Yesterday there were a bunch of baptisms at church.

Baptisms are always such happy moments for me, they always remind me of new beginnings.

As you look at your day, your week, your year ahead, are you excited for some new beginnings?

Is there something you would like to get started on but haven’t yet?

Do it. Start now.

Make it a time of new beginnings in your life. Celebrate the opportunities and possibilities and then get started.

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – If you haven’t already accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and been baptized, that would be something good to do today (or soon).

https://youtu.be/QWxp1AyhmZQ

A little back to school fun/goofiness on this one.

Have some fun today!

Make it a great day.

Jake

Back to school for the Davis kids today.

Back to school time is a great reminder of the seasonality of life.

A time where things begin anew.

We can’t change the seasons.

Winter still comes whether we want it to or not.

Our job is to do our best with the season we are in.

Be in the moment and make the most of the time we have.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Promise me you will remember; you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think. – A.A. Milne

Meaghan came across a little of quotes from kids books and I liked this one.

I’m sure this is not true, but I imagine every AA Milne quote from the eyes of Winnie the Pooh.

His simple, loving and kind nature allow him to take sentences like the one above at face value.

He doesn’t overthink it, and we shouldn’t either.

You are braver than you believe.

You are stronger than you seem.

You are smarter than you think.

God created you with all of this and more. He’s excited to see you make the most of it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” – Gustave Flaubert

Not only do you see what tiny place you occupy, but you also get to see how someone (or a whole lot of someones) has thought about it and decided to do things differently than you.

Vacation time is a great reminder of just how blessed our little family has been.

We get to chance to be humbled and see our little part in the world and imagine/see how others have chosen a different path.

You don’t have to fly out to Colorado to get a taste of this for yourself.

Have a conversation with someone very different than yourself.

Watch a documentary on how they live in a country that seems impossibly foreign.

Read a blog about how things used to be.

Make it a point to see more clearly your little place in this world. It will be difficult to make an impact in this world if you don’t clearly know where you stand in it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/pDKiMYgdxSs

Last week of summer vacation at the Davis house.

It reminded me of this line from What About Bob.

Last time to “take a vacation from your problems”.

How many of your “problems” just wouldn’t be a big deal at all if you took a permanent vacation from them?

Most of the stuff that hangs over our heads every day really aren’t something we should worry about.

We spend so much of our “real life” thinking about things that aren’t real or aren’t real problems.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/2RHTiXvELNg

Couldn’t resist sending this one out while on vacation.

Can’t help remembering all of the mishaps and misfortune that happens during the movie.

It happens to all of us on family vacation – tempers run short, we get on each other’s nerves, things don’t go as planned….and yet we manage to create some fun family memories.

It’s hard to do in the moment, but the goal is to take a deep breath and focus on the good stuff.

Sounds like a good plan for every day….

Make it a great day.

Jake

What am I not doing that would be easy to do? – Jim Rohn

I was watching a Jim Rohn seminar and he asked this simple question.

Sometimes we make self-improvement harder than it needs to be.

We complicate things and get impatient and want all the results now.

Maybe instead we could ask ourselves the simple question: what am I not doing that would be easy to do?

Take a walk around the block.

Eat an apple.

Read for 5 minutes.

Exercise for 5 minutes.

I’m sure you can think of something.

Try it today. Do one simple thing that easy to do.

Make it a great day.

Jake

People change and forget to tell each other. Lillian Hellman

This falls more into the “helpful reminder” category today.

Once I read that all of the cells in your body change over a certain period of time. You are literally entirely new on a regular basis.

But we forget to communicate through these changes with those closest to us.

We’re surprised when they react as if they didn’t know we had changed our position or attitude towards something.

And we forget that they are entirely new as well and that their position or attitude has changed as well.

I haven’t found a magical tip or trick on this one, just a mountain to continue to climb – because meaningful relationships are worth it.

Slow down for a few minutes today and let someone you care about tell you how they’ve changed.

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – Another reminder – the old adage “people don’t change” is BS. People change all the time, just not in the ways we think they should or even in the ways they would like to.

On vacation this week so I thought I would send out a few old daily attitude emails from vacations past.

Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased. – John Steinbeck

This quote goes well with summer vacation season.

The memories from our trips can instruct and fill us with joy long after the trip has ended.

The experiences forever change us into a different person.

Plan a trip for this summer, even if it’s only a day trip.

Make a point to experience something new.

Make it a great day.

Jake