Mind Control

 Hello everyone,

Today I want to talk about mind control. When I think of mind control, I think of Jedi mind tricks from Star Wars. How cool would it be to have the ability to change someone’s mind? Well we can. We can change our own minds. Have you ever heard someone say, “Well I can’t help the way I feel about something?” That’s just not a true statement. Your thoughts control how you feel. Is there someone you want to forgive but just can’t seem to do it? Is there something you would like to get rid of in your mind but don’t know how? Hopefully this will help.

Our minds are constantly feeding on something. We get to choose what we let in our minds. I know people who listen to every news report about the bad things going on in the world and that is always a topic of conversation with them at some point. They feed everyday on the news and they talk everyday about the news. They are renewing their mind everyday with the news. Unfortunately, this is toxic thinking. I am not suggesting we should be ignorant of what is going on around us but if we constantly feed or mind on things, it will effect us.

Maybe you struggle with something someone has done to you. Do you rehearse it over and over again in your mind? Do you think about what they said or what they did and how wrong it was? What are you feeding your mind with? You are feeding it with thoughts about what that person did. Consequently, you stay in a strong emotional place around them. Even if what they did was really wrong, you don’t need to feed on those thoughts. You might say, “Well there is no way I can change the way I feel and I can’t control my thoughts.” Good news – Yes you can!

How do we control what we think? The Bible says that we should renew our mind with the Word of God. In Romans 12:2 it says don’t be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. How? Spend time in the Word. Spend time reading your Bible or listening to it online. When we do that, the way we think and feel will change. It may not change overnight but it will over time.

Do you want to be free from old bad ways of thinking? Then feed your mind something else.

If you don’t know Jesus and would like to have a personal relationship with Him, all you have to do is pray this simple prayer. Say, “Jesus, come into my life. I make you my Lord and Savior.” If you prayed that prayer, I believe you got born into the family of Christ. Congratulations! If you prayed, would you please let us know.

Also, if you are new to the family and would like to learn more about who you are and how God really sees you, please click the link below. We would love to send you study material absolutely free.

http://eepurl.com/gLci8D

That’s Another Opinion of the Minion

Love Does Not Boast

Hi Everyone,

Today's topic is boasting.  When I looked this word up in the dictionary, one of the definitions was to brag about yourself or to brag about your stuff to others (that's the Minion translation).  It's interesting because it is very similar to pride but we will talk about pride in the next post.  Again, I want you to notice that bragging is an action, not a feeling.  We don't feel bragging, we say something that is bragging.  So what does this mean?

We all know the one upper.  In fact, sometimes we have been the one upper.  You know the person.  If you tell as story, they have a bigger one.  If something good happened to you, something better happened to them.  So we shouldn't brag about things in our life right?  Well if that's the case, then we should never tell anyone when something good happens to us or when we do something great right?  Wrong!  I want to stop and say that just because you tell someone about something you have or did, does not make it bragging.  When you tell a story to puff yourself up, that's bragging.

Let's look at God for a minute.  If God is love and love doesn't brag, then what happens all the times in the Bible where God talks about who he is and what he's done?  Is he bragging?  Certainly not.  When we brag, we normally do it to impress people and I don't think the Creator of the universe needs to impress His creation.  So what is He doing?  He's trying to build our faith.  When God tells you something about Himself, it's not because He's trying to brag.  He wants you to know that He's able to provide all things so that when you have lack, you can trust in and rely on Him.  He wants you to know that He can heal people so that when you are sick, you will go to Him for healing.  He wants you to know that He created everything so that when you need anything, you can go to Him.

So here's what I have learned today.  There's a difference between bragging and telling someone about something that's happened to you.  That difference is motive.  When you brag, you want people to look at you and how great you are.  When you tell someone about something great that you did or happened to you and you do it to encourage them, then it's called ministry not bragging.

Let me finish by asking you this question.  Do you find yourself ministering or bragging when you tell people what's happening with you?  I know there are places in my own life where I can do this better.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Focus

Hello Everyone,

Today I want to talk about focus.  Where do you focus the majority of your thoughts?  Do you consider all the bad things going on in the world today?  Do you consider something bad that's going on at school or in your personal life?  Wherever you put your focus, there you will ultimately go.  Let me give you a few examples.

In the Bible, there was a guy named Job.  Now he was a really rich guy and had several sons and daughters.  Interestingly enough he was very afraid that they were saying awful things about God or sinning in some way.  So what did he do?  He offered sacrifices just in case they might have sinned for them everyday (I think it was every day but if not, it was very often.).  Guess what happened?  Ultimately the things that he was afraid of, the things where he put his focus, came upon his children.  Am I saying that Job caused this, nope.  The Bible said it.

Let's shift gears a little.  How many of you have every ridden a motorcycle?  Several years ago, I got my license with a friend of mine, JC.  Now he rode all his life so he was a natural.  Me?  I looked like someone who needed training wheels for his motorcycle and I still do.  I much prefer a four wheeled motorcycle with leather seats, a good air conditioning system and plenty of room.  I think those are called cars.  Anyway, when I was learning to ride, they taught us how to turn.  What we were told was to look where we wanted the bike to go, not where the bike was going.  So we would focus on where we wanted the bike to go and it would go that way.

Let me give you one more example and I will make my point.  The other day, I was thinking about my company and about being an employee.  I run my own company and we do a lot of Oil and Gas work.  As some of you may know, the price of oil has dropped a lot lately and that has caused some slowness in the industry.  I was worrying a little about my business and whether we would be able to sustain our growth even though I knew that the Lord started this business and I knew he was watching it and causing it to grow.  The problem was my focus was on the price of oil and how drastically it could impact my business.  I wasn't focused on where I wanted it to go or what the Lord said about it.

I started thinking about being an employee and how easy it must be to just go to work and do your job.  After that, an employee collects his or her paycheck and that's it.  I started feeling a little sorry for myself thinking about how they don't have to worry about whether or not the check will cash (most of the time) and how easy that must be.  Now my business is really fine but I wasn't focused there.  That's when the word of the Lord came to me.  He said something like, "You should be like those employees you are thinking about.  If you would just keep your eyes on Me and roll the care of it over on Me, things would be much better for you!"

That's what I did.  I put my focus back on my faith in God and what He is doing in our business.  Immediately, I could see where things were going and how good things really are for us!

That's another Opinion of the Minion

To Your Parents

Hello Everyone,

Today I want to talk to all of you that are parents.  If you are a young person, ask your parents to read this.

Let me start by saying that I am a parent/stepparent to five very wonderful and very different children.  Our children are ages 15, 14, 13, 12 and 10 so we are just hitting the teenage years.  We are hitting the age where they become more and more independent.  But let me tell you this parents, we are also hitting the time of their lives where they begin to dream their own dreams and want to go their own paths.

For many parents this is a hard time.  See we think we have the plan for their lives.  We see them going to college and getting a good job out of school then preparing for a family and in many cases following the same track that we went down.  After all, if it was good enough for us, it's good enough for them right?  Wrong.  They have their own dreams and their own desires.

This past weekend, my wife and I had the opportunity to watch our oldest daughter perform in a theater camp in our town.  It was a wonderful experience for her and she truly enjoyed it.  In the second act, I was hit by part of the performance.  The musical is about kids going through school and it's "target audience" is teachers as they are in the classroom and their impact on the kids they teach.  At one point, four different young men and women describe a boy who writes a poem.  The first poem is named Skip after his dog because that's what it's about.  His teacher gives him an A and a gold star and his mom pins it to the wall.  His dad tucks him into bed and he's enjoying life.

The second poem is called Autumn because that's what it's about.  His teacher gave him an A and his mom told him not to pin it to the wall because the wall had just been painted.  That year he noticed that things weren't as rosy around him.  Then he tried another poem called Question (I think) because that what it was about.  His mom didn't say anything about it and his dad got mad at him when he tried to tuck him into bed.  He wrote his last poem on a matchbook and completely checked out of life.  His parents never knew he was unhappy.

The skit is followed by a song called, "I've Come Home."  It's about children coming home and the place of safety, love and warmth they find at home with their family.  This made me start to think about my own children and I began to wonder if my desire to see grow into the adults that I want them to was clouding my ability to see their dreams and desires.  What part of where they thought they wanted to go was I missing.  Since they are teenagers, their dreams are probably going to change several times over the next few years but that doesn't matter.  I started asking myself what was I doing to encourage them to stretch out and work for their dreams.  What was I doing to help them work hard to achieve the things that God put in their life, not the things that I was trying to put in their lives.  Now I am not saying that grades and their upbringing isn't important and as a parent it's definitely are job to make sure our kids work hard and do their best.  It is our job to help them grow into strong men and women.

Let me close with this.  What if Billy Graham's mom had forced him to be a dentist?  What if Albert Einstein's mom had forced him to be a lawyer?  What if Mother Theresa's mom had forced her to be an actress?  It would be like trying to put a size 8 foot in a size 6 shoe.  It just wouldn't fit.  So let me ask you this parents, what are you doing to help your children realize their dreams?

That's Another Opinion of the Minion

Take the Test

Hello Everyone,

Today I want to talk with you about test taking.  We all love to take tests right?  Well I normally don't.  They are a lot of work and what happens if we fail.  We can get a bad grade and if we fail too many times, we have to take the whole class over.

How many of you have a driver's license?  If you do, there is a very good possibility that you had to take a test before you were given one.  In Texas, I took Driver's Education class, I practiced and then I took the test with someone riding in the car with me.  I will never forget that day.  I believe it was my 16th birthday.  It was the very first day that I could take the test and I was sooo excited.  I couldn't wait to get my parents out of the car and hit the road on my own.  It was a day of great achievement.  I could finally drive my mom's 1975 Oldsmobile Omega by myself.  We called this car the splotch because it was many different shades of ugly green.

On that very memorable day, I pulled out of the parking lot with the Department of Public Safety officer in the passenger seat giving me directions.  I was a little nervous but that was OK.  One of the first things he asked me to do was parallel park and I did almost as badly as you can do and still not completely fail the test.  I hit the curb with the car sticking out into the street.  It was bad but not catastrophic yet.  We pulled away from there and drove across Jacksboro Highway into a nearby neighborhood and went through the rest of the test.  I got a couple of points taken off due to the way that I backed down the street and I ended up with a 77 on the test.  It wasn't pretty but it worked!  I had a driver's license.

But what would have happened if I failed the test?  Guess what, I would have taken it again at the next available time and continued over and over until I passed.  Here is something else, the State of Texas would let me take it over again.  So why am I telling you this today?

Well many times life is like that driving test.  There are things in this life that we want to do, have or be.  Maybe you want to be a better friend.  Maybe you want to be a better mom or have God do something wonderful in your life.  It could be that there is some bad habit that you just can't seem to shake.  In times like these, you may feel discouraged and feel like giving up.  You may even feel like God is mad at you.

There are also times when you don't want to do something hard.  Have you ever avoided a conflict because you don't like the uneasy feeling that comes from conflict?  Have you ever wanted God to promote you in some area of your life?

Well most of the time to accomplish any of these things, we have to take a test.  Many times God will test us before he gives us something to see if we are ready for it or not.  What happens if we fail one of those tests?  Sometimes the devil will tell you that it's over.  Whatever you are hoping would happen will not and you should just quit.

Let me tell you that God is a loving God.  He wants you to have many of the things you want and he will never stop giving you chances to take the test and pass!  So if you fell down and didn't achieve your goal, stand back up and dust yourself off.  Then get right back to studying for the test.  Then keep taking the test until you pass!  God will continue to let you take the test as many times as you need until you pass.  He's not mad at you if you fail.  The test isn't impossible to pass.  God can show you how.  Also remember this - He is pulling for you and so am I.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Holding Grudges

Hi Everyone,

Someone who follows me on Facebook, NP, asked me to write about holding grudges so here's my take.

We've all been there.  There's that one person who has really done something wrong to us and we want to get back at them so bad we can taste it.  We dream of all the witty things we would say or how we would act given the chance and we think about how good it would feel to finally let that person have it.  I mean we deserve to get even with someone if they have done something wrong to us.  If you are a Christian you have to turn the other cheek once but after that you are out of cheeks and it's time for payback.  Now many times we don't pay the other person back we just think about it.

But even when we do pay them back, we often feel worse for what we did to them than we did before we did it.  One time I was in a movie theater with my brother and his wife.  We were in line to get popcorn and all the things you need to see a movie and there was this guy who said that my sister-in-law didn't pay for her hot dog when I knew she did.  I don't remember how it started but he said something that was kind of insulting and I didn't wait to hold a grudge, I let him have it right there.  I said some really mean stuff that cut him down to size.  Then we went into the movie theater and I felt so terribly awful for saying the things I said.  See my mom always told me that two wrongs don't make a right.  So what did I do?  I went back and found the kid and apologized profusely for my words.

So now let's deal with what happens when we hold grudges?  First of all, the real person it hurts is us.  Grudges don't normally hurt the other person because they normally don't even know about them.  But what they do to our insides is pretty bad.  They make us feel all sorts of negative emotions that really can do us harm.  If we are not careful, we can spend a lot of time mediating on all the negative stuff which is really bad for us.  

But also did you know that when we hold things against other people that it will hinder our prayers to God.  The bible tells us to forgive others so God can forgive us.  That's pretty heavy stuff.  So I can hear some of you saying, "That all sounds good but I've tried everything and I just can't let go of this grudge."  Well that's not true.  Did you know that there is a lot of power in the words we say.  When we go around saying things like I can't let go, we only make it harder to actually let go.

The answer to this lies in that hole under our mouth.  If you want to let go of a grudge, make a conscious faith decision to let go.  Then say out of your mouth, "I let go of that grudge that I have against so and so."  At that point, it's a done deal.  So what do you do three minutes later when that negative feeling starts coming up?  You say to it, "Nope I have already let go of the grudge and forgiven that person."  If you keep saying that, eventually it will become a reality in your life and you can finally be free of the grudge.  Remember, if you are a Christian, you got saved by faith.  You can let go of a grudge by faith as well.  When you do, God will help you let go.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Give Her a Chance

Today I want to talk about something very cool that I did.  Now it may not be that great to you but it felt great to me.  I also learned that I did the same thing the Lord does for us.  Tonight I put my daughter K in a place where she could eventually make her way to the US Gymnastics Team!  Before anyone says anything, it is not my expectation that the does this.  And I will definitely love her whether she ever makes the team or even stays in gymnastics at all.  Either way I am proud to be her dad and I told her that in no uncertain terms tonight.  She knew that this was a place she could dream and if she worked really hard, she might have an opportunity to live that dream.  Let me tell you, I would be one proud dad if she does (but I am one proud dad now so it really doesn't matter).

As I was talking to the gymnastics people today, I found out that K was in the level two class.  If she does well she will be invited to join the level two team in the spring.  This will mean competitions locally and one national competition at the age of eight.  I think both of these are great opportunities for her to challenge and push herself.  I fully support that.  Now if she stays on track, she can make it up to level 10.  At level 10 she goes to a local competition.  If she wins she moves to regional and then national and then it's on to the Olympics!  Even though a lot of kids start down this track, not many of them become Gabby Douglas.  But one of them just might and why can't it be my daughter K?  The answer is, it most certainly can.

This thing has been bouncing around in my spirit since I figured it out a few hours ago and I can see the reason as I write this.  See God does the same thing for us that I have done for K.  He gives us a chance to achieve our dreams.  Many don't but it's not God's fault, it's ours.  If K doesn't go on to be an Olympian, it won't be my fault, it will be because she either chose to take a different path or she didn't dedicate herself to living that dream.  I think we do this in real life all the time.  God gives us an opportunity and we either don't work at it or we decide to do something else.  Regardless of what we do, the doors to our success are right there.

I hear people that are waiting on God to drop success on them like He dropped manna from Heaven on the Israelites in the desert but he doesn't work that way.  I also hear people that say He will just work everything out for their good regardless of what they do or don't do and this isn't true.  The Bible says He has a good plan for our lives and it also says He blesses the works of our hands.  If there isn't work from our hands, He doesn't have something to bless.  Now K is in the same place.  If she works hard and dedicates herself to gymnastics, she has a chance to be the best.  But if she doesn't work hard and eat right, etc., it won't happen. The choice is hers and I believe that the choice is ours when it comes to how successful we allow God to make us.

So let me leave you with this challenge.  If you are waiting for God to drop success on you, don't wait start doing something He can bless and see how He works.  The other challenge is this - find someone who is attempting to live out their dream and give them a helping hand.  Give them a chance.  You will be glad you did.

That's another Opinion of the Minion.

Don't Bury Your Head in the Sand

OK, today I want to talk about something no one else but me may have ever done - burying my head in the sand when there was a problem.  Now I am sure that you have never done that but I have and it has caused some damage.  But a little more on that in a few minutes.

This is an issue that I think everyone deals with on some level.  We would all like for the issues and problems in our lives to go away.  No one really likes to deal with them because they are uncomfortable and sometimes the things we have to face cause us pain.  Wouldn't it be easier if we just ignored them?  I mean won't they go away on their own if we give them enough time?  In my limited 41 years on this earth I would have to say no.  Problems don't go away on their own.

Think about having a homework assignment that you don't really understand.  If you don't do it, you are guaranteed to get a zero right?  That grade will hurt.  How about adults.  What if you are overdrawn at the bank?  If you don't deal with that problem, you can cause more checks to bounce.  That in turn, can cause your electricity to be cut off, etc.  Now these types of problems are concrete and fairly easy to see.

But what about some problems that are not so easy.  How about the tension between you and a good friend?  I once knew of two friends who both thought the other person was upset with them.  I knew that this wasn't true but because neither of them decided to face the problem head on and call the other, the situation took months to resolve when it could have been over with a phone call.

Now let me put this a little closer to home.  One of my children has had a problem for several years now.  This problem is definitely fixable but for years I did nothing about it.  I was afraid to admit that one of my children was anything but perfect when in fact none of us is perfect.  So because I would not let anyone label my child and accurately identify this problem, it has grown worse over the years. 

It is a tough thing to swallow - Knowing that my child has needed help all these years and because I buried my head in the sand to the whole issue, he is behind on getting it.  That was something I never should have done.  I have been able to face other issues but fear kept me from handling this one.

I encourage you to examine your life and see if there are anythings you need to deal with and resolve.  If so, pray about how to handle the situation and take the appropriate steps to resolve it.  When you do that, you will feel a weight being lifted off your shoulder.  That weight is the stress those unresolved problems puts on your body.  Remember this, Jesus said in this life you will have trouble but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.  If Jesus had trouble in his life (and he had a lot) and he tells us that we will, then we will.  It's up to us to recognize the issues in our lives and deal with them.

That's Another Opinion of the Minion

You're Not Finished

Today I want to talk about something that I have been thinking about for a couple of weeks.  Most of the people who read this blog are young people but there some of us who are a little older.  Regardless of where you are in the journey of life, I want you to know that God's not finished with you yet.

I see people everyday who are not very successful.  Many of them feel like there lot in life is to just maintain whatever their state of life is now.  Maybe they work a 9 to 5 job, come home and watch TV, go to bed and start it all again the next day.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with the scenario I just described because there is not.  But most of the time those same people had dreams and visions when they were younger that they let slip.  Maybe they wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer and when that didn't happen, they just sort of let life slip by without trying to do what they dreamed.  Maybe they got discouraged because of some failure and that caused them to stop trying.  Let me just say, that regardless of your age, God is not finished with you.

We hear a lot in the bible about a guy named Moses.  Now Moses was a member of the royal family of Egypt by adoption and he was an Israelite by birth.  He lived a pretty privileged life for the first part of his life but then he hit a snag and got stuck in the wilderness for about 40 years.  At eighty years of age, he could have just quit on life and coasted in for the remaining years of his life.  He could have said he was too old to do much and it was just his lot in life to work for his father-in-law and watch his kids/grand kids grow up.  There would have been nothing wrong with that except God needed him to lead the whole nation of Israel out of Egypt.  He didn't start into his ministry/calling until he was well past the age at which he could draw social security (they didn't have it back then though) but he decided that God wasn't through with him and he did what God called him to do.

I have a friend who is working on going to medical school.  He is in his mid/late 30s which is past the normal age for people to start medical school.  Some people might say that he is too old.  After all, he will be in his early 40s by the time he gets done with residency, etc., and starts his practice.  But understand this, in a few years he will be in his early 40s regardless of whether or not he goes to medical school so I say he might as well chase his dream.  He is going to be that age regardless.  In a way that is similar to Moses, he decided not to let age stand in the way of accomplishing his dream.

So let me ask you this - what is your dream?  Why aren't you pursuing it regardless of your age?  You are not too old for God to use you.  You are not too old to accomplish your dreams so get busy accomplishing them.  Regardless of how old you are, dare to dream big and chase your dreams.  You might say, "What if I don't accomplish my dream?"  Well I say, "What if you do!"

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Recharge Your Batteries

Hello everyone,

This post should benefit me as much as anyone.  Today I want to talk to you about recharging your batteries.  Before I get to how, let me explain what type of batteries I am talking about.  Today lets talk about your emotional batteries/love tank.  This is the part of you that allows you to give to others.  "Well I don't give to other's that I know of," you might say.  That's probably not true but if it is, you need to change that part of your life.  See true happiness lies in giving.  I will tell you of one special place I got to give in a few minutes and the impact I think it had.

So let me reiterate something I have said many times before.  You do give into other's lives every day whether you realize it or not.  Mothers, you give into your children's lives constantly, every day, day in and day out.  Fathers, we do the same thing.  Children you are constantly giving into other children's lives.  My children try to give into each other's lives every day but I keep telling them that giving hits and kicks isn't exactly what I had in mind.

Now let me say that I do consider myself a giver.  In general if you asked the people who are close to me, they would probably use that word to describe me.  I don't say this to be arrogant because I certainly know that if God didn't give into my life, I would have nothing to give anyone else.  I'm not talking about money only although that is certainly important.  But one thing that I have noticed about me is that after I give out for a while, I can fall into a funk of sorts if I am not careful.  This is when I feel myself being the most selfish.  I try hard not to let those selfish feelings translate into actions but they are there.  Now we know that feelings signal needs.  So what did I need?  I needed my tank to be refilled or my batteries for giving and loving to be recharged.

Doesn't this make sense.  How many of us have a cell phone?  If we use and use it without ever plugging it into the wall, what will eventually happen?  It will quit.  The screen will just go blank and it will be useless to everyone.  But if you plug it into the wall then after a time, you can listen to music, play games, make phone calls and do all the other things that phones do these days.

Well we are the same way.  I remember one day I was out playing golf at a local golf course.  I was alone and I was using my phone to listen to music while I walked the course.  I was really in a sour mood but I didn't know why.  Then the phone rang and I remember yelling at the top of my lungs at the phone (I didn't answer the phone so the person on the other end never knew this happened) - "What the ___ do you want from me!!  I've got nothing else to give!!!!!  Yes, I did use a cuss word and I shouldn't have.  See, at that point, I felt completely empty and I needed to refill my tank but I didn't know why or how.

I have been through this a couple of times recently to a very very much less degree but I believe the Lord has shown me that when I get to a place like this, it's time to plug in and recharge my batteries.  For me, this means going to Him.  I remember getting very frustrated at people that were close to me because they weren't giving me what I needed but it really wasn't their place to give me what only God could.  So I have learned that as I give out, it is important for me to go to God and replace what I give with what He gives.  When I do this it gives me the opportunity to bless others like the young lady I had the opportunity to bless this week.  I think I left her speechless and I guarantee you I had as much fun giving as she did receiving.

I hope this blesses you as much as it blesses me.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

The Minion and the Box

My last blog was about the Box.  In the interest of time, I will not go over that post here.  If you haven't read it yet, you might want to read that one before this one.  This one will make more sense if you do.

Last time, I talked about the great gifts that God sends to our planet.  One of them is you and I described what these gifts looked like to me.  The people that God sends to earth look like very pretty presents.  Now over time here on earth, the Boxes get holes and tears in them.  Sometimes stuff gets inside the box that doesn't belong.  Instead of character strengths, there are character flaws.  But know this, God never took the talents and gifts out of any of the Boxes.  In other words, when He placed gifts inside of you, he never took them out again.  Well, you might say, I know this person or that person and they are not nice.  Osama Bin Laden was not a nice person was he?  He is responsible for the deaths of many people.  But did you know that God put great gifts inside him when he sent him to the earth.  Guess what.  Those gifts were still inside him when he left the earth.  Unfortunately, they were never seen like God intended.

Most of us don't know anyone like that.  But many of us know people who just aren't nice.  Guess what.  God put those gifts inside them too and they are permanently there.  No matter how bad the devil would like to get them out of us, he simply doesn't have the power to take them out.  We can choose not to develop them but Satan can't steal them from us.  

Here is another interesting note.  Have you ever noticed that we are quick to point out the holes in the box or the tears in the paper but we typically don't notice the gold on the inside?  Well it seems like that happens regularly.  Take the kid at school who doesn't dress like you do or maybe she is just a little shy.  Maybe she sits by herself at lunch and everyone thinks she is strange.  There is something great inside that person that should be celebrated.  Let me illustrate with a story I once heard.

There was this church that got a new member.  The new member was a very pretty lady who happened to wear shorts that were too short and a shirt that was cut way too low to church every Sunday.  This went on for several weeks and the ladies of the church got more and more upset about the whole thing.  They were calling her all sorts of ugly names.  But right in the middle of it all, someone decided that they were going to buy her a dress and make her clean up her act.  Well when they brought the woman the dress she was overjoyed to have something so beautiful to wear to church.  It turns out that she came from a very bad situation and the short shorts and low cut shirt were the best things she had to wear.  She was very thankful to have something much less revealing to wear to church.  That woman had a very admirable trait.  What was it you ask?  She learned to do her very best even if it wasn't as good as someone else.  Also, she had the courage to go to church when she wasn't able to dress like everyone else.  I like that.

Let me tell you about a boy I know.  Now on the outside, he is not the most athletic.  He is in middle school and he is just like every other sixth grader struggling to cope with this new phase in his life.  I remember my time there and would not want to do it again.  This particular kid loves to build things.  Now it would be easy to push him to do more athletics like football or baseball but instead the right thing for his parents is to encourage him to build things.  See he may never be the captain of the football team but what if he builds the next Golden Gate bridge or what if he invents something that will get us off of oil for fuel?  It would be a waste to try to make him something he is not.  Instead, we need to celebrate the gift for building things that God put inside his Box.

So what am I telling you?  Take a little time to look inside someone's box and celebrate who they are today.

That's another Opinion of the Minion 

Time

Today I want to talk to you about time.  How many hours are their in a day?  Come on, this isn't a trick question.  Yup, there are 24 hours.  Now let me ask a couple more questions.  If you found a homeless guy living under a bridge in Fort Worth, how many hours a day does he have?  Yup, the answer is still 24.  OK, how about President Obama or Bill Gates?  We still get the same answer - 24 hours.

Do you see my point.  The difference in successful people and those who haven't achieved all they would like normally centers around how they use their time.

Some people spend a lot of their time complaining or watching TV or playing video games.  Now before anyone gets mad, let me say that I do not think there is anything wrong with watching TV or playing video games.  I like to play NCAA football on my X-Box occasionally myself.  I was a child of the first video game generation and we started playing Pac-Man and Space Invaders.  So there is nothing wrong with them if they are played in moderation.  But there is something missing these days that concerns me.  When we spend all of our time being babysat by TV or video games, we miss out on so much life.  Guess what adults, we can be babysat just as much as our kids by the TV.  Sometimes I hear people tell me all about what is happening on this TV show or that one and it really irritates me.  Because it makes me wonder how much time they invest in themselves or their families.

Parents, I heard about a survey that was done of small children.  They were asked what would they want more - new toys, trips to Putt-Putt or Main Event type places, going out to eat, or spending time with their parents.  Do you know what the overwhelming number of children said?  Yup, you guessed it.  They wanted their parents time.  Parents, we can learn a lesson from this.  We need to spend more time with our kids and less time with American Idol.  Do you want your kids to actually want to come around you when they are older?  Do you want them to respect your advice and come to you for counsel?  Then spend time with them today.  When you invest in their lives now, it will pay great rewards later.

Kids, did you know that there aren't very many people who make tons of money playing video games?  Like I said, it's OK to play them but what are you doing to expand your imagination?  As I sit writing this, my children are outside my house playing in a field behind it that has a pond.  I am not sure exactly what they are playing but they are learning to use their imagination.  Plus, they are doing physical activity which is very good for them.

OK, for all of us parents and kids alike, let me ask when was the last time you spend any of your time investing in your own life?  For kids, you are probably going to school which is investing in your life.  For adults, when was the last time you learned something new?  I think we are all familiar with the concept of atrophy.  When we don't use a muscle it shrinks.  That's called atrophy.  I think our brains work the same way.  If we don't exercise it regularly, it will grow stagnant.  All of the sudden, we accept the very things in life we want to change most.  That's a bad place.  We should always work to make ourselves better.  I am dating a remarkable woman.  She tells me all the time how good I am to her.  Now I don't mean this to brag but that is true.  I do treat her well.  But let me tell you this.  If right now is the best she ever gets from me, it will be a sad thing.  I need to invest some of my time in making me a better me.  That takes a lot of work but the rewards are well worth it.

So I want to leave you with this.  How do you spend your time.  When you look back two weeks from now will you be happy with the way you spent this week?  It's too late to change yesterday but it's the perfect time to change tomorrow.  Take a look at how you spend your time and use it wisely.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Finish What You Start

OK, today I want to talk to you about something I don't see a lot.  Let's talk about finishing what you start. This may not be a real popular blog but I think many times God gives us great ideas and we start on a project.  Then something happens and we can't find the time, energy, etc. to finish the project.  I would love to point a finger at someone else and say that everyone but me is guilty of this but unfortunately if you point one finger at someone there are usually three pointed back at you.

So let's start with a couple of things that I can think of from my own life.

1.  When I was in college at TCU, I was in ROTC.  I thought it was cool to hang out with all these great guys and gals who were in excellent shape and play with guns.  It was like being a kid all over again.  The problem was I couldn't control my weight.  If I had finished the program correctly, I would have been a second lieutenant in the US Army when I graduated.  Pretty cool stuff right.  I think so.  Many of my friends from ROTC did just that and many are still in the Army doing very well.  Who knows what I could have been.  Maybe I could have been the next General Patton.  OK, for all my ROTC buddies, we all know that was probably not going to happen but it could have.  I basically quit the Army ROTC program because I could not control my weight.  Now we will never know what I could have been in the Army because I didn't finish what I started.

2.  I cannot tell you how many times I started to lose weight only to gain it all back plus some within a short time after I started.  Why?  Because I didn't finish changing the way I ate and I went back to where I was or worse.  I could have been much happier but I didn't finish what I started.

3.  I can't tell you how many books I didn't finish reading.  A couple of times I quit reading them because I didn't like the book but many times I simply quit reading them.  I would definitely have been smarter if I had and I need all the smarts I can get.

4.  How many of us have made New Year's resolutions with the best intention of changing something about the way we live only to let things go right back to "normal" within a very short time.  I know I am guilty of this more than once.

5.  Now let me give you a situation that I face right now.  I believe the Lord instructed me to write a book about how He helped me to lose a lot of weight.  This happened several years ago and I did nothing with it for a long time.  Finally in September of last year I started writing the book.  I have a rough draft of the book that I think I finished around November 15th.  Today I e-mailed it to a very special person for her to read.  That was when I noticed the date of the last time I worked on it.  I have let that book lay around for almost two months without ever working on getting an editor, a publisher or anything else.  If I don't do something about this, the book could lay there for ever without me doing anything with it.  That wouldn't be a very good thing.  Why?  Well let me say, I am not sure the book is any good because I wrote it a lot like I write this blog.  But I will tell you this.  The Lord gave me an assignment to write the book and if He gave it to me, He has a reason for it.  What if there is someone who will actually read my book and God uses it to deliver that person from their weight issue?  Let me ask the question a different way.  What if I never do finish the book and someone who God wanted to read it never gets a chance.  What if that person dies because of their weight issue and I could have made a difference in their life?  Let's take it one step farther.  What if that person was not a Christian when they died?  Am I being a little over dramatic?  Maybe but we will never know.  The point is that God gave me an assignment to write a book.  He didn't give me an assignment to start a book.  See God always sees the end of a thing from the beginning.  He is always figuring out how to finish what he starts.  If it's good enough for Him it's more that good enough for me.

Let me begin to wrap this up by telling you about something I used to do at my church.  We used to have a Christian business man's meeting in our church on a regular basis.  Now this organization, the Provision Network, is much more than that but for simplicity sake I will stop there.  At these meetings, I would have any number of people come up to me with great ideas.  They would tell me the Lord told them to do this or that and the vast majority of the ideas sounded like good ones maybe even God ones.  However, these same people would come up to me the next meeting with a completely different idea.  I always wondered why God changed His mind about the first one.  Just so you know, God never changes His mind.  If He told you to do something, He means for you to do it.

I think what happened to them and certainly what happened to me in the examples I gave above is that I came up against a very dirty four letter word - Work.  Remember, the only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.  I know I should have done a better of job of finishing what I started all those many times and I did not.  I will definitely get back to work on that book.

Let me leave you with this.  Even if you are someone who has never finished anything you thought you should do, one of the coolest things about God is he always has a plan for your life.  So even if you fail at something, don't worry about it, he has another plan.  But in order for us to be successful, we have to actually complete the plan He gives us and it will probably require work but the reward will be well worth it.

That's the Opinion of the Minion

A Golden Opportunity

Today I want to talk to you about Golden Opportnities.  They are not necessarily opportunities to get gold but they could be.  Do you realize how many opportunities you have in front of you everyday?  Many of them probably go unnoticed.  See, sometimes we aren't really looking for the opportunities that God puts in our lives and we miss them.  Many times those opportunites involve doing something for someone else.  But understand this, if God put them in your life He will bless you even though you gave to someone else.  I am sure that I have missed more than I ever want to know about.

Well over the last few days, I realized that I had an opportunity that I took advantage of.  I didn't even know that the opportunity was one until later.  Fortunately, I was able to act on this one.  Now I don't think it was a real big deal to the people involved but most of life isn't about the big deals.  Whether or not you are successful in life is more often than not about how you handle the small deals.  Well on this particular occasion, I got to teach a few people how to fish.

OK, Uncle W, Uncle J, Dad, and everyone else who knows me, you can go ahead and laugh at me now because we all know that I am not a great fisherman.  To be honest, fishing even bores me most of the time.  See I like catching fish, I just don't really like waiting for them to bite.  Now fortunately for me, fishing is in my blood in both my mom's and my dad's family.  I am not very good but I can bait a hook, get the line out in the water and take a fish off of the line when someone catches one.  However, I really don't know much about it other than that.  I don't even know what we caught the other day.  It could have been small mouth bass but I don't have a clue.  The good news is that it bent the poles and everyone had a good time.

So why is this an opportunity from God you ask?  Well, because these three people are very important to me.  I got to impart something good into their lives and I think they really enjoyed it.  Sometimes life can be like a bank, especially with kids.  We have to make withdrawls from the account of their lives in the form of correction when they don't do their homework or when they need to clean their rooms, etc.  These types of withdraws are very important and they certainly are part of helping a child grow into a mature, productive, socially responsible adult.  I am all for them.  But if you don't make deposits into their lives in the form of love, teaching them fun things, spending time with them and just being part of their world, then you will end up overdrawn at the bank.  This is a very bad place to be.  Fortunately for me, I don't have to make any withdrawls from the people I taught to fish but this concept is still very important.  I did get to deposit a fun experience in their lives and I got to learn a little more about each of them in the process.  Here is something else that amazed me.

I had a lot of fun teaching them the very minimal amount that I know about fishing.  It might have been more fun for me than for them.  I did get to teach them about looking behind you before you cast.  It cut's down on the number of times you put a treble hook in your brother's head.  No, I didn't put one in my brother's.  He put one in mine.  But that's a different story.  See when we seize God given opportunities even though they look like giving to someone else God will bless you richly in the process.

Now here is another take away lesson.  I didn't know this was an opportunity at the time.  I was just having a good time hanging out with other people.  Thank you again K for all your hospitality this weekend.  What I did wasn't even anything I thought about.  I was just enjoying myself.  Many times life is like this.  God is putting opportunites into our lives and we don't even realize that these little gifts from Him are there.

God has a million ways to bless you and he sits around everyday thinking up new ones.  If you will look for the opportunities he presents to you each day, he can even make taking out the trash an adventure.  The thing is you have to do the little things to get the big reward.  Like I said, what I did wasn't monumental in anyone's life.  So look around and see where God has given you opportunites to make deposits into other's lives.  You will find that God is making deposits in your life when you do.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Make a Difference

I read somewhere recently that sometime around 40 years old, something happens on the inside of many of men.  They begin to evaluate their life and there is a deep desire to make a difference in the lives of the people around them.  As many of you know, I am 40 years old and I know this is the case in my life.

There comes a time in many lives where we sit back and wonder what mark we have made on earth.  For some that might mean being the best mom they could.  For others it might mean being the best friend they could.  For me?  Well, I don't know the complete answer yet.  Part of what that means to me is being the best dad I can.  As many of you know I have three really great children and they are certainly a blessing.  But yet, I know that with blessing comes responsibility.  It's my responsibility to make sure they have a house to live in, food on the table, and clothes on their back.  It's also my responsibility to make sure they go to school and get a good education.  Now by the grace of God, I have done this so far.  That should make me a good dad and I could sit back and feel like I've made my mark.  But as a dad, I recently got a true revelation of my real responsibility to train them up in the ways of the Lord and to be/do all the intangible things.  Because of that, I have recently read several books on how to be a true Godly man in front of my children.  If I can impart this to them, I will certainly have made a mark on the world because they can carry this forward.

But while being a great dad is very important, it will not be enough to satisfy me.  I want to do something that will say I was here many years after I depart for Heaven.  So what else should I do?  I want to be a great companion.  There is a song by a group called the Crabb Family called Ellsworth.  This particular song is about an elderly woman who has started to mentally slip to the point where she doesn't know a lot about her day to day activities any more.  But if you bring up her husband, she clearly remembers how much she loved him and how much he loved her.  It's similar to a movie called "The Notebook."  Yes, I've seen the movie.  I want to make that type of mark on a woman's life.  I want to be so good to her that 50 years from now, if I'm gone before her she still remembers how much I loved her.  I want to make a difference in her life.  I think I may be at the beginning of that opportunity now and I am really enjoying it.  There is something very special about a good woman.  Did you know Solomon said he looked through 1000 people and found a real man but he had never found a real woman.  Well I guess I am more blessed than Solomon.

Where else can I make a difference?  I can make a difference in the lives of the people who work for me.  On of the greatest privileges in my life is to have the opportunity to be part of God blessing other people with good jobs.  This is certainly a place where I can make my mark in the world.  I can grow my company to the place where I can continue to put people to work and help them feed their families.  Will this make me a lot of money in the process?  Yes.  Is money my motivation for growing a business?  In part I suppose it is but the though of making a difference in some one's life is a bigger motivation.  I recently added a full time employee to our company and I can tell you it was a good feeling knowing that I gave someone else an opportunity to succeed.

I guess I am certainly pleased with the difference I have made so far in the people around me.  And guess what.  Many of them have made a big difference in my life.  In the last several weeks I have become very content and my heart has filled to overflowing because of one person in particular.

But I still want to be able to touch more people's lives in a positive way.  As I am sure most of you know, that's the reason for this blog.  Thank you for reading them and I hope they do make a positive difference in your lives.  Let me stop for a second and say that setting out to make a difference in other people's lives may seem like a strange thing to do.  After all, aren't we supposed to make sure that we are happy?  Well the answer to that question is partially yes but let me tell you what happens when you set out to make a difference in someone else.  You will get happy in the process.  Giving unselfishly to others will produce more happiness in your life than you could have ever imagined.

So let me challenge you with this.  If you are younger than me or older the time to start making a difference is now.  Start with those closest to you and then expand your horizons.  Before you know it, you might be touching people literally around the world.  You can even do it from a small place like Fort Worth, Texas.

That's another Opinion of the Minion 

A Minion's New Year's Resolution

Hello everyone.  It's that time of year again.  It's New Year's Eve.  Many of us will spend tonight going to parties or celebrating the passing of the old year and the ringing in of a new one.  I firmly believe that 2012 will be my best year yet.  It won't be the best year that I am ever going to have but it will be the best year yet.  (Thanks Dan Stratton for that saying)  Why do I think this?  Because I have faith that my God is able to do what he said.  It's the great thing about serving a God who is alive.  He can still perform signs and wonders like no other God can.

But that's a post for a different day.  My assignment today is to talk about New Year's resolutions.  Many of us (including me) have made them in the past and with the best intentions we start into January with a changed life.  For many years my New Year's resolution was always to quit eating badly, exercise and lose weight.  I exercise at a gym in Fort Worth that I dearly love.  It's where I lost all my weight and I still enjoy working out there.  I would almost bet you that there will be several new people in the gym the next time I go who will not be there by the middle of February.  I know that I was one of those people for many, many years.  I had the best intentions but no real commitment.  I could only resist giving my body what it wanted in the way of food for so long and then I would give in.  I might lose 10 pounds only to gain it all back plus five more at the end of my "diet."  Let me say this about diets.  If you go on a diet, you will lose weight but when you get off the diet, you will probably go right back to where you were before.  Don't go on a diet.  Change your life.

So am I saying don't bother making a New Year's resolution at all?  Don't attempt to improve your life or change things about yourself that you don't like.  Of course not!  If you have read many of my blogs you know that's not the case.  Well then, you ask, what are you telling me Mr. Minion?  What I'm telling you is that New Year's resolutions shouldn't be taken so lightly.  If you are going to change something about yourself, there is a high probability that it will take a lot of work and perseverance.  The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Does this mean that I don't think you can do it?  Of course not!  I know you can change anything you want to change.  I did.  I once was extremely overweight and now I am not.  What I want you to do before you make a New Year's resolution is count the cost.  Prepare yourself for the battle.  If you just make a half hearted resolution, you are setting yourself up for failure and that hurts.  I want to see you succeed in anything you set your mind to do (as long as it's a good thing).  When I finally made a change in my eating, it was after several months of preparation to do so.  I took me a long time to finally get honest with myself and admit that I had an eating problem.  After that, I had to go before God and ask his help in getting free from carbohydrate addiction.  There may be another way to do this without God but I don't know what it is.  I tried on my own for many years to lose weight with no success.  After this process, I was able to make a commitment to lose the weight and God gave me the ability to persevere through trials until I lost weight.

Let me summarize by saying this.  Please take your New Year's resolutions seriously.  It's OK to make them.  Just count the cost and be prepared so that you can be successful.  If you are a Christian, take your resolutions before God and ask for his help.  Then know that you will have to stand through some adversity if you are going to see your resolution fulfilled.  Remember this - there is never a testimony without a test.  I know you can do it. 

Wishing you a very Happy New Year - The Minion

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

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

A Midsummer Minion's Dream

Today, I want to talk to you about dreams.  How often do you sit and dream?  I do it all the time.  I day dream about all kinds of situations in my life.  I have visions of what a right relationship would look like and see myself there.  I think dreaming is something important that we have missed in our lives.  I was in church on Sunday and heard this message.  Then I went back to a totally different church and heard the same message about vision and dreams on Sunday night.  Do you think God was trying to tell me something?  In the last couple of weeks I have had two very strong revelations from the bible about dreams.  So here we go.

We all have dreams.  As I have said before, when I was in high school, I dreamed of going to Annapolis and then on to fly F-14s for the US Navy.  Well that one didn't come to pass but that's OK.  Top Gun is still one of my favorite movies of all time.  I love the end because Tom Cruise overcomes tragedy and saves the day.  It's my kind of movie. 

I also dreamed about going to law school one day and becoming Perry Mason.  I was going to argue cases and be the greatest lawyer ever to walk the planet.  Well that partly happened.  I did graduate law school and technically I am a lawyer but I don't practice much.  If you have ever had me as your lawyer, you know I am no Perry Mason.  ;)  But I am happy with me and I am glad I went to school.  When I told people about my dream some of them said I would never make it.  Some said it to my face and some said it behind my back but that's OK.  That dream was working inside me and guess what, I made it.

Now here is a dream that I am going to share with you that I have never made public.  Only a few people know about this one but I want to share it with you now.  For years I dreamed of being the President of the United States.  I could see myself in the Oval Office.  I could see myself making right decisions and governing wisely.  I read scriptures about how when the righteous rule the people rejoice.  Many people say they wouldn't want the job but I wanted to be the go to guy.  I wanted to see if I had what it took.  If you come into my office you will find many books about presidents, the white house and being president.  It was definitely one of my long term goals.  Today, I don't really want to be President anymore.  Why you ask, because it isn't my calling.  I am beginning to wake up to what the Lord has called me to do and I know that isn't it.

So what I have been doing the last couple of days is working on my dreams.  I am writing them down and beginning to think about them.  Many studies show that when we write down our dreams and think about them regularly, this process acts like a magnet drawing us closer and closer to our dreams and goals.  That's pretty cool stuff huh.

See, I think it is important to dream big.  When I dreamed about losing weight, I would see myself skinny.  I would see myself doing all kinds of things.  One thing that really embarrassed me about being big was I couldn't water ski which was big with my family.  But I would see myself being skinny and attractive.  I started confessing everyday that I weighed 205 pounds.  I did this for over a year without dropping a single pound but that dream was resonating inside my spirit every day.  That dream was working inside me and pointing me the right direction.  Then one day, that dream popped in my spirit and the transformation began.  But guess what, I didn't stop at 205.  I went all the way down to 185.  See when we dare to dream and then keep those dreams in front of us, amazing things can happen.

Now let me tie this to a place you may not really understand.  God.  Guess what, he has dreams.  He has dreams about you.  The bible says that He has plans for you.  Plans for your good.  It says in another place that he knew you before the foundation of the world.  Since before the world was founded he was dreaming about you.  That's pretty far out there stuff huh.

Well I want you to get a picture of this.  Think for a minute about that perfect guy or that perfect girl or maybe a car, etc.  Picture him/her/it in your mind.  Think for a second about whatever your goal is.  See yourself in a right relationship (See the Box).  See yourself succeeding.  How does that feel?  Does it touch a nerve in the core of your being?  Does it release a warm feeling inside you?  This might blow your mind but the Lord sits around dreaming of you the same way.  He pictures you in his mind successful.  He pictures you in his mind with the right person.  He sees you enjoying yourself and it brings great pleasure to His soul.  He gets excited about His dreams for your life.  He has a good life planned for you.  He sees you and He spending time together doing things that you love.



And that's another Opinion of the Minion.

The Minion Lawyer

Today, I hope to challenge you.  What do you dream about?  What have you always wanted to try but have always invented reasons not to do?  What would you like to accomplish?  Well, you say, I gave up on my goals a long time ago.  I can't, couldn't, shouldn't, wouldn't, am not talented enough, not smart enough, not good enough....  I guess you get my point.  We all have things like that.  When I was in high school, I saw the movie Top Gun with Tom Cruise and I was convinced I wanted to be an F14 pilot.  I wanted to go to the US Naval Academy and fly jets for the Navy.  Well guess what, it never happened.  Why not?  Because I didn't want it bad enough.  If I had really wanted it, I would have tried harder.  So I went to TCU to study business I wanted a college degree but I was more concerned about chasing girls than studying.  Which resulted in terrible results.  See I wasn't good with girls and my grades suffered to boot.  I was just plain lazy.

Now, I am really a fairly intelligent guy (please no comments from my friends or family!).  If I put my mind to something, I am capable of learning just about anything.  So why didn't I graduate Magna Cum Laude from TCU?  Well there were some pretty smart people at TCU and I just plain didn't want it bad enough.  Oh sure, if it came super easy I would have made straight As but since it required reading and studying, I didn't.  Plain and simple right?   Well are there areas of your life where you could have done better and didn't?  Sure there are.  Does that make you a bad person or a failure?  Of course not.  Don't be ridiculous.  All it means is you didn't want it bad enough.

Now let's get back to the mental list you made from our first paragraph.  What things are on that list that you want to do but don't?  Why?  Are you going to go through the whole could have, should have, and would have list again like we just did?  I know there are areas in my life now where I need to work on this.

Let me tell you one area of my life where I decided to try something no one really thought I could do.  Remember there will always be people telling you that you can't.  They will aways have something negative to say to talk you out of trying.  If you aren't careful, you might actually believe those people.  But one of my favorite sayings is, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."  Now I don't believe in dog fighting or cruelty to animals in any shape.  It's absolutely wrong but I like the saying.  What it means is that the person who looks the best on paper with the most talent and ability isn't always the person who succeeds.  It's the person who tries his hardest and believes he can that normally does. You can do anything that you put your mind to.

OK, so let's get back to my little story.  I graduated in the top 10% of the bottom 1/3 of my class at TCU.  Like I said, my grades were terrible.  I think I had a 2.25.  Now another of my life dreams was to go to law school.  So one day, I decided to try.  I decided to apply and just see if I got in.  Well I did pretty good on the LSAT and was accepted to a law school here in Fort Worth.  Then I did something remarkable that set the tone for my whole law school experience.

I went out to dinner with my then wife, my cousin and his wife.  I remember we went to a comedy club downtown and then we went back to my cousin's wife's house.  As we were all sitting around talking and having a good time the subject of me going back to school came up and this is what came out of my mouth.  I said, "I'm going to go to law school and give it my best shot.  I am going to do my very best and see what happens.  I don't want to look back 20 years from now and say I could have, would have or should have.  If I flunk out after the first semester, I will do it knowing I tried my very hardest."  See I had the right attitude now.  I was going to try with everything I had.  Notice where my focus was.  It wasn't on doing this well or doing that well.  It wasn't on being the best student or making the best grades.  My focus was on being the best I could be.  I didn't look at anyone else but me.  If I gave it my all and failed I could live content knowing I gave it may all.

Where do you face challenges like that in life?  I still face many of those same things today.  There are times when I don't want to work that hard or I want to quit trying something.  I believe if you give life your very best and the key is to make sure you know you are doing all you can, then you can hold your head up high no matter what the outcome.  Because you know that no matter what, you did your best.

And I guess, that's another Opinion .... Oh wait a minute.  Would you like to know what happened to me when I made the decision to try my hardest?  Well, God was able to bless all that I did in school.  Not only did I finish law school, but I graduated Cum Laude

And that's another Opinion of the Minion