God's Man

Welcome to Day 17 - To Thine Own Self Be True...   So I lead off with this today with emphasis added by me. This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man [especially yourself]. - William Shakespeare Here is my list of items for today and yesterday.  If you haven't had an opportunity to take a look at my super awesome post from yesterday you can view it here .   know yourself This is an important trait to learn as you go through this challenge.  It is so important to know who you are, how you do things, and why you do them.  Knowing this allows you to streamline your processes.  If you know that being tired makes you cranky than you should invest time in being well rested.  If you as a husband or wife have a need of you spouse than you need to communicate it to them.  This way, hopefully, they can prioritize your need into their whir...

Hi All, it looks like I am not going to get my post in tonight. I need to focus on getting the electronics moved. Going to be a late night. Go Go Go! sent from my phone...

Today I am reposting a piece of a message I wrote back in 2007.  The title was Are you In Season.  You can check it out here .  This is where I am today.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Are You In Season? Psalm 1:3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. Power Tip: Every Season of life is precious. Don't rush any of it! The word of God is rich. So rich in fact that you can look over the same passage many different times and have new revelations. The only way for our tree to truly thrive we have to be rooted in Christ. We have our parts to play too but one thing we've got to have is our relationship with Christ. He gives us a warning that there will be many, that, at the end that He will not know. There will even be those that used the laws that God created to amass great things. He has even said that there will be tho...

Welcome To Day 14 - Relax Relate Release... One of the most important things that you can learn is when to recognize when you are getting close to edge. My wife and I have been known to ask each other, "Can you please talk me down from the ledge." This happens when we are attempting to do too much and are getting worn out. Do you know when you are at that point? You should always be aware when you are close to burn out because this is when we tend to damage those closest to us. Have you ever noticed that we always lash out at those who are closest to us? If you take the time to notice when you are close to burnout then you can insulate those around you. So here is what I did not get done today. simplfy things I made a valiant attempt to simplify things today but I ended up with more on my plate at work. However I decided to change the way that the giveaways will work today. I will be choosing randomly from everyone who updates tonight. So there is your simple act...

Welcome to Day 13 - Taking Care Of You...   Today I want to talk about taking care of you.  We live in such a frenzied state and with what I consider conflicting goals that we often neglect ourselves until it is too late.  Here is a case in point.  I have a wisdom tooth that cracked months ago that I have not gone to get removed.  I have not made the time to take care of this because I have so many different things going on right now that I haven't made the time to take care of this.  I am not as concerned with going to the dentist like I used to be.  I used to hate the dentist.  Even though I have really good teeth.  I just have way too much stuff to take care of right now to have to deal with having a tooth removed, especially now that it has cracked.  I have a good friend who works in a dentists office who will be very mad at me once she reads this.  So as soon as some of this build out frenzy dies down you will fi...

Welcome to Day 12 - Facing the Shadow The caption reads, "Yea though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death I will fear no evil Psalms 23:4" I LOVE the 23rd Psalm. My grandmother had me repeating that thing over and over again when I was a child. For me I just loved her praise when I could recite it on command. I didn't understand what any of it meant and I don't remember anyone trying to explain it to me either. It was just important that I know the words. Today I want to talk about walking through the valley. This feel in line with my tasks for today. Here they are breed confidence If you take a look at the passage it tells us that even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death there is nothing to fear. I want you to think about a shadow. It is late now and with the lights off you can see the shadows everywhere. When I was a kid I remember not wanting to sleep in the dark because of the way the shadows played in my room. I though...

Welcome to Day 11 - Just Smile And Wave Boys So today was a day of flexibility. I had an expectation of how my time would be spent today but after a shift here and a turn there I didn't get started on my "important task" until way late. Sorry about that last sentence but it is what it is. So here is my list today don't slouch I nailed this one by staying on a ladder for most of the afternoon. I also am sitting up straight as I type this message. Did you know that sitting up straight also helps to strengthen your core. Bonus! keep healthy Did I mention about how I am strengthening my core by sitting up straight. I also spent some time laying on a couch which actually burns calories. ;) Seriously though I had a healthy dose of pulling wires and climbing ladders today. act naturally Do you act differently depending on who you are around? If you find yourself switching from group to group I would recommend that you change that. I know that we want to fit i...

Yesterday's 30 Day Trial Post has now got persistence on my brain. Here is another story from Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. When Henry For decided to produce his famous V-8 motor, he chose to build an engine with the entire eight cylinders cast in one block. For instructed his engineers to produce a design for the engine. The design was drawn up on paper but the engineers agreed, to a man, that is was simply impossible to cast an eight-cylinder engine in one piece. Ford said, "Produce it anyway." "But," the replied, "it's impossible!" "Go ahead," Ford commanded, "and stay on the job until you succeed. No matter how much time is required" So the engineers went ahead. Six months went by. Nothing happened. Another six months passed, and still nothing. The engineers tried every conceivable plan to carry out the orders, but the thing seemed out of the question. "Impossible!" At the end of the year Ford ag...

Here is a story taken straight out of one my favorite books. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Shortly after Mr. darby received his degree from the "University of Hard Knocks," he witnessed something that proved to him that no does not necessarily mean NO. One afternoon he was helping his uncle grind wheat in an old-fashioned mill. The uncle operated a large farm on which a number of sharecropper farmers lived. Quietly the door was opened, and a small child, the daughter of a tenant, walked in and took her place near the door. The uncle looked up, saw the child, and barked at her roughly, "What do you want?" Meekly, the child replied, " My mom says to send her fifty cents. " "I'll not do it," the uncle retorted. "Now you run on home." But she did not move. The uncle went ahead with his work, not noticing that she did not leave. When he looked up again and saw her still standing there, he said, "I told you to go on ho...

So I felt as though I cheated earlier when I addressed one of my tasks today. I am supposed to write something and I posted a story about this awesome guy that I know. However I feel like I should share a little bit more about writing. It is one of those things that we grow up doing but since it was so intimately wrapped up in school, for a lot of us, we stop once school is out. So since my daughter Isana is writing a story about her day I figured I would write about the importance of writing. I loved writing as a kid. I would write strories in spiral notebooks. When my parents bought our first electronic typewriter I would sneak it out of their room and stay up all night writing stories. I was a nerd even then. My stories were mostly about my favorite comic book characters. I would weave fantastical tales of my acquiring super powers and joining them on adventure after adventure. When my eyes moved from comics to girls I used to write letters to them, they would never read t...

Welcome to Day 9 - When the foolishness begins So today I am playing house husband and loving every minute of it. I have no problem when sitter challenges result in a day off from work. When I was younger than I am now I wanted to be a house husband. So while I was watching Zoelle, the one in the glasses in the Taking Pictures post, She started singing Peanut Butter Jelly Time. It was hilarious. Any way I hope that you are progressing on your challenges? Whether you are hitting the mark everyday (not me) or something less than (Me Me Me) the attempt is what is important. You are building habits that will help you attack other issues in your life. I used to drive my wife crazy with this quote, "How you do anything is how you do anything." This worked similiarly to the quote she uses all the time, "Narrow is the way..." You have to set boundaries and then plan your life within them. I know that we spent all of our growing up years trying to push and even brea...

Welcome to Day 9 - Time to Think Differently   As most of my friends know I am first and foremost a nerd and secondly I am an apple snob.  I didn't start out this way.  I was an equal opportunity nerd.  I loved them in all OS flavors, IBM-DOS, PC-DOS, MS-DOS, Windows, UNIX, Linux and yes my beloved MacOS which I like to call candy coated goodness.  Many OS have tried to replicate that look but none have succeeded, in my opinion, and for me they never will.  Now I am not one of those guys that sits in starbucks and looks down his nose at people using PC's however I do take great joy in the Blue Screens of fallen Windows computers.  So why do I start today's message with this overly nerdy and pointless introduction?  Because I can.   So for me today I am looking at 3 tasks in my quest to become the person that I would want to spend the rest of my life with.   Start Anew Have you ever wanted a do over?  Remember t...

So here we are.  One week in and I know that I have seen a tremendous return for my efforts so far.  I was a little overwhelmed when I first looked at my task list .  However when I began to dive in I found that these could be achieved while following my normal path.  So here is where I am on my list for today.   Re-Read Books If you ask my wife she will tell you that I am a book hole.  I have books upon books upon books.  I try to read at least 2 books each month.  Since I am always taking in new material I don't go back and reread a lot of those books.  One of the books that I tend to read every year is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  I have a pocket copy that is shredded because when I was a teenager I would carry it around everywhere.  So maybe 7 years ago I bought a new version of Think and Grow Rich that was updated for the 21st Century.  If you have never read the book I would ...

Welcome to Day 6 - Wiring Is The Coolest So I got to spend all of my day today up in the ceiling of our new church pulling all of the miscellaneous wire that we are not using. It is interesting what networking people will leave up their. We found random tools, wiring connectors, and a trash can. Anyway here is what I was working on today. Make Promises So I promised that I would use my volunteer day from work this year for the Unite Campaign. So there I was, enjoying my ceiling time. My arms will be so sore from pulling and coiling wire. Have you made fulfilling promises a part of your life. Your word is worth more than gold and your good name more precious than diamonds. Make it a habit to keep your word. Practice Discretion In order for me to accomplish item number one I had to learn to say no. Learning to say no is vital to your growth. Get that habit under your belt. Be Sincere Are you honest in your conversations with others? Here is one of the tests to see your sincer...

So I am trying out blog posting from Microsoft Office 2007. I am interested in knowing whether it is worth it to add the overhead of Office to my blogging lifestyle. So today our church did something different, we had a split service. Since we have 2 buildings for the next couple weeks we had the men in one location and the women in the other. It was a great experience for us. I would imagine it was the same for the women. My wonderful bride was the speaker and I have been told that she did a wonderful job. I know that God spoke both to and through her. Watching her prepare was fun. She really dove deep into the word and focused on making sure that she was prepared. She had enough material, in my opinion, to create an entire sermon series. Congratulations darling, continue to let God use you. Welcome to Day 5 of the 30 Day Trial Challenge Today I am focused on these 4 tasks in my quest to become the type of man that I want to spend the rest of my life with. Carpe Diem Today i...

So today's message will be a short one. Not because I don't have that much to say but because I am in between bedtimes and after laying one little one down I need to spend some individual time with the other. So here is an update on how I am doing on my 3 trials. Today's tasks were Delegate Responsibility, Stand Out, and look up. I had help in tracing wires and pulling them so that is a check for number one. I stood out today as I tried, again to open my mailbox using the key the Post Office gave me. After trying all 130 boxes I learned that they gave me the wrong one. I did fail to look up today and was whacked by a ceiling tile while pulling some wires. 2/3 is still a win in my book. ;) Healthier lifestyle - Ate a great Chicken Caesar salad for lunch today. My workout was going up and down ladders and pulling cables out of the ceiling at the church. My arms are a little sore so I must have been doing something Cash Only - Didn't do so well on this one. Afte...

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What Will Be the Impact of the Moments We Create?   Every step you take has impact on the next.  Every word you say carry's tremendous power.  The thoughts we harbor can lead us in one direction or the next.    What moments are you creating in your life?  How would those around you answer that question?  What would your children say is their fondest moment with you?  My oldest is at that age where she thinks about things that happened in the past.  She can recall things that she has seen or done very easily.  (What can I say she is my daughter so she would have to be awesome.)  So I asked her, what is the most fun thing that you have ever done with Daddy?  He answer was about going to the park and then going to get snowballs afterwards.  I thought that was a pretty awesome day too but I was expecting something else.  Disney on Ice or Carnival or Christmas.  I didn't expect something so simple....

Is it Time To Speak Up?   Ready... Set... Go!   So I had a series of conversation on facebook where I asked my friends what their top needs were and if they communicated that to their spouses or significant others.  The first thing that amazed me about the response was the lack of male feedback.  I am sure that they could give me tons of reasons why they didn't respond however that doesn't really matter.  This got me thinking about what we say we want versus what we really want.  I mean if you are not able to communicate to the person that you are committed to what your needs are, can they really be considered a need?  My wife has been kind-of reading a book entitled, "Men read newspapers, not minds".  You have got to communicate your needs and once you have done that then it is on the other person to accept or reject fulfilling that need.   You have to be careful with that though.  Once you open that door than you ar...

Do You Need To Get Caught Up?   So yesterday I didn't make it through two of my tasks. Constrain Yourself (Setting Boundaries) Step Back (Evaluation) So in an effort to kill several birds with several stones I am going to use these two items to focus my efforts for today's work.  So I am setting a boundary around the items I will be talking about today.  At work we call these time boxes.  I mentioned an assignment that I used to do with my students called the 5 minute drill.  This is where I would give a topic and they would have to create something in 5 mins.  Whether it was architecture, or programming, or multimedia they had to build something that met the goal within the time frame.  At first this was difficult but by the end of our time together could do amazing things in short periods of time.  So today I have 4 items on my task list. Challenge Yourself Speak Up Create Moments Take Picture...

So today I learned that one of my favorite quotes is absolutely true. "Inch by inch is a cinch" I have heard that quote used a ton of times by a ton of people in a bunch of different contexts. The point, however, is always the same. Small changes done over a period of time creates results. I know that we like to think change requires massive effort. Let's make Big Changes, we'll say. I want to create an explosion. The problem is that it is difficult to sustain those big changes long term, without some serious soul searching and sacrifice. That is why the 30 day trial is so important. One of the things I have seen take place in the folks that I work with is by setting a small goal and working at it effects long term change. By making it happen day after day you build up your confidence muscle. Then you can tackle the issues systematically turning them into positive habits. So back to what I learned today. So as part of my trial I joined a gym yesterday. I g...

Are You Ready To Own Up???   So what does it me to own up to something.  To me it means to take responsibility for the decisions that I have made.  It means that I have accepted that I am the one who did it.  That the buck stops with me and that only I can change it.  So what am I owning up to?  Check out the picture again.  I am extremely prone to procrastination.  It has been such a problem for me that I had begun to justify it.  No longer!   I will be proactive about the things that I have on my plate and I will say no more often so that I will no overwhelm myself.  Being overwhelmed often leads to me putting things off.   Case in point.  I need to get over to brickbodies in order to get my gym membership set up.  I haven't done it yet.  Why?  Well I am off to get it done now.  I will do the most important thing possible at every given moment.  Drop me a note and let me know w...

Here I am trying to get into today's 30 Day Trial post and I couldn't come up with a single thing to write about. So let's recap on what I will be taking on today towards my goal of Becoming the person that I want to spend the rest of my life with . Own up Constrain Yourself Step Back As far as some of my other challenges I was supposed to run out of here at lunch to join the gym near work. I chose instead to have a discussion with one of your fellow Trial Challengers about goals. I am excited to see what is going to take place in each of you lives. I ran across this quote today by Sarah Caldwell who was a famous opera conductor. “Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.” There is alot to be learned from those around you. I hope that you will take the time to investigate. I also brought my breakfast and lunch with me today and have leftovers of an afternoonb snack so I won't b...

It Has Begun!!! Congratulations to everyone who has decided to join in on this installment of the 30 Day Trial Challenge. I am excited for all of the amazing things that you will be doing over the next 30 days. They may not seem like big deals but any change, when you decide to make it has tremendous value. If you have any questions on hos to make this work drop it in the comments section. I make a point of responding to all comments during the challenge. Also if you haven't announced what you are going to do in the introduction post here or by friending me on Facebook and commenting on the rebrodcast of my posts there get er done. Today I will just be sharing my Trials with you. Over the next 30 days I will be subscribing to this idea, " You Must Try To Become The Person You Would Like To Spend The Rest Of Your Life With". In order to do that I will working on a group of positive changes everyday. I have this handy dandy spreadsheet that I have created ...

Do you want to do something different in your life. Are you thinking about making a change? Maybe you want to try a new exercise program or just start exercising. Ever thought about being a vegetarian, or a vegan? How about spending more time in prayer? If you are standing at the edge and wondering if you should take the plunge than the 30 Day Trial Challenge is for you. Welcome to the 30 Day Trial Challenge Most people can do anything for 30 days. A challenge like this is built on the fact that we can handle short bursts. It is the long term plans where we get into trouble. Hopefully your goals will become a positive habit in your life. The beauty is if you find that this thing isn’t for you. After 30 days you can let it go with knowledge that you tried it and it didn’t fit. It is the “what if”s that drive us to rash decisions. To take part in the 30 Day Trial Challenge you need to do 2 things: Set a goal. Commit to it for 30 days. How Do I take Part? If you want to be a part of the 3...