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Q. What does it take to make a difference?

A. Being talented or attractive or famous doesn't do it. Let me suggest a few ingredients:

1. Have a mission in life. You have to be a part of something bigger than yourself. Get involved in making life better for people. Adopt a needy child or become a foster parent. Be a coach or a tutor to inner-city kids or run for school board.
2. Seek out and surround yourself with great role models. Frankly, I don't like hanging around mediocrity. I don't want my mind affected by a "just good enough" attitude. When you're on a team with great people, everyone in the group motivates and inspires each other to work their hardest and be the best.
3. Work hard. It may mean taking extra classes, doing more reading, watching less TV. If you really want it—whatever "it" is—you'll get it done. If you don't get it done, then you don't really want it, you just wish you had it.
4. Be bold, be daring, be courageous. If you want to win big, you've got to take some calculated risks. If you care enough about serving Jesus Christ, then you don't worry so much about what other people might say about you or do to you.
5. Be persistent. Very few touchdowns are made with a single 99-yard pass. Most come at the end of a 10- or 15-down drive made up of five- and three-yard gains, even some lost yards. If you don't hang in there, you'll never get to cross the goal line and do the Lambeau leap! But If you're persistent, ain't nobody gonna stop you.

REGGIE WHITE was one of the most-respected and tenacious defensive players in the NFL.

Adapted from: In the Trenches (Nelson, 1996) by permission

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Dear God, grant me the resolve to make the changes needed to become a man of influence for You.

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