Day dreaming

Remember in The Christmas Story how Ralphie would daydream about getting his red rider BB gun?  His teacher would say he got an A++++++ on his composition about the gun. He dreamt that he would save his family from Black Bart. 

What do we do? We day dream about a raise.  We daydream about relationships. We daydream about material things like Ralphie.  How much time do we spend dreaming. It cannot be correlated to sleeping, because we dream while we are wide awake.  Many of the dreams we have while sleeping are not always remembered. The dreams we have while awake are focused on a specific desire or want. We place in our daydream what we want there. Our dreams while we sleep are more of a subconscience state that we do not have full control of the information placed there.  

Have you ever heard about the number of work days in a month?  Typically there are only 20 work days in a month if you exclude the weekends and holidays etc.  Imagine now if you plugged in only on Saturdays for one year.  That extra day per week will give you a full month worth of production added to that year. It's like getting a whole free month of work extra to the 12 months in that year!  Now apply the time spent dreaming?  Use that time to be effective in your relationships, in your investments, in your production.  Remember, there is a dreaming phase, a planning phase AND a DOING phase. Become engaged and actively involved in everything around you. That's how God works, why not you?

Doing

Words.  Can motivate. Create. Imagine. Words can never DO! The bible says faith without works is dead! What does that mean to your dreams, aspirations, goals and well laid plans?  Who cares about what you plan to do. Games bring out competition. Who was first, second and so on.  After someone wins, the losers say, "I was about to..."  Who cares except the person saying it. They want to feel better about losing!  Abraham had to MOVE so God could bless him. Action!  A goal without a plan is a wish?  The goal is step one. The plan is step two.  The problem is most people only dream. Not many will write it down due to the potential failure of not meeting it.  Even a plan needs to be acted on. 

When you go on vacation there are goals, plans and steps to take to arrive at your destination.  Think of your goals, dreams and aspiration as a destination for your life's vacation. What steps do you take to arrive? Quit talkin about what your going to do and start DOING! 

Used

Used has so many meanings.  Used can seem degrading and a negative connotative theme.  Already has been used.  What do feel about "second hand?"  "Owned!"  Think of it in another way.  To be re-applied.  To be re-incorporated.  To be reinstated.  When was the last time you felt used? Being used can be both, BUT you get to chose to be used.  You allow yourself to used.  When was the last time you chose to allow God to USE you?

God has given you your youth only for short time.  He has only given you this one life.  He has only placed in your care His kids in His house until they chose to let Him use them. He has placed relationships for your usage to be effective in His calling.  For such a time as this you can be used.  Be used.

Leading in maturity

Leading and maturity these days do not seem to go hand in hand.  There are many who feel that they are mature but fail to lead.  There are others who lead but are not mature.  Look at what maturity is and does.  A lot of times we feel that we are mature and believe it is an automatic gift of something.  What do is we think that we are mature enough to handle a certain responsibility?  We tell our kids that we are the grown ups and can do certain things because of it but what our attitude is saying the whole time is our child inside screaming at our kids "nana nana boo boo!"  Although we are not saying that, THAT is what our kids are hearing.  Why is it that we wonder why our culture is falling apart?  What are we doing by leading with maturity?  

What is leading?  It is not simply a status or position.  Leading is qualities of a personality that others want to immulate.  What qualities are there that you would define as being leadership material?  There have been times that people believe they are leading but turned around to see that no one is following.  It's been said that those people are just on a long lonely walk.  Let's look at it another way.  When you are sick there are symptoms.  What are the symptoms of a mature person AND don't immediately say age!  Symptoms are not always negative.  What are the symptoms of a leader?  Think deeply about this.

Don't respond right away?  Ever heard of being the bigger person?  That's easy for me as I am a large person, BUT that is not what that means?  You must step beyond your situation or as many will call it "the helicopter view," to see it from a different perspective and respond positively in a better way!  Don't be quick to retaliation.  Be quick to a gentle loving response even when that goes against all your being.  We are to be Christ-like is our "life style" as to reflect the love that God has for us!  When you dream of your kids future, what do you see?  Are you dreaming GOD dreams for your kids, or run of the mill every day doldrums of a meaningless livelihood?  We all want our children to surpass us in our lifestyle.  Now go lead them to it by being the example!  Lead with maturity because you have maturity in decisions, not just because you are the adult.   Lead with maturity as it is more than just you.   

Refiners fire

What is a refiners fire?  To purify an an impure material.  It sounds like a process. When have you ever refined something?  Are you happy just to have completed it?  When building a house do you just start hammering and mixing cement?  It too is a process. Developing systems for proper work flow. Developing systems for proper cash flow, I think that is called a budget.  Blue prints for building are very detailed.  The entire structure is built on paper before any material is purchased.  Child birth, is a process.  Developing people is a process.  

A refiners fire is taking the impure material burning it down to purify it.  An act of reduction of the whole impure material.  What do you do when you drop food on the ground?  Some people have a 5 second rule. I don't observe those kinds of rules, but people will blow or wipe it off and eat it. As we live our lives we interact with an impure world, culture and relationships.  We rub off on each other. This is like getting dirty each day and each day taking a shower to freshen up.  However, in life we don't have a process that cleans off all the interaction we have conducted.  

If the fire is reducing the original material to its purest state then you are making room for pure additions.  A jeweler will add diamonds, and other gems to accent the metals.  God has the ability of accenting what he already has planted within you. Go deeper, scrape away the chaff, burn away all the things you think are important and let God accent your purest form!

#doubleyourpenny

If i were to give you an option of taking $1 million dollars today or taking a penny doubled every day for a month, which would you choose?  There a video I found that will help me illustrate this point. http://youtu.be/_u33kFTYT8w

After watching this video tell me your thoughts.

The offer of money or inheritance is only an example to give you food for thought.  Please take this concept to apply it on your daily decisions.  I recently read a book called the Slight Edge.  The idea of making conscious decisions in your life to make small steps toward a purpose or goal will change your life.  Was a baby born walking, jumping, eating or talking.  NO!  But we all can do those things now.  Why is that?  Maybe it's because we were taught.  I want to take you to another level.  When you believe the word of God, then you understand we were created in His image.  This gives us an inherent ablility of free will and choice.  It also means that we were created with ALL that we will need to accomplish any goal set before us.

This free will boils down to simple decisions in life that will develop us further.  Now this development can be positive or negative just as this book will describe.  Our experience will make each one of us unique in how we will respond to different options, BUT we have what we need to complete our mission or goal.  I have heard that if you aim at nothing, you might hit it.  How can you live simply and not focus or move towards a goal no matter the pace?  Every decision will lead you to or from something.  So tell me how is your life decisions like doubling pennies?  Each decision, whether it is to sleep longer, make a phone call is a small step, a penny, towards or from something.  If you constantly take each decision and apply it properly in life towards the next decision, penny, then it is doubling.

Now lets review.  How are you doubling you decisions.  It's not creating more decisions, it is just leading you to the next choice quicker.  #doubleyourpenny. Go ye therefore to apply your pennies. Be positive in your decisions. Use it to grow yourself!

What is your expected percentage?

The odds of winning the lottery.  The odds of being hit by lightning! The effectiveness of theories.  The effectiveness of medicine.  The accuracy of a thermometer.  The accuracy of a radar detector.  These different ideas all indicated that there will always be a variable.  No matter how slight of a variable, there is still one.  So what is your percentage of ERROR?  A variable is the inconsistent factor of what could be or won't be.  The percentage of correctness.  The percentage you are willing to accept that the medicine will work.  Or that it won't kill you from the side effects.  Does lightning really never strick the same place twice? I guess you should tell that to Roy Sullivan (struck 7 times). Will you get caught speeding if you have a radar detector and is their radar gun calibrated properly?

Where will you place your percentage?  Where can you get 100%?  I know a person, a book and a creator. Cast you cares upon Him, for He cares for you.  Faith without action is dead. Take a step of faith to allow you percentage to increase.

Courage

I've been reading a book for the third time at least!  Erwin McManus, Stand Against the wind.  I believe it is like a super hero book that can help you unleash you inner Hero!  Courage means that you have chosen to allow your gut feeling to make the decisions of that time.  God says he will never leave you or forsake you.  What does that say to you?  You will be tested, but...God will be there. God told Joshua that no one will be able to stand against you.  That doesn't mean they will cower before him, no they will try and confront you.  Be bold and courageous, meaning, you will constantly be fighting. You will not be able to walk by faith and live in fear. Faith as we all know takes,....no, requires action!  Faith without works is dead, we already talked about this.

What are we feeling compelled to do but we have chosen the path of least resistance?  Complacency in our lives makes us comfortable and lack faith.  We will not be bold or courageous. We will live a life that is unfulfilled.  Look at that word ful-fill.  If you choose to take action, your life can and will be FULL FILLED! Is that the meaning of a blessed life?  Is that the definition of my cup runneth over? Take heart, be bold, be courageous!

Cruise control!

Think about what cruise control was created for.  Reassure your speed does not fluctuate.  To be consistent.  Lets look at the dictionary definition. It allows a system to take over the accelerator.  Why do we define things then use other words that makes us feel better about OUR scenario.  We are building computers to drive our cars, not just maintain a speed.  We want everyone else to change for us.  We don't want to change.  We want to stay the same and we want everyone else to accommodate us.  Sounds like cruise control for life.

What things in your life are you allowing to remaine the same?  When was the lat time you took inventory of your life?  Have you ever purposefully made changes in your routines, schedules, your busy life?  When was the last time you decided to say,"yes?"  Jim Carrey played a role where he had to say YES to every question which was completely opposit of his personality.  It forced him to make changes in his life and accept things he never would have experienced.  What have you done with your yes?  Are you on cruise control?  Why do we allow others to have control of our accelerator?  Press the petal and go for it.  Stop waiting, and start doing.  We have become fat, lazy humans that blame everyone else without looking at our own life styles of NO.  Begin to say YES and use the accelerator to experience what is around the corner of CHANGE.

Whose to say........

We as normal human beings look at others and think that's weird.  We see something we wouldn't do or say or eat or wear and judge the other as different.  Whose to say that we aren't the weird one?  Whose to say we aren't the abnormal.  Sociology is the study of behavior.  Is it only the acceptable that creates the norms?  The rules aren't meant to be broken.  What is acceptable? what makes a "norm"?  Why should we decide who is normal and who is not.  Why are they the broken ones?  Aren't we all trying to justify to ourselves we are "ok" or normal.  We do we always try to fit in.  Reverse that.  Why do some always do what is so different to be different.

The bible says we are made in His image.  We are all thinkers (some less than others). We all are humans ( mind, body, soul).  We have recognizable faces and identifying marks.  We have extremities.  We have senses. We also have uniqueness.  A combination of our mother and father in which they received from their mother and father.  Even if you do not believe in the bible, you have an ancestry.  There is a trail that marks you.  We are all so very the same yet very different.  We are not broken.  The word broken is only defined if you know the complete workings to understand that a piece is not quite right.  Are you broken?  Are you misunderstood?  Helen Keller?  Broken? The unique cases in life is what creates the theories for the tests to be practiced and proven.  What did the carpenter do with a broken tree?  What did the blacksmith do with broken metals?  What did Steve Jobs do with broken circuits?  Do you see a trend?  Don't make your goal to be the dysfunctional.  Make your goal to be YOU!  God has big plans for the "whose to say" crowd. Be the very best you. Whose to say you can't?

Faithful in the little

Have you ever heard the saying, "faithful in the small things?"  Think about it in a different way.  Being faithful is a commitment.  Through thick and thin.  What about the post office's creed, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds?"  What about the marriage covenant?  What if we are trying so hard to "maintain" the thing we think is our small thing and haven't even uncovered the God thing.  That would be neglecting the small thing which leads to loosing it all.  What if it is because we want to have something stable so we can develop that true small thing?  What if we are committed to the wrong small thing?  You will loose it.  There will not be anything else entrusted to you.  This is your kids, your business, your income, your leadership, your relationships, your assets and everything else you think is yours.  What if the little is giving lunch to the pan handler on the corner?  What if it is stopping to help the motorist broke down on the roadside? Remember if you've done it unto the least of these, you've done it to me?  

What little things are you committed too?  Are being faithful to the right items?  Where are your little things?  Remember the parable of the talents?  Talents are monetary items.  Now look at talents as just that in today's definition.  What you are gifted with.  If you are not faithful in your talent it will taken from you.  Have you been faithful in your talents?  You might be good at something but it might not be your talent.  Have you discovered the talents you were created for?  Good enough is being faithful. Its got to be Great just like Jim Collins states in his book Good to Great. Be faithful in YOUR little things!

Facing the unknown

Have you ever looked the story of Peter walking on water as a failure?  Have you ever looked it as a success?  Have you thought what might have been going through Peter's head.  When I was growing up my Dad would take my little head in his hands and ask, "What is going on in your head?"  You know many of us may look at people who did not quite think completely through the process for validation of its potential outcome (doing something stupid).  Like children we have all finished something and looked back to say what was I thinking?  "Who knows," is a common answer among people who may have witnessed it.  We devote TV shows to stupid people.  We have TV shows to promote those who may have caught something really funny on video and award them with money for letting stupid happen.

Now look at what the disciples were thinking letting Peter step out of a perfectly good boat into stormy waters.  It's not like he had a lower deck where he opened the door and a ramp magically appeared for him to step onto the water.  This isn't a cruise ship pulling into port.  This was a fishing vessel used at sea. Did he jump out, land on his feet and start walking?  Keep in mind Peter knew it was a storm.  He knew it was a life deal.  This isn't something that he could possibly walk away from.  This was LiFE or DEATH?  Peter chose life by going to LIFE. Jesus offered LIFE to its fullest.  Now who looks dumb?  The other disciples and fishermen in the boat.  Look at Matthew 14, Peter didn't notice the wind until after he was walking on the water.  His human nature kicked in for self preservation.  Or was it Satan not wanting Peter to experience becoming a real warrior.  If you realize your true calling and become a warrior for God, Satan will have a BIG fight on his hands in which he can't control.  Now LAUNCH out INTO THE DEEP!