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Cheryl’s father passed away…

You can read about him HERE…He was a great man…

I was amazed at how people around us responded…

Our community group reached out…we love them…

Karen in our office did a special slide show for the service…

We received so many texts, emails, visits and phone calls…

The APSU community of friends were amazing…

People continued to care even into this week…

People who understand through their own loss reached out to us…

Thank you…

It’s great to be surrounded by people who know how to show love…

Do you have community in your life?

I am a self-admitted checklist guy…

However, I’ve learned not to stress as much if not every item is checked at the end of a day or week…

The fact is that sometimes the desire for completion gets in the way of achieving the greatest success…

My need to check the item off my list often causes me to miss the best timing…

The natural tendency to complete can lead to less than perfect preparation…

By not waiting, sometimes I proceed without the best plan…

Therefore, I achieve a less than possible outcome…

Don’t misunderstand…
I still make checklists…

I think you should also…

But now I am willing to move an item to the next checklist if it means arriving at a better plan…with better timing…and greater success…

Are you a checklist person? Do you stress if your list is not complete?

Drum roll please….

 

Ernie with 22%
Cookie Monster with 19%
Grover with 15%

I’m kind of sad Mumford the Magician got none. I like him. Actually this is not a very statistically verifiable survey. I had just under 100 respondents, which is about 25% of my daily readership. I guess most of my readers are not too concerned about Sesame Street.

I think, however, that there are lessons to be learned from their 40 years of generating an audience and accomplishing their vision.

Read my previous Happy Birthday post HERE.

Do you love Sesame Street? If not, what is your preferred children’s educational show?

 

I was wrong.

I had a right to be upset and my emotions appeared justified…

But there are two sides to every issue…

And I didn’t handle my reaction well…

It was a friend and I should not have responded the way I did…

I apologized….

He accepted my apology…

We are moving forward…

I am thankful for grace and the amazing way God continues to shape me…

Do you need to say “I’m sorry” to someone so you can move forward again with the relationship?

BTW, we are accepting applications for our new children’s pastor effective immediately.

Do you have fun where you work?

For more posts about my workplace, click HERE.

 
Are you planning yet for 2010?

Now is a great time to start evaluating the year and planning for a better year in 2010.

I don’t know about you, but I’m hoping for an even better year. 2009 has been one of the hardest years for Cheryl and me personally that we’ve had in recent memory, and while most of the reasons could not have been avoided, (deaths, sickness, hurts of others etc.) there are things we can do now to plan for improvement.

I try to start by asking myself a few questions. Here are some random ones I have used before:

• What do I want to improve upon or accomplish in the new year?
• How can I accomplish my goals for the year? What action steps need to be taken? What changes in my life need to be made?
• Are there disciplines I need to add to insure success in a particular area of my life?
• Do I have the accountability and structure in my life to carry through with these disciplines?
• How is my walk with Christ? How can it be improved?
• What things could I stop doing to give myself more time to accomplish the goals I have set for a new year?
• If I know the direction I want to go in the new year, what changes need to be made to head myself in that direction?
• What areas of my life need the most attention for improvement; work, family, leisure time, finances, health, etc.?

You can think of better questions. The questions are not as important as the process. Start planning now for an even better year.

Do you plan for the new year? What strategy do you use?

For more thoughts on vision for life, click HERE.

This Father’s Day they gave me an incredible gift from the money they earned this summer. They chipped in together and gave me an Amazon gift certificate to buy a Kindle. If you are not familiar with my new toy, a Kindle is a book reader that can store hundreds of books on it. The books are usually less expensive. Since I read multiple books at a time, this allows me to always have the books I am reading with me.

I put off buying one for several months, because I couldn’t decide between the small or the large version. My friend Wayne Hastings with Thomas Nelson had his out one day and when I held the smaller one in my hand I knew that was the one I wanted. I ordered it that night and have loved using it.

If you read a lot of books I highly recommend you consider a Kindle. Christmas is coming you know!

Do you have a Kindle? Do you think you would like one?

I was reminded in planning for this retreat of an important leadership principle:

Some of the best ideas for your organization…

Are probably not at a conference…

They are not in a book…

They are not even at your competition or sister organization…

While these are great places to learn new ways of doing things…

Some of the best ideas for your organization…

Are with the people who know your organization best…

The people already on your team…

Your challenge is to draw those ideas out of them….

(The fact is they may have learned their new ideas from a conference book, or from someone in another organization, but the collective knowledge is critical to moving your vision forward.)

How are you capturing the best ideas for your organization?

For more thoughts on innovation click HERE.

For several years I have tried to get my life to the blank piece of paper stage. I have endeavored to present God with a blank piece of paper so He can plan my life.

It started like this. Years ago I was explaining to a friend that I was at one of those “trying to discover God’s will” points in my life. I have been there many times before and will be again. His advice was something like, “Maybe you need to start with a blank piece of paper and give God ample space to plan out the rest of your life. Make yourself completely available to Him.” That made a lot of sense. I left our meeting, however, with a very probing question for myself. Did I really even have blank piece of paper?  Over the next few weeks, through prayer and discipline, I attempted to get there.

Over the years since then, I have periodically continued the self-examination. To do this I have to be honest with myself and the plans I have for my life. I certainly want to follow His lead, but I think many times my page is loaded with my own agenda. If I want my page to be completely blank, then I need to offer it back to God, with nothing on the paper.

Have you given God a blank page to plan your life?

Be prepared.  He loves a challenge and He is great at taking nothing and making something, when you let Him draw the picture.

For more thoughts on determining God’s will, click HERE and HERE and HERE.

Happy birthday Sesame Street!

On November 10, 2009, the longest running children’s television show will be 40 years old.   You can read more about it HERE.  The fictional neighborhood characters have been engaging and teaching children most of my life.  I was 5 years old when Sesame Street hit our black and white, rabbit-eared television for the first time.  For a compilation news coverage from multiple sources to detail the history and evolution of the show and examining how these changes have affected the relevance of the show, click HERE.

What I love about this program is that in spite of competition from other shows and other things that draw kid’s attention, Sesame Street isn’t giving up their vision that if you capture the child’s mind you can teach them has never changed. The also have a great, fun website for children of all ages.  Click HERE for that link.

Today they are revamping some of their format, but their desire is ultimately to achieve the same results.

Just for fun, play along with me and tell me who your favorite character of all time is from Sesame Street.  I’ve created a fast, two question survey.

Click on this sentence to be taken to the survey. (I will share the results soon, so answer quickly please.)

Did you watch Sesame Street when you were younger?  Do you watch it today?  Do your kids?

For more thoughts about parenting click HERE.