Tag: leadership

Life Balance

Does your life have balance? How has this year been? Are you looking back thinking that you should have spent more time with your family or friends? The days, weeks and months can go by so fast that everything can seem like a blur.

Out of Balance

What really happens is that our lives can become out of balance that we spend too much of our time trying to maintain balance. We’re trying to keep our heads above water and never get to where we can enjoy our lives.

This year my wife and I have discussed goals that we want to accomplish together. Things that we want for our marriage, how we want to be socially, the growth that we want to see spiritually. We’re still in the discussion phase, but when it comes to doing something together in your marriage, these things take time. I would encourage you to do the same. Don’t rush through it. You don’t want to miss the benefits of the process.

Doing it Together

One of the first benefits is that you have someone that can give you another perspective. We want to have balance in our lives. There are times where we don’t know that we’re out of balance and we can think that we’re doing a good job with our lives. We can pursue a job, our latest project, or habit with a singular focus that can be hard to break. We need someone to help us see when we’ve lost sight.

Another benefit is that you have someone who can be your accountability partner. Have you ever started a goal at the beginning of the year only to have it go unfulfilled? Why did this happen? For most of us it’s because we missed a day which then turned into a week and befoer you knew it, it seemed hard to get started again so you quit. Having your spouse as an accountability partner means that there is someone to regularly check in on you to see how those goals are going.

These are just a couple of ways that we can maintain balance in our lives. We’re getting ready to go into a new year. Don’t let it drift by or be a person were you’re so focused that you miss life happening around you. It’s all about balance.

Talk Like a King

The Measure of a King

What is the measure of a king? Does that king rule by  fear? In today’s world there aren’t many kings or kingdoms, instead there are countries with presidents. Don’t worry this isn’t a political post, not that at some point we won’t get  into politics, just not today.

So what is a king? As a man of God, I believe that we are the kings of our households. Not to rule with an iron fist. There is more to being a king than ordering others, more than scaring  your family into submission.

Deck of Cards

Think of yourself as the king in a deck of cards, your spouse,  the queen, the children are the jack and ace. Maybe you even have a joker in your clan too. The point that I’m trying to get across is that while you are the king, your family is there beside you. Not under you.

There is a saying that money won’t make you happy. Money only amplifies what is already on the inside of you. I think that the same can be said of a title. Being the president of a business won’t turn you into a different or a better person, it will just bring out more of what is already in you. The same is true of your family.

A True King

Having a wife or kids won’t make you a better person, it will just bring out more of who you are on the inside. Being a king, being a good king is more. What makes a good king? I think that it’s the same as what makes a good man.

  1. Puts others first. A good king, as well as a good man, as well as a good leader of his home puts others first. It’s all about the well being of others. Those that God has put under our protection.
  2. Speak life and not death. A lot of times we don’t realize the impact of our words. Or how they can affect those around us. The world is just coming to understand and realize something that Christians have known for years. That life and death are in the power of the tongue.

As a king, we should be speaking life into those that we are over. Speaking life means that we want to speak words that encourage our children. Sometimes it is hard to do that, I won’t say that it’s easy, but it can be done. Also speaking life doesn’t mean that we don’t ever correct our children. There is a balance that we have to strive for. Correct and encourage.

 

Discussion questions: What prayers/confessions do speak over your spouse or children?

 

 

3 Ways to Prepare for Life Changes

We May Encounter Many Defeats But We Must Not Be Defeated.” – Maya Angelou

Welcome back to another school year!! My kids aren’t quite there yet, but if you spent anytime on Facebook recently you saw tons of back to school and first day of school pictures. How was your family prepared for the start of the school year? Is your family prepared for other life changes that may come?

Personal Experience

When my wife and I were looking into buying our home, we got a very important piece of advice. That advice was to look for a house that you can afford on one person’s income. Just in case, God forbid, that one person lose their job, you can still make the mortgage payments. We listened to that advice and a couple of years into living in our home, I was the one who lost my job. Because we listened and were prepared, my family didn’t lose our home.

How can we prepare for life changes? We don’t want to have “life happen” and then we’re scrambling trying to get resources together so that everything doesn’t fall apart.

How to Plan Ahead

  1. Practical Planning. This sounds boring, but it is probably the most important. We struggle with life changes because we’re not fully prepared for them. Dave Ramsey pushes having an emergency fund for this very reason. It will help you be prepared for the emergencies. Then they  no longer seem like emergencies to you.

Since the school year has started, this is a great time to plan out the year. If planning a year seems to daunting go by semester. What would make it a success? Is it a certain GPA? Getting volunteer opportunities. For younger children or it could be reading a certain number of books or focusing on an area to improve that was a struggle last year. Whatever the goal is, you want to prepare for this change and define what a successful school year would be.

      2. Overcome Obstacles. We know that the obstacles will come. How will you overcome them? Every new year we set new resolutions of habits, and life changes we want to make. Most people don’t see those changes last because when an obstacle comes up, the resolution gets dropped. Not because they didn’t want to change, but because they didn’t think about how they would overcome obstacles.

      3. Find an accountability group. Preparing for the unexpected life changes is one thing, it’s another to intentionally bring about a change. It’s great to have a goal of doing something. You won’t get it done by yourself though. You’re going to need an accountability partner or group. People that will push you when you don’t feel like getting up early or who will give you some encouragement when you’re feeling low. The people around you are just as important as the goal itself.

It’s the start of a new school year, are you prepared for the change? Are you prepared for life changes?