Divide and conquer seems to be one of many preferred tools in achieving perceived success these days.  Presently race has been just one of those methods in the news and gender is another.   Those wishing to be on top use all kinds of diversions to hide truth.  (The truth being that others are just as important as ourselves.) Our minds are continuously thinking of ways to be more successful–––to climb to the top pentacle, to be boss hog. The real question is; what is true success?  If you were to ask a person on the street to define success you would get as many different answers as the number of people you ask the question.  There are thousands of answers to that simple question because there are thousands of people.  Are there that many differing successes?  I don’t think so!  But, we Americans are all thinking about being successful.  We all want to make our mark.  We want to be known to posterity as being successful in every way. We want to leave behind a great heritage. We forget and seldom remember that we all arrive on planet Earth the same way, and we all depart planet Earth the same way.  It is the time between the eternities that we find or fail to find true success. I could go on and on about the benefits of true success–––peace, tranquility, happiness and joy to name only a few, but the useful information I wish to convey is the real definitive answer to the question; what is true success?  And, where do we find it, and/or how do we achieve it. God’s instruction manual for humanity on planet Earth, The Holy Bible, is where we go if we truly want to find true success.  This is where the tire meets the road.  Few people want to know the real truth, most of us are only interested in our version of what we perceive truth to be.  NOTHING ELSE! DON’T WANT TO GO THERE, DON’T WANT TO HEAR THAT, NOT INTERESTED IN THAT,  I’M COVERING MY EYES AND MY EARS, DON’T LIKE THAT SOUND.  This is the attitude of a vast number of Americans today. This attitude of ours is because the past two or three generations we have been taught that we (self) are the most important person on planet Earth.  What we should have been taught and should teach our children is to always before we think about anything else, we should think about God, our creator.  And second, to always think of others before ourselves.  But there I go again, chasing a rabbit, back to the definition of true success. The Bible is filled with the history of men and women of failure and of success.  The book of Ecclesiastes spells it out in great detail and at the end of the book gives us the answer.  It says in the final two verses;  “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.   For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” “The end of the matter;”  is true success or true failure.  “Fear God and keep his commandments.”  The simplest version of his commandments are words spoken by Jesus in  Matthew 22:37-40.   And Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.   And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.   On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Think about it America!  Almighty God is the one who brought us here, He is the one who keeps us safe.  Shouldn’t we devote a majority of our time thinking about Him?  Then thinking about others.  Shouldn’t self be placed on a back burner?