These 3 Things

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama!

 

Have you ever had a conviction in your Spirit to do something, but you don’t? I have so many times it is infuriating! This is the second Happy Friday I have written this week. No, you didn’t miss anything…I never published the first one. You see, I had listened to this Maxwell Leadership Podcast earlier this week, heard some great stuff, and thought that I would share it with you all. The next morning, I wrote something to one of my Tender Warriors in a note and almost immediately felt, “This is Happy Friday.” Of course I didn’t listen, spent an hour and a half writing the Happy Friday I wanted to write and almost immediately felt…empty, uninspired. I knew it had missed the mark. And I also knew that because I had failed to listen the first time, I was going to get the opportunity to write another Happy Friday! So here I am…

 

I want to be clear that I feel what I am about to share is Godly wisdom. You see, there are two scriptures that mean everything to me:

James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

Psalm 16:7 says, “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.”

With this, every day as I seek Jesus I pray for wisdom as a man, husband, father, leader, and friend. As I have told my family a number of times, “so long as I am getting counsel from God, we are good.” If I ever tell ‘em, “I have it all figured out,” we are in trouble.

 

Having established where I believe what I am about to share came from, I believe someone needs to hear this brief message. Here is what I wrote:

 

“I pray you will genuinely pursue Jesus – this is where you will find peace, wisdom, discernment, strength, and courage; that you will pursue your purpose – this is how you add value; and that you will love, care for, and serve others – this will give your life meaning. These 3 things – they are the key.”

 

Friends, I truly don’t believe life is all that complicated, though we often choose to make it so. We get so caught up in where we are going, what we want to accomplish, what’s next, the busyness of our schedules, etc., that we forget to live each day. There are no silver bullets; what we consistently do determines the lives we will live. Seek Jesus, pursue our purposes, love, care for, and serve others – repeat. I am here to testify that I have found that this leads to an incredible, beautifully blessed, life.

 

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

 

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious family, and please stay well!

 

Kev

What We Say and Do Matters

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama!

 

Last Saturday most of us were horrified and saddened to see what transpired in Butler, PA. As my family and I watched the new coverage of the failed assassination attempt of former President Donal Trump my heart hurt. My initial thought, when seeing the bullet graze President Trump, was where did the bullet go? With so many people in attendance, it had to have hit someone. And then, with all the subsequent shots…you just knew that lives and families were forever being altered at that moment. So sad, so tragic…so incomprehensible.

 

This week's Happy Friday is going to be simple; What Will Your Influence Be…? With all the hate, anger, and vitriol in the world, What Will Your Influence Be…? In your sphere of influence, What Will Your Influence Be…?

 

Will we influence faith or fear?

Will we influence kindness or hatred?

Will we influence humility or pride?

Will we influence compassion or indifference?

Will we influence love or hatred?

Will we influence peace or anxiety?

 

The words we speak and the things we do matter. I get the fact that most of our spheres of influence are not as big as President Biden’s or President Trumps, or whatever movie star, professional athlete, or artist you might like, however we do have influence and we will create a ripple within our sphere of influence. Will that change the world? That is not up to me to decide…I will leave that to the Lord. All I know is that I have a choice every day. I get to choose the words I will speak and write, and the actions I will take. I am mindful that these things will then influence others – for good or bad. I know that I must be intentional, careful, and thoughtful. We all get upset, frustrated, and disappointed. We have seen where spewing venom, yelling, and attacking one another has gotten us. It is time to choose the harder right path. The one where we are respectful of everyone. The one where we listen to understand. Where we value each person, even if we completely disagree with their politics, theology, or anything else that we might not like! The one where we are accountable for our words and actions! The one where we take responsibility for ourselves and don’t blame our failures – we all have failing moments! – on others!

 

What Will Your Influence Be…?

 

As I have thought and prayed about this Happy Friday, there is a Biblical principle and law that I feel convicted to share; we reap what we sow. If we don’t like what we are reaping, we would be wise to reconsider the seeds we are sowing. It is not that complicated; we can’t sow discord and expect to reap peace. We can’t expect kindness and sow hatred. I can’t ignore my wife and children, be selfish, and expect to have a great relationship with them. We understand this in farming; who would sow corn seed and expect to reap anything other than corn? We understand this vocationally; who would sow seeds of tardiness, laziness, and sloppy work and expect to reap a promotion? (O.K., some do but that is another conversation!) We understand this relationally; to reap great relationships we must sow seeds of love, kindness, sacrifice, care, and concern. No matter who or what we blame, the bottom line is you and I will reap what we sow with our words and our actions.

 

What Will Your Influence Be…?

 

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

 

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

 

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious family, and please stay well!

 

Kev

Pray and Fight FOR

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama!

Last week my family and I spent an amazing week at 30A. I can’t even begin to tell you how blessed I am! Yes, we did fun things, hung out on the beach, and enjoyed a margarita or two! It is, however, the people that I was blessed to be with, the conversations we had, and the quality time we spent together that I will forever cherish!

I want to share a couple of stories with you…

A week ago last Monday, a friend of ours from Niceville took our whole crew out on a boat for tubing in the ocean. Have you heard about shark attacks this year? Yeah, we had as well! As we were riding in the boat to our location for tubing, we were peppering our kind and gracious friend with questions. Are there sharks where we are going? The answer was yes. Have you ever seen one? The answer was yes. And then she volunteered that you can’t forget about the alligators either…yes, she has seen those as well! She really should have just kept that thought to herself!!! In any event, the Haslam crew went tubing!

My youngest Tender Warrior, Landry, went on a ride with Ryan, the 10-year-old son of one of our dear friends from Arizona who joined us for the week. As we were whipping around the cove and they went flying outside the wake, Ryan started sliding off the side of the tube…going! Going! But wait, all of the sudden this bronze colored, wiry arm comes flying across Ryan’s back and pulls him back onto the tube. Landry had reached over and literally pulled Ryan back onto the tube…he wasn’t going to fall off on Landry’s watch. As everyone watched in amazement, I stated I was pretty sure that if Ryan did in fact fall in, Landry would go in with him, that he would not leave him alone in the ocean. When their ride ended and they got back on the boat, everyone was telling Landry how awesome it was to see him pull Ryan back onto the tube. Landry said, “Thanks. And I told him, if you go in, I am going in with you.” I knew it!!!

Last Sunday, after we had returned from our trip, Landry went out boating with some friends on the Tennessee River. While they were on the river, they saw a baby deer that had fallen down a bank into the river, was clinging to a rock, and was crying for help. Landry threw on a life jacket, jumped into the river, and, after swimming around after a terrified little deer, lifted the baby deer back up to safety. Watching the video that someone on the boat had recorded was amazing!

So why do I tell you these two stories? Yes, I am extremely proud of the Tender Warrior my son is, however there was a great lesson in both of these stories for me. You see, Landry is 19 years old, and he acts like he is, well, 19 years old! This means we don’t see eye to eye on everything, I don’t agree with everything he is doing, and he doesn’t agree with everything I do. For me, however, there are two keys:

1.     I pray fervently for my wife, my sons, Payton’s wife Halla, and Gehrig’s girlfriend Ila, every day. Perhaps this does not make sense to you, however it is everything to me. Every day I intentionally lay every one of them at the foot of the cross. I pray that God will lead them, that they will seek Him and make Him the Lord of their lives, and that He will use me however He wants to lead them. For me, there is always hope because I always have Jesus and I will place my family at the foot of the cross every day until I live my last.

2.     I refuse – absolutely REFUSE – to lose my relationship with my wife, sons, daughter-in-law, or G’s girlfriend. I will fight for them, for my relationship with them, every day of my life. No, I don’t agree with everything they say and do, and they certainly don’t agree with everything I say or do. But here is the thing, I absolutely love each one of them with all my heart and whether I agree with what they are saying or doing or not, I am 100% for them. I will choose to focus on my love for them, the greatness I see in them, and respect their right to say and do what they believe is right. For me, nothing is worth losing a relationship with them.

So, to me, the two stories I shared about Landry spoke deeply to my heart. He is getting it, and he is going to be just fine. No, I don’t know exactly what his path will look like, how God will use him, what he will do, etc. I do know, however, that he understands he is to love, care for, and serve others – whether a scared little boy or a terrified baby deer. It is the tender in the warrior – and he has proven himself to be a fearless warrior on countless occasions…not always wise however fearless – that touches this dads heart the most. I truly believe that the key to success in any endeavor is people and the relationships we have with them. To truly value and appreciate all people and to develop genuine relationships requires us to be selfless, to have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to care, to genuinely want good to come to others, and to have the courage to act. Landry is preaching a powerful sermon through the life he is living, and I am watching!

I also want to share a quote with you all this morning:

“Success is knowing your purpose in life, growing to your maximum potential, and sowing seeds that benefit others.” – John C. Maxwell

Go have a wildly successful day!!!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious family, and please stay well!

Kev

Becoming > Accomplishing

 Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds y0u all having a great day as a glorious new day has arrived on the Emerald Coast!

I am reading a great new book by Dr. Josh Axe titled Think This, Not That: 12 Mindshifts to Breakthrough Limiting Beliefs and Become Who You Were Born to Be. I would highly recommend this book to you.

This morning I want to share a few excerpts from Mindshift 2 which Dr. Axe titled, Redefine Success By Becoming, Not Accomplishing.

“I began to think about the people I admired most. Why did I hold them in such high esteem? I noticed a common thread. Their goal wasn’t only to reach certain milestones in their career or cross off a list of lofty ambitions; they aspired to be better men and women than they were the day before and to positively influence other people.”

“When you don’t live up to who you say you are, you and those around you suffer.”

“This duplicity can happen when people focus solely on accomplishing without paying attention to who they are becoming.”

“It’s when you maximize your unique skills for the greatest good that you achieve success.”

“Great leaders recognize that the greatest returns actualize when they maximize their talent.”

“To become your greatest possible you, you need to excel in your character and your skill.”

“There is a plethora of intelligent, savvy, creative, and talented entrepreneurs, artists, influencers, and financial tycoons who are maximizing their skills but not using them for the good of others.”

“When you begin to intentionally live with purpose, you experience the reward of contribution. You know that you have made a difference in someone else’s life, whether it comes in the form of your parenting, innovation, or leadership.”

“When what you have and what you do are your focus, you are guided by what I call an accomplishing mindset. If you zero in on reaching a certain level of material success without aiming to develop your character and enrich your relationships, inner satisfaction will always be out of reach.”

“An accomplishing mindset may lead to receiving an award, high esteem among people, or impressive accolades, but it rarely produces the type of person you are proud of becoming.”

“The accomplishing mindset focuses on things, not people.”

“When you build your life around metrics and outcomes outside of personal character and relationship building, you miss out on a meaningful future and life.”

“A becoming mindset is the key to living a life of success. This principle zeroes in on the most important element of who you are – your character. Rather than focusing on what you can accomplish, aim to grow in wisdom, honesty, courage, and justice.”

“THINK THIS: What’s most important is who I become.

NOT THAT: What matters most is what I accomplish.”

“What is character? Character is made up of traits at the core of our being. In other words, it is who we are on the inside.”

“Unlike your fingerprints that you were born with and can’t change, character is something that you create within yourself and must take responsibility for changing.”

“Nearly 40 percent of CEO and company executives are fired due to moral and ethical failures versus only 35 percent fired for poor financial performance. If we focus on accomplishing before becoming, the weight of achievement will eventually crush us.”

So Friends, are we focusing on accomplishing or becoming? And I think there is an interesting distinction that is made in the final excerpt; Dr. Axe notes, “If we focus on accomplishing before becoming” – it is not that accomplishing is a bad thing, like everything else in life it just needs to be in its proper order. It is far more important who we are becoming rather than what we are accomplishing.

“Your talent and giftedness as a leader have the potential to take you farther than your character can sustain you. That ought to scare you.” – Andy Stanley

“Talent will get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.” – John Wooden 

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious family, and please stay well!

Kev