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 

Peace

Hello All,

Today I want to talk to you for a few minutes about peace.  This subject keeps coming up in my heart and it's my assignment for this post.  When I say peace, I'm talking about peace inside us.  I am not talking about world peace because while I believe that would be an amazing thing, I don't believe that we will see it until Jesus comes back.

However, isn't inner peace something we all want?  Have you ever heard a parent say I would just like a little peace and quite around here?  Have you ever been at a lake when the sun comes up in the morning?  I used to go to a lake west of Fort Worth and one of my favorite parts of the trip was the very early morning when the dew was still on the ground.  Most days you could see deer walk through the front yard going down to the lake to get a drink.  The birds chirped softly in the background and the temperature was still cool.  I loved it because I felt like I was at peace for a few minutes.  Getting the lake or the ocean still causes me to feel peaceful today.

Now let's talk about things that make us lose our peace.  There are people in my life that make staying peaceful difficult.  Normally it's because they aren't at peace and their actions can be really annoying.  I am sure there are people who would say the same thing about me at different points in life.  Are there people in your life like that?  Let's take it a step closer.  Are there members of your family like that?  For most people, the answer is probably yes.  That's sad but true.  Guess what, we can't do anything to change them.  One of my favorite prayers is the serenity prayer - God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

Maybe there are circumstances in your life that cause you to lose your peace.  Do you have a bill that you don't know how to pay?  How about some other financial need that you don't know how to provide?  Maybe you have a low grade in school and don't know how to bring it up.  There are all kinds of circumstances in life that will cause us to lose our peace.  While this is a blog for a different day, let me say that there are ways to change our circumstances.  But many times we cannot change our circumstances instantly so what do we do while we are going through them?  How do we keep our peace?

Maybe the answer is that we can't.  Maybe we should just continue to blow a gasket every time someone or some circumstance causes us to feel stressed, etc.  Many of us would like to stop right there and use this as an excuse to blow up whenever we feel like it.  Now we should admit that we are mad.  Trying to pretend we aren't isn't good because it's a lie.  It's OK to feel mad or upset.  It's even OK to get mad but when we get upset we lose the peace inside us.  When we lose our peace, we are normally feeling stress.  When our body is under stress there are all sorts of bad things that happen over time.  Also, we feel anxious.

So what's the answer.  Well you may or may not like it but we have to chose to stay peaceful.  We have to make the decision that peace is something important to us and we have to protect it.  Now most of you know that I'm a Christian.  Jesus said that he gave me His peace.  It was a gift he gave to me but just like all of His gifts I have to chose to recieve it.  After I recieve it, I have to protect it.

If someone was breaking into your house to kidnap someone, would you try to stop them?  Sure you would.  I would even have tried to stop them from taking my little brother when we were kids.  Now PK, you are on your own.  Just kidding.

To me, inner peace is becoming more and more important.  It is definitely worth protecting.  There have been two instances in the last three days that have caused me to quit walking in the peace Jesus gave me.  In both instances, I had to decide that I was going to remain at peace regardless of the situation.  That is the real key, you have to decide that you are going to stay peaceful.  Yes, this is something you can do if you chose to do so.

The first time, I was driving out to pick up my kids.  As I got to a spot in the road where my lane merged with the lane next to me, the car in the other lane got in front of me and then started driving slower than I wanted to drive.  I don't really have road rage and I really didn't get super mad but it did aggravate me.  Now here's the great part of this story.  As I started to get mad, I recognized that I was losing my peace.  When it happened, I decided that it wasn't worth losing peace over and immediately let go of it.  Instantly I became much more peaceful.  I finally learned how to protect my peace and was successful doing it.  For me, this was a major break through.

The second time I got an opportunity to practice what I am saying to you happened about an hour ago.  I was faced with a situation that challenged me.  This one involved a person in my life.  I won't go into the situation but let's just say it was one that I have dreaded for some time.  I knew it was going to be unpleasant and involve drama that I did not create but nevertheless would have to deal with.  Because I have know for a while that it would have to come, it has caused me to lose my peace several times in the past.  Guess what, after the encounter today I lost my peace again.  However, this time I realized what happened.  It took me a few minutes in the fresh air to think through the situation and I decided that losing my peace and contentment was not something I wanted to do.  Honestly, I still don't know what to do with this person.  But I do know this, I will remain peaceful.  I have chosen not to let this person bother me.  If I can do it, you can too. 

To summarize, one of the most important things in life is inner peace.  It is something to be desired, achieved and then protected.  We have to chose to stay at peace regardless of our circumstances but it can be done.

That's another Opinion of the Minion