Where Am I?

Today's blog will discuss three things.  Where do I want to be?  Where am I?  Where was I?

So let's get started with the first question.  Where do I want to be?  I think we should all have clear goals in life.  It's very important to have direction.  After all, if you don't know where you are going, you won't know when you get there.  So if you don't have direction in life, that's definitely something to work on.  However, I think many of us know are goals.  How about losing weight?  I want to lose about 30 pounds.  Many of you know my story and know that I lost a lot of weight once upon a time.  Unfortunately, I have found a few of those pounds in the last year and I need to lose them again.  Our how about getting better grades in school?  Many of you are still in school and I will bet many of you would like to bring your grades up right?  Where you want to be can cover such a wide range of topics from grades to money to relationships and just about anything else.

Now the problem with where I want to be is that it can really screw up where I am.  How?  Let me explain.    Most of us have some area of life that isn't the way we want it.  That's why we have goals of where we want to be.  If we had already achieved that goal, it would be where I am, not where I want to go.  Confused?  Let me illustrate.  My goal is to lose 30 pounds.  I am not where I want to be in that area.  I want to weigh a little less.  Where I am is 30 pounds heaver than where I want to be.  So here's where the problem comes in.  If I am not getting to my goal fast enough or if I am having struggles making progress, it can cause me to feel defeated.  It can cause me to feel like I am never going to reach my goals in life.  It might even be the driving force that causes me to give up altogether.  That's a very bad place to be.  Don't let your present circumstances discourage you from accomplishing your goals.

Let's look for a minute at the last place, where we were.  Now many times we feel that where we are and where we were are the same place meaning sometimes it seems like we struggle a lot and don't make much progress getting to where we want to go.  Sometimes that's true.  Sometimes we can even look at all our past failures and that can be discouraging.  But I want you to take a closer look in your past for a minute.  Find someplace where your life is better than it was.  Are you in the 8th grade instead of the 7th?  Are you living in a nicer house or driving a nicer car than you once did?  Maybe you have a better job than you used to have.  For me, I used to weigh 350 pounds.  I have definitely come a long way in that area of my life.  Use the successful area of your life for a minute.  You succeeded in moving forward in that area.  Now if you can succeed there, you can succeed in your next goal right?  Come on now, don't give me excuses.  If you did it once, you can do it again.  You can achieve your next goal.

Now that we have looked at where we want to be, where we are and where we were, I want to leave you with one thought by one of my favorite preachers.  I'm not where I want to be but thank God I'm not where I used to be.

And thats' another Opinion of the Minion.

A Letter to My Daughter

I wanted to take a little different approach today.  As I write this letter to my daughter, I hope you read this and understand that whether you are a boy or girl, you have a Father in Heaven who loves you very dearly.  I will attempt to write from my heart to Katherine's but know that nothing I can put on this blog will come near expressing the Father's love for you.  He loves you very dearly and I do too.  I hope you hear a little of Him in this.

Dear Katherine,

I want to start this letter by telling you what a beautiful little girl you are.  I tell you this often because it's true and just comes naturally out of my heart but I also tell you this because I want you to know how special you really are.  I want you to hear it from me so that you won't have to try to find this type of affirmation from some other boy.

Your smile constantly warms my heart.  Sunday, it made my day to carry you out to the car.  Right now, you are still small enough for me to do that but I know the time is coming when you will out grow it.  I am also constantly amazed by you.  I have also told you many times that you are one of the smartest little girls I have ever met.  How you know so much at 7 years old is a mystery to me.  You are kind, loving, compassionate, strong willed, intelligent, athletic, smart, quick, outgoing, friendly and beautiful all rolled into one little girl.  You are all that I could have ever asked for in a daughter and so so much more.

You say things that just make me laugh.  I will never forget you telling me that you wanted to run away to another country but that you couldn't because you wanted to take your bible and they would kill you if they caught you with it.  You were only about 4 at the time and it was so precious.  Of course, I had to talk to David (her oldest brother) about how he filled you with all that stuff but it was one of the little memories I will always cherish.

I also love your independent spirit.  It was only a couple of weeks ago that I made you take a roller skating lesson for David's birthday.  I was helping you with your skates and you kept telling me that you didn't need a lesson and that you could already skate.  I just smiled (not believing you - big mistake) and told you to go get in line for the lesson.  As I finished helping your friend Kylie get her skates on and turned around, I was shocked to find you roller skating all over the floor minding your own business.  The best thing about that experience was as I left the rink, you skated over to say good bye and I picked you up to give you a hug.  With the biggest sparkle in your eye and the warmest smile, you leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Dad, I told you I could roller skate!"  It makes me smile just thinking about it.

Many people have said that you will be a handful when you get a little older but I don't see it exactly that way.  I know that you are going to be as amazing as an adult as you are as a child.  I don't want you to grow up any time soon (even though I can't stop it) but I do look forward to watching you as an adult.  I know you will be successful at anything you do.

Now sweetheart, I want to talk about something else.  There are times in your life when you do things wrong.  Sometimes I have to discipline you for them and that's OK.  Sometimes they really make me laugh.  What I want you to understand is that if you make a mistake it's fine.  I make mistakes every day.  Sometimes they just happen.  I don't want you to get down on yourself when you do something wrong.  I am not going to lie to you and tell you that there is no right or wrong.  That's not true.  But I do want you to know that even if you do something wrong, it doesn't change what an amazing, wonderful, and truly great person you are.  Nothing can change that.  I have seen you come down pretty hard on yourself when you make a mistake and sometimes that's not good.

Here's what I want you to do if you make a mistake.  Admit it, ask for forgiveness, forgive yourself and try not to do it again.  But no matter what you do, my love for you will never change.  When I first held you, it was one of the greatest days of my life and I was totally speechless.  I was completely in love with this little baby in my arms.  Every corner of my heart was filled with love for you.  Over the last seven years, something has happened that I didn't think was possible.  My love for you has grown.  You know that God gave us His son Jesus to take the punishment for our sins.  One of the great things about God is that He didn't stop giving with Jesus.  He gave you to me.  You are so special to me and I am so proud of the little lady you are becoming.

You are so beautiful and I love you with all my heart.

Dad

An that's a letter from the Minion