Confidence vs Cockiness

My son and I were talking before his ball game last week.  It was nice and sunny,  I was throwing him some soft toss so he could hit the balls into the net I had purchased last year for that specific purpose.  We started talking about baseball and I shared with him that it's more of a mental game than a physical game.  You can take a guy that has tremendous talent, but lacks mental control and he will be limited when it comes to the pure game.  You take another guy that is not so talented, but is mentaly strong he will become a student of the game. 

Then our conversation moved to the difference between confidence and cockiness.  The definition of confidence is having faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way.  I believe when pertaining to baseball you have faith in your abilities to do what you have to in predictable and unpredictable situations within the diamond.  Now I don't want you to think that you take God out of the picture at all, because he is the forefront of everything we do.  It wasn't for him you wouldn't have the abilities to begin with.  When your standing before a pitcher who has a smoking fastball or a wicked curve you have the confidence to know you are going to put the ball in play somewhere.  If you unfortunately strike out that doesn't waver your confidence it just makes you more determined to make it right the next time your up.  It's an awesome thing when you see young men and women working in confidence.  The other thing is they don't have to tell you anything you just notice it.  There's no yelling and screaming "What do you think about that"  or "Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!" That to me is cockiness.

Now cockiness, the definition of cocky is overly self-assertive or self-confident.  In my life the people that are cocky just blow a lot of smoke, but really can't back it up.  I find myself pulling for anyone other than someone that is cocky.  Most cocky people are insecure about themselves and their abilities.  They try to draw attention to themselves to intimidate their competition and sometimes it works.  You have to try to ignore it and play through it and one play will eventually shut them up.  That's how you handles cockiness.

Let your play speak for itself and let others make fools of themselves.  I believe my son understands the difference between the two and of course I will hold him accountable to that.  Be Good and don't forget!!!!

 

God’s Will for your teenager

I’ve got a good friend of mine who happens to be my pastor, and his daughter is a senior in high school.  You can imagine what’s been going thru her mind about college and her future.  Well about a month ago his daughter went to hear Bill Johnson speak in Webb, AL.  She had heard this pastor had a school at his church in Redding, CA.  She didn’t put a lot of thought into it, until a few chain of events happened in her life in the month of January.  New Year’s weekend some students from the school came to speak, plus getting to meet the pastor of this school later that month in Webb really peaked her interest in this school.  Now this teenage student could probably go to school where she wanted.  Well God begin to speak to her about this school, now for Dad’s desire he wants her to go to this school and I’m not sure what moms thoughts are.  I’m sure though she wants whatever God wants for her daughter.  Well she feels like God wants her to go to the school, plus he is giving her the desire to go to the school. 

Then came last Friday,  a letter in the mail from a local University with a scholarship for full tuition, books, room and board for her 4 years of college.  Now most parents reaction would be,  this is a sign from God and assume that.  Nothing after that, like maybe praying and asking God is this what you want for my daughter.  It’s so easy to think that things like that may be from God, but at times these can be things that may lead us off the path God is wanting to take us on.  I’m so thankful for these parents, because they understand God’s will is more important for their daughters life then MOM and DAD’S will for her life.  That just really blesses me, because I see parents telling their kids what they’re going to do with their life.  I’ve seen kids come back from missions and tell their parents that God’s called them to missions.  Instead of encouraging them to pray and confirm God’s calling, their response is what about college.  My answer to that is “What about college?”  We are trying to raise our kids with the mindset and heartset on God.  To make God #1 in their life!!!  Isn’t that our goal as parents?  The other thing is we try to get our kids to hear from God, but when they do we don’t want them to hear anymore.  Listen I’m not saying that we don’t pray with our kids and get others to pray for these type of situations.  That will always make it easier.  The word says the counsel of others is good.  God will confirm it in your spirit if your willing to listen.

As I speak she still feels like God wants her to go to the school in Redding.  I’m so proud of her and proud of her parents.  I’m encouraged to, that parents are setting the example for other parents.  I guess if we look around we can still learn things from other Godly peoples examples.  BE GOOD AND DON”T FORGET!!!

 

 

New Years Resolutions, HUH?

You know I was sitting here thinking about the last few years and my resolutions for those years, losing weight(I lost 40lbs in 2005), working out, spending more time with my family, eat out less, etc, etc.  Most of my resolutions have gone out the door before January has gone by, but I believe this year will be different.  I plan on losing more weight, spending more time with my family, eating out less, getting debt free(WOW), growing more with God(I’m sure he will be happy with that),  growing closer to my Wife of 15 years, growing closer to my kids, etc, etc.  You may read that and say “Man what is he doing now.”  I would say that I’m doing all those things already, but I want to get better at it every year.  I think in order to do that though, we may have to stop looking at our resolutions and look at our committments(Ouch).  What are we committed to that may not be conducive to getting closer to God, getting closer to your wife, getting closer to your children, etc.  Beware to the maximizers(One who takes everything to an extreme), I’m not talking about quitting my job, selling my house, and taking my family to live on a makeshift houseboat on the Amazon.  Also, beware to the minimizer(one who doesn’t take anything very seriously),  I’m not talking about ignoring this because you think everything is A-OK.  If you ask everyone involved(wife, family, friends) you may not be doing what you could do, not only to enrich your life, but the life of others.  I want to challenge anyone and everyone “TO MAKE NEW YEAR COMMITTMENTS AND STICK IT OUT!!!”  You may think it want make a difference, but I know it will.  BE GOOD and DON”T FORGET!!!!

 

Merry Christmas!!!

Well its almost here.  I just want to take a moment and wish everyone in my life and the people that I don’t know personally, MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!  I love you all!!!  I pray that God brings you blessings this Holiday Season!!!

 

Family and Friends

Have you told your spouse you loved them lately? Your kids? Your Mom? Your Dad? Your friends, etc….?  The holiday season so reminds me of how blessed I am to have a wonderful wife, kids,family, and friends.  The reason I asked the question was we forget,so easy, why these people in our life are so important.  Not only are they a valuable asset in our life for shaping it, but a lot of time their love is unconditional.  You remember the old adage, “You don’t know what you have until it is gone.”  I know for me that puts a lot in perspective, especially when I’m grumpy to the people around me.  Our time on this planet is but a flicker of eternity, and we need to take advantage of everyday.  So, Kelly, David, and Angel, I LOVE YOU!!!  To the rest of my family, I LOVE YOU!!  Then to All my friends too numerous to list, HAHAHA,  I LOVE YOU!  You never know what tomorrow brings, so make it bring something today.  BE GOOD!!!

 

Santa Claus????

Today I was listening to one of my favorite radio shows, Rick and Bubba.  They had Santa Claus on their show today and opened up the phone lines for little kids to call.  I was so moved even to tears at times listening to the innocence broadcasted over the air waves from the hearts of tenderness.  Being a kid myself(not as long ago as some think) and having kids, I understand the joy of believing in Santa.  I really struggled with it when my kids were young, so Kelly and I decided to tell our kids the truth.  At first they didn’t believe me and I’m asking myself how deep have I taken this thing.  You noticed I said thing, because it’s really hard to say the word LIE!!!!!!!  See I had been lying to my kids the whole time, the very thing we have had numerous family conversations about.  Always tell the truth kids, over and over it went thru my head.  You know I could have made excuses like, it’s just a little lie, it’s innocent, just one time of the year, they’re just little kids,  I tell them the real reason for Christmas or my favorite, I believed in Santa when I was little and I turned out just fine.  Do those excuses really fly with God?  If we think so we may want to go back and read the story of Ananias and Sapphira(Acts 5:1-11).  My whole problem,  I was trying to get my kids to believe in something make believe and not concerned with the real reason for the season.  Yes I would mention, now kids the real reason for Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  I didn’t put a lot of focus on it, because I let society override the things I was saying.  Shopping, gifts, parties, etc.  I should have been more concerned about my kids belief in Jesus instead of being a Santa pusher.  That’s a hard thing to except.  Thankfully my kids believe in Jesus and aren’t questioning that.  They could’ve said, well he lied to me about Santa so he is probably lying to me about Jesus.  I think the best gift this season for Jesus is letting the kids in our life know the truth, no matter what happens.  You never know your kids make take Christmas to a whole new level in celebrating Jesus’s birth!!!  BE GOOD!!!!

 

Boundaries

Today a woman asked me if I can live “Outside the Boundary”!?  I wasn’t sure what she meant by that so I dug a little deeper with her.  I asked are you talking physical or spiritual?  She said, “I’m talking spiritual.”  I gave a quick response, “YES!!!”  She then asked me how?  So I responded,  with God and our relationship there are no boundaries.  For instance, a lot of the church is still walking around trying to find out their purpose in this world.  The church is walking around in the dark and they don’t know where they are going and forget where they have come from.  There are a few things that I believe each believer needs to do:

1. Turn on your Flashlight.
2. Take the first step of Faith.
3. Keep moving Forward.
4. Stay Focused.

Let me explain these, first the body of believers as individuals need to turn their Flashlights on.  Each one needs to let their lights shine(Matthew 5:14-16).  Once your light is shining than you can see something and more importantly God’s will for your life.  Next you decide you want to see more of God and what he has in store for your life, but you can’t do it standing there(Matthew 14:22-33).  You have to believe it’s God and take that step of Faith. Once you’ve taken that step of Faith, keep moving Forward(Philippians 3:14).  If your standing still for God you are losing ground, we have to be forceful takers for God’s Kingdom.  The more you move the more of God’s will you get to see for your life.  Your light begins to move thru the darkness of life.  Finally, you have to stay Focused(Philippians 3:13-14).  So many times we look back and realize how far we have come.  Then we begin to slow in our walk and the next thing we know we are so amazed at our life with God, we allow ourselves to stop.  This makes room for pride, jealousy, envy, apathy, etc.  God doesn’t have time for these things and we need to keep our eyes focused on him .  We also begin to believe we can do it without Him.  I believe that’s why Peter began to sink in the water, because he took his eyes off Jesus.  He was amazed at what he was doing without realizing it wasn’t him but it was Jesus.  So church let’s quit walking around in darkness and begin our walk in the light of God’s beautiful world so we can glorify God with advancing His Kingdom!!!  This is living “Outside the Boundary” for most believers.  BE GOOD!!!! 

 

 

Hello world!

WOW!!!  So this is it the beginning of my Blogging world.  I’m still confused if this is appropriate sharing my DEEP thoughts (Does what I eat for lunch count)with total strangers.  Anyway I guess I have to try!!! Well not much going on today.  It is a little chilly, this morning was the first morning of the season I had to remove ice from the windshield.  Kids still wake up wanting to know if they can wear shorts to school, NO!!  It’s cold outside!!!  You know a friend of mine said I use too many exclamation points in my e-mails.  He needs to worry about his own problems, like finding a church, AMEN!!!!!!!  Was that negative?! Oh well!!  BE GOOD!!!