It seems like the news cycle has taken a turn for the worse this year and it reminded me of this email I sent out in 2020.

If you’re going through hell, keep going. – Winston Churchill

2020 hasn’t been the year many of us had planned.

For some, it has been a truly bad year. Lots of people are suffering.

A brighter future awaits. Our ancestors have been through more and we’re all better off because of it.

I’m not making light of the suffering. It’s real. The stress and anxiety are real. Hunger and disease are real. Evil is real.

We must keep going. Moving forward together. Building a future that leaves things better than we found.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.” – Francesca Reigler

Reminder for Monday morning.

You get to pick how your week turns out.

Choose wisely.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/gA9nZrhFo4U

A song of adventure and reaching out to experience new things.

What’s something new you should try?

What would do if you felt free to try something new?

Make it a great day.

Jake

A relationship is NOT a place you go to GET, it’s a place you go to GIVE.

To those most dear to us we get to GIVE our ENERGY, our pure LOVE, and our open HEART.

LIFE IS PRECIOUS! Let’s not wait to say I love you… to smile, to stay in our heart, to laugh together, to be completely present and connected.

Why not take a moment now to decide how YOU will show-up in your relationships every day.

Who are YOU willing to BECOME for the ones you love?

Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins posted this on the FaceBox the other day and it really stood out to me.

We are all born with a need to be loved and to be in relationship.

One of life’s great mysteries is that the path to that love and those relationships is through giving ourselves in loving service to others.

Relationships are not where we go to be filled up, but the best place to empty ourselves into those we’ve deemed worthy of that level of giving.

Only in this flow of life do we live the lives we were created for.

Tony asks “Who are you willing to become for the ones you love?”

I think he asks this because of this “flow” and “in and out” nature of giving.

The “bigger” we become, the more we can pour in and out. Who you become is like the size of your cup (or bucket or gas tank or ocean), you can only pour the size of that cup out on our loved ones.

It’s the reason the hard work of change and growth is worth it. We grow out of our current capacity in order to pour more out on those who matter most.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Part of the blessing of having active kids is that you get to interact with people you normally wouldn’t interact with.

Last night was the last concert for Annie’s band teacher. He has taught band for 33 years.

I couldn’t help but think of all the lives he had an influence on. All the opportunity to make a difference he had.

Is he rich and famous? No.

Does he and did he make a difference? I’m pretty sure the answer is yes.

You may not be a middle and high school band teacher, but you have this same opportunity.

You have a chance to make a difference.

Yours might be through tickets, projects, sales, grandkids, coworkers, customers, friends, family or some other fashion, but someday you’ll look back and be able to see an impact you had in this world.

It’s worth doing your best. It’s worth doing the right thing. It’s worth going the extra mile.

It’s all worth it. Life isn’t some big waste of time until you die. You matter. The impact you make matters.

Make the most of it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts. – John Wooden

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. – C. S. Lewis

This quote from John Wooden reminded me of one of my favorite CS Lewis quotes.

Courage counts because it’s what gets you through when things get hard.

And only by pushing through when things get hard do we grow.

Courage counts when your honesty is tested.

Courage counts when you can be patient or give in.

Courage counts when you have to pick an apple over that donut.

Courage counts when you tell someone no in order to honor your previous yes.

In these small moments, a courageous person is built.

Make it a great day.

Jake

If you do not think about your future, you cannot have one. – John Galsworthy

What do you have planned for this week?

Goals?

To dos?

Loved ones to call or spend time with?

Maybe a good start to the week would be to put some of the important stuff on your calendar.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/1yYV9-KoSUM

This came on the radio last night and these lines stood out to me:

Wish I wouldn’t have worry about what other people thought

And felt comfortable in myself

I wished really hard at that moment that the 6 little ears in the back seat were tuned in at that moment (the 4 in front needed to hear it too).

Watching the kids and all their friends has been a great reminder of how easy it to get mixed up and confused and start worrying about what other people think too much.

We all want to be seen and loved. To be known completely and still accepted.

We watch others and fall into the trap of thinking what they are doing is what we should do if we want to be accepted.

We think celebrities, pop stars and ball players have got it figured out.

And then it falls apart. The celebrity, pop star or ball player proves to be just as confused as we are. The cool kids prove that they don’t quite have everything figured out.

My grandfather who just passed away was the opposite of all of this. He wasn’t popular, rich or particularly cool. The latest fashion and he weren’t in lock step. But I’m guessing he felt known and loved. He was convinced he was going to meet his Lord and Savior who understood him fully.

My sincere hope for all of you is that you can find that for yourself. That you can be honest about your flaws and imperfections but still feel the love that you are worthy of. That you can feel like you are known, seen and accepted. Because you are.

You. Are. Loved. Completely. Wholly.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones – the ones at home. – Mother Teresa

Andy Stanley has a line that goes something like “do for one what you wish you could do for all”.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with all that life has coming at us. Work obligations. Family obligations. TV. Marketing. Social Media. Bible studies. Exercise. Junk food.

When I feel overwhelmed I try to focus on doing the next right thing.

Oftentimes that means showing love to the person in front of me.

Focus on those closest to. Think about what love would require of you. And then do that. Again and again.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

― C.S. Lewis

This year so far feels like we are going through some growing pains at the businesses. Processes aren’t perfect and growth causes those imperfections to manifest themselves in mistakes or missed expectations.

This quote reminds me of our growth as individuals.

At first changing seems like a good idea. Even as something we would welcome.

Then it takes on a life of it’s own.

Some of our cherished stories about ourselves and the world need to come down. We have to become uncomfortable.

In the case of a Christian life – this takes on the perspective of eternity. We are building our forever selves. A version of ourselves that is meant to commune with God in eternal happiness.

Make it a great day.

Jake