Tim Tebow's 10 Most Motivational Bible Verse Recommendations...

...and when to use them
By Michael Roberts | December 2, 2011

It's the latest addition to Tim Tebow's legend: Before overtime versus San Diego, he reportedly told teammates, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (aka Proverbs 27:17) and then led Denver to victory. What Bible verse might spark the squad against the Vikings on Sunday? Here are our picks for the ten top inspirational references he's shared on Twitter and when they might come in handy.

10. Micah 6:8

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

​Game situation: When coaches from the sideline call in a play no one thinks will work.

9. Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Game situation: Fourth and one on the Vikings 46.

8. 1 Samuel 12:24

But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.

Game situation: Third and 22 from the Denver twelve, after a holding penalty.

​7. Philippians 2:3

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.
Game situation: When running the option and the trailing back has room on the outside.

​6. Ephesians 4:32
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
​Game situation: After a Willis McGahee fumble.

5. Joshua 1:9
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
Game situation: After a Vikings TD that puts them up by ten.

4. Jeremiah 26:14

As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right.

Game situation: Fourth and goal, with seven seconds left.

3.  Psalm 37:4-5

Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Game situation: The winning touchdown!

​2. Jeremiah 9:23-24

This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD.
Game situation: The final whistle.

​1. Colossians 4:6

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Game situation: In the press conference after the victory, when the commentators ask why your passing isn't better.

Cleaning Out the Clutter: How Long Do You Keep Records

If you don't know me, then this post may seem strange. But, for those who know me, you may understand. One of my mantras is to "get the junk out of your life ... clean our the clutter."  When you start cleaning out the clutter, what should you keep and what should you throw away. 

I ran across this article from the New York Times. It's worth a read.

FiNancial Tuneup

Retain Your Records No Longer Than You Must

By JENNIFER SARANOW SCHULTZ

Published: March 24, 2010

I’VE long been a pack rat when it comes to saving financial documents. I have a file cabinet full of old cellphone and credit card bills, brokerage firm and bank account statements and health insurance benefit forms.

When my husband accused me of saving too much, I realized that there wasn’t much reasoning behind my recordkeeping. So I decided to find out what financial documents people needed to keep and in what form — as we fully enter the age of electronic statements — and what can be purged now.

According to Catherine M. Williams, vice president for financial literacy at the credit counseling firm Money Management International, there are two main reasons to keep financial records. “It’s either for backup to a tax issue or for proof that you did something like make a payment,” Ms. Williams said.

The Internal Revenue Service requires that individuals be able to produce records proving any income, deductions or credit claimed for at least three years from the date of a return, the statute of limitations for how long the I.R.S. has to assess additional tax if all income was reported correctly. In addition, the I.R.S. requires that individuals be able to produce such records for six years if they fail to report income that is more than 25 percent of their gross income. There is no statute of limitation for failure to file or tax fraud.

Therefore, experts generally recommend keeping anything that verifies the information in your tax return for at least six to seven years. “My recommendation would be never throw away copies of your tax returns and checks made out to the government — anything else, I would say keep for at least six years,” said Jude Coard, a tax partner at accounting firm Berdon L.L.P.

Records that fall into this category include W-2 forms, 1099 forms, other tax reporting statements and end-of-year bank statements that show interest earned. As for brokerage statements, John W. Roth, a senior federal tax analyst with the tax information and software provider CCH, recommended keeping end-of-year statements as well as monthly statements and investment confirmation statements showing how much you paid for an investment and how much you earned for selling it. “The only time when you need to save the monthly ones is if that is where the confirmation is for a purchase,” he said.

In fact, for any asset or investment for which you one day could claim a gain or loss (a home or stock, for example), you need to keep records of how much you paid for the item, the costs of any improvements you made to it and how much you sold it for. Such information needs to be kept for at least six to seven years after the gain or loss is included in a tax return.
You also need to keep proof of payment (like a credit card or bank account statement, canceled check or receipt) for any deduction or credit claimed, including for family gifts, tuition and charitable contributions. (See I.R.S. Publication 552 for a detailed rundown of the types of proof needed to verify various tax information.)

The other reason to keep financial records is for proof of a payment or other transactions. Unless you are self-employed and need copies of your bills to prove certain deductions on your tax form, you need to save bills for things like utilities and cellphone costs only until you’re sure your payment has been processed correctly. Throw such bills away once “you’ve got the bill the next month and it shows a zero balance or payment received,” Ms. Williams said.

And unless you are self-employed and need years of monthly bank statements to prove your income, experts recommend keeping monthly bank statements for only a year, or for however long your bank allows you to challenge incorrect information like a double count for a debit purchase. The same guidance applies to credit card statements. If everything is correct, keep them for a couple of months or as long as the window for challenging charges is open. If there is a problem, keep the statements until it is resolved. (The time frame for notifying banks and credit card issuers of errors related to payments and transfers is generally 60 days after the error appears).

Documentation for insurance and loans would also fall into this second category. Ms. Williams recommended keeping any documentation related to loans, including the original loan document and statements, until you have paid off the loan. Once the loan is paid off, just keep documentation proving that you paid in full.

As for insurance, keep your paperwork for as long as you have the policy and keep documentation for any unresolved claims of coverage. For health insurance, keep any records (explanation-of-benefit forms, receipts and invoices) covering treatments that are in progress or that are not completely paid for or resolved. Such records should be kept until the treatment is completed, payment is complete and all coverage and payment issues “are resolved to your satisfaction,” said Susan Pisano, spokeswoman for Americas Health Insurance Plans, who added that people might want to keep copies of such records even longer if they wanted a record of their own health treatment. If you have medical expenses that are tax-deductible, you would need to hold onto records related to them for six to seven years after the tax filing period.

There are documents one needs to keep indefinitely, including paperwork related to legal filings, wills, inheritance, bankruptcy and paperwork documenting contributions to and withdrawals from retirement accounts like Roth I.R.A.’s.

Many documents, including bank and brokerage firm statements, are now available in electronic form and are often accessible on bank and brokerage firm Web sites for years. Still, most experts recommend not relying on banks or brokerage firms to keep this documentation for you.

First, there is the chance your bank or brokerage firm could fail and you could find yourself scrambling to locate copies of your records. Second, banks and brokerage firms have different policies for how long they keep documents on their Web sites and how much they will charge you to retrieve a copy of an older document.

Customers of Chase, for instance, can see electronic copies of checking and saving account statements for the previous seven years free, while Fifth Third Bank provides access to 16 months of statements and HSBC provides only 12 months of statements in electronic format. The latter two banks charge $5 for copies of older statements. Credit card statements are also generally saved for a shorter length of time, and there can be fees for getting older bills.
Brokerage policies vary. Fidelity provides at least nine years of statement history, three months of trade confirmations and a year of tax records on its Web site, and will supply older records upon request without charge. Schwab provides 10 years of certain records, and Merrill Lynch provides six. Most will hold on to cost-basis information while the account is in existence. And if the customer switches banks, the information will often be transferred to the receiving institution.

The I.R.S. generally requires records in paper form, however. So tax experts recommend that you have your own system for storing such material.

As for what form you should keep these records in, Paul Stephens, an identity theft expert and director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, advised against storing records on online storage sites or in e-mail messages because of the risk that sites could shut down or get hacked into. He also advised against storing records on just a computer hard drive since that too could fail or be broken into.

He recommends keeping paper records in a locked filing cabinet or safety deposit box, and electronic data on an encrypted U.S.B. flash drive or an encrypted external hard drive.
If you want to keep documents in electronic form, most banks or brokerages let you retrieve printable PDF or HTML forms of statements and other records that you can save to your storage drive. You can also scan other documents to electronic form.

But if you choose the electronic path, make sure you keep your technology up-to-date.
“Check every year that you are still able to access what you are storing,” said Robert M. Sattler, an audit partner at Berdon L.L.P. For instance, if you had only stored your tax records on a floppy disk, you would probably be out of luck today.

As for me, I’m sticking with my file cabinet, but will have to do a spring purge of some unnecessary paper.