Today I want to talk to you about something that can be very hard to do. It's something we want everyone else to do for us but we find it very difficult to do for other people.
In most area's of our lives, we want people to believe in us. We want them to feel like they can risk something for us that will be beneficial to both us and them. It's a risk but we believe that we are good people and the risk is worth it right?
Well let me tell you a story of someone who took a chance on me. As I have previously stated, I own and run a sales company. When I started at this sales company, I was the lowest of the lowest man on the totem pole. There is a guy, CS, who works at our company that started a few weeks before I did and every time we are around someone new he loves to tell them this fact. Now CS moved up from an inside sales position in one of our offices to an outside sales position for our company over the course of a few years and I continued as the office manager. I knew absolutely nothing about outside sales (No comments from the guys at our company about how much I know now please.). We sell engineered mechanical components and have since the company started in 1974.
Over the course of time, my boss came down sick with cancer that ultimately took his life. After he got sick, his judgment was effected and he did some things that weren't fair to CS. At one point, he shipped CS off to Houston under the motive that our largest customer was there so someone should be there. My boss had done a very good job of servicing this customer for many years from our office in Fort Worth and really he was being influenced to send CS to Houston for personal reasons that had no basis in our business. After my company sent CS to Houston, he lived there for several years and serviced our largest account very well. He developed key relationships with the right people and did all the things necessary to strengthen our relationship and position with this company. The only problem was, the company didn't compensate him for this using the scale we did for other people. This bothered CS for many years.
As I stated, my boss was not making the most clear headed decisions during his final months here and I can't blame him. Cancer is a terrible thing and that combined with other things in his personal life led him to make some pretty questionable decisions. Ultimately, our largest supplier was considering firing our company and taking some of the salesmen direct thereby cutting my company out of the loop. Now I was blessed by the Lord to have the opportunity to buy this company from my boss and I got a deal you couldn't refuse. There was a point in time where I told CS about the new deal and how I was about to become the boss. At this point, CS had a decision to make. He could have continued discussions with our largest supplier about taking his territory direct which would have resulted in a pay raise and ultimately that would have been justified based on the way the company had treated him. It would have caused me critical damage to a company that was in trouble after the decisions my boss had made. We might not have even survived. But CS didn't. He told the people from our supplier who were asking him questions that they should wait and see what I did. In effect, he told them to give me a chance to see what I could do.
This was a risk for CS because once I got in place and secure, he would have had little chance to change his mind. But he took a chance on me nevertheless and to this day it has ultimately worked out very well for both of us but it could have been much different.
So to this person, I want to say thank you for taking a chance on me. I will never forget it.
To everyone else, look around you. Who is standing there wanting you to take a chance on them. Is there someone you can help? You may not be the owner of a company, but maybe there is someone in your life who deserves a chance to be your friend. What about the new kid in school? He needs a chance to be a friend and needs you. You are equally important. When was the last time you took a chance on you? When was the last time you stretched for a goal? If you have been hurt in relationships with your parents, brothers, sisters or friends, take a chance on someone again. Is there risk? Yes. But the reward is worth it.
That's another Opinion of the Minion.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
The Greatest Men I Ever Knew
Hi Everyone,
Today I want to talk to you about someone who was very special to me. He was one of the greatest men I ever knew. His name was Thelbert Sanford Rawle and he was/is my grandfather. I say was/is because he was my grandfather while he was here on earth and he is still my grandfather. He is in both my future and my past but not my present. Confusing? Well that's a different opinion altogether. Let me tell you a few things about my grandfather. He left us a few years ago and while he was here, I really didn't understand how great he was.
Well let's start with what he was not. He never owned a large company, never wrote a best selling novel, never went to law school and never had a lot of money. See, when most of us consider what success looks like - fame, power, money, etc., Sanford Rawle would not have been considered all that great. Notice I didn't call him Thelbert. No one did that I know of. He didn't like his first name. So why is he the greatest man I have ever knew?
Well, its funny that the older I get the more I realize why. While Granddad didn't do things that would put his name in the paper, he did something that most people don't do enough. He impacted other people's lives.
This Labor Day, we had a gathering at my cousin AB's house. They were so gracious to have us and I really enjoyed it. But while we were sitting around telling stories and laughing and getting extremely loud (that's what Rawle's do), I could see him there. He would have been telling stores and laughing harder than the rest of us. If you looked closely into his eyes, there was always a sparkle but more importantly, there was always love. He was the image of what I think love should look like. He wasn't flashy, he wasn't always trying to get attention, he just went about living life and loving his family. He was married to one woman, my grandmother, Margie, for 68 years. I can't even imagine that.
When I look at what he was able to accomplish, I am astounded. See I have a lot of formal education, he had a lot of informal smarts. He didn't have people to teach him how to do stuff, so he taught himself. If something needed to be fixed, they didn't have the money to get it repaired so he figured out how to fix it himself. I never in all my life saw him ask for a handout but he always had hand out to help someone else.
I remember one time my house needed a new front door. Granddad heard about it and came over to help me put one on. Now I didn't just need a new front door, I needed a new door frame and the whole works. Granddad was in his seventies at the time and he just showed up for work one Saturday ready to help his grandson. Well, we got the door jam and all out and it was laying in the front yard. Since I had never seen him fail at fixing something, I just knew he would be able to help me fix this. So I asked him, how many of these he had done before. After all, he had 70+ years experience at fixing things. This shouldn't be any big deal. I was shocked to hear him say that this was his first time. True to Sanford Rawle form, we got the door put in right.
Here are some things I learned from him.
1. Laugh often and laugh a lot - It didn't take much to get him started and once you did, he would laugh for ever. If you look at pictures, he almost always had a smile on his face. I learned something about that smile. It was contagious. You didn't get around him for very long before you were smiling too. As a matter of fact, if you were around him for a very long time, your jaws would hurt from laughing so hard.
2. Love isn't a language or words, its a life. Granddad loved his family and almost everyone he came in contact with. He didn't just say I love you, he lived I love you. He was the type of man who was there for you when you needed him. We all know people who say, call if you need anything and then always have an excuse why they can't help. He wasn't that man.
3. Your family is important. This is something that most of my generation has lost. His brothers, sisters, and wife were his best friends. They went on vacation together, the spent holidays together, they played games together. Not only that but he loved his kids and grand kids. He was always patient with us. I only hope and pray that one day I can be more like him, especially in the area of patience. He was always giving to his family. While he didn't spend large amounts of money on us that I remember, he gave me things that are far more valuable. He gave me a joker (this is a card and marble game) board that he made by hand. He gave all of his children wagon replicas of the one he used as a kid to all of his children. Mom, Unc and Unc, how much money would it take to buy that wagon from you? They may not read this so but I feel pretty confident I can answer - The wagon isn't for sale at any price. I still have a tool box that we built together when I was probably six or seven.
3. Granddad taught me a lot about gossip. He didn't ever that I remember. Enough said.
4. Mind your own business. My granddad never got into my personal business unless I asked him. Because of this, when I did ask, I was much more apt to listen to what he said.
5. Don't eat your own. Too many times in a family we have a tendency to talk badly about each other. We think we know what everyone else should do and how they should do it and we aren't afraid to tell them exactly what we think regardless of whether or not it helps or hurts. My grandfather wasn't like that.
6. THIS ONE IS HUGE - Have a tender heart. I often saw my grandfather's heart touched. He hurt when his loved ones hurt and he was happy for them when they succeeded. It didn't take much to touch him and I desperately want to be more like that. As he got older, he knew that his time here was running out and I can remember many times that he would tear up while praying over a meal. Those tears were almost always for the family that he loved so dearly.
I could go on for many pages but I will finish with one that is very close to his family.
7. "Make us ever mindful that there are people in this world who have need and have less than we." - When Granddad said the blessing, he finished each prayer that I ever remember with those words. The funny thing is, he meant them every time he said them. Now he meant this when it came to material things - ask anyone who didn't finish their meal about those Ethiopians. But he also knew something that it took me 40 years of life to understand. True riches aren't measured in what you have, they are measured in who you know. While he will not go down in history as a man with much material wealth, he will go down as one of the most wealthy people ever because he knew how to love and realized early on what the real treasures of life were - people.
Granddad, I don't know if you can read this in Heaven or not but I want you to know that you are one of the greatest men I have ever had the privilege of knowing. I can only hope to measure up to the standard you left. I love you very much and hope to make you proud one day by being more like you.
To everyone else, I want to leave you with the lyrics of a song -
I've lost loved ones in my life
Who never knew how much I loved them
Now I live with the regret
That my true feelings for them never were revealed
So I made a promise to myself
To say each day how much she means to me
And avoid that circumstance
Where there's no second chance to tell her how I feel
Cause if tomorrow never comes
Will she know how much I loved her
So tell that someone that you love
Just what your thinking of
If tomorrow never comes
The Opinion of the Minion
Today I want to talk to you about someone who was very special to me. He was one of the greatest men I ever knew. His name was Thelbert Sanford Rawle and he was/is my grandfather. I say was/is because he was my grandfather while he was here on earth and he is still my grandfather. He is in both my future and my past but not my present. Confusing? Well that's a different opinion altogether. Let me tell you a few things about my grandfather. He left us a few years ago and while he was here, I really didn't understand how great he was.
Well let's start with what he was not. He never owned a large company, never wrote a best selling novel, never went to law school and never had a lot of money. See, when most of us consider what success looks like - fame, power, money, etc., Sanford Rawle would not have been considered all that great. Notice I didn't call him Thelbert. No one did that I know of. He didn't like his first name. So why is he the greatest man I have ever knew?
Well, its funny that the older I get the more I realize why. While Granddad didn't do things that would put his name in the paper, he did something that most people don't do enough. He impacted other people's lives.
This Labor Day, we had a gathering at my cousin AB's house. They were so gracious to have us and I really enjoyed it. But while we were sitting around telling stories and laughing and getting extremely loud (that's what Rawle's do), I could see him there. He would have been telling stores and laughing harder than the rest of us. If you looked closely into his eyes, there was always a sparkle but more importantly, there was always love. He was the image of what I think love should look like. He wasn't flashy, he wasn't always trying to get attention, he just went about living life and loving his family. He was married to one woman, my grandmother, Margie, for 68 years. I can't even imagine that.
When I look at what he was able to accomplish, I am astounded. See I have a lot of formal education, he had a lot of informal smarts. He didn't have people to teach him how to do stuff, so he taught himself. If something needed to be fixed, they didn't have the money to get it repaired so he figured out how to fix it himself. I never in all my life saw him ask for a handout but he always had hand out to help someone else.
I remember one time my house needed a new front door. Granddad heard about it and came over to help me put one on. Now I didn't just need a new front door, I needed a new door frame and the whole works. Granddad was in his seventies at the time and he just showed up for work one Saturday ready to help his grandson. Well, we got the door jam and all out and it was laying in the front yard. Since I had never seen him fail at fixing something, I just knew he would be able to help me fix this. So I asked him, how many of these he had done before. After all, he had 70+ years experience at fixing things. This shouldn't be any big deal. I was shocked to hear him say that this was his first time. True to Sanford Rawle form, we got the door put in right.
Here are some things I learned from him.
1. Laugh often and laugh a lot - It didn't take much to get him started and once you did, he would laugh for ever. If you look at pictures, he almost always had a smile on his face. I learned something about that smile. It was contagious. You didn't get around him for very long before you were smiling too. As a matter of fact, if you were around him for a very long time, your jaws would hurt from laughing so hard.
2. Love isn't a language or words, its a life. Granddad loved his family and almost everyone he came in contact with. He didn't just say I love you, he lived I love you. He was the type of man who was there for you when you needed him. We all know people who say, call if you need anything and then always have an excuse why they can't help. He wasn't that man.
3. Your family is important. This is something that most of my generation has lost. His brothers, sisters, and wife were his best friends. They went on vacation together, the spent holidays together, they played games together. Not only that but he loved his kids and grand kids. He was always patient with us. I only hope and pray that one day I can be more like him, especially in the area of patience. He was always giving to his family. While he didn't spend large amounts of money on us that I remember, he gave me things that are far more valuable. He gave me a joker (this is a card and marble game) board that he made by hand. He gave all of his children wagon replicas of the one he used as a kid to all of his children. Mom, Unc and Unc, how much money would it take to buy that wagon from you? They may not read this so but I feel pretty confident I can answer - The wagon isn't for sale at any price. I still have a tool box that we built together when I was probably six or seven.
3. Granddad taught me a lot about gossip. He didn't ever that I remember. Enough said.
4. Mind your own business. My granddad never got into my personal business unless I asked him. Because of this, when I did ask, I was much more apt to listen to what he said.
5. Don't eat your own. Too many times in a family we have a tendency to talk badly about each other. We think we know what everyone else should do and how they should do it and we aren't afraid to tell them exactly what we think regardless of whether or not it helps or hurts. My grandfather wasn't like that.
6. THIS ONE IS HUGE - Have a tender heart. I often saw my grandfather's heart touched. He hurt when his loved ones hurt and he was happy for them when they succeeded. It didn't take much to touch him and I desperately want to be more like that. As he got older, he knew that his time here was running out and I can remember many times that he would tear up while praying over a meal. Those tears were almost always for the family that he loved so dearly.
I could go on for many pages but I will finish with one that is very close to his family.
7. "Make us ever mindful that there are people in this world who have need and have less than we." - When Granddad said the blessing, he finished each prayer that I ever remember with those words. The funny thing is, he meant them every time he said them. Now he meant this when it came to material things - ask anyone who didn't finish their meal about those Ethiopians. But he also knew something that it took me 40 years of life to understand. True riches aren't measured in what you have, they are measured in who you know. While he will not go down in history as a man with much material wealth, he will go down as one of the most wealthy people ever because he knew how to love and realized early on what the real treasures of life were - people.
Granddad, I don't know if you can read this in Heaven or not but I want you to know that you are one of the greatest men I have ever had the privilege of knowing. I can only hope to measure up to the standard you left. I love you very much and hope to make you proud one day by being more like you.
To everyone else, I want to leave you with the lyrics of a song -
I've lost loved ones in my life
Who never knew how much I loved them
Now I live with the regret
That my true feelings for them never were revealed
So I made a promise to myself
To say each day how much she means to me
And avoid that circumstance
Where there's no second chance to tell her how I feel
Cause if tomorrow never comes
Will she know how much I loved her
So tell that someone that you love
Just what your thinking of
If tomorrow never comes
The Opinion of the Minion
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Why Minion?
Today, I want to talk about something that is extremely important - Why we do things. I don't want to focus on what motivates you to go to work or school or do clean up after yourself, although all of those things are very important. I want to focus for a few minutes on what why we do things for other people. What is our motivation? I can already hear some of you thinking, I don't really do anything for other people. But I think you probably do and don't know it. The question I have today is why?
Is our motivation for helping others just purely to help them or is our motivation for helping other people so that we can get something in return from them? Sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish why we do things.
Let me illustrate. Part of the time I was growning up we lived on a street called Sherwood in River Oaks, TX (Mom, it's definitely not Tulane as you will see). Now my brother is about 4 years younger than me and it just so happened that we had friends who lived down the street who were the same age as us. We played together a lot. When the weekend came, we always wanted to spend the night and basically asked my mom to do a kid swap. One weekend, I would go to their house and my brother's friend would come to ours and the next weekend, we would switch. So we would try to con our mother into letting us do this. How did you con her you ask? (Disclaimer - we were not exactly the world's smartest con men in those days.) We decided that if we cleaned the house top to bottom to "bless" mom that she would be in a better place to let us go. Notice that our motiviation was never really to bless mom but to get our way. Little did we know that all she wanted was for us to help and she would let us go anyway. As I said, we weren't the smartest cons and mom laughed at us all the time.
That's really cute because we were little kids right? Well, let's grow things up a little and you will see that this manipulation can really be a problem. As I have said before, I am a giver. I really like to give to others of my time, money, etc., and this is a very good thing to do. But what would it look like if I was "giving" something to someone with the expectation that they would do something for me in return? That is a really bad place because it's no longer a gift but a tool used to manipulate someone to get my way. I constantly have to check my motives to make sure that I am just giving to help. Does that surprise you? It shouldn't. We are all that way. We all have a mind that wants what it wants and it can be very easy to get off track with why we do things.
As a matter of fact, I caught myself doing this several weeks ago. It wasn't intentional on my part and when I figured it out, I was more than a little bothered. There was a situation that I really wanted to see go a certain way. Now my way wasn't a bad way to do things and ultimately I might get what I wanted all along. But during this time, I recognized that I was putting a lot of pressure on the situation and might have caused someone else pain because of it. I didn't even really understand what I was doing until I stepped back and took a look at the situation from a distance. Once I did, it was pretty easy to see what I was doing and I immediately put a stop to it.
Worse than that, I hear people tell me that their motivation for doing a certain thing is to get even with our hurt someone else. This type of conduct is terrible. I know of a certain situation where a guy says hurtful things to this other person just so he can humiliate, intimidate and manipulate them. Folks, that type of behavior just shouldn't be.
So let me ask you this. What is your motivation for the way you treat other people? Are you doing things strictly for their good or is there something inside you that is trying to get what you want from them in return? You may not even know that your motivation is wrong. When is the last time you took a step back and looked at your motiviation for the way you treat others? I bet you don't think about it much but it's important.
And that's another Opinion of the Minion
Is our motivation for helping others just purely to help them or is our motivation for helping other people so that we can get something in return from them? Sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish why we do things.
Let me illustrate. Part of the time I was growning up we lived on a street called Sherwood in River Oaks, TX (Mom, it's definitely not Tulane as you will see). Now my brother is about 4 years younger than me and it just so happened that we had friends who lived down the street who were the same age as us. We played together a lot. When the weekend came, we always wanted to spend the night and basically asked my mom to do a kid swap. One weekend, I would go to their house and my brother's friend would come to ours and the next weekend, we would switch. So we would try to con our mother into letting us do this. How did you con her you ask? (Disclaimer - we were not exactly the world's smartest con men in those days.) We decided that if we cleaned the house top to bottom to "bless" mom that she would be in a better place to let us go. Notice that our motiviation was never really to bless mom but to get our way. Little did we know that all she wanted was for us to help and she would let us go anyway. As I said, we weren't the smartest cons and mom laughed at us all the time.
That's really cute because we were little kids right? Well, let's grow things up a little and you will see that this manipulation can really be a problem. As I have said before, I am a giver. I really like to give to others of my time, money, etc., and this is a very good thing to do. But what would it look like if I was "giving" something to someone with the expectation that they would do something for me in return? That is a really bad place because it's no longer a gift but a tool used to manipulate someone to get my way. I constantly have to check my motives to make sure that I am just giving to help. Does that surprise you? It shouldn't. We are all that way. We all have a mind that wants what it wants and it can be very easy to get off track with why we do things.
As a matter of fact, I caught myself doing this several weeks ago. It wasn't intentional on my part and when I figured it out, I was more than a little bothered. There was a situation that I really wanted to see go a certain way. Now my way wasn't a bad way to do things and ultimately I might get what I wanted all along. But during this time, I recognized that I was putting a lot of pressure on the situation and might have caused someone else pain because of it. I didn't even really understand what I was doing until I stepped back and took a look at the situation from a distance. Once I did, it was pretty easy to see what I was doing and I immediately put a stop to it.
Worse than that, I hear people tell me that their motivation for doing a certain thing is to get even with our hurt someone else. This type of conduct is terrible. I know of a certain situation where a guy says hurtful things to this other person just so he can humiliate, intimidate and manipulate them. Folks, that type of behavior just shouldn't be.
So let me ask you this. What is your motivation for the way you treat other people? Are you doing things strictly for their good or is there something inside you that is trying to get what you want from them in return? You may not even know that your motivation is wrong. When is the last time you took a step back and looked at your motiviation for the way you treat others? I bet you don't think about it much but it's important.
And that's another Opinion of the Minion
Saturday, September 17, 2011
What a Minion Likes To Do
Looking back on the memory of
The dance we shared
Neath the stars above
For a moment
All the world was right....
Some of you will recognize the lyrics to that song some of you will not. Recently my ballroom dance instructor told me I was stuck musically in the 80s. That might be a little true because it's when I was a teenager. That song is "The Dance" by Garth Brooks. I really liked that song when it first came out. All the girls liked it too so I thought I could use it to help me get dates or make the dates I had better ones. So guess what I learned at TCU? I learned to make a rose out of a paper napkin and learned how to play that song on the piano. I thought that would be super romantic - a paper rose, singing that song while playing the piano. How could I go wrong? The best thing was that every girls dorm had a piano in it while I was at TCU so it was perfect. I went a little farther and learned a few more songs - Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers (couldn't sing that one), Fur Elise (Beethoven I think), and The Rose by Bette Middler (I did try to sing that one) were the extent of my library. My friend BL, could play a couple of other songs but I cannot remember what they were. BL, I know you read this sometimes, call me and refresh my memory please.
Is there a point to your ramblings Mr. Minion, you ask? Well yes. While I was not near as successful at being Michael Buble as I would have hoped, I discovered something while learning these songs. I actually liked to play the piano. Now I am never going to win any competitions at it but its fun. My mom played a lot growing up and she actually got pretty good. I guess that's where I got it. Well, a few months ago I picked up the sheet music for "The Dance" again and guess what? I couldn't play it anymore. Do you know why? I hadn't touched the piano in years. Why is it that I quit doing something that I really enjoyed? I don't really know but I did. I don't think I ever sat down and decided I wasn't going to play, life was just life and I didn't do it anymore.
But when I picked up the sheet music and sat down at the keyboard, the next thing I knew it was an hour later. Did it sound good? Probably not but I didn't care, I was enjoying myself. See, that was an interest that God put in my box that I hadn't played with in a while and I missed it. I wasn't playing because I wanted to be the best or even so other people would enjoy it. I just was playing.
Obviously, I have written on this topic before but I think it's worth looking at again. So let me ask you, what things do you enjoy? Sit for a minute and think hard about it. You may have to think back several years to find your piano moment but I am sure it's there. I want to challenge you to take a little time this week and do the thing you enjoy. It will enrich your life.
That's another Opinion of the Minion
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
A Minion's Test
Today, I want to talk to you about something many people want but can't seem to figure out how to get. It's a testimony or a success story about their life.
Before we get very far, let me say that you cannot have a testimony or a success story without first having a test or trial. Now I don't know about you but I like the testimony part of things. I can tell many areas where God has touched my life and I do have several cool testimonies. I can tell you how God changed my finances, weight, personal fitness level, or how his love is in the process of totally consuming my life. All of these areas are good stories to tell and several people say I should write a book about them. I do like to tell the story and I really enjoy watching people's faces as I tell my weight loss story and while much of it is painful, there are some really funny things that happened while I was losing all the weight (Ask me sometime about the Spanks story). I have a gift that came from my dad. I can tell a story and generally make people laugh. Most of the time, they laugh at me but I don't really mind, especially when it comes to my weight loss.
Even when I weighed 350 pounds, I would tell stories that made people laugh at me. Back then, I did it because I figured that if I was making them laugh, it was somehow better than them laughing at the fat guy behind my back. I guess that's a little twisted but that's where I was. Obviously I am not anywhere near that weight and it doesn't bother me at all for people to tell me I was really fat because it's true. That's part of my testimony.
But why doesn't it bother me anymore if people say I was fat when it would really hurt my feelings back then? Well that's where the test comes in. If I wasn't tested where my weight is concerned, I would never have had a testimony. The test for me was many month's long and required me to totally change my life when it came to what I ate and how much I exercised. During that test, there were many days that I failed but obviously more than not, I succeeded but every day for 14 long months was a test. Was I going to eat carbohydrates or not? Was I going to exercise or not? How was my attitude going to be?
All these things tested my will and strength of mind. And food was a regular test. At one point, I walked into my office and my office manager had been to Krispy Kream donuts. He brought one dozen of those hot fresh morsels from heaven into my office and you could smell them from one end of the office to the other. That was a two fold test. The first part was do I eat the donuts or not. The second part was harder and it was do I kill him for bringing them into my office (I wanted to be just like Cain and Able. I was going to just kill him and tell my aunt he died). OK, obviously I am joking on the second point but the first test was very real. Guess how many I ate that day? 0 - Not one single donut. I passed that test and now I have a testimony.
Let me ask you this. What areas of life are you struggling in? Where to you want to have a testimony? What success would you like to be able to tell people you have conquered. Is it weigh, finances, relationships, grades? Maybe it's something more serious like drugs, pornography, or some other very strong addiction. Maybe it's just being able to get out of bed ten minutes earlier every day. Regardless of what you want your testimony to be, know that you have to pass the test first. If you don't pass the test today, you get to try again tomorrow. So if you want to create your testimony, you have to pass your test. If you have struggled with something in your life you want to change, don't quit. That's part of your testimony. If you fail 100 times but try 101 times, you will succeed. So don't quit. Keep taking the test until you have written the testimony you want.
And that's another Opinion of the Minion
Before we get very far, let me say that you cannot have a testimony or a success story without first having a test or trial. Now I don't know about you but I like the testimony part of things. I can tell many areas where God has touched my life and I do have several cool testimonies. I can tell you how God changed my finances, weight, personal fitness level, or how his love is in the process of totally consuming my life. All of these areas are good stories to tell and several people say I should write a book about them. I do like to tell the story and I really enjoy watching people's faces as I tell my weight loss story and while much of it is painful, there are some really funny things that happened while I was losing all the weight (Ask me sometime about the Spanks story). I have a gift that came from my dad. I can tell a story and generally make people laugh. Most of the time, they laugh at me but I don't really mind, especially when it comes to my weight loss.
Even when I weighed 350 pounds, I would tell stories that made people laugh at me. Back then, I did it because I figured that if I was making them laugh, it was somehow better than them laughing at the fat guy behind my back. I guess that's a little twisted but that's where I was. Obviously I am not anywhere near that weight and it doesn't bother me at all for people to tell me I was really fat because it's true. That's part of my testimony.
But why doesn't it bother me anymore if people say I was fat when it would really hurt my feelings back then? Well that's where the test comes in. If I wasn't tested where my weight is concerned, I would never have had a testimony. The test for me was many month's long and required me to totally change my life when it came to what I ate and how much I exercised. During that test, there were many days that I failed but obviously more than not, I succeeded but every day for 14 long months was a test. Was I going to eat carbohydrates or not? Was I going to exercise or not? How was my attitude going to be?
All these things tested my will and strength of mind. And food was a regular test. At one point, I walked into my office and my office manager had been to Krispy Kream donuts. He brought one dozen of those hot fresh morsels from heaven into my office and you could smell them from one end of the office to the other. That was a two fold test. The first part was do I eat the donuts or not. The second part was harder and it was do I kill him for bringing them into my office (I wanted to be just like Cain and Able. I was going to just kill him and tell my aunt he died). OK, obviously I am joking on the second point but the first test was very real. Guess how many I ate that day? 0 - Not one single donut. I passed that test and now I have a testimony.
Let me ask you this. What areas of life are you struggling in? Where to you want to have a testimony? What success would you like to be able to tell people you have conquered. Is it weigh, finances, relationships, grades? Maybe it's something more serious like drugs, pornography, or some other very strong addiction. Maybe it's just being able to get out of bed ten minutes earlier every day. Regardless of what you want your testimony to be, know that you have to pass the test first. If you don't pass the test today, you get to try again tomorrow. So if you want to create your testimony, you have to pass your test. If you have struggled with something in your life you want to change, don't quit. That's part of your testimony. If you fail 100 times but try 101 times, you will succeed. So don't quit. Keep taking the test until you have written the testimony you want.
And that's another Opinion of the Minion
Monday, September 12, 2011
Patience Minion Patience
Today I want to talk about one of my least favorite subjects - Patience. I really don't like the development process for patience but it is a very important quality. Now as I have said before, I consider myself to be a pretty good guy. Many times when I write, I tell you about something that happened in my life that hurt or something I did wrong. I do this because I want to try to help someone see a better way to think, live, be, do things. Hopefully, the people who really know me understand that I actually think pretty highly of myself. I think I am a good guy that has a lot going for himself. Am I conceited? I don't think so because I don't think that I am better than others, I just think I am a good guy.
That said, I want to discuss another of my character flaws today. In certain areas of my life I am extremely impatient. Most of you have heard me refer to the blog I wrote on the Box. I think it is the blog that has revolutionized my thinking more than any other I have written. In the Box, I discussed a different way to find a dating relationship. My thought (and I believe it is the right way) was that we should find people that we really enjoy being around. Start with being a friend and looking for a great friend in return. What if I got to know her on the inside? What if the first thing I noticed was her heart and how helpful she was to others instead of a body part? What if I appreciated the little things she does for me and really learned her instead of really learning how to get in her pants? What would that look like. I believe it will look like a relationship that is deep. I believe it will look like a relationship that books and movies can be written about. Do I think movies are realistic? Most of the time certainly not. But what would it look like to go deep? Guys, we stop way short of the good stuff about a woman and we are stupid for doing it.
Ladies this stupidity goes both ways though. What if you looked for a man that was more concerned with taking care of your emotional needs than your physical ones? What if you decided to wade out into the water a little and find a guy who really cares about you as a person and not just finding a guy that can take you to nice dinners or buy you cool stuff? What do you think would happen if you did this? You might wake up and find that you are in something worth having. It might be something really special. See, like I have said before, the girl I want is five more minutes. What do I mean? I want to be with a girl who is so special that when I wake up next to her in the morning, all I can do is stare. Knowing that I have to get up and go run, read my bible and go to work, I want to be so in love that I just have to stare and be with her for five more minutes. If I find that, I will have found real treasure.
So you might want to jump to the quick conclusion that I have to be patient as I wait for this girl to come into my life. That is certainly true but not complete. Now in my life, the Lord has blessed me and I can really do just about anything I want in my free time. This is really a blessing but it has caused me an unforeseen problem at the same time. I don't have to be patient for most things. So it was very easy for me to get impatient and want a relationship in microwave fashion. As most of you know I am recently divorced and I signed up for a couple of online dating things. Part of the reason I did this was because I was wanted to date (not at all like I said in the Box huh). But even as I filled out the profiles, I knew in my heart of hearts that I was doing the wrong thing. The Lord was constantly arresting me telling me I was making a mistake. So, almost as quickly as I started, I came to a screeching halt on those things. I deleted both of them. Now, I am not saying that there is anything wrong with online dating because I don't believe that there is. I am just pointing out that the Lord was telling me it was wrong for me.
The problem for me with patience is that in order for a friendship to blossom into a relationship, it takes time. You can't microwave a friendship or it will be like a plant that starts to grow but never has deep roots. If you look at a tree, the root ball can be bigger and go much deeper than the tree you see on top of the ground. So when you don't think you see any growth, just wait. Because that relationship may just be growing roots. You can't see those. The don't look like kissing or holding hands but they are the backbone of a successful relationship. For me this has been a very difficult process. While I know it is the right way to do things, it doesn't make it any easier.
The other thing that makes this process so extremely difficult are people. As a good friend of mine so pointedly noticed the other night, I don't have a lot of dating experience. This is a very true statement. Here is something I discovered about the dating world since I became single that makes my whole theory harder. Both men and women want to get to the physical part of a relationship too quick. I thought it was just guys but it's not. It's both. See, I think the thought process is if we aren't physical, he isn't interested and I will have to move on to the next guy.
I talked to a friend just recently. She told me about dating a guy who didn't immediately try to get physical with her and how she struggled with the concept. She said she was so used to having guys trying to move into a physical relationship that when a guy actually tried to talk to her and get to know her, she wasn't sure how to handle it. She told me that they spent hours on the telephone just talking and it is great. That was a different type of patience that she had to learn. Just because a guy isn't all over you within the first two weeks you date doesn't mean he is a bad guy. It might just mean that he is a great guy who actually respects you as a person not as a make out machine. Imagine the concept!
So let me try to wrap this up. For me, one of the hardest things I had to learn is patience, especially in relationships. This concept caused me much grief and several sleepless nights but the rewards are worth the effort. On the other hand, ladies you have to learn a different type of patience. If you find a guy who isn't all over you, it's possible that he is the real deal. It's possible that he just might be someone worth taking a little time to get to know better. Maybe he is a guy that will actually treat you the way you want to be treated.
And that's another Opinion of the Minion
That said, I want to discuss another of my character flaws today. In certain areas of my life I am extremely impatient. Most of you have heard me refer to the blog I wrote on the Box. I think it is the blog that has revolutionized my thinking more than any other I have written. In the Box, I discussed a different way to find a dating relationship. My thought (and I believe it is the right way) was that we should find people that we really enjoy being around. Start with being a friend and looking for a great friend in return. What if I got to know her on the inside? What if the first thing I noticed was her heart and how helpful she was to others instead of a body part? What if I appreciated the little things she does for me and really learned her instead of really learning how to get in her pants? What would that look like. I believe it will look like a relationship that is deep. I believe it will look like a relationship that books and movies can be written about. Do I think movies are realistic? Most of the time certainly not. But what would it look like to go deep? Guys, we stop way short of the good stuff about a woman and we are stupid for doing it.
Ladies this stupidity goes both ways though. What if you looked for a man that was more concerned with taking care of your emotional needs than your physical ones? What if you decided to wade out into the water a little and find a guy who really cares about you as a person and not just finding a guy that can take you to nice dinners or buy you cool stuff? What do you think would happen if you did this? You might wake up and find that you are in something worth having. It might be something really special. See, like I have said before, the girl I want is five more minutes. What do I mean? I want to be with a girl who is so special that when I wake up next to her in the morning, all I can do is stare. Knowing that I have to get up and go run, read my bible and go to work, I want to be so in love that I just have to stare and be with her for five more minutes. If I find that, I will have found real treasure.
So you might want to jump to the quick conclusion that I have to be patient as I wait for this girl to come into my life. That is certainly true but not complete. Now in my life, the Lord has blessed me and I can really do just about anything I want in my free time. This is really a blessing but it has caused me an unforeseen problem at the same time. I don't have to be patient for most things. So it was very easy for me to get impatient and want a relationship in microwave fashion. As most of you know I am recently divorced and I signed up for a couple of online dating things. Part of the reason I did this was because I was wanted to date (not at all like I said in the Box huh). But even as I filled out the profiles, I knew in my heart of hearts that I was doing the wrong thing. The Lord was constantly arresting me telling me I was making a mistake. So, almost as quickly as I started, I came to a screeching halt on those things. I deleted both of them. Now, I am not saying that there is anything wrong with online dating because I don't believe that there is. I am just pointing out that the Lord was telling me it was wrong for me.
The problem for me with patience is that in order for a friendship to blossom into a relationship, it takes time. You can't microwave a friendship or it will be like a plant that starts to grow but never has deep roots. If you look at a tree, the root ball can be bigger and go much deeper than the tree you see on top of the ground. So when you don't think you see any growth, just wait. Because that relationship may just be growing roots. You can't see those. The don't look like kissing or holding hands but they are the backbone of a successful relationship. For me this has been a very difficult process. While I know it is the right way to do things, it doesn't make it any easier.
The other thing that makes this process so extremely difficult are people. As a good friend of mine so pointedly noticed the other night, I don't have a lot of dating experience. This is a very true statement. Here is something I discovered about the dating world since I became single that makes my whole theory harder. Both men and women want to get to the physical part of a relationship too quick. I thought it was just guys but it's not. It's both. See, I think the thought process is if we aren't physical, he isn't interested and I will have to move on to the next guy.
I talked to a friend just recently. She told me about dating a guy who didn't immediately try to get physical with her and how she struggled with the concept. She said she was so used to having guys trying to move into a physical relationship that when a guy actually tried to talk to her and get to know her, she wasn't sure how to handle it. She told me that they spent hours on the telephone just talking and it is great. That was a different type of patience that she had to learn. Just because a guy isn't all over you within the first two weeks you date doesn't mean he is a bad guy. It might just mean that he is a great guy who actually respects you as a person not as a make out machine. Imagine the concept!
So let me try to wrap this up. For me, one of the hardest things I had to learn is patience, especially in relationships. This concept caused me much grief and several sleepless nights but the rewards are worth the effort. On the other hand, ladies you have to learn a different type of patience. If you find a guy who isn't all over you, it's possible that he is the real deal. It's possible that he just might be someone worth taking a little time to get to know better. Maybe he is a guy that will actually treat you the way you want to be treated.
And that's another Opinion of the Minion
Friday, September 9, 2011
A Minion's Good Judgment
Today I want to deal with the subject of judgment. Don't you just love to be around people who are always judging you or someone else? Those are my favorite types of people. Well not really. I very much dislike being around them. But let's talk about judgment for a minute. If you have ever been to church, you have heard the quote from the bible, "Judge not lest ye be judged." We have taken that to mean that when I am around someone who hurts me or does bad things to me, that I can't judge them right. I think this is very true. I cannot judge a person period.
But what I can do is judge their actions. It's OK to judge a person's actions. But what I think we really like to do is use judging a persons actions as a spring board to get to what is really fun - judging people. See I caught myself doing that here recently and honestly I didn't really even know I was doing it. But before I get to that, let me talk about some things its OK to judge.
Sometimes we are around people who use this don't judge people thing as a way to manipulate us and hurt us. All the while, they are saying that you can't judge them. What they are really saying is they want you to continue to allow them to treat you badly. That's not OK. If you are around someone who is constantly hurting you, their actions are wrong and that is what I am judging. I am not saying they are a bad person. However, don't let people manipulate you into doing what they want if it is wrong.
While I am at it, let me step on a few more toes. If someone comes up to you and tells you in a loving and kind way that they think you are behaving wrongly, consider what they say. I know some people who are very difficult to correct because they cannot take someone telling them they are wrong. I personally like to know when I am wrong (this is not an open invitation for you to correct me). Let me say that I only trust a few people to tell me I am behaving wrongly. Most of the time, I listen to my heart and the Lord will correct me where I need correction. Be thankful when someone does that for you, if you know they really love and care about you. For me personally, I don't want to go around being wrong. Have you ever had that dream where you are walking around in your underwear or worse and everyone is laughing at you? Well that's a little drastic but I think when we walk around constantly behaving wrong in an area, that is exactly what we are doing.
So let me tell you about the wrong kind of judgment. I know this guy who was extremely judgmental to certain people in his life. As a matter of fact, he really didn't like having them around. Why, because some of them did do things that hurt his feelings. Some of them did nothing to hurt his feelings. He was just judgmental. Now I don't know if he was ever judgmental outright to these people's faces but he certainly was in his heart. He didn't really do it on purpose but he couldn't separate judging a person and judging their actions. See some of their actions needed to be understood. In some ways they used him but didn't know it. So what did he do in return. He got mad and judged them personally. He considered himself a pretty humble guy. He didn't go around openly telling everyone that he thought he was smart or successful. He didn't go around showing off how much money he made or what he had (although many people thought this was the case). As a matter of fact, he quit showing people the cool stuff he got and he quit telling people about the cool things that happened to him because some people got jealous.
Regardless of what they did to him, he began to judge himself as better than them. Now here is where it gets a little strange. He didn't judge himself smarter, or more successful, or more educated than the people around him. That would have been too obvious. He judged worse than that. He began to see himself as nicer than them. He would look at his wife and see all the times that she did things that were not nice toward him and only consider the nice things he did for her. He is to this day a giver and began to feel that people took advantage of that. So he judged himself to be a nicer and therefore better person than many of the people around him.
OK let me give you three guesses on this guy's identity. Do you really need three guesses? Yup, you know it. This guy is me. It is a very humbling experience when the Lord shows you that you aren't really all that. Now I quit judging people before I started writing for the most part but I didn't realize that I was doing it. It's easy for me to hear people saying nice things about this blog and some of the other stuff I do. I even have a good friend who told me she thought I was a great guy. She didn't mean it as one of those blow off things. This girl really puts me on a pedestal. She sees things in me that I didn't know were there. As a matter of fact, there was a certain thing about the Minion that happened that shocked me. She said that she was surprised it took as long as it did. So guess what, the Minion isn't all that. I have already done this in private but I want to go on record in front of you and ask God to forgive me for being judgmental. That is truly a terrible thing to do and I am ashamed of it. If I have judged you wrongly instead of just judging your actions, please forgive me.
So let me ask you a question? Where are you being like I was? Where are you judging people? I bet that somewhere you are judging them instead of their actions. That has to stop. Do you like to sit around and talk about other people? That's called gossip and it's very judgmental. We have to stop that.
That's another Opinion of the Minion
But what I can do is judge their actions. It's OK to judge a person's actions. But what I think we really like to do is use judging a persons actions as a spring board to get to what is really fun - judging people. See I caught myself doing that here recently and honestly I didn't really even know I was doing it. But before I get to that, let me talk about some things its OK to judge.
Sometimes we are around people who use this don't judge people thing as a way to manipulate us and hurt us. All the while, they are saying that you can't judge them. What they are really saying is they want you to continue to allow them to treat you badly. That's not OK. If you are around someone who is constantly hurting you, their actions are wrong and that is what I am judging. I am not saying they are a bad person. However, don't let people manipulate you into doing what they want if it is wrong.
While I am at it, let me step on a few more toes. If someone comes up to you and tells you in a loving and kind way that they think you are behaving wrongly, consider what they say. I know some people who are very difficult to correct because they cannot take someone telling them they are wrong. I personally like to know when I am wrong (this is not an open invitation for you to correct me). Let me say that I only trust a few people to tell me I am behaving wrongly. Most of the time, I listen to my heart and the Lord will correct me where I need correction. Be thankful when someone does that for you, if you know they really love and care about you. For me personally, I don't want to go around being wrong. Have you ever had that dream where you are walking around in your underwear or worse and everyone is laughing at you? Well that's a little drastic but I think when we walk around constantly behaving wrong in an area, that is exactly what we are doing.
So let me tell you about the wrong kind of judgment. I know this guy who was extremely judgmental to certain people in his life. As a matter of fact, he really didn't like having them around. Why, because some of them did do things that hurt his feelings. Some of them did nothing to hurt his feelings. He was just judgmental. Now I don't know if he was ever judgmental outright to these people's faces but he certainly was in his heart. He didn't really do it on purpose but he couldn't separate judging a person and judging their actions. See some of their actions needed to be understood. In some ways they used him but didn't know it. So what did he do in return. He got mad and judged them personally. He considered himself a pretty humble guy. He didn't go around openly telling everyone that he thought he was smart or successful. He didn't go around showing off how much money he made or what he had (although many people thought this was the case). As a matter of fact, he quit showing people the cool stuff he got and he quit telling people about the cool things that happened to him because some people got jealous.
Regardless of what they did to him, he began to judge himself as better than them. Now here is where it gets a little strange. He didn't judge himself smarter, or more successful, or more educated than the people around him. That would have been too obvious. He judged worse than that. He began to see himself as nicer than them. He would look at his wife and see all the times that she did things that were not nice toward him and only consider the nice things he did for her. He is to this day a giver and began to feel that people took advantage of that. So he judged himself to be a nicer and therefore better person than many of the people around him.
OK let me give you three guesses on this guy's identity. Do you really need three guesses? Yup, you know it. This guy is me. It is a very humbling experience when the Lord shows you that you aren't really all that. Now I quit judging people before I started writing for the most part but I didn't realize that I was doing it. It's easy for me to hear people saying nice things about this blog and some of the other stuff I do. I even have a good friend who told me she thought I was a great guy. She didn't mean it as one of those blow off things. This girl really puts me on a pedestal. She sees things in me that I didn't know were there. As a matter of fact, there was a certain thing about the Minion that happened that shocked me. She said that she was surprised it took as long as it did. So guess what, the Minion isn't all that. I have already done this in private but I want to go on record in front of you and ask God to forgive me for being judgmental. That is truly a terrible thing to do and I am ashamed of it. If I have judged you wrongly instead of just judging your actions, please forgive me.
So let me ask you a question? Where are you being like I was? Where are you judging people? I bet that somewhere you are judging them instead of their actions. That has to stop. Do you like to sit around and talk about other people? That's called gossip and it's very judgmental. We have to stop that.
That's another Opinion of the Minion
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
About the Minion Part 2
Several weeks ago, I asked for you to submit ideas that you would like me to blog about. The answers weren't exactly what I was looking for because most of them were questions about me. This turned out to be a lot of fun so I decided to do it again and see what kind of questions I got. There were a few questions that I thought were inappropriate so I am not going to answer them but below please find the rest.
LS and AM - Do you have a girlfriend? I have several friends who are girls and I am definitely a straight guy. Being in a great relationship with a woman is probably my greatest worldly desire but I am learning to wait on God to give me what I need. I guess the technical answer to that question is no but I believe God will change that at the right time. I just have to be patient. That last sentence should make one of my readers smile.
AB - How did you learn to speak a different language? - Well I took two years of German in high school and a semester of French in college so I guess I learned some in school.
DV - Who is your favorite band? - Well I have many favorites and that changes on a regular basis. Right now I guess it would have to be Rascal Flatts. I love the lyrics to a lot of their songs.
CM - Do you sing? - Actually CM, this is one of my favorite things to do. Some people who have heard me say I have a decent voice but mostly I sing by myself because I am really self conscious about it. It's one of the things I enjoy from my Box but I don't share with many people.
AM and AB - Why did you start the Opinion of the Minion? - I love this question because it makes me look at the whole thing. I am blown away by the number of fans of the Minion and the number of people who read my blogs. I am truly humbled by what has happened. The minion has fans literally around the world. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever see that coming. Ok so the answer is this - I started the Minion as just a place for me to rant about whatever I wanted. I was sort of like my journal for my life. I really didn't expect anyone to read it. My first post was called "the Classics." It was about several books that I had recently read and I just wanted to talk about them. Well I have some of the greatest friends on earth and several of them, AB, LM, TR, KS and others encouraged me to write more blogs. I started posting them and then I would write something on my personal home page each time I did one. Not wanting to bother several of my friends I started a page for the Minion on Facebook. Then as I wrote a blog called "The Box" I realized that God was giving me this as an opportunity to reach people. It changed my whole life. I began to see each one of you as an awesome gift from God and I started focusing on how to say something positive and help people. That is what I try to do with each of my blogs. Again, I really struggle to comprehend all the support and encouragement I have recieved while doing this. I hope this answers the question and I will be happy to talk more about it if you want.
AD - What is your testimony? - I also love this question. Did you know you cannot have a testimony without a test? That may be a whole blog in and of itself but I think you are asking me about when I made Jesus my personal Lord and Savior. Here is the short version. I think I was saved when I was very young. I don't remember when I actually asked Jesus into my heart. What I do know is this. After a very bad break up with a girl when I was in college, I moved back to my parents house. I knew I wasn't living right, I was living in sin and I wasn't walking in right relationship with God. This fact weighed on me so heavily that I spent several nights curled up in a bath tub clutching my bible for dear life. I knew something was wrong inside of me but I didn't know what to do. Finally, I realized that I needed to go back to my home church (I hadn't been in a while) and get my life right with God. The pressure was so intense I was really scared that the rapture was going to take place and I would be left behind. It truly frightened me. Anyway, I had said some awful things about my church. I called those people sobs and said that they really didn't care one thing about me. I said they were a bunch of hypocrites and were a terrible representation of God's love. Then I walked in that church one Sunday night to the youth meeting. Those same awful hypocrites, surrounded me and loved on me and accepted me right into that meeting like nothing had ever happened. I was so deeply touched by their love. I can honestly say that Calvary Cathedral International in Fort Worth, Texas is one of the most Godly places I have ever been. Bob Nichols is a true example of what a man of God looks like and my life is much better for listening to him all those years. Anyway, the service started and all I could think about was the alter call. Several times that pressure was so intense that I wanted to tell the youth pastor, Mark Carillo to shut up and open the alter but I didn't. When he did, I was the first one down there on my knees getting things right with a God who was patiently, longingly, and lovingly waiting for me there.
There is one other part of my testimony that I will share here. In March/April of this year on a Monday, I read a book called Redeeming Love. It is from that book that I got a revelation of how much God loves me. He is passionate about his love for me and you. I have tried to explain this using the English language but it is not sufficient to do the job. During the time I read that book, I heard the Lord say to me, your life is about to change for ever and it has. He took out a heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh that has allowed me to pour more love out than I even thought was possible. Some people might say I have lost my mind and they are right. If you find it, run from it. I will take the one I have now. It is a present from Jesus.
MK - Do you have any weapons? - Yes, I am a Texan. I have a shotgun and a pistol but I am not a big gun fan. There is a long story behind them if you are interested (no violence though. I have never even fired the shotgun.)
DJ - Are you and the others based off the three stooges? - I don't know anything about the background of the cartoon characters but I love the three stooges.
BB - Is there a second movie? - Again, I don't really know.
KT - How many minions are there? - Well I guess right now there are two. Me and my friend DD who has helped me write and should do so again in the near future.
MR and SK - Do minions have babies - I don't know about the cartoon but I have four. One in heaven and three that are here on earth.
AS - What's up with your hair? - Got me.
KP - Do people call you tater tots? - No but my nick name in high school was Oompa Loompa.
NK - Why do you listen to Gru? - Again, I don't have anything to do with the movie.
TN - What do you do when you get hyper? Who do you eat? - No idea what the cartoon minions do.
IM - Are you my brother? - I will answer a question with a question. Have you asked Jesus to live in your heart? If so, then yes. If not, then I don't think so.
MR - Who are your parents? - John and Donna Oswald
JD - Are you a twinkie... - Nope
MK - Are you corn pops cereal - Nope
AK - Where are you from? - I was born, raised, and live in Fort Worth, Texas in the United States.
CJ - What's it like to be yellow? - I don't know.
CJ - Do you ever feel self conscious about your hair? - Nope
LB - Can I get a minion as a pet? - Cute question. I have no idea.
BR and MC - Where can I get a minion? - Sorry, I don't know.
I hope that answers your questions and that's another Opinon of the Minion
LS and AM - Do you have a girlfriend? I have several friends who are girls and I am definitely a straight guy. Being in a great relationship with a woman is probably my greatest worldly desire but I am learning to wait on God to give me what I need. I guess the technical answer to that question is no but I believe God will change that at the right time. I just have to be patient. That last sentence should make one of my readers smile.
AB - How did you learn to speak a different language? - Well I took two years of German in high school and a semester of French in college so I guess I learned some in school.
DV - Who is your favorite band? - Well I have many favorites and that changes on a regular basis. Right now I guess it would have to be Rascal Flatts. I love the lyrics to a lot of their songs.
CM - Do you sing? - Actually CM, this is one of my favorite things to do. Some people who have heard me say I have a decent voice but mostly I sing by myself because I am really self conscious about it. It's one of the things I enjoy from my Box but I don't share with many people.
AM and AB - Why did you start the Opinion of the Minion? - I love this question because it makes me look at the whole thing. I am blown away by the number of fans of the Minion and the number of people who read my blogs. I am truly humbled by what has happened. The minion has fans literally around the world. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever see that coming. Ok so the answer is this - I started the Minion as just a place for me to rant about whatever I wanted. I was sort of like my journal for my life. I really didn't expect anyone to read it. My first post was called "the Classics." It was about several books that I had recently read and I just wanted to talk about them. Well I have some of the greatest friends on earth and several of them, AB, LM, TR, KS and others encouraged me to write more blogs. I started posting them and then I would write something on my personal home page each time I did one. Not wanting to bother several of my friends I started a page for the Minion on Facebook. Then as I wrote a blog called "The Box" I realized that God was giving me this as an opportunity to reach people. It changed my whole life. I began to see each one of you as an awesome gift from God and I started focusing on how to say something positive and help people. That is what I try to do with each of my blogs. Again, I really struggle to comprehend all the support and encouragement I have recieved while doing this. I hope this answers the question and I will be happy to talk more about it if you want.
AD - What is your testimony? - I also love this question. Did you know you cannot have a testimony without a test? That may be a whole blog in and of itself but I think you are asking me about when I made Jesus my personal Lord and Savior. Here is the short version. I think I was saved when I was very young. I don't remember when I actually asked Jesus into my heart. What I do know is this. After a very bad break up with a girl when I was in college, I moved back to my parents house. I knew I wasn't living right, I was living in sin and I wasn't walking in right relationship with God. This fact weighed on me so heavily that I spent several nights curled up in a bath tub clutching my bible for dear life. I knew something was wrong inside of me but I didn't know what to do. Finally, I realized that I needed to go back to my home church (I hadn't been in a while) and get my life right with God. The pressure was so intense I was really scared that the rapture was going to take place and I would be left behind. It truly frightened me. Anyway, I had said some awful things about my church. I called those people sobs and said that they really didn't care one thing about me. I said they were a bunch of hypocrites and were a terrible representation of God's love. Then I walked in that church one Sunday night to the youth meeting. Those same awful hypocrites, surrounded me and loved on me and accepted me right into that meeting like nothing had ever happened. I was so deeply touched by their love. I can honestly say that Calvary Cathedral International in Fort Worth, Texas is one of the most Godly places I have ever been. Bob Nichols is a true example of what a man of God looks like and my life is much better for listening to him all those years. Anyway, the service started and all I could think about was the alter call. Several times that pressure was so intense that I wanted to tell the youth pastor, Mark Carillo to shut up and open the alter but I didn't. When he did, I was the first one down there on my knees getting things right with a God who was patiently, longingly, and lovingly waiting for me there.
There is one other part of my testimony that I will share here. In March/April of this year on a Monday, I read a book called Redeeming Love. It is from that book that I got a revelation of how much God loves me. He is passionate about his love for me and you. I have tried to explain this using the English language but it is not sufficient to do the job. During the time I read that book, I heard the Lord say to me, your life is about to change for ever and it has. He took out a heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh that has allowed me to pour more love out than I even thought was possible. Some people might say I have lost my mind and they are right. If you find it, run from it. I will take the one I have now. It is a present from Jesus.
MK - Do you have any weapons? - Yes, I am a Texan. I have a shotgun and a pistol but I am not a big gun fan. There is a long story behind them if you are interested (no violence though. I have never even fired the shotgun.)
DJ - Are you and the others based off the three stooges? - I don't know anything about the background of the cartoon characters but I love the three stooges.
BB - Is there a second movie? - Again, I don't really know.
KT - How many minions are there? - Well I guess right now there are two. Me and my friend DD who has helped me write and should do so again in the near future.
MR and SK - Do minions have babies - I don't know about the cartoon but I have four. One in heaven and three that are here on earth.
AS - What's up with your hair? - Got me.
KP - Do people call you tater tots? - No but my nick name in high school was Oompa Loompa.
NK - Why do you listen to Gru? - Again, I don't have anything to do with the movie.
TN - What do you do when you get hyper? Who do you eat? - No idea what the cartoon minions do.
IM - Are you my brother? - I will answer a question with a question. Have you asked Jesus to live in your heart? If so, then yes. If not, then I don't think so.
MR - Who are your parents? - John and Donna Oswald
JD - Are you a twinkie... - Nope
MK - Are you corn pops cereal - Nope
AK - Where are you from? - I was born, raised, and live in Fort Worth, Texas in the United States.
CJ - What's it like to be yellow? - I don't know.
CJ - Do you ever feel self conscious about your hair? - Nope
LB - Can I get a minion as a pet? - Cute question. I have no idea.
BR and MC - Where can I get a minion? - Sorry, I don't know.
I hope that answers your questions and that's another Opinon of the Minion
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Mercy Minion
Today I want to spend a little time talking about two very tough words - mercy and grace.
Several times lately, I have heard someone mention the word karma. When they use this word, what they are basically saying is that someone got what was coming to them and normally this applies to something bad happening to someone and the fact that they deserved it.
For instance, when someone is mean to you and let's say they call you something bad. Then a couple of days later you hear that something bad happened to them. It can be very easy for us feel like this bad person got what they deserved and maybe they did. But let me ask you something - Do you want what you deserve all the time? Do you want that karma to play a part in your life? Because I know me, and I certainly don't want to get what I deserve because I can tell you that by some of my actions, I deserve some pretty bad stuff.
Now most people who know me would say that I am a pretty nice guy. I try to help people and try to give where ever I can. But there was one time that I was an extremely huge jerk. See, my brother, his wife, my ex-wife and I all went to the movies one night. Now we were at the snack counter buying stuff for the movie and I think my brother's wife ordered a hot dog that we didn't get so I mentioned it to the clerk. From there, things spiraled downward pretty quickly and an one point he called my sister-in-law a liar. This really made me mad so I told this sixteen year old kid that I had a law degree and was smart and successful (at least that's the way I will clean it up for this) and I also told him that he was a worthless nobody who would never make it out of the job he was in. I told him to enjoy working at a movie theater or pumping gas the rest of his life because that was all he would ever do.
Are you little surprised at me? Well, I can tell you that to this day, it is one of the things in my life that I am most ashamed of. That kid didn't deserve the stuff I said to him. So let's talk about karma. As I said, I am really a good guy at heart and I want people to judge me for my heart and not necessarily for the things I say or do. Did I make a mistake with that kid? - YES!!! Am I extremely sorry that I said what I did? - YES!!! Would I ever want to say something like that again? - NO!!! So did I deserve to have something bad happen to me because I said what I did? According to people who run around talking about karma, I did. But thank God I don't serve the God of karma. I serve a God who is full of mercy and grace. What mercy and grace mean is that even though I deserve one thing, I get something else. Let's say I deserve to have something bad happen to me because of what I said to that kid, but I am thankful that God had mercy on me and gave me grace so that nothing bad happened.
Before I leave the movie theater story, I want to tell you one of the most grown up things I have ever done in my life. As you may know I like the movie Dirty Dancing. Now my favorite line is by Baby's father. He confronts Johnny at the end of the movie and says something along the lines of "I know you didn't get that girl in trouble," and Johnny basically says, "So." Then here is my favorite line. Baby's dad says, "When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong." So I sat down in the theater and felt such a conviction from the Lord about what I had done that I told my then wife, I had to go back and talk to the kid. I will never forget walking up to him. He was standing at one end of the counter and it looked like he had just been ripped up and down both walls for our altercation which had gotten pretty heated. The manager started down toward us to break up what he thought was going to be round two. But when he got close, he heard me telling this kid how sorry I was for my actions. I told him that I was a christian and what I said was absolutely horrible and awful. Then I did something strange, I asked him to forgive me for being so ugly. He said he was sorry too and that he too was a Christian. We both walked away apologizing to each other. I don't know where that young man is today but I hope he is fulfilling all his dreams. I certainly wish him the very best in life.
So back to mercy and grace. I just told you of a time when I needed God's mercy and grace to cover something bad I did. But let's talk about a little different situation now.
But what about when someone does you wrong? First of all, take a minute to look through their eyes at the situation. You might see things much differently if you do. Remember that hurting people hurt other people. If someone hurts you, it is very likely that they are hurt themselves. Again, I don't want you to let someone continue to hurt you but I do want you to consider mercy and grace. If you have a way to let them off the hook, consider it. After all, don't you want someone to give you grace when you mess up? We all know that you and I never mess up on purpose. Sometimes we just do stupid things. Is it possible that the other person you are mad at right now is in the same boat? They didn't mean to hurt you, they just did? I know that sometimes this isn't the case but sometimes it is.
So I want to leave you with this thought, there is a God in Heaven that constantly shows us mercy and grace and when we get in trouble, we always want someone to show us mercy and grace. Then we are going to have to stop giving people what they deserve and give them what we want instead - mercy and grace.
And that's another Opinion of the Minion
Several times lately, I have heard someone mention the word karma. When they use this word, what they are basically saying is that someone got what was coming to them and normally this applies to something bad happening to someone and the fact that they deserved it.
For instance, when someone is mean to you and let's say they call you something bad. Then a couple of days later you hear that something bad happened to them. It can be very easy for us feel like this bad person got what they deserved and maybe they did. But let me ask you something - Do you want what you deserve all the time? Do you want that karma to play a part in your life? Because I know me, and I certainly don't want to get what I deserve because I can tell you that by some of my actions, I deserve some pretty bad stuff.
Now most people who know me would say that I am a pretty nice guy. I try to help people and try to give where ever I can. But there was one time that I was an extremely huge jerk. See, my brother, his wife, my ex-wife and I all went to the movies one night. Now we were at the snack counter buying stuff for the movie and I think my brother's wife ordered a hot dog that we didn't get so I mentioned it to the clerk. From there, things spiraled downward pretty quickly and an one point he called my sister-in-law a liar. This really made me mad so I told this sixteen year old kid that I had a law degree and was smart and successful (at least that's the way I will clean it up for this) and I also told him that he was a worthless nobody who would never make it out of the job he was in. I told him to enjoy working at a movie theater or pumping gas the rest of his life because that was all he would ever do.
Are you little surprised at me? Well, I can tell you that to this day, it is one of the things in my life that I am most ashamed of. That kid didn't deserve the stuff I said to him. So let's talk about karma. As I said, I am really a good guy at heart and I want people to judge me for my heart and not necessarily for the things I say or do. Did I make a mistake with that kid? - YES!!! Am I extremely sorry that I said what I did? - YES!!! Would I ever want to say something like that again? - NO!!! So did I deserve to have something bad happen to me because I said what I did? According to people who run around talking about karma, I did. But thank God I don't serve the God of karma. I serve a God who is full of mercy and grace. What mercy and grace mean is that even though I deserve one thing, I get something else. Let's say I deserve to have something bad happen to me because of what I said to that kid, but I am thankful that God had mercy on me and gave me grace so that nothing bad happened.
Before I leave the movie theater story, I want to tell you one of the most grown up things I have ever done in my life. As you may know I like the movie Dirty Dancing. Now my favorite line is by Baby's father. He confronts Johnny at the end of the movie and says something along the lines of "I know you didn't get that girl in trouble," and Johnny basically says, "So." Then here is my favorite line. Baby's dad says, "When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong." So I sat down in the theater and felt such a conviction from the Lord about what I had done that I told my then wife, I had to go back and talk to the kid. I will never forget walking up to him. He was standing at one end of the counter and it looked like he had just been ripped up and down both walls for our altercation which had gotten pretty heated. The manager started down toward us to break up what he thought was going to be round two. But when he got close, he heard me telling this kid how sorry I was for my actions. I told him that I was a christian and what I said was absolutely horrible and awful. Then I did something strange, I asked him to forgive me for being so ugly. He said he was sorry too and that he too was a Christian. We both walked away apologizing to each other. I don't know where that young man is today but I hope he is fulfilling all his dreams. I certainly wish him the very best in life.
So back to mercy and grace. I just told you of a time when I needed God's mercy and grace to cover something bad I did. But let's talk about a little different situation now.
But what about when someone does you wrong? First of all, take a minute to look through their eyes at the situation. You might see things much differently if you do. Remember that hurting people hurt other people. If someone hurts you, it is very likely that they are hurt themselves. Again, I don't want you to let someone continue to hurt you but I do want you to consider mercy and grace. If you have a way to let them off the hook, consider it. After all, don't you want someone to give you grace when you mess up? We all know that you and I never mess up on purpose. Sometimes we just do stupid things. Is it possible that the other person you are mad at right now is in the same boat? They didn't mean to hurt you, they just did? I know that sometimes this isn't the case but sometimes it is.
So I want to leave you with this thought, there is a God in Heaven that constantly shows us mercy and grace and when we get in trouble, we always want someone to show us mercy and grace. Then we are going to have to stop giving people what they deserve and give them what we want instead - mercy and grace.
And that's another Opinion of the Minion
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The Venti Minion
Today I want to talk about being thankful again. I am thankful that a certain place exists. It is Starbucks. Now don't laugh to much yet. See I am thankful for Starbucks but not just for the drinks which are good. I am thankful for the life lessons I have learned at Starbucks. "Yeah right," you say, "You just like the drinks!" Not so fast. I really have learned a lot from going to Starbucks.
I do like to go to Starbucks. I go there at least once a day and get at least one Venti Earle Grey tea with cream and artificial sweeteners. It's sort of my breakfast and I do this every day after I work out. In fact, I love to mess with my personal trainer by telling him that right after my workout I am headed to Starbucks.
Well, eight years ago, I was very jealous of the skinny people who would come in there with their workout stuff on. They looked like what I wanted to look like. They were in shape, they were happy, they were skinny and I was jealous. I wanted to look like that but I didn't think I ever would. Now fast forward three years. It was a cold day and I had to wear running tights and a long sleeve shirt. I had on a cap and gloves plus my running shoes and I weighed 185 pounds. As I stood in line at the Starbucks, I thought to myself, "Oh My God! I've become one of them!" It was a great feeling. Be careful how you judge people. If you judge someone, you risk becoming just like them.
This certainly worked out good in my life but there are other areas where I have been very judgmental of people and I had to repent for being so. See I judged my ex-wife and even some other people I know and it was never my place to be judge. I realized that I was judging certain areas of their lives without judging my own life. When I looked into my life, there were parts I liked and parts I didn't. As I took a deeper look into some of the parts I didn't like it made me realize that I have no time to judge others. I have to spend my time getting myself straightened out in those areas. What areas of your life are you critical of other people? Do you sit around at lunch with your friends talking about girls or guys and saying things that aren't nice? Make a decision to say nice things and do nice things to others. You will be glad you did.
There was another time at Starbucks that affected me a little more deeply and I was reminded of this the other day while I was out walking. See, one morning about five years ago, I went into Starbucks to get my usual drink. At that time it was a Venti Carmel Light Frappacino. I was standing in line waiting and I was sort of in a bad mood. I was grumbling to myself about my bad run time from that morning. It was nothing that you would have known from looking at me but I was a little aggrivated because my time was slower than I wanted. As I stood there, I saw a man sitting in a wheel chair. He seemed to be having a pretty good day from what I remember. But here is what hit me like a jack hammer. The Lord said something on the inside of me. He said, "You see that man sitting there? He would kill to be able to do what you just did this morning. Now stop your complaining!" Imagine how ungrateful I was. There I was thinking about a slow run while looking at a man who couldn't walk. I repented right then. Because of all I have been through in the last couple of years, my run times have gotten much slower but I am so thankful that I can run today.
What are the areas in your life where you are grumbling and complaining? If you look around, there is someone sitting in a wheel chair in that very area you are grumbling about.
And that's another Opinion of the Minion
I do like to go to Starbucks. I go there at least once a day and get at least one Venti Earle Grey tea with cream and artificial sweeteners. It's sort of my breakfast and I do this every day after I work out. In fact, I love to mess with my personal trainer by telling him that right after my workout I am headed to Starbucks.
Well, eight years ago, I was very jealous of the skinny people who would come in there with their workout stuff on. They looked like what I wanted to look like. They were in shape, they were happy, they were skinny and I was jealous. I wanted to look like that but I didn't think I ever would. Now fast forward three years. It was a cold day and I had to wear running tights and a long sleeve shirt. I had on a cap and gloves plus my running shoes and I weighed 185 pounds. As I stood in line at the Starbucks, I thought to myself, "Oh My God! I've become one of them!" It was a great feeling. Be careful how you judge people. If you judge someone, you risk becoming just like them.
This certainly worked out good in my life but there are other areas where I have been very judgmental of people and I had to repent for being so. See I judged my ex-wife and even some other people I know and it was never my place to be judge. I realized that I was judging certain areas of their lives without judging my own life. When I looked into my life, there were parts I liked and parts I didn't. As I took a deeper look into some of the parts I didn't like it made me realize that I have no time to judge others. I have to spend my time getting myself straightened out in those areas. What areas of your life are you critical of other people? Do you sit around at lunch with your friends talking about girls or guys and saying things that aren't nice? Make a decision to say nice things and do nice things to others. You will be glad you did.
There was another time at Starbucks that affected me a little more deeply and I was reminded of this the other day while I was out walking. See, one morning about five years ago, I went into Starbucks to get my usual drink. At that time it was a Venti Carmel Light Frappacino. I was standing in line waiting and I was sort of in a bad mood. I was grumbling to myself about my bad run time from that morning. It was nothing that you would have known from looking at me but I was a little aggrivated because my time was slower than I wanted. As I stood there, I saw a man sitting in a wheel chair. He seemed to be having a pretty good day from what I remember. But here is what hit me like a jack hammer. The Lord said something on the inside of me. He said, "You see that man sitting there? He would kill to be able to do what you just did this morning. Now stop your complaining!" Imagine how ungrateful I was. There I was thinking about a slow run while looking at a man who couldn't walk. I repented right then. Because of all I have been through in the last couple of years, my run times have gotten much slower but I am so thankful that I can run today.
What are the areas in your life where you are grumbling and complaining? If you look around, there is someone sitting in a wheel chair in that very area you are grumbling about.
And that's another Opinion of the Minion
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