Fortunately, I was young.

My mother and I were driving home from services at the First Baptist in Enid, Oklahoma. We were in Enid because my dad was stationed at Vance Air Force Base at the time. I was 8 years old. I don’t know why we were alone in the car. Maybe my brother and sister were sick and Dad stayed home with them. I’m not sure…I just know we were alone in the car together when the subject of quitting came up.

This was usual
In my family we didn’t talk about philosophy or principles of winning. You hear people say, 'my Mother always said… my Grandmother always told me….my Dad always said, son…' and then they run off some nifty saying about getting ahead in life. That wasn’t us. My parents were concerned about the basics, eat, sleep, school, homework, church…stay on schedule…be good. No sayings or nifty lessons on life. Except this time.

I have no idea how the subject came up

My mom was emphatic, never quit! She even had an analogy—needless to say this was unusual too. She said quitting was like a taking a wooden square block and rolling it over. She said, once you rolled it over the edge would be dulled a little. That would make it easier to quit the next time. Each time you quit it would get easier and easier…and before long you wouldn’t be able to stick with anything. So don’t quit. Don’t get started.

That stuck with me.
I don’t have many memories of my early years but that one is vivid. A brief moment in time. To my knowledge the subject never came up again. But it was burned into my brain. It became a part of who I am. That little lesson was how I learned about not quitting. I had no idea how important a lesson it was. As I grew older, like everyone, I had some tough challenges…

But there was one thing I never did, I didn’t quit. I never quit, and I never have. Lesson learned.

“They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this Nation."  —Henry Ward Beecher

Spiritual Life is similar to physical life.

First we are born. This is a crisis event that happens all at once. Second we grow. Over times step by step we grow, ever see a child jumping up and down to try to grow? No it happens naturally over time, just like an  acorn grows into an oak tree. Once we accept Christ, putting our trust in Him, we become born spiritually. Then the growth begins. Although Jesus was always God, on earth it seems he went through a growth process too. 

Luke 2:52

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”

Here are 5 scriptures that give us guidance on the process.

Peter 2:2
“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:”

Babies need milk for growth, we need to hear the written word of God in the Bible to grow spiritually. If you don’t get it you’ll be malnourished and stagnant. However you get it you need to be exposed to it.

Philippians 1:6
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

The one who is in charge of our development is the one who saved us, God. He is in charge. We are to look to Him and trust Him to do it. He is in charge of all phases and the schedule.

1 Corinthians 13:11
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

We are children now and will see, understand and behave like spiritual rookies. But over time the maturity will develop. Don’t pose and try to pretend, it doesn’t work…no more than a chid can pretend to be a grown up.

1 Corinthians 14:20 
“Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.”

Our goal is to be innocent and trusting as children but wise in our understanding of the world, our use of resources and relationships with others. Maturity leads to stability.

Ephesians 3:16
“That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.”

The Holy Spirit works inside us to strengthen us and build us up in knowledge, understanding and experience. Over time we gain confidence and insight that allows us to withstand challenges and overcome problems that would have crushed us when we were younger.

God is in charge! He will bring you forward as you trust Him, so have faith in His love plan and process for you!

Stuff from My InBox:

This is the contest video from The 3rd International Earth and Sky Photo Contest. Click the icon on the lower right to enjoy it in full screen mode. The contest was open to anyone of any age, from anywhere in the world. Enjoy!

For more information on the contest, visit TWAN.

What is the secret of the great generals?

Do you ever wonder how the great leaders throughout history were able to pull off their great achievements? The problem with doing big things is that it takes a lot of people. It takes a lot of people with a lot of different skills, personalities and levels of experience.

When you get a group of people together, the first thing you find is everybody’s got an opinion. When you have a huge group of people you find there are millions of different opinions. If you are indecisive, they’ll start offering their opinions and chaos will follow.  

The answer in is the Bible
Remember the story of how God led the Israelites out of Egypt? These were millions of people. They were in a desert…not a lot of road signs and interstates. All they knew was that they were going to the “promised land” wherever in the world that was. They had a leader, Moses, but he didn’t know a whole lot more about the itinerary than they did. The one who actually knew was God. How did God lead this unruly mass of millions of confused and scared people successfully to the “promised land?”

One step at a time.
All they needed to know at any one time was, what’s next? Where are we going next? They didn’t need to know where the “promised land” was. They didn’t need a geography lesson. They didn’t need to know all of the available options of routes, entry points or even time of travel. All they needed to know was “where do we need to go next?”

If God had given them options and choices it would have lead to arguments, debates and stagnation. They would no longer have been moving, they would be stopping and arguing. So how did He lead them? He provided a cloud in the sky that all could see and follow during the day and a pilar of fire at night. All they had to do was to follow the lead. As a result they stayed unified and kept moving forward until they reached the “promised land.”

Great leaders throughout history have been great goal setters
From Alexander the Great to Napoleon and George Washington, George Patton, and even President John F. Kennedy have been great goal setters. They unified and challenged their armies/nation with a great goal.

Then they unified the army with a simple step by step game plan until the job got done. They’ve shown that great messages combined with a simple step by step game plan is all that you need and exactly what you need to unify people to great achievements.  

Learn from the Greats! Complication creates confusion, but a big target and simple steps keep you on track to victory.  

It’s a powerful tool.

No one wants to feel helpless. When you see things you want, you would like to feel like you could make decisions and take action that would cause you to actually get them. It’s not rewarding to get the things that you can get without making any real effort.

The excitement and thrill in life comes from doing new things and achieving bigger things than you’ve ever done before. To do this, you must get organized and focused.

You’ve got to set some goals and know how to make them happen. Once you have this skill you can move forward in any area of your life that you choose.  

• If you want to improve your finances
• If you want to get in better shape
• If you want a better job
• If you want to fix up your house
• If you want to help your kids get better grades
• If you want to improve your relationship with your spouse

Everyone, in every area that they want to improve, needs goals.
In fact, having goals is much like having a will. You have them whether you know it or not. Everyone has a will. It’s either the one you have through neglect, where you allow the state to decide how to distribute your assets or the one you go and write for yourself with your attorney. It’s not a question of “do you have a will?” You have a will whether you like it or not.

It’s the same with goals. You actually have goals in every area of your life. They are either definite goals you have chosen, that you have game plans in place and are moving toward achieving one step at a time, or they are goals of neglect. These are the areas of your life where you are drifting and usually creating feelings of unhappiness and dissatisfaction.  

Goal setting allows you unleash all of the powers and abilities you have inside to achieve the life you want.

The 5th Key to Beating Big Shots is Commitment

Commitment gives you Confidence! Tiger Woods said that confidence was the big advantage he always had that allowed him to stay strong, focused at the tough moments.

It led to fantastic finishes on Sunday. It led to draw dropping putts and towering precision iron shots to win tournaments that were hanging in the balance. It led to total dominance for years in golf.

Commitment means you are all in

• It means you’ll start strong with total focus
• It means you’ll build intensity as the match goes on.
• It means you’ll fight until the final bell
• It means you won’t relax if you get ahead
• It means you’ll leave it all on the field
• It means you won’t be thinking about anything else until you’re finished
• It means your team and coaches can count on you to be your best

It means that if you ever get beat you’ll have a burning desire to come back next time with more fire and power and give the other team the beating…just like Alabama did to LSU in the NCAA College Football Championship this year.

It’s the last thing you find out about a player or team…Will they quit or not?
Many times, at the highest levels, this is where the game is won…in the very last seconds of the game. Who will flinch?

Teams can be equal all the way to the end..and then.. which one will have that last ounce of commitment.

The intensity in the stands builds as the climax of the game approaches. Here’s where we find out. This is the moment where it will come out. 

• Who is tougher? 
• Who want’s it more? 
• Who will stretch a little more? 

They are both exhausted so which one will reach down for that last effort, that last burst, that last surge that will put them in front? You that out right at the end. 

You find out about your “commitment” at the Moment of Truth
That’s when the team finds out about themselves. Everyone thinks they are committed. Everyone thinks they have what it takes. But until you play the game you don’t really know. It doesn’t necessarily mean you won.

You can be totally commited and lose, but you’ll have no regrets. You’ll know that you gave it everything you had. You won’t be happy about losing but you’ll be proud of your effort. You won’t be hanging your head.

You can really see it in boxing
It’s what makes boxing so fascinating to watch because you can see this play out right in front of you. You can see it also in individual sports like tennis or golf but boxing is different…they are beating on each other. They are exhausted, they may have been fighting for 15 rounds and time is running out. 

They may have been knocked down. Every part of their face and upper body has been pounded and pounded. Their bodies are screaming in exhaustion, begging for relief yet the boxer puts all that out of his mind and stays focused and on the attack right down to the final bell. 

• You can see it in his eyes.
• You can see it in his posture. 
• You can see it in what he does

At that moment commitment is not just a word, it’s real and there for everyone to see. 

Everybody needs ladders.

Need to change a light bulb? Get the ladder. Need to clean the gutters? Get the ladder. Need to get the cat out of the tree? Get the ladder.

Goals are like ladders
It’s really very simple. If I want to go some place high, the ladder is the plan to get there. If I want to move up in life, goals are the way to get there. 

Goal setting is easy if you think of it like using a ladder. 

• I look up and decide where I want to go…my target 
• Find the ladder…get your plan
• I stabilze the ladder against the target
• I start moving up the ladder step by step
• I keep moving until I get there, one step at a time
• Finally I get there, I do it, I arrive…I win!

Here’s how you make goal setting hard

• I decide where I want to go…my goal—but it's a little foggy and unclear. Then I jump up and down and get frustrated because I can’t reach it.  
• I get my game plan…then I start thinking and re-thinking about my plan more than my goal and never get started.
• I start my game plan…but then I get distracted and stop moving forward.
• I wind up back where I started…and then think the reason I’m there is because I’m a bad “goal setter.”

The problem is not my goal setting. The problem is not understanding how the goal setting process works.  

Goal setting is not rocket science, it’s a process and you don’t have to be a genius to be successful at it.

Wake Up. 

Dress Up. Put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.
“The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance; but the LORD looks at the heart.” —I Samuel 16:7

Shut Up. Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth, so he must have meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking.
“He who guards his lips guards his soul.”—Proverbs 13:3

Stand Up for what you believe in. Stand for something or you will fall for anything.
“Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good.”—Galatians 6:9-10

Look Up to the Lord.
“I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me.”—Philippians 4:13

Reach Up for something higher.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path.”—Proverbs 3:5-6

Lift Up your prayers.
“Do not worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.”—Philippians 4:6

—Author Unknown