I hope & trust this post finds you all having had a great day and a wonderful week on this absolutely beautiful Friday evening! We have received some much needed rain on the Gulf Coast and the weather tonight is just...incredible. I do believe I am going to have to go sit out on the back porch with my Beautiful Bride after this Happy Friday.
This week I want to share a few things with you.
1. Work travel has increased tremendously. I have decided to use my time on airplanes going through leadership books I have read, making notes of everything I have underlined...really studying, learning and, through applying what I read, growing. On a trip this week I took along one of my all-time favorite leadership books, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes Into Stepping Stones for Success by John C. Maxwell. I was getting all fired up taking notes, such a great book, packed with great wisdom. I wanted to share just two quick excerpts from the book with you.
"Contentment comes from having a positive attitude. It means...
- expecting the best in everything - not the worst
- remaining up beat - even when you get beat up
- seeing solutions in every problem - not problems in every solution
- believing in yourself - even when others believe you've failed
- holding on to hope - even when others say it is hopeless"
"If you want to achieve, you have to win the war in your thinking first. You can't let the failure outside you get inside you. You certainly can't control the length of your life - but you can control its width & depth. You can't control the contour of your face - but you can control its expression. You can't control the weather - but you can control the atmosphere of your mind. Why worry about things you can't control when you can keep yourself busy controlling the things that depend on you?"
2. Please do me a favor; click on this link and go watch Kathie Lee Gifford's tribute to her husband, Frank Gifford, from earlier this week. http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/18/entertainment/kathie-lee-gifford-frank-today-feat/ If this link does not work, just type in "Kathie Lee Gifford's tribute to Frank Gifford" and it will pop up for you. The whole thing is a little more than 8 minutes long. The parts I particularly want you to see and listen to occur right around the 3:45 mark on. Please, if you don't do anything else, go watch. It is an absolutely great message for us all.
Seeing some of the comments that have been made when I went to look at this I feel I must say something; we are ALL fallen, broken & make/have made mistakes. Not a single one of us is immune. This does not mean that God will not forgive us - nothing, absolutely nothing you or I can do is too great for God to forgive...not because of who we are but because of who He is! - and it doesn't mean that we can't learn from one another. A few rapid-fire thoughts come to mind:
- There was 1 absolutely perfect person and we nailed Him to a tree
- Let him who is without sin cast the first stone
- David, described as "a man after God's own heart, was not without sin...none of us are
If we could just get over ourselves! O.K., my rant is over. Please go watch the video and I pray this question will challenge each one of us in the deepest recesses of our hearts..."What is your stone and where are you going to throw it?"
3. Are you easily offended?
Last week I had some things on my mind so I called one of my dearest friends, a relationship ordered & ordained by God 22 years ago...dang we are getting old!, to seek some Godly counsel. We talked about all kinds of things and then he brought up this idea of being offended. He told me about a sermon or talk he heard about not being offended, stating if Jesus did not get offended what is so big in your life or mine that would permit us to be offended. He told me after hearing the talk he was quite for 3 days.
I have thought and prayed a lot about being offended in the past week or so. I have caught myself wanting to be offended, recognizing it and choosing, intentionally choosing, not to be offended. It is not easy, I would argue it is impossible, unless something greater than you or I is leading us.
Tonight I simply offer it up to you for thought & consideration. If your spirit is a little restless right now perhaps this is something for you.
I will tell you this; being offended is the easiest thing in the world to do. It requires very little, if any, work. Because we are flawed, broken people living in a flawed, broken world, there are plenty of folks who are willing to let you be offended by them. Cut you off, cut in front of you, flip you off...there are people willing to do all those things. Pick on you, tear you down, question you and everything about you...there are people willing to do all these things as well. There is absolutely no shortage of things we can get offended by and about. Here's the thing though Friends, just because we can doesn't mean we should.
If we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Personal Savior, if we know who God says we are, if we believe that God will take care of us and provide for us as His word says He will, if we don't let worry grip our hearts as the Bible reminds us 365 times not to do...if all these things, why would we get offended? If we are truly allowing God to be the Lord of our lives, to transform our hearts & minds He can take us to a place where we get offended less and less. I don't know if it is possible for us to ever get to a place where we are never offended - I am not trying to put God in a box and I do believe that with God all things are possible - however I do know that by seeking God daily and truly allowing Him to be the Lord of our lives we can be offended a whole lot less...at least I can.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your families. I will always be willing to help you any way I can.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please cherish those precious families. I am headed out to the back porch now with my Beautiful Bride...
Kev
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