If you allow others to keep taking you down memory lane you’ll eventually set up house, stay longer than you should and miss your God-given destiny. It’s wonderful to have people in your life who know where you’ve been and can relate to where you’re going. But if you have to choose between then and now, sacrifice then for it can’t be rewritten, only replayed over and over. Stop rehearsing your beginnings and write the rest of your story. The future is yours – seize it while you can.
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Seeing a World-Wide Need, Firsthand
At 5pm on Monday night, the City of Broken Arrow, where we live, decided to flush out the fire hydrants to get rid of sediment that had built up within the valves. While I understand the reasoning for doing so, it put many families in a bind, if even for only 12 hours. That’s right….12 hours, without clean water.
I’m embarrassed to even write this, but having to find ways to bathe out kids and do the little things like brush our teeth, became a major chore. These are definitely “First-world problems.” What a tragedy! We didn’t have clean water for 12 hours! [see: sarcasm] It made me think of all of the places in the world without clean water on an ongoing, day-to-day basis. Wow, what a spoiled bunch we are!
When I woke up this morning, I took a shower and brushed my teeth, all with restored, clean running water, while there are over 900 million people still waiting for safe water in the world. We had to “suffer” through 12 hours of dirty water.
Sometimes God shows you the biggest lesson in the most inconvenient of times. So this is what I’m asking…will you follow my lead and donate to a charity water organization of your choosing? Personally, my family is giving to the Water4 Foundation, because friends of ours, Kemp and Kim Ward have played a major role in building wells across Africa and I know that the money that they raise goes straight to providing clean water for thousands.
I’m excited about the great work that the Water4 Foundation is doing to bring fresh, safe water to children and families around the world. Water4 is digging water wells to help change the lives of the 900 million people in the world who have no access to safe water.
With each well they dig the Water4 team also trains local workers to dig safe, reliable water wells. So that when the Water4 team moves on to the next project they leave behind a group that is trained and ready to support themselves and their communities. Teams typically become self-supporting businesses while providing fresh water for a fraction of what traditional approaches cost.
I’m supporting the work of the Water4 Foundation and hope you will too.
Together, we can make a life-changing difference for thousands of children and families!
Thanks for caring and sharing!
Please join me in giving.
Healing is a Process
Jesus Heals the Blind Man
When studying Mark 8:22-23 this morning, I came across this interesting set of words that was used:
22 When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch the man and heal him. 23 Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?“
Sure, this is a great miracle that many of us have read and heard before, but I wanted to look at that last phrase. Jesus knew that at times there is a process for your healing. Sometimes it happens instantly, other times it takes weeks or months to fully realize your healing. Jesus wasn’t asking, “Do you see clearly now?”. He just wanted to know if the man could see “anything.”
Are you facing something right now that you wish you could see the ending instantly? Maybe God is saying to you, “Can you see anything now?” He’s not asking if everything is perfect, but are you seeing progress?
Hang in there and watch God’s miracles work in your life and the lives of those around you
The God of Peace
While studying on the front porch this evening, I came across this verse in the last few stanzas of 1 Thessalonians, chapter five:
Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. – 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NLT)
The Story of Life
As told by Chris Hodges at Lifechurch.tv last weekend, originally from Dr. John Maxwell:
On the first day, God created the dog. God said, “Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes by and I’ll give you a lifespan of 20 years.” The dog said, “That’s too long to be barking. Give me ten years and I’ll give you the other ten back,” and God agreed.
On the second day, God created the monkey, and God said, “Entertain people, do monkey tricks, make them laugh. I’ll give you a 20-year lifespan.” The monkey said, “How boring. Monkey tricks for 20 years? I don’t think so. The dog gave you back ten, so that’s what I’ll do, too, okay?” And God agreed.
On the third day, God created the cow. God said, “You must go out in the field with the farmer all day long, suffer under the sun, have calves, give milk to support the farmer. I’m going to give you a lifespan of 60 years.” The cow said, “That’s kind of a tough life you want me to live for 60 years. Let me have 20 and I’ll give you back the other 40.” And God agreed.
On the fourth day, God created man. God said, “Eat, sleep, play, marry, enjoy your life. I’ll give you 20 years.” Man said, “What? Only 20 years? I’ll tell you what, I’ll take my 20, add the 40 the cow gave you back, the ten the monkey gave you back, and the ten the dog gave you back. That makes 80, okay?” “Okay,” God said. “You’ve got a deal.”
So, that is why the first 20 years of our lives we eat, sleep, play, and enjoy ourselves. For the next 40 years, we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next 10 years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. For the last 10 years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everybody that goes by.
The 50 New Rules of Work
by Robin Sharma
- You are not just paid to work. You are paid to be uncomfortable – and to pursue projects that scare you.
- Take care of your relationships and the money will take care of itself.
- Lead you first. You can’t help others reach for their highest potential until you’re in the process of reaching for yours.
- To double your income, triple your rate of learning.
- While victims condemn change, leaders grow inspired by change.
- Small daily improvements over time create stunning results.
- Surround yourself with people courageous enough to speak truthfully about what’s best for your organization and the customers you serve.
- Don’t fall in love with your press releases.
- Every moment in front of a customer is a moment of truth (to either show you live by the values you profess – or you don’t).
- Copying what your competition is doing just leads to being second best.
- Become obsessed with the user experience such that every touchpoint of doing business with you leaves people speechless. No, breathless.
- If you’re in business, you’re in show business. The moment you get to work, you’re on stage. Give us the performance of your life.
- Be a Master of Your Craft. And practice + practice + practice.
- Get fit like Madonna.
- Read magazines you don’t usually read. Talk to people who you don’t usually speak to. Go to places you don’t commonly visit. Disrupt your thinking so it stays fresh + hungry + brilliant.
- Remember that what makes a great business – in part – are the seemingly insignificant details. Obsess over them.
- Good enough just isn’t good enough.
- Brilliant things happen when you go the extra mile for every single customer.
- An addiction to distraction is the death of creative production. Enough said.
- If you’re not failing regularly, you’re definitely not making much progress.
- Lift your teammates up versus tear your teammates down. Anyone can be a critic. What takes guts is to see the best in people.
- Remember that a critic is a dreamer gone scared.
- Leadership’s no longer about position. Now, it’s about passion. And having an impact through the genius-level work that you do.
- The bigger the dream, the more important the team.
- If you’re not thinking for yourself, you’re following – not leading.
- Work hard. But build an exceptional family life. What’s the point of reaching the mountaintop but getting there alone.
- The job of the leader is to develop more leaders.
- The antidote to deep change is daily learning. Investing in your professional and personal development is the smartest investment you can make. Period.
- Smile. It makes a difference.
- Say “please” and “thank you”. It makes a difference.
- Shift from doing mindless toil to doing valuable work.
- Remember that a job is only just a job if all you see it as is a job.
- Don’t do your best work for the applause it generates but for the personal pride it delivers.
- The only standard worth reaching for is BIW (Best in World).
- In the new world of business, everyone works in Human Resources.
- In the new world of business, everyone’s part of the leadership team.
- Words can inspire. And words can destroy. Choose yours well.
- You become your excuses.
- You’ll get your game-changing ideas away from the office versus in the middle of work. Make time for solitude. Creativity needs the space to present itself.
- The people who gossip about others when they are not around are the people who will gossip about you when you’re not around.
- It could take you 30 years to build a great reputation and 30 seconds of bad judgment to lose it.
- The client is always watching.
- The way you do one thing defines the way you’ll do everything. Every act matters.
- To be radically optimistic isn’t soft. It’s hard. Crankiness is easy.
- People want to be inspired to pursue a vision. It’s your job to give it to them.
- Every visionary was initially called crazy.
- The purpose of work is to help people. The other rewards are inevitable by-products of this singular focus.
- Remember that the things that get scheduled are the things that get done.
- Keep promises and be impeccable with your word. People buy more than just your products and services. They invest in your credibility.
- Lead Without a Title.
Keep Leading Without A Title.
Frustration has set in!
Well after a few weeks of being offline, due to my web hosting account lapsing because of my old credit card on the account expiring in 08/11, I am back in the blogging business. Sadly, for me, I have lost all of my content from the last year. So I only have content from September 2010 and back.
Uggh. Frustration has officially set in. I guess that means I start over.
So here’s to new beginnings!
