Daily Attitude Email 05 07 26

Resending this daily attitude email from a few years ago on another "Senior Night".

Last night we attended the end of the year Senior night for cross country.

They made one of those awesome (corny) slideshow videos with sappy songs and pictures of the kids from when they were babies until now (I’m not crying, you’re crying!)

I couldn’t help but think of the quote – a baby is born with a need to feel loved, and never outgrows it.

High schoolers don’t really let on to this, but they all have that same need to feel loved.

You could see it on their faces – from babies to 18 year old “grown ups” – they are looking to find who is in their corner and who loves them.

Christ suggested that we “love our neighbor as ourselves” – I think this is what he meant. That when someone looks at you to see if you are in their corner and if you love them they would be able to see a resounding yes.

Most of our interactions don’t go this deep. We’re used to living and operating at a superficial level. At guarding ourselves against the person or people who would take advantage of our “being in their corner and loving them”.

Christ’s challenge is to take that risk. To show that senior cross country kid that we love them and are in their corner.

It’s hard. It doesn’t always go well. It sometimes breaks your heart. You can and will get taken advantage of.

But it’s worth it (in my opinion – you get to decide for yourself).

Go past the normal. Take some risks. Give more hugs. Smile more. Be the person to step out let others know you are in their corner and love them.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 05 06 26

Last night was Senior Night for the high school band.

At one point it was not cool to be in the band and band people were “nerds”.

I’m not hip enough to know whether that’s still the case with “kids these days”, but I can tell you that if those kids are a bunch of nerds, being a nerd looks pretty cool to me.

Annie’s a junior, but we’ve been around these kids for several years now and they are getting a lot of the important stuff right.

They care about each other.

They practice and try hard.

They try new, hard things and stink at first but get good over time.

They have fun. Always smiling, joking and carrying on.

They aren’t perfect and they make mistakes, but they are a team.

Who knew I could learn so much from a group of high school “nerds”?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 05 05 26

Cinco de Mayo today.

I’ve been running a secret campaign to make Cinco de Mayo another St. Patrick’s Day here in the United States.

A day when we can all celebrate another culture together as one.

A lot of people seem to want to separate us out and emphasize our differences.

I’m for focusing on our similarities.

We all love tacos, right?!?

Let’s focus on that!

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 05 04 26

You blew it. It was all your fault. You could have done better but you didn’t.

At some point for all of this, this is true.

We miss the mark. We make mistakes. We fall prey to temptation and make the wrong decision.

Part of life is deciding how to move forward in spite of our shortcomings.

We can choose to continue on, learn a lesson and do our best to do better next time.

Or we can choose to shrink back, ruminate on our mistakes and let our mistakes define us.

Choose to move forward. Choose to accept responsibility. Choose to grow.

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – The central message of the Bible is that we ALL fall short and are still loved. Even more reason to move on and move forward.

Friday Morning Toe Tapper

https://youtu.be/Q6NQcO9KTBY?si=TCHztcv2PveiyY74

Please watch out for each other and love and forgive everybody. It’s a good life, enjoy it. – Jim Henson

Meaghan put this quote on the board in the kitchen.

The Muppets are a classic in the Davis house – we’ve watched most of the movies multiple times.

If this isn’t your Muppet jam, find one that you like.

Play it loud and start your day off with a little bit of silly fun.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 04 29 26

Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it. – Winston Churchill

I’ve never been able to come up with a great answer to the question “why do bad things happen to good people?”

It seems to me that bad things happen to everyone. Trying circumstances seem to be a certainty in this life.

We get to choose how we respond to them.

We get to choose how high our kite flies against the wind.

It doesn’t make the bad times better. They might not even be worth how high you fly in response.

But a positive response is better than a negative one.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 04 28 26

Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success. – Swami Sivananda

The Bible talks about doing your work as if for the Lord.

What a great attitude to take.

Life is full of the “smallest acts”.

We can choose to blow it off and pretend like it doesn’t matter.

But it does matter – because it is in the little stuff that we decide what kind of person we are.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 04 27 26

The price of greatness is responsibility. – Winston Churchill

A lot of what we want lies on the other side of responsibility.

First, for ourselves. Taking responsibility for our actions is a great first step towards maturity.

Then, for stuff bigger than ourselves. Marriage, family, work – all become more and more of a blessing in our lives in proportion to the responsibility we take on to be a blessing and add value to others.

Where could you take on more responsibility in your life?

Make it a great day.

Jake