Oops! Anything that Can Happen, WILL Happen

Mortified.  

One day my wife was home alone with our oldest son, Adam, who had just turned 2 years old, and she heard the phone ring in the other room.  

She was indisposed so she let it ring, assuming whoever called would just call back later.  

Suddenly she heard a noise in the other room, sounding like the receiver being lifted, immediately signaling something was going wrong.  

Then she heard, “Hello,” in a 2 year-old’s voice.  
Now, unable to move, she sat in panic mode listening from the other room, alarmed at what might happen next—while also impressed that the 2 year old was clever enough to pick up the phone and answer it.  

Quickly, her first worst fears were realized as she heard the child’s voice in the other room say, “No, Mommy can’t come. She’s taking a poop,” followed immediately by a click.  

Adam hung up.  

Mortified, it dawned upon her that she had no idea who had called and there was nothing she could do to find out.  

The moral of the story: Keep an eye on your kids at all times.  
Keep an eye on your employees, your trainees because the innocent and cute little suckers can inadvertently create all kinds of chaos for you if you let them.  

You Must Produce

When you’re competing, you must produce.

You must put numbers on the board. You must get the job done. You’ve got to get the thing done that you are responsible to get done. You’ve got to post numbers that prove, you not only can talk a good game, but you can deliver. 

We get paid to produce in life. The numbers are your credentials. Until the points show up on the board, there is no way to separate the Winners from everybody else who’s just talking a good game.

We don’t get paid
...to talk about producing
    ...to plan about producing
        ...to prepare to produce       
            ...or to train for producing.

The bottom line is that the biggest rewards go to the people who produce because for every one who does there are ten that just talk. These are the ones who at some point wake up from their dreaming and actually go to work and get the job done.

They make themselves extremely valuable and rare by what they accomplish. That’s why they are the highest paid—and that will never change.

Inspire or Be Forgotten

People hear the phrase, “There is good, better and best, and the good is the enemy of the best.” And it sounds sensible but they aren’t really sure how it relates to them.

Here’s an example: We all have had and probably will have many teachers, because it seems there is always something new we need to learn. Some people have had dozens and some hundreds of teachers over their lifetime.
Now here is the question: How many do you remember? How many stand out in your memory? How many INSPIRED you?

Bob the Teacher Jenkins in his book, Take Action, Revise Later, opens his introduction with the quote from William Ward that says,

“The mediocre teacher tells
The good teacher explains
The great teacher demonstrates
The great teacher inspires.”

Of the great ocean of teachers you’ve had in your life, how many do you really remember vividly? There’s a good chance they were the ones who INSPIRED you.

So here is the point. If you want to make a lasting impact on those you teach, don’t stop with just telling, explaining and demonstrating. Find ways to reach them on another level, the one that inspires them.

How to do that?
It relates to letting them see how this impacts their lives. Why this information is something they can use to elevate and improve their lives and to make a bigger and better impact in the world.

To be memorable, you must get them to see how they can USE this information to empower themselves to do the things they want to do. This is the real last step in training and educating, to show them how to USE the information in their own lives. Because only when you use the information does it come alive and benefit you. If you don’t do something with it you wasted your time learning it.

The real power and magic comes with seeing what you do after you have mastered it. The great and memorable teachers don’t just teach, they inspire people to go and DO things with the information.

They get them excited about the possiblilities. Want to be remembered as a teacher? Then inspire!

Waiting for the Temperature to Change

by Ron Hutchcraft

The key to environmental comfort at our house is a little dial on the wall in the hall. It's most often visited when someone is cold at our house. They will announce, "I'm cold!" And then they'll head for the thermostat. Of course they turn it up. So, if it's say 65 degrees in the house, maybe they push it up to 70 - what happens? Well, actually nothing for a while. But 45 minutes later, the adjustment starts to take effect, and the temperature starts moving toward 70. Now, you could just get impatient waiting and say, "Hey! I turned it up and nothing's happening."

So, you could push it up to 75, 85, 90 degrees. It won't make it any warmer any sooner.

You just have to set it like you want it and wait patiently.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Waiting for the Temperature to Change."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Timothy chapter 4. Paul is instructing Timothy in how to change the temperature in people's lives; how to warm up people who are cold, how to cool off people who are hot. How to bring people to the spiritual temperature they need to be. There's probably someone in your life right now that maybe you're concerned about in that regard.

Well, listen to what he says… 2 Timothy 4:2 , "Preach the Word. Be prepared in season and out of season, correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction." Now you notice here that Paul says there are three ways to bring about change in people's lives. Sometimes they need correction - just that gentle bringing back into line when they've stepped off onto a detour. Sometimes it's a rebuke, which is a very, very strong warning. Or it may be an encouragement. Sometimes a person needs to be complimented that they've done something right, even if they've only done one out of ten things right, you complement the one, hoping that the one will become two, and three, and four.

But you notice how you do it? He says, "Do it with great patience." If you're expecting an immediate result, you're gonna be disappointed. You see, you sow truth seed in a person's life, and then you back off and you let it germinate. But we're impatient people; we get no response, so we start to push harder. We push that old thermostat up saying, "Hey! Nothing's happening." You know what we do? We push people away.

Part of the equation for parenting, for discipling, for changing people's minds goes like this. Truth + space = life change. Give them some space. Give them the truth, give them some space, and a life will change. Give them time to choose the Truth themselves. Remember, Truth plus space equals life change.

Here's the other side of the equation. Truth + pressure = life closed. I think it's hardest in parenting. You know you correct, or rebuke, or you encourage your child - nothing happens. They don't seem to be getting it. And out of fear we start to push, and nag, and attack. Like a good farmer, pray for patience and allow the truth seed time to win. It's amazing what a little space can do. Give them the dignity of deciding on their own and you'll find strangely, weeks later; maybe months later, they'll announce a choice that sounds very much like what you said. But you allowed them the dignity of choosing the truth for themselves instead of the indignity of losing to you.

The Bible says, "God is long suffering toward us because He doesn't want us to perish." Are you long suffering? Our mission in people's lives is to sow seed and reap harvests; not to force it to grow. Truth plus space equals life change.

When you speak the truth in love, you're setting the thermostat where it needs to be in someone's life. Now, don't keep turning up the heat. Wait for the temperature to change.