Love is Over-rated

"I want love to, grab my fingers gently, slam them in a doorway, put my face into the ground."  --Jack White, Love Interruption (video here)

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud  or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 1 Corinthians (video here)

Love is the most overused and misunderstood word ever. In my work w teenager i often make the blanket statement that you cannot understand love until you are at least 18. They hate that. The truth is the concept of love is difficult to understand, ever!

Here is the incongruency...
I love God...
I love you...
I love my spouse...
I love my parents...
I love Basketball...
I love Pizza...

Really? 

The same word is used to describe your excitement about lunch and affection for deity?
Maybe we dont really understand what love actually is.
Love in music or pop culture amounts to a cachophany of white noise.  It's become hyperbole in excess. 

The Beatles told us "All you need is love" and the reason why was... love is all you need.  Hmmmmm. The movie Love Actually should have been titled sex actually.  A quick review of the movies release the past two months feature several marriage and love themes, one about an affair and one of the most popular love stories of the past several year, Twlight.  Incase you live without any media influence (if you do, good for you) the latter is a love story about vampires, again I say hmmmm... love and the undead.

Greek love

The Greeks had it right.  Koine Greek which was spoken when Greece was the dominant world power had 4 different words for love, I think we should adapt them imediately.

Phileo -- Friendship love.  It is based on mutual interest.  
Storge -- Commonly called a Motherly love.  Ususlly expressed only amoung family members.
Eros -- Erotic, sexual love.  Enough said.
Agape -- The ultimate, self giving and pure love.  Unconditional love of Divine nature.

As stated earlier, things would be a whole lot easier and more understandable if we adopted ancient Greek wisdom and were more speific with our concept of love.  
I addition to immediately adding the four words to our way of life I offer two final thougts.
love 1.  God is love (no wonder we have such a tough time with this)
2.  Love is an action word

New Years, New Gears

New Years, New Gears

For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?  Isaiah 43:19a

Wanna shift into high speed this New Year?  There is no time like the beginning of a year to start to think about ramping things up.  Maybe a better way to look at this is not so much in terms of speed but in terms of shifting gears; shifting into a new gear for a new year.

OK, so 2013 will provide you 8,760 hours, you can only use them once, how are you gonna do it?  Of course, there are things that demand your time.  So lets see what they are and then how much time we actually have…

Most people…

will sleep 7 hours a day which is 2555

That leaves only 6205

 work 8 hours a day (5 days a week or 260 days a year) which is 2080

That leaves only 4125

spend 3.5 hours a day eating/doing chores/caring for others which is 1277.5

That leaves only 2847.5

spend 2.5 hours per day driving which is 912.5

That leaves only 1935.5

spend 2.5 hours per day on leisure time (sports, tv, internet) which is 912.5

That leaves only 1023

spend an average of 50 minutes each day waiting which is 304

That leaves only 719

spend an average of 45 minutes in the commode (genders vary) which is 274

That leaves only 445

I’m sure I forgot some stuff and maybe you can even add something additional but the bottom line is this, WE ONLY GET 445 HOURS DISCRETIONARY TIME EACH YEAR.  Yep, that’s about 18 days.  Not much if you think about it. 

WHERE DO I FIND MORE TIME?

·         ZZZZZZ.  Is there a way to only sleep 6 hours and recoup 2 hours a day?  Probably not, we were designed for 7-8 hours of sleep each day and 1 day in 7 off completely (think Sabbath).  There are also lots of physical challenges related to sleep deprivation.

·         WORK.  Yup, this takes the most the time.  If you want to change the world, make your work count.  If you have a job that lets you change the world those 8 hours, awesome.  If not, try to find one.  If you are not the world changing type, make your 8 hours at work be productive and efficient and you can get promoted, make more money and enhance the rest of your time.

·         QUALITY VERSUS QUANTITY.  An hour is only an hour in theory but an hour of quality time with someone you love is worth more than non quality (AWOL* time)

·         BE A DOER.  Don’t be that leisure time casual-don’t-wanna-change-the-world kinda person, make things happen.

PRIORITIES ARE BETTER THAN TASKS

Time management is a great thing to keep in mind this time of year but I recommend thinking more about priorities.  If we think more about who we are and what is important, daily tasks become easier.  An oversimplified version of time management is this:  1, Prioritize and 2, Delegate.

Priorities mean focusing on what is most important.  If you are thinking God, Family, etc, you are right. Here is the catch, most people know what is important but don’t dedicate a lot of brain power focusing on it or time doing it.

Here is an alliteration I use for my priorities; the first three are in order, the rest change seasonally.  Faith, family, friends, finance, fitness, future.  These are theory unless I live them daily and have them impact how I live my life.  Its one thing to say that faith is important but another to love my brother,  pray, help those in need, be patient with my kids or attend a worship service.

MAKE THE MINUTES COUNT (but think priorities)

When is all said and done there is way more said than done.  Above shows how we spend our hours, but if we start with minutes they add up.  Here are some tips

·         Always think about your priorities and roles.  These focus all other things.  I am a Christian, I am and Husband, I am a Dad, etc.

·       -  Krish Dhanam says 15 minutes early to work, 15 minutes not gossiping and wasting time, 15 early from lunch and 15 after quitting time is an hour gained each day.  That is 260 hours a year or the equivalent of 32 work days.

·        -  Plan!  Write your goals, tasks, desires and dreams down on paper, they are more likely to be accomplished when they are in writing.

·        -  Think relationships.  It is difficult to quantify an RIO on relationships.  To be brief, they are valuable, find time each day to cultivate them.  Like a little seed, they grow into big things.

·        -  Use your strengths.  Some people use too much time refining their weaknesses and neglecting their strengths.  Refine your strengths into superpowers and no one will care about your kryptonite.

·       -  Start small.  10 minutes a day can make a huge difference in things like exercise, praying or reading, you can reclaim over an hour a week.  How many chapters can you read in an hour?

Above all,  do it!  Just do it.

Here are some links that helped support this writing, they are fun and silly but worth a look at.Time wasters - http://blog.tempoplugin.com/2012/how-do-people-spend-their-time-at-work-infographic/

Average times - http://www.bls.gov/tus/charts/chart1.pdf

Time doing - http://akorra.com/2010/03/04/top-10-things-we-spend-our-lifetime-doing/

Online time - http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/online-time_b22186

* A military term that stands for Absent With Out Leave.  I’ve changed it to Absent With Out Leaving or being present but not being engaged.  For example being at lunch with your child but being on the phone while they are on the iPad.

Top 5 listens for 2012

Top 5 listens for 2012

(the album above has nothing to do with anything except horrible album covers)

2012 was a different year for my musically   I found myself listening more to the records and artists below than new stuff.  There were several releases i looked forward to in 2012 but were not able to keep my attention like the following.

Mumford and Sons - Babel.  I probably had "I Will Wait" stuck in my head for a month, only to be replaced by "Ghosts That We Knew".  All other songs are just as incredible.  Banjo, acoustic guitar and tons of guts is how I would describe this release.  When I first got it I wondered if I needed any more UK hillbilly music in my life, but in retrospect I did!  Shows you more people can make good music with banjos besides Taylor Swift (haha).  I was trying to think of a good category to put this into thinking it too unique to just be labeled indie but it hit me that really these guys are the remade 1980's band Dexy's Midnight Runners.  Sheesh.

Flyleaf - New Horizons. Since is was not a fan of Memento Mori I wasn't sure I'd immediately like NH, but I fell in love with this back to (Flyleaf) basics recording.  Lacey's vocals were as refined as ever (I'm thinking shouting angelic whisper) and lyrics were stepped up a notch too.  Saving Grace could be a worship anthem at any church and Broken Wings.....Love Song to Jesus.  Bummer Lacey is leaving the band, dont know if they will be the same.

Rush - Clockwork Angels.  Didn't know what to expect and honestly probably wouldn't have given this record much respect if I hadn't seen them live to a sold out crowd.  The experience and excellence was awesome after 19 previous studio recordings was really evident.  This band is not tired, nor boring.  CA is a concept record that no one can do like Rush.  Its a tale of an old man looking back at his journey against the machine, against the odds and against the villainous watchmaker (doesn't really put fear in your heart does it) but hey, its a record (and a book, but thats another story).  5 of the 12 songs are in the 7 minute range and none of the boys lets up musically.  Geddys voice is on point, Alex's rifs are tight and Neal, oh Neal  you never cease to impress, musically or lyrically.  CA is a must listen to any classic music lover, any former Rush fan and anyone interested in a sci-fi steam-punk story (btw, the CA concert was younger than the Owl City concert I went to a couple months earlier, but there were thousands of teenagers in attendance playing air-drums).

Muse - The 2nd Law.  Musical excellence and innovation.  Yes, there are songs on this release but there is rock opera, aria and  experimantal euphony.  Its heavy, its light, its passionate, its more.  It starts off with in your face rock and roll (loud, gutar solos and 4:4) and takes you through sonnet and ends with ethereal.

Jack White - Blunderbuss.  Long awaited, much anticipated and over delivered.  I'll take Jack however he comes (White Stripes, Raconteurs, (barely) Dead Weather) but the solo Jack was like peanut butter proving once and for all that jelly is optional.  With more instruments than I could define and songs styles all over the place and stellar JW penning, this recording is diverse, tight, eclectic and phenom.

bonus...

U2 - U22.  This was a U2.com release of the best songs from the 360 tour.  What made it better was that it was fan voted.  Cool recording.  Had some flash back moments from the actual concert.  The songs didnt flow like a studio record would have but to have new material from a legend was great.  Songs of note; Magnificent, Stay (faraway so close). All I Want Is You/Love Rescue Me and Moment of Surrender played INCREDIBLY well live (more than just a band playing their usual songs), and MLK/Walk On was a treat.  Plus little known songs like Out of Control and One Tree Hill, wow.

Honorable Mention

Toby Mac - Eye On It

P.O.D. - Murdered Love

Matisyahu - Spark Seeker

Owl City - The Midsummer Station

----------Bonus vids from above bands-------

This one from Flyleaf, watch the first 20 secs.  Wow.  Listen and you will know why D Crowder recorded it as a worship song.
JW - upside truth
This one from Jack White has no words to describe, although I'll leave it at a math problem.  JW+U2=Awesomeness (its also the music for the trailer of The Great Gatsby)
U2 extras 1  2  3 4

Gratitude Gone Viral

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.  Luke 12:48

We have so many blessings it is difficult to talk about being thankful without being trite.   In fact, it is a huge understatement to say we are blessed.  We talk about it, we see it, we live in it, we mean it, we have a four day weekend off work to celebrate it. Bottom line, we are totally, completely and inextricably blessed and therefore must be thankful.

Gratitude should be our response to a multitude of blessing. Our attitude of gratitude should lead us to helping each other; not just an emotional though or pause or prayer of placation we annually offer.  We need to share our blessings with others.  It is easy to share with friends, but there are others who need blessing as well.  Often it is tempting to concentrate on what we don’t have instead of what we do have, but in Christ, we have everything we need even though we may not have everything we want.  Generosity is easier when we remember the source of our blessing…Christ.

For this reason, we need to respond from our abundance with generosity toward others.  We are blessed to be a blessing.  Since this is true, we need to see every blessing we receive as not only something to be thankful for but as an opportunity to bless someone else.  God blesses us so we may pass that blessing along.  We need to be a river of blessing that flows in and out, and not a dam that blocks it up.

There are many opportunities for is to reach out with our thankful generosity and help others.  We often look to programs or other people to take the lead in responding but there are lots of additional and probably little known opportunity for rogue responses of thanksgiving. You can do something now, today.  Why wait?

Its time to give! Look around and count 10 things you are thankful for today and how you can use simply one of them as an opportunity to bless one person within two hours of reading this.  I bet you can.  I bet a message to a friend or a random act of kindness to a stranger or a gift of generosity can be easier than you think.  Remember, it all begins with thanksgiving.

If you would rather drink your feast this year, here is an idea (no, its not an alcoholic beverage add) -----> Jones Soda 

The price of chivalry $329.42

Thats the exact price. How do i know?  Read on. But i do have to say everyones price is different. 

I thought id pay a high price for chilvery but it turns out it wasnt a high dollar amount.  The more expensive price for me was not paying the dollar amount earlier. 

The door lock on the passengers side of my vehicle broke and that was the beginning of my chilvary challenges. All of a sudden i was unable to open the door for my wife and daughter.  No big I thought, that part is probably expensive and the Jones family can live without it; my girls are independent AND...we have a keyless remote; I click, they enter.

Things were fine, we were living by the rules of the remote and I tried to tell myself it was all good because the money I saved was offset by a small inconvenience.


But then, it got worse. 

The keyless remote stopped working on the passengers side too.  Now, the only way to open the locked passenger door was to enter the drivers side and reach over to open the passengers side from the inside (when did they stop putting key locks on the passenger side).  Still, i couple of seconds was all that it took and I was still saving money.  But deep inside I knew I was vicariously teaching my daughter bad chivalry (and probably how to be a cheapskate instead of frugal....but thats another story).  Even in the rain this problem was overcome by a 5 second delay, I go first, passengers later, no prob.

The plot thickens

We went out to eat with several couples.  After the meal, we all in the parking lot after a late departure and several couples were parked near us.  Since we dinned late, the parking lot was virtually empty.  Everyone went to their cars, and in my heart of hearts I heard a collision; it was my cheap-ness running smack into the middle of my chivalry (and probably pride). Ya, deep in my heart I knew this accident was inevitable, I knew I was not being frugal but cheap but more so lazy (who wants to take the care to the repair shop). The crash occured and I thought everyone would see and hear it.  So (I thought) Everyone was looking at us...to see if I was going to let my wife in first and be chivalrous man or be that "fend for yourself, because your are strong and its 2012, I dont treat women like princesses guy".  So I did the only thing I could do....I walked my wife to the passenger side of the car, grabbed her and kissed her like I meant it..  Yep, I covered by chivalry sins with faux flirtation.

Time for a fix.  Time to come clean.  Time to fess up and drop the cash and do what is really right.  No more bad modeling or fake justification or excuses to keep away from the repair shop.  Time to man up and fix this problem.

I still dont know why I finally fixed the door for them or me...probably the principle.

I dropped the cash; best 300 bucks I spent in a while.  It felt good.  Good to do what is right.  Good to open the door for my girls.  Good to feel like a (chivalrous) man.  Good to model for my family.  But mostly good to show my daughter that only good and Godly men open doors for ladies and treat them like princesses.

Why Say Goodbye?

In general, people don't like goodbyes.  “Later”, “see ya” or other euphemisms are usually more heard than “Goodbye”.  Shakespeare coined the phrase parting is such sweet sorrow, but really? C’mon Bill.  Here is the quote in context...

Even though saying goodbye is as normal as hello, we dont like to end things.  Ya, goodbye is not permanent but it does signify that we are stopping something.  

Is goodbye sweet?  Is it sorrowful?  Is it both or neither?  Saying goodbye to a bad habit and saying goodbye to your kids for a long work trip are sweet and sorrowful but only in that order.

Goodbye to the the heat.  Goodbye to Summer.  Goodbye to long hours and longer days.  Goodbye to seasonal acquaintances, throngs of people bees and mosquitoes.  It seems that parting is more sorrow than sweet because of our fond memories.

But saying goodbye to something means saying hello to others.

Hello to the FutureThere is a great big world out there with lots of new people to meet, things, to do, books to read or write and so on.  We cannot embrace the past too much or we forget were in the present but making plans for the future.

Hello the the Next ChapterA chapter must be finished before a new one can begin.  Time to turn the page and see what God has next.  The next chapter could be better than the last.

Hello to Fall, Holidays, Winter and MoreFootball, new classes, new challenges at work, new friends, new halloween costumes (ha) Thanksgiving feast, Christmans and NEW Years all await, hello.

Hello to New FriendsWe all need new friends new influences and new experiences.  People have a wonderful way of providing so much layer to an otherwise controlled life.  Old friends are a must but new ones are a blessing.

Hello to New GrowthUltimately, we need to grow and change (saying goodbye) is part of that process.  There are some things we must say goodbye to and some things we would rather not but unless we say goodbye to some, we may not be able to say hello to others.

Embrace the Goodbye.

In closing enjoy the rest of the quote as a parting salve.

Juliet:

'Tis almost morning, I would have thee gone—

And yet no farther than a wan-ton's bird,

That lets it hop a little from his hand,

Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,

And with a silken thread plucks it back again,

So loving-jealous of his liberty.

Romeo:

I would I were thy bird.

Juliet:

Sweet, so would I,

Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.

Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,

That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

Romeo And Juliet Act 2, scene 2 

Bonus Material....

Water Church

Waterchurch.

Early in the Summer my friend Dave Busch, the CEO of Hawaiian Falls waterparks asked me what it would be like to do an event at the waterparks with emphasis on church people bringing their friends who dont know Christ and do it for FREE.

That is like offering a high school football team an all you can eat buffet.  I jumped at the chance.  I started calling friends around the area and my friend Brian Bradford from Horizons Church in The Colony started working his contacts with his local network group and before you know it we had a date, some partners and a vision.

We printed 1000 tickets and distributed them through our local network of 12 churches.  We had three more join us and a total of 8 churches ended up participitating in the event.

We did not know what to expect....What would God do?  How many people would attend?  Would the church respond?  Would there be salvations, baptisims or people in attendance?

Below, the video documents the incredible kingdom event.  We had over 2,200 people show up, over 100 respond to a first time or closer walk with Christ and over 100 baptisms in the wave pool.

Yep, waterchurch!

Calvary Christian Center, The Colony
Church of the Apostles, Coppell
Horizons Church
First Baptist
New Generations Church
Mill Valley Fellowship
Crystal Church
Bent Tree, The Colony

How to Become an Overnight Success

Overnight Success Takes Years

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. Galatians 6:7

What is success?  Great question. Before we can talk about it with any clarity we must define it.  If we ask most people to answer with little thought, I suspect the answers largely deal with finance and popularity.  If one could answer with some level of thinking, answers like goal achievement, happiness, family, freedom or quality of life would likely surface. Yet ultimately, the answer is pretty subjective.

Disclaimer;  success is easy to define, it means achievement; or to accomplish something.  Most people think of success as a lifetime achievement or ultimate success and not the little things that happen everyday like, I successfully dropped the kids off and made it to the office by 8:30.  Still both are success but this article will focus with the former, ultimate achievement type success.

So now that we are dealing with ultimate success; that indeed does intersect with happiness and quality of life.  Our focus here is more than just the theory of ultimate success but how servant leaders are motivated to ultimately succeed.

Things that make for great substitutes for success, yet are not; Fame and fortune, happiness and; Quality of life.  Lets not get them mixed up.


ONLY TWO TYPES OF SUCCESS
Inherently, I believe there are only 2 types of success; who you are and what you do.  I sometimes think of them as internal success (who I am) and external success (what I do).  To only have one type of success is, IMHO, only half of success, a shortcut at best.  It is difficult to have ultimate success without internal and external elements;

Internal success is who we are; it is both nature and nurture.  Internal success includes our very DNA, our family lineage, education, self worth, life experience, etc.  It is spiritual.  Our internal success sometimes takes a while as it cultivates, as it ebbs and flows.  Sometimes it takes a lifetime to cultivate this and it is aways difficult; the best things in life always are.

External success is more easliy seen.  It is easy to assume that this is the only part of success.  We see the evidence of people striving for this type of success only and just as quickly as they “make it” they fail.  That is because without internal success, external success will never last.

A marriage made in heaven is when a wise person seeks with their whole heart to find internal success with no regard to external success because they know that is a by product of it.  

Intrinsic motivation happens when one learns that internal and external success are the one two punch of ultimate success.  True motivation happens when the realization of internal plus external success is about being successful long term, eternally.


Here are the options for success.  Only the last option allows for Ultimate Success.

PRIORITY EFFECT

No Internal or External success Selfishness, lack of motivation, no life

External but no Internal Short lived, no substance

Internal but no External Powerful, wise but selfish, stagnant, no influence

External before Internal Showy, frustrated and very difficult to build internal

Internal then External The sweet spot, this is how it is done

Pay the price of success.  Anything worth having is worth working for, especially success.  Work now, serve now, give now; cultivate your inner man, where success spawns.  Play it forward, sew your seeds and in due time they will grow. 

The (not so) Trivial Pursuit

Do you play the game?  Relationships are not a game but they should be a priorital pursuit.

“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” – Charles “Tremendous” Jones


I”v been thinking lately of the power of relationships.  Relationships are a powerful force and often difficult to define, analyze or substantiate.  Its a good thing we get to talk about building healthy relationships instead of some other more complicated aspect of them.

Some people are born extraverts and built for many surface relationships, while others gravitate toward fewer people in their life but cultivate depth...A Servant Leader Builds Healthy Relationships.

1.  Find out who you want to build relationships withMake a top 10 list of the things that make for the best relationships.  This could be anything from someone who is a giver to someone that is tall.  You get to pick whatever you think makes a great relationship and use that to help you decide who has those qualities.  Once you create that, list 3 people with the most qualities on your list.

2.  Pursue upward relationshipsIf you want to have a happy divorce free marriage, here is how to do that, maintain friendships with happy married couples.  If you want to make lots of money, here is how to do that... become friends with people who make more money than you (infact you can determine your annual salary by finding the average salary of your closest 5 friends).  The point here is that you can maintain status quo by maintaining current relationship status or you can make friends with peole who are better than you.  Yes, that means you will become a better person too.

3.  Flesh and blood is best but there are other waysSome of my best friends are authors and speakers who have yet to have the privilidge of meeting me.  But they are still friends that influence my life.  Sometimes i need a friend to listen, sometimes i need my friends to instruct me.  Sometimes i need a friend with skin on sometimes I dont.

4.  Be thankfulWhen i become friends with new and interesting people, i try to think them.  A quick email or text message saying how i appreciate their friendship them.  Last night I spent time wiht a mentor/friend and after hearing some INCREDIBLE things he is doing (finishing his third book and entering his documentary about a 12 year old African girl who walks 8 miles a day to provide water for her family) I just told him how much more i appreciated his friendship because of the awesome things he is doing for God.  Hey, I’ve even been known to send starbucks cards to new friends. Oh, and birthday messages for my friends are a must!

5.  Stay in TouchYou ever heard the phrase, “out of sight, out of mind”?  Well its, true.  I’ve found out that when I take responsibility to keep in touch with friends we usually stay in touch.  Of course there are those who endeavor to stay in touch with me too; either way, friends stay connected.  A personal monthly email, txt message or call is all it takes.  Time over coffee is cool too, if you can find it.

6.  Be a healthy relationshiper Not all friendships are created equal.  some of my friends are lights years ahead of me in terms of career, finance or just plain better people than me.  Some are not quite there yet, but I choose friends of all types.  Yes, I encourage upward pursuit of friends, but just remember there are those who see you as an upward pursuit; find time for them too.

So, there it is, a not-complete guide to build healthy relationships.  Here is a little secret that makes it all work....make the development and maintenance of healthy friendship one of your top priorities every day!

Smart People Listen

What are words for, when no one listens anymore?  --Missing Persons

Do you ever feel like everyone is speaking and no one has time to listen?

Words are a positive creative force.  Think about it, one good comment can make your day, likewise, one bad comment can ruin it. God spoke the entire universe into existence, talk about the power of words.
Words are all around us but do we listen?  We can listen but do we hear?  Here is the deal...Smart people seek positive input: they find good influences, they listen and they get smarter.


I found an intriguing article at www.amoeblog.com by Billy Jam referencing a survey about what music people with hi SAT scores listen to. It is totally worth the read! (read it here) For the record, I've listened to U2 since i was 16.


Here are some additional thoughts about smart people an listening.

*  Smart people see the need for positive input – they know they need something beyond themselves.

*  Smart people find the target - you have to know what you are shooting at, in this case you need to find who you want to speak into your life.

*   Smart people makes it a priority - if seeking positive input is important, it must be made a priority.

*   Smart people listen - having someone to speak into your life means not just having them talk, but you need to listen.

*  And lastly, Smart people respond - having all the info available, knowing the need for outside encouragement, having the right person to speak into your life, making it a priority also takes a servant leaders response.  This requires asking the tough questions.

1. Are you tough enough?
2. Are you still enough?
3. Are you ready

A smart person listens; a really smart person listens to the right things. A really really smart person finds the right people saying the right things and listens well.

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry James 1:19

The Art of Apologizing

This is obviously an email forward but way too funny.

It is also a great illustration of mis-managed communications.  Make sure you scroll to the bottom for the pictures.  Greatness.

The Art of Apologizing

His Apology letter Hi Sweetheart, I am sorry about getting into an argument about putting up the Christmas lights. I guess that sometimes I feel like you are pushing me too hard when you want something. I realize that I was wrong and I am apologizing for being such a hard-headed guy. All I want is for you to be happy and be able to enjoy the holiday season. Nothing brightens the Christmas spirit like Christmas lights!  I took the time to hang the lights for you today and now I will be off to the hockey rink. Again, I am very sorry for the way I acted yesterday. I'll be home later. Love you, Brad Her response  Hi Honey,  Thank you for your heart-felt apology. I don't often get an apology from you, and I truly appreciate it. I, too, felt bad about the argument and wanted to apologize. I realize that I can sometimes be a little pushy. I will try to respect your feelings from now on. Thank you for taking the time to hang the Christmas lights for me. It really means a lot. In the spirit of giving, I washed your truck for you and now I am off to the mall. I love you too! Barbara

Watch Your Tongue

The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. Proverbs 18:21

Lemons.... Did your mouth get watery and did you salivate?

Taste is good, but your mouth is good for other things.....

Its not so much what your tongue tastes but what it says that is important. Taste is passive while talk is active; it takes way more energy to talk than taste.  Positive talk requires more effort than negative talk.  Maybe we should make our talk more purposeful.

I’ve always thought is kinda cool that when God created the universe, He spoke it into existence.  He used speech to create something so vast, so intricate, so loving, so creative and so positive.  He spoke things into existence.  Literally, from nothing came something...through the power of speech.

I dont think we have the power of speech to form kingdoms but I know we have the power of speech to change lives, to encourage each other, to make a difference!

Here are some thoughts for us to use to be more purposeful and intentional with our tongues.

1.  Make your speech more calculated

2.  Be more positive

3.  Learn new words

4.  Say something positive each day

5.  Give 2 compliments each day

Closing thought..... We all have one tongue and two ears; I think God wants us to listen more than we speak.