will not rise to the level of your expectations. So prepare yourself.

Listen to this segment, beginning at mark 28:30, from The Glenn Beck Program:

Editor’s Note: The post above is based on an excerpt from The Glenn Beck Program on June 19, 2017.

This article was originally published on GlennBeck.com.


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