Beautiful

At first glance u may think I am talking about the women in this pic, and although they are beautiful, I am not talking about their appearance.

These 3 have developed a friendship that is rare these days. The topics they discuss, the things they do together, the favors they do are nothing short of beautiful.

Nothing is ever a problem if it is helping one another. They share life experiences, workouts and even late night chocolate.

I love watching this beautiful friendship grow but unfortunately one of them is moving to another state. Even tho they won't be together everyday or even in the same state after tonight, they still have something beautiful - friendship!

My point: they have a great friendship because they invested into it. They worked out together, they laughed (A LOT) and they cried together. That's what friends do, whatever it takes. .

This is a great reminder to us as we enter into a new year, invest into relationships because NOTHING is more beautiful than friendships.

Bingo

We are visiting Deni's Grammy at a nursing home & we got here just in time to play some bingo.

This is a great time to slow down and really pay attention to what matters - family.

Nothing is more important than relationship and even tho Grammy may not remember we were here and most will not remember who wins, Deni & I will - us.

We win because we are spending time with an amazing woman who helped form who Deni is as a woman.

As we look around this room, I get sad and curious. Sad because they seem alone but curious about the lives they lived and all the stories they could share.

My point: life is about relationships. We can spend time and money on a lot of things but we will NEVER regret spending time with family.

Bingo is a game of random chance but there is noting about relationships that should be left to random chance - at least not if they mean anything to you.

BINGO - hold your cards...

excited and appreciative

It is pretty exciting around C3 these days. It is never dull but there are some great things in the works. As easy as it is to be excited about the future, we need to take time to appreciate where we are.

We meet as a staff and we take time to talk about LifeChange and just have fun. We talk about the future and what it will take for us to get there and we talk about the present and make sure we enjoy what is currently going on.

We are in a season of transition. Our staff will never be what it is today. There are going to be people added and some will be leaving. All that is not bad, it is just different. When I look at what got us here, it is not necessarily going to get us where we think we will be. That calls for personal growth, staff growth and more space. All that is change and we all deal with change differently.

My point: It would be easy to focus on the excitement of the future but we also need to take time to appreciate where we are. We are not where we were and we are not yet where we are going.

Take some time to dream and be excited but also take a moment to reflect and be appreciative.

Wet the bed

Ok so I am not a fan of excuses so I won't make one.

I am in a competition with a friend to blog 2x a week. If one of us doesn't do twice, we have to take the other to lunch.

Last week I wet the bed (didn't blog 2x). There are lots of reasons I could list but I will spare u the lameness of a bunch of hub bub - bottom line is I simply didn't make it a priority and I blew it.

My point: don't make excuses for ur lack of accomplishments. If ur late, apologize. If u don't come thru with a commitment, admit it. Excuses suck - spare em.

Do I HAVE to take my friend out to lunch or do I GET to? I may have lost the wager last week but I am ok with the consequences - time with a great friend.

Discount tire & church

One of my tires had a slow leak so I had to keep putting air in it.

A friend told me that discount tire will fix it for free. It's a service they offer to hope they earn ur business in the future.

I thought it was a great service, a great idea and a great marketing strategy.

Of course my tire was "I repairable" so they sold me a new tire but that's not the point.

My point: what if the church became that place where people could come as they are, broken, hurt, grieving or even full of joy and the one thing they knew was they would get what they needed and if they determined they wanted more in be future, they would come to us.

We know Jesus is the answer but most people can't or don't want to hear it until a need of theirs is met. Until they know we care about them and are concerned about what they are concerned about - they don't wanna hear it.

This place may not have my allegiance but they have my respect for doing something other places are not doing. Care about me & my need before u ask me to buy from u.

Come to www.myC3church.com and we will meet u where u are. If all u want is coffee - we have that!

Last attempt - perfect

Raegan turned 5 this week and I remember the day she was born. I held her and all I could say is "she's perfect."

Since I have 4 daughters, I joke and introduce Rae as my last attempt for a boy. I am serious when I say that because we are definitely not having anymore children and as much as I thought I wanted a boy, I was wrong.

I wouldn't change this precious little princess for NOTHING. She is the littlest princess and she is nothing short of perfect in daddy's eyes.

It is hard to believe how long ago it seems that she was born but it seems like it was just yesterday too. Life is an awesome journey and this little girl makes it more fun, entertaining, exciting and joyful.

My point: We often think we know what we need but most of the time it is more about what we want. I may have prayed for a boy thinking that is what I wanted but God knew this little girl is what I need.

I will be playing with my girls and I will say out loud "daddy didn't need no boys." I guess I said it enough that they started saying it for me. We get to playing and being goofy and one of them will say Daddy don't need no boys...

That is sooooo true. My last attempt for a boy = perfect!

Happy birthday Rae Rae. Daddy loves you little girl.

odd couple

Tonight I got to see my oldest daughter perform in her school play "the odd couple". She did incredible. I am so proud of her and the entire cast.

The picture I decided to post with this latest blog is out of focus, it is a bit blurry. That's how the last 16 years of my life feels like it has been. It seems to have happened so fast, it is a blur.

As great & funny as the play was, I was very emotional afterwards. I was emotional for several reasons.
One - because my baby is growing up way to fast.
Two - because many of my friends and family came to support her. Three - because I see how many quality relationships she has at school. This group of students spent a lot of time together and they can now say - another chapter of this HS journey is in the books.

There are a lot of different personalities in this group and I think that is why it works, because they are all unique. It may seem odd to some but it is all about accepting and embracing the differences.

My point: In the book "DNA of relationships", there is a great quote that says "Life is about relationships, the rest is just details." I think Shayna understands this principle. She has great relationships and she will never forget them.

Yes, some may be a little odd, but that is what makes them unique.

I am so proud of this team and I am honored to see them enjoying this season of their young lives.

Life is about relationships - PERIOD!

coaching

I have taken some classes on coaching and I was just getting ready to blog about it and my 7 yr old walked into my room with a dilemma. "daddy, I can't fall asleep".

Coaching is defined as helping someone get from where they are to where they want to go. My immediate thought was to tell her to go back to bed and stay there until she fell asleep but I decided to coach my little ginger.

I had her define reality: I can't fall asleep.
I had her tell me the things she tried: counting sheelp, staring at the ceiling, thinking about nothing.
I asked her what could she try that she hasn't tried: I don't know, that's why I came in here.

After a bunch of questions (I gave no answers), she was getting a little antsy. I asked questions that made her think differently than she had been thinking. After about 5 minutes she came to an "aha moment". She got this big smile on her face and said "daddy, you just gave me an idea". She then asked me to pray that her idea would work.

I prayed with her and she ran out of my room with a big toothless smile on her pretty little face.

My point: our kneejerk reaction is to usually give instruction or what we think is a good answer but people own the decision when they feel like they helped come up with it.

I LOVE helping people find the best answer for their situation. The truth is - they are the expert. No one knows their situation better than them and although the best solution may not be obvious to them, it can usually be uncovered with some good questions.

Coaching is a great way to validate people and get them to think for themselves. If I always give the answer, why would they need to think on their own. If I can teach them to answer the questions I would ask - now that is good coaching.

it's a match

I used to look online for the lowest price around then go to a local store and buy it but I now go to the store and see what item I like the best then find it cheaper online.

I have been looking for an iPhone5 case for a few weeks so I went to best buy to find one I liked and then figured I would purchase it from Amazon.com

I found one then scanned it with my phone to see how much I could get it for online and it was about $12 cheaper. A worker was walking by so I decided to ask him if they would price match it and he didn't even hesitate to say yes. He told me to just show it to the cashier - so I did.

My point: there are not a lot of guarantees in life but this was a pleasant surprise. It never hurts to ask. If I was too afraid or embarrassed to ask for the savings, I wouldn't have got it.

A lot of people would've just paid the extra money or went home to pay shipping and wait up to 2 weeks but they wouldn't have had to - they would've chose to. What seemed to me like a crazy question saved me some time and money.

The crazy thing is they matched the advertised price before shipping was calculated so I not only got the best price, I didn't have to pay shipping and walked out with it instead of having to wait a few weeks.


Best buy just gained a loyal shopper - that's a (price match) guarantee...