Bible - Why Thirst :: essays research papers

Why Thirst John 4:13 states â€Å"Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.† Why Thirst I grew up in a church congregation that taught of God’s vengeance and not of God’s love. I spent the majority of my pre-teen, teen and adult years in fear of God. In fear of what would happen when I sinned. And of course I did sin. Instead of asking God for forgiveness for what I deemed unforgivable sins, I figured in my own mind, that since I was going to Hell, I might as well continue to sin. Today, I will share with you my life choices, my life circumstances and the plan that God had all along for my life to serve him. I Thirsted The summer before I went to fifth grade, my family moved. I was taken out of my comfort zone with my friends I had since before kindergarten and moved to an unknown. My Mom and Dad wanted me to be in a better school and since my mother worked for the Board of Education, she knew the school system she wanted me to be in. The neighborhood we had just moved to had just begun to be segregated. That year I was called the â€Å"N† word for the first time and really the only time I could think of. I did find a friend before school started. This friend and my choice to remain her friend would begin to mold my life early on. The funny thing is the harder I try, I cannot seem to remember my â€Å"friends† name. She moved within the first year of my being there and besides I have a horrible memory. We played with each other over the summer and went to school in the fall. Within the first week one of the â€Å"popular† girls told me that if I continued to be friends with this girl, I could not be in the crowd because they did not like this girl. I selected friendship over popularity and this affected my self esteem for the rest of my school years. The popular people begin avoiding me and out and out calling me names. They would taunt me telling me how ugly I was, how my face was filled with pimples, how I was smelly, how I looked like a giraffe, and so on.

Sam’s Club and Costco

There are many positives that can be drawn from the way that Costco runs and controls its business. Costco’s motto is â€Å"To continuously provide our members with quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices† (Thompson, Strickland, Gamble, 2010). They have stuck to this mantra by providing affordable memberships to its customers, and affordable pricing of its merchandise. Costco’s strategy of low pricing and limited product line and selection made Costco successful by keeping their margins below their competitors; this is a positive in that it will draw more customers and more accounts for the growth and prosperity of the business. Costco’s limited product line and selection is also a positive because unlike it competitors, Costco offers efficiency in its sale process and makes it easier for the business to be managed. Sinegal stated that â€Å"If you have ten customers in to buy Advil, how many are not going to but any because you just have one size? Maybe one or two, we refer to that as the intelligent loss of sales† (Thompson, Strickland, Gamble, 2010). Another positive is Costco’s approach to treasure-hunt shopping. Costco tries to intrigue its customers by creating a sense of urgency with certain products that are high-end and that the company knows will sell-out quickly. Although these items a lot of times are higher priced, they still are reasonably lower than the average department store or its membership warehouse competitors. The only negative would be Costco’s marketing and advertising strategy. Although the stores reputation and low pricing have constituted in the franchises high level of success, their marketing strategy is lacking some key elements. Costco believes that direct mailings was the best possible marketing and advertising strategy but are missing out on the possibility of gaining a higher number of customers due to their lack of internet presence. The key factor that comes to mind is that Costco doesn’t offer a list of their store items online, which doesn’t give a consumer who isn’t familiar with the store a chance get the full spectrum of what they truly offer. Although Costco 3 Costco is a large franchise, in most cases; word of mouth simply won’t get a business the clientele they truly need to be successful or a leader in their respective arena. There were two strategic elements utilized by Costco that were insightful, the first being how Costco developed its personnel from within. The case of Jim Sinegal comes to light. When Sol Price made Jim Sinegal the manager of the original Price Club, he knew that Jim had a special knack for discount retailing and for spotting what a store was doing wrong (usually either not being in the right merchandise categories or not selling items at the right price points) very things that was good at and that were at the roots of Price’s Club growing success in the marketplace (Thompson, Strickland, Gamble, 2010). Sinegal applied this same concept when he partnered with Jeff Brotman, who was the elevated to vice chairman in 1993 and then to chairman in 1994. This strategic element is what made both Price Club and Costco very successful. The second strategic element that was insightful was the way in which Costco formulated its strategy on low prices and its limited product and selection. Costco’s view of the intelligent loss of sales, proved viable because they were willing to lose one or two customers to capture a higher number of clientele in the long run, and adhering to this strategy makes their business efficient and profitable. The formulation of strategy must take into consideration important external parties. For Costco, the competitor and their targeted customers were two constituencies. How was their strategy influenced by these parties? Did their strategy reflect adequate consideration of the needs of these two groups? Costco’s strategy was definitely influenced by its customers and its competitor. From a competitor’s standpoint Costco wanted to a provide services, prices, and products that rivaled its competitor Sam’s Club. Costco’s combining of high quality and low prices id the driving for behind Costco’s success. It is evident that Sam Walton, with Wal-Mart and Sam’s club played an integral part in the way the Costco has devised its strategy. Costco’s average pay, for example, is $17 an hour and is 42% higher than its fiercest rival Sam’s Club. Costco’s health plan also makes other retailers look Scroogish, Costco’s workers were only paying just 4 percent toward their health costs and raised it to only 8 percent when Sam’s Club and the retail average is at 25 percent (Bowmer, 2007). Costco isn’t simply looking to be better that the competition they want Costco 4 to be demonstrably better,† said John Matthews, Costco’s senior vice president for human resources (Bowmer, 2007). From the customer’s standpoint Costco looks to keep increasing its consumer base by providing low prices that aren’t coming at the workers’ expense, they believe this is the key to providing a good service and good business as a whole. Costco caters to the customer, by not becoming a casualty in the pricing war among retailers and wholesale club industries alike. A cardinal rule that has been implemented is that no item can be marked up by more than 14 percent and no private label item by more than 15 percent. In contract supermarkets generally mark up merchandise by 25 percent and department stores by 50 percent (Bowmer, 2007). Costco strives to be good merchants and offer the greatest value to the customer, Costco constantly strives to figure out how they are going lower their prices while their competition looks for ways to get to get more money for their items. Costco has a good understanding of its customers and knows that they don’t gain clientele by having fancy displays and mascots etc†¦ they know that the values they have attract and keep customers coming back, as well as attract new prospects. The company’s knack for adjusting and seeing things in a new way explains how Costco’s customers influence on the decisions and strategies set forth by the company. Costco’s strategy reflects adequate consideration of its customers and capitalizes on the needs that its competitors have. One can draw this conclusion because Costco has diagnosed what the customer needs, values and wants from a proprietor, and also have evaluated what the competition is lacking and perfected their mantra of providing low prices and quality products and services. They have formulated strong objectives that benefit their workers, customers and shareholders, and strategized a plan to be more successful than the competitor with a business model than can be considered overly generous in regards to its customers and workers in comparison to the competition.

Celebrate the Saturnalia Festival

Celebrate the Saturnalia Festival For how many years shall this festival abide! Never shall age destroy so holy a day! While the hills of Latium remain and father Tiber, while thy Rome stands and the Capitol thou hast restored to the world, it shall continue.- Saturnalia Conspicuous Consumption in Saturnalia as in Christmas Around Christmas, its often difficult to separate commerce from religion. I want to do something different this year. Put up something other than a Christmas tree and creche to which the wooden wise men move nearer each day. Maybe Ill wear a funny peaked cap, buy my friends beeswax candles useful gifts in the event of a power failure, let my son (as Lord of Misrule) plan the day, and just maybe Ill celebrate it early... on December 17, the day of the Saturnalia. The Increasing Period of Saturnalia Celebration This Saturnalia problem may sound familiar. After all, stores put out their Christmas merchandise before Halloween these days. The Saturnalia was originally celebrated in Ancient Rome for only a day, but it was so popular it soon lasted a week, despite Augustus efforts to reduce it to three days, and Caligulas, to five. Like our Christmas, this important holy day (feriae publicae) was for more than fun and games. Saturnalia was a time to honor the god of sowing, Saturn. But again, like our Christmas, it was also a festival day (dies festus) on which a public banquet was prepared. An effigy of the god was probably one of the guests. Saturnalia Was the Best Part of the Roman Year The poet Catullus describes Saturnalia as the best of days. It was a time of celebration, visits to friends, and gift-giving, particularly of wax candles (cerei), and earthenware figurines (sigillaria). The best part of the Saturnalia (for slaves) was the temporary reversal of roles. Masters served meals to their slaves who were permitted the unaccustomed luxuries of leisure and gambling. Clothing was relaxed and included the peaked woollen cap that symbolized the freed slave, which looks an awful lot like Santa Clauss peaked red hat . A member of the familia (family plus slaves) was appointed Saturnalicius princeps, roughly, Lord of Misrule. Celebrate the Saturnalia in the 21st Century Im not alone in my desire to do something... old. Biblioteca Arcana and Nova Roma offer suggestions for turning December 17 into a celebration of Saturnalia. Bringing trees indoors to decorate is a modern custom. Nova Roma suggests decorating outdoor trees with sun and star symbols  and using swathes of greenery over doorways, windows, and on people. But Nova Roma emphasizes that decorations are secondary to revelry, feasting, drinking, merry-making, pranks, and gift-giving of Saturnalia. If you can get your friends and neighbors in the spirit, wrangle a parade permit from your municipality so you can dance (like a Roman) in the street. Biblioteca Arcanas suggestions are for celebrating the religious aspects of the Saturnalia and its two adjoining holidays, the Opalia for Saturns wife, Ops, goddess of plenty, and the Consualia for Consus, god of the storage bin. The site provides a complete ritual with an equipment list, information on preparation, location, timing, the banquet, and the conclusion. Io Saturnalia! Also see: Saturnalia Article

buy custom The Aggressor in the Family essay

buy custom The Aggressor in the Family essay Domestic violence continues until behaviors of infidelity come to an end. In the worst cases, it continues long after the spouse has stopped engaging in unfaithful behaviors. This is because the other spouse may not have completely lifted the burden of the offense caused off his heart. In most cases, such a cause of domestic violence is very serious and a third party may need to interrupt. The worst scenario is whereby such violence ends up in divorce. Through personal reasons, one of the parties in the family becomes the aggressor. The aggression may be caused by various factors. The aggression may emanate from one family member or it may involve an all against all kind of situation. In most cases, his kind of problem becomes very difficult to deal with. This type of violence may take the form of fights whereby family members intentionally hurt each other, physically, emotionally and psychologically. Physical or mental illness is a common cause of personal aggression in the family. The remedy to this problem is medical attention. Some of the mental conditions that lead to aggression in the family include schizophrenia and Alzheimers disease. Family members may not realize that a mental condition is fuelling the violence until it is too late. Carlson (1984) observes that people who use alcohol or drugs are also a cause of domestic violence in their respective families. This is a personal problem thaat can be remedied simply through a change of behavior. Unfortunately, it is never as simple as that. Alcohol and drugs are not only highly addictive; they take away a huge chunk of a familys resources. One family member may drain all the familys resources by buying drugs, leading to a domestic quarrel. An individual who has been exposed to domestic violence all his life may expose the same behavior towards his family. This is because that individual has been conditioned to a life of violence since early childhood and beyond. For such a person, it is difficult to understand what that there may be another form of life other than one that is characterized by violence. In this case, violence may reign as long as the family exists. Buy custom The Aggressor in the Family essay

Movie What's Eating Gilbert Grape Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

What's Eating Gilbert Grape - Movie Review Example The movie portrays that there are a number of issues relating to the nature of the 'difficulties' or 'retardation' in individuals of low ability, sometimes known as the 'delay versus deviance debate'. Following Lustig (1999) that is, are those without and those with learning difficulties following the same developmental trajectory, but with the 'retarded' individual doing so at a slower rate; also, will 'retarded' individuals reach a lower ceiling, or are there qualitative differences in the paths they are. Challenging behavior is not a transient phenomenon. Many people show such behavior throughout their lives. Challenging behavior includes physical assault upon others, the most frequent example, damage to the environment, self-injury, severe noncompliance, persistent screaming, pica, public masturbation, inappropriate sexual behavior and recurrent vomiting (Vanderschie-Bezyak 2003). The analysis of Arnie's behaviour allows to say that mental retardation is characterized by subaverage general intellectual functioning which has originated before the age of 16 years and is associated with impairment in adaptive behavior manifest as: (1) delayed maturation, (2) slowness in learning, and (3) social adjustment. The whole classification had three parts, clinical, behavioral and intellectual. The clinical section was introduced into hospital practice. This statement, although relating specifically to mental capacity can equally be applied to all interactions that health care professionals have with people with learning disability whether it be medical, educational, therapeutic or social (Rimmerman and Raif, 2001). The movie supports research studies and current literature on the topic of mental retardation portraying that siblings and relatives are affected by illness of one family member. in their research Vanderschie-Bezyak (2003) and Rimmerman and Raif (2001) found that for some people, their development may be erratic and at certain times the person may appear to have reached a plateau which continues for a longer period than expected. When this occurs, it is necessary to investigate if there are other contributory factors which have gone undetected. For example, a hearing loss or unrewarding experiences in cases where the person's attempts have been ignored, or conversely where every need of the person is anticipated and met, thus reducing motivation to communicate. In "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", mental retardation results in suicide of the father 17 years ago. It is possible to assume that the father suffered from mental illness and it was the caused of the suicide. The causes of mental retardation are diverse, but critics underline that family history is one of the possible signs of mental illnesses. Also, the movie portrays that, Bonnie, a mother of the ill child, suffers from some kind of the mental illness resulted in obesity and overeating. These life circumstances lead to isolation of the family from society and loneliness (Rimmerman and Raif, 2001). Through the character of Arnie, the movie depicts hat left to themselves, many children spend less time close by their parents and caregivers compared to other children. Those who do tend to stay close may look toward their caregiver to show off what they

Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Change - Essay Example In business, resistance is the obstacle to surmount or conquer, especially when it comes to introducing new ideas, policies, protocols and products. This paper seeks to highlight resistance as a natural condition, and its application in successful product change in business with special emphasis on sales personnel. A business’ sole purpose is to make a profit at the end of the day’s activities, and when market conditions change, it requires businesses to formulate new ways of conducting business. Most businesses have a sales perspective that involves designated individuals who carry out the task of marketing and actualizing product(s) sale. According to Jaramillo et al, sales persons are more predisposed to resist change if they think it will increase their workload. For a business entity to achieve a successful product change, especially where its sales team is concerned, it needs to ensure that the team maintains its self-efficacy and autonomy (Jaramillo et al. 549). This would ensure that these individuals continue to maintain a harmonious and beneficial relationship with their customers. According to research conducted by Jaramillo et al, resistance to change exerts a negative influence on a salesperson’s performance and customer responsiveness. Managers in all business levels can help reduce resistance by explaining how proposed changes positively affect their workload. Businesses can also provide greater job autonomy to sales persons, which give them the opportunity to implement these changes according to the nature and situation of their respective fields of service. Positive reception of change by a sales team in a business translates to effective and efficient achievement of goals that prompt the need for a change. Jaramillo, F., Mulki, J. P., Onyemah, V. & Pesquera, M. R. Salesperson Resistance to change: An Empirical Investigation of Antecedents and Outcomes. London: International Journal of

The growth in internet use has affected cultures around the world, Essay

The growth in internet use has affected cultures around the world, leading to a westernised, homogenous culture - Essay Example This is so especially in the case of internet, which is a rapidly growing service almost available and accessible in all parts of the world. The internet, thus is known to have a major influence in people’s lives, their values, traditions as well as culture. This influence is steering the minds of the users into a westernised path of life. However, on the other hand, people are also seen to work towards the uplifting their own culture, as more and more languages are added to the internet in the present time, in order to increase the number of local users. Therefore, growth in the use of internet brings the whole world together into one large westernised homogenous culture while people also follow their own local cultures. Since the ancient times, the superior cultures have almost always had their influence on other cultures. This can be seen by taking the example of the British rule over India, Africa and such other countries or even when the Germans gained control over France . The dominating country always tried to imbibe their way of living as well as culture on the suppressed. This has both benefited the oppressed country as well as had negative influences too. But basically, taking the case of India, the country is in a much better position in terms of intellectuality and has been able to grasp modernity more because it was once under the rule to the British government, which was the driving force back in those days. Now with the advent in technology as well as with the creation of the mass communication computer network called ‘Internet,’ it is easier for the leading countries to promote their own culture. Now the difference here is that, in the olden times people were forced to accept the culture of the dominators, whereas now they have a choice, where they can choose whether to accept this culture or not. In the present world, globalisation aims at â€Å"interdependence† between different countries â€Å"rather than dominanceà ¢â‚¬  of developed nations over the developing or underdeveloped ones (Samovar et al. 2009, p.296). Internet is like an exchange forum, where people communicate and they come to understand the cultures of other people and also share their own cultures in this process of interaction. Internet is growing and now possessing its own culture, it is known by different terms such as â€Å"super-medium, meta-medium or a hybrid-medium† (Elm, n.d., p.85). It is this medium that enables the formation of various â€Å"virtual communities† throughout the world, resulting in a global coming together of people belonging to different nations (Hongladarom, n.d., p.2). Now the main people behind the development of such a medium are obviously the Westerners, who have always remained a superpower, and it becomes clear that the United States as well as UK has major â€Å"cultural and commercial influences† on countries all over the world (Chapter 4, p.49-http://wlxt.whut.edu.cn/new /wlyx/Resource/PaperAnswer/chap04im.pdf). As mentioned earlier, this paper aims to evaluate the influence of internet use in bringing together different cultures into a more homogenised one through the fields of business and language. Both these fields are interconnected and it is possible that when one aspect is taken into consideration, the other may be a prevalent affecting factor there. In order to know