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Daily Attitude Email 1 11 18

Nobody escapes being wounded. We are all wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The main question is not ‘How can we hide our wounds?’ so we don’t have to be embarrassed, but ‘How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?’ When our wounds cease to be a source of shame, and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers. – Henri Nouwen

This quote reminded me of why our “attitude” is so important.

The difference between the two attitudes described is night and day.

One leads to a life of shame and regret, the other to fulfillment and meaning.

We are all imperfect.

We are all wounded.

We all have a choice about how to respond.

My hope for you today is that you choose to use your imperfections and wounds to serve others. Not in a general sense, but in a real and specific way. Today. Not some time in the future after you get it all sorted out.

Reach out.

Be a friend.

Be of service to someone.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 01 09 18

Below is the prayer of Oscar Romero.

I particularly liked these few lines towards the end:

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an

opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

So much of our fretting and worrying come from trying to control our fate and to do more than our “step along the way”.

I hope that each of you find peace today as you go about your day. The peace of knowing that the Lord will take care of the rest.

Make it a great day.

Jake

The Prayer of Oscar Romero –

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent

enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of

saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.

We plant the seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an

opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master

builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

Daily Attitude Email 01 08 18

“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion." [The Minotaur]” ― Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays

Introspection is another one of those tricky double edged swords in life.

I think of it like looking in a mirror.

If you don’t take a few moments to look in the mirror before leaving for work in the morning, you might just show up disheveled.

But if you spend an hour in the morning staring into the mirror getting every piece of clothing on just right, you just missed an hour of your day.

We all need to take time to look honestly at the mirrors in our lives (our relationships, our bank accounts, the mirror, the scale) and make the necessary course corrections to get where we want to go. We need to deeply understand ourselves in order to make the most of our strengths in service to others.

But we need to spend more of our time focused outwardly. Looking for others in need of service, in need of the love and warmth that only we can bring.

We weren’t created for ourselves. We were created for service to others. We need to look inward to find out what kind of service, but we need to look out to serve.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 1 4 18

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them. – Thomas Merton

We must learn to love the differences.

To embrace the different perspective.

Relationships are a constant exercise in learning about and embracing the important people in our lives for all that makes them unique.

It’s true that balancing our own needs and desires with those of our loved ones and their unique perspective is difficult, but we all know it is worth it.

How might you encourage someone in your life to be more perfectly themselves?

How might you be more selfless in how you expect others to act?

Who deserves an apology?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 01 03 18

I recently came across this on LinkedIn and wanted to share it with you all:

In nearly four decades I’ve only seen my father seriously disappointed in me once. I was 17.

My father and I drove up to the bag drop at our golf club. A middle aged man ran over to grab our clubs and shoes.

As we parked the car I asked my father if he ever felt bad about seeing a man his age in a service role, hustling for a tip while we go play golf.

My father turned to me with a look of disgust which betrayed a disappointment in me as well as an introspective sadness that he had raised such a clueless son.

Paraphrasing… “Son, I need you to understand one thing right now … if a man provides shelter, food, education, and love to his family, it doesn’t matter one bit what he does for a living … he is my equal. Money can make life easier, but it doesn’t make you a man. Don’t ever, ever ask me a question like that again.”

I count that as one of the most important lessons of my life. Not only has it helped me stay respectful of others (I hope) but, truthfully, it has saved me emotionally in times when I’ve felt less successful than other men — and there have been a lot of those times.

To those of us who work hard every day for our families — no matter what we do or what we earn — let’s keep our heads high and support each other. Lord knows we need it.

Mark A Smith

That last line has really stuck out in my mind – let’s keep our heads up high and support each other. Lord knows we need it.

What a great way to look at those around us.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Go like, share, etc. this article on LinkedIn if you have a chance:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6345511899748270080/

Daily Attitude Email 1 2 18

You can’t change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction. – Jim Rohn

I know, another Jim Rohn quote….

This one has been on my mind as New Year’s came and passed. We all didn’t wake up in a different place on January 1st. There wasn’t some magical moment right after we made our resolutions when we changed into this whole different person who does or doesn’t do those new things you came up with for resolutions.

Sorry, but you woke up at the same destination you went to sleep (at least hopefully), but you (hopefully again) did change your direction.

Hopefully, New Years represented a new direction for you. A decision to change and head towards something better. A time when you decided to move away from something and towards something else.

To move from candy to fruit.

To move from no exercise to exercise.

To move from not saving money to saving money.

To move from no studying to disciplined learning.

Whatever the direction change you chose, seize this time of renewal and enthusiasm and build it into a habit. Look at the long term results you are going to get and then get excited about it.

Focus on it. Make it a priority.

And then make it happen.

Jake