https://youtu.be/fjwWjx7Cw8I

Make it a great Friday.

Jake

JD – The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. e. e. cummings

JW – Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22:6

EB – Daddy always said you can’t have enough bipods.

MS* – And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. – 2 John 1:6

One of my favorite ideas from Andy Stanley is that when you look at your interactions with others you ask yourself “What does love require of me?”

We must train ourselves to walk in love throughout our day.

We can ask ourselves this magic question as we interact with customers, coworkers, children, spouses and even our enemies.

Each interaction is an opportunity to practice love. To act out of love.

What does love require of you?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. – Will Rogers

Take action.

Keep moving towards your goals.

Make it a great day.

Jake

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. – Phyllis Diller

I love smiling, smiling’s my favorite – Buddy the Elf

Never forget the power of a smile.

It works on you and those around you.

It can brighten even the worst of days.

Make it a point to smile today.

Find some thought or memory that makes you smile and hold it in your thoughts throughout the day.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Read every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity. – Christopher Morley

One of the temptations we all must battle is the temptation to be average.

We see what others are doing and are tempted to model our lives on what we see around us.

We need to be more thoughtful than this.

We need to choose to do our best. We need to push past average in search of the best version of ourselves.

We can choose better than average for our lives.

You are not average. You are capable of greatness.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Yesterday we got invited out to let the kids take a ride in the combine by a farmer from church.

As I get a little older, I learn more and more about life from the farmers around us.

One of the biggest lessons is about control.

Farming is one of those professions where there isn’t even an illusion about control.

Farmers have zero control over the biggest input variable in their business – the weather.

Sure, you hear plenty of them complaining about it, but in the end they all still do the same thing:

Work hard and do the best you can with what you have.

This is such an important life lesson.

We only have control over our own effort level and our attitude. That’s it.

To make it even more personal:

YOU are not in control of anything except your attitude and your effort.

If we seek only to better control our attitudes and our efforts we will have a chance at seeing the results we want (there are no guarantees the weather won’t be bad).

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – God bless all the farmers (and Gary Butler and the Butler family in particular).

https://youtu.be/gte3BoXKwP0

Imagine if you actually had a pocketful of sunshine.

Something that you could access at any time to brighten your mood.

Maybe it isn’t possible to put sunshine in your pocket, but you could probably find something to carry with you to brighten your day.

Some pictures of loved ones.

A piece of jewelry from a loved one.

A bible verse written on a piece of paper.

Make life a little easier on yourself by carrying around a pocketful of sunshine.

Make it a great day.

Jake

JD – What you do today can improve all your tomorrows. – Ralph Marston

JW – Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her – Ephesians 5:25

EB* – Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast. – Marlene Dietrich

MS – Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Col 3:21

Since EB wasn’t in the meeting on Tuesday, I picked the controversial quote to assign to him. Seems like a good idea.

Forget the husband and wife roles described in the quote for a minute and think about the idea.

Have you ever reheat someone else’s sins for breakfast?

Ever held something against someone longer than you should have?

Ever told someone that “everything is forgiven/fine” with a hard heart?

I’m guessing the honest to answer for all of us on these questions is yes (I know I can answer yes to all of them).

This isn’t a guilt trip. My intention isn’t to ground you down by reminding you of your transgressions.

My goal is to remind all of us that we can and will do better, if we work on it. If we can change our attitude, we will do better.

Even though we won’t get to perfection, we can get better and better will lead to happy and better relationships. And relationships make the whole thing worthwhile.

Make it a great day.

Jake

We are all the same amount of busy. 24 hours goes by the same for each and every one of us, every single day.

Many of you have heard me say something similar to this over the years.

Recently I read the following article in Harvard Business Review about this topic.

http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/09/please-stop-complaining-about/

The article talks about the game of one-upmanship that occurs around complaining about being busy. Most of us have been part of one of these conversations at one point or another.

She also gives several tips on how to better manage your time that are very useful.

But I think the most important part is the spirit of the article.

Being the busiest is not some prize to be won. Not being able to meet the commitments you have made is not a prize to be sought after.

Organizing and planning your time to get your priorities accomplished is.

Having peace in knowing that you have managed your time and priorities well is.

The next time you are tempted to tell someone how busy you are, think. Think about what your real priorities are. Think about whether or not you are meeting them. And then talk about them instead.

Wouldn’t the conversation go much better if instead of talking about how busy we are we talked about the things in our lives that are truly meaningful?

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – I found this post when looking through some of the old posts on the blog. It was posted in 2013.

Arnold Palmer passed away on Sunday.

If you don’t know, he was a famous golfer and golf person in general.

Being a golf fan I have heard quite a few Arnold Palmer stories and with his passing they are being told again and again.

But in the interest of trying to help all of our attitudes and our chances of success at life, I noticed something that maybe we can all learn from (since we are unlikely to become professional golfers any time soon).

If you consistently make an effort to make the day of those around you, you will make the world a better place.

Arnold Palmer consistently took time to talk with someone or take a quick picture or sign a quick autograph.

He had a smile or a laugh to share with everyone.

And it made a difference. Everyone from the most famous golfers to the janitor have a story about how Arnold positively impacted them.

Maybe you don’t have quite the reach that Arnold had.

Maybe you don’t have as much money as he had.

But you can make an impact, one person at a time, just like he did.

Smile.

Talk to people.

Try to make their day.

Work to make the world a better place each day simply by interacting positively with those around you.

Make it a great day.

Jake