Hello, welcome to the Excel Stillmore podcast.

I am your host, Chris Emerson, and we are here to talk about tips and strategies that you can employ to deepen your faith, improve your relationships, and just get the most out of your life.

Thank you for joining. Let's get started.

Welcome back to the Excel Stillmore podcast. Before we dig into the title and its meaning today,

I want to tell you a story. This is actually an old parable written by a friend of mine, a good friend,

David Osteen. He called it the parable of the stove. I want to share it with you and then ask a simple

question at the end, and that'll lead us into our material for today. Here's how it goes. One morning,

a little girl is in the kitchen with her mother.

Her mother says, do not touch the stove. It is frequently very hot. It will burn your hand,

and you will get in trouble. The little girl looks at her mother and says, yes, ma'am, and turns and walks away, thinking, we'll see about that.

So the next day, she walks into the kitchen and her mom's not there,

and she looks at the stove.

She doesn't approach it.

She just stares at it for like 10 seconds, and then goes on about her day.

The next morning, the little girl is in the kitchen by herself and she walks over to the stove

and hovers her hand over the stove top, doesn't feel any heat, and goes on about her day.

The next morning, she walks in and takes the very tip of a finger and touches one of the burners.

No fire, no pain, she doesn't get caught.

The next day, she walks in, and she taps it with three fingers.

The next day, she walks by, almost without thinking about it, and rubs her hand across the

stove top. But then comes the next day. She walks into the kitchen. She's feeling quite, bold, and

entitled. She lays her hand on that stove top, that red hot stove top, as if it was nothing.

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