19.
God continues to teach me how to have peace
during uncertainty, trials, and suffering.
Could I teach someone how to have peace?
Probably not, because peace doesn’t come from an individual, it comes
from our Creator. Each situation is different,
but I know that until you allow God to give you perspective on your situation,
you will never have peace. You will have
to rely on something other than yourself.
That’s what I’ve learned about it.
20.
I love teaching.
I love having the opportunity to teach a class of fellow believers and
hearing God tell what to say. When I see
people connecting to God, or having those “aha” moments, it is so
exciting. A lot of times, we don’t spend
enough time trying to understand God’s written word to us. So, whenever I have the opportunity to help
people dig deeper into God’s Word, I jump at the opportunity. It’s not that I’m smarter or have some
special understanding that others don’t, it’s just that I can feel God giving
me the words to say in certain situations.
It’s a matter of being open to being used by God.
21.
I also love preaching. When I was in my early 20s, I was a youth
minister. I was given the opportunity to
preach on several occasions. More
recently, I have the opportunity to speak to our youth on occasion, and I was
given the opportunity to preach at my church while our pastor was on a mission
trip. It is so exciting when God gives
you a clear word to tell His people. It’s
similar to teaching. When you have
people engaging with the Almighty God, and He speaks to them, you can see it on
their faces, and that is what it’s all about…connecting with our Heavenly
Father. I am actually more comfortable
in front of a bunch of people than one on one…I guess I’m weird like that.
22.
The mystery of God never ceases to amaze
me. The more I learn about Him, the more
I realize I don’t know. I have learned
this trait from my father. The more I study
God’s Word, the more mystery there is that I want to solve. As my former Greek professor used to say, “There’s
gold in there folks (speaking of the Bible), we just have to mine for it
sometimes!”
23.
I still struggle with the approval of others. God continues to work on me in this
area. I have the tendency to seek the
approval of others as opposed to seeking to honor God. I want everyone to like me. The problem with that is that my closest
relationships suffer sometimes because I won’t tell someone, “No.” I still have work to do.
24.
You have to create memorable moments with the
ones you love. Take your daughters on
dates, men. Take your sons on dates,
ladies. Men, take your sons out and
teach them about manhood and what it means to be a Godly man. Women, show your girls what being a Godly
woman looks like. Some of the greatest
memories I have of childhood are trips I took with my dad or family. We only have our kids for a short period
before they are off to college. Make it
count.
25.
I desire to be the kind of friend that you can
call at 3 a.m. if you need something. I
try and instill that in my kids. I want
to be reliable, faithful, and trustworthy.
I hope that my friends see those traits in my life.
26.
You need to know your spiritual gifts. If you don’t know what they are, take a
spiritual gifts inventory online. Each
one of us has gifts that God has entrusted us with. It is our job to use those gifts in the Church
to build up the body. Our gifts can
change over time, so take an inventory every year to see what your strongest
gifts are. I feel like if everyone in
the church understood what they were gifted at doing, then the church would
function at its highest capability.
27.
I wouldn’t be who I am today without my accountability
partner, Jason. I now have a better
understanding of the passage in Scripture that talks about iron sharpening
iron. We started meeting about 8 years
ago, and he has encouraged me, set me straight, listened, encouraged, prayed
for me, loved me, and accepted me faults and all. There is nothing more encouraging than having
someone that knows the skeletons in your closet and accepts you anyway. I pray that you all have the opportunity to
experience this kind of freedom.
28.
We all need to detach more and more from society. The junk that society fills our mind with is
ridiculous. When I say this, I mean we
need to stop watching trashy movies, tacky sitcoms, and tasteless commercials
that encourage men to be unfaithful and women to never be pleased with the body
God gave them. When people look at me
and how I live my life, I want people to notice a difference between what the
world tells me I should be and who I really am.
10 years ago I would spend the majority of my time in front of a
TV. Today, I rarely turn the TV on. It’s amazing what you can spend that time
doing…connecting with your kids, connecting with your spouse, connect with your
Heavenly Father. What is more important?
29.
Music can change my mood and my thoughts in an
instant. Music is a vital part of who I am. Whenever I am down or discouraged, I listen
to praise and worship music. It’s
amazing how it will change your perspective.
Sometimes we get so caught up in ourselves that we need to have our
perspectives changed. Praise and worship
music does that for me. It reminds me
that it’s not all about me…actually, it’s not about me at all! We have music playing at our house nonstop,
and I can tell how it changes everyone’s mood.
30.
Date your wife and protect your marriage! I have learned this the hard way. My wife stuck with me through many of the
first years of our marriage when I was just a bonehead. Scripture tells us that we should love our
wives as Christ loved the church. Many
times in marriage we placed unreasonable expectations on our spouse (learned
that from a bible study I did). When
expectations are met, we have a bad attitude towards them. However, if we turn our expectations into
desires, we have a totally different attitude!
When someone meets one of our desires, it’s much more enjoyable. My thought every morning, when I wake up, is,
“how can I make my wife feel loved today?”
I don’t always succeed at meeting that goal, but it’s a great
perspective to have. Men, we need to
protect our marriage like our life depends on it. We also need to treat our wives in a way that
makes them think that they are the most special person on the planet. We all have work to do.
31.
God speaks to me in many different ways…I just
have to make sure that I’m listening. He
speaks to me through music, movies, other people, His Word, and many other
avenues. The key is that I have to be
attuned and open to what He has to say.
God is not trying to hide from us.
He tells us if we seek after Him, we will find Him. We just have to be open to what He has to
say, because sometimes it may not be what we want to hear.
32.
I am a giver.
One of my spiritual gifts is giving.
I think that if more people had the attitude that all my money is God’s
to begin with, then we would have a different perspective on giving. God has entrusted us with the money we have,
and we will have to give an account of what we did with it. My hope is that God will see that I was a
good steward.
33.
I have a desire to see the “culture” of
Christianity in the South to be completely changed. Here in the South, we go to church because it’s
expected. I have a feeling that there
will be a lot of church goers that will hear God say depart from me, I never
knew you. I think Satan is deceiving a
lot of people into believing that they are going to heaven because they go to
church every Sunday and even be serving at church. The Bible tells us that we will be known by
our fruit. It’s time for the Southern
Church to take a spiritual inventory and start asking hard questions. Are you seeing the fruit of the Spirit evident
in your life? Are you seeing people’s
lives changed because of what God is doing in and through you? If not, it’s time to reevaluate.
34.
I understand more and more every day how
powerful prayer is. Prayer gives us the
opportunity to commune with the Living God.
Prayer is the avenue by which God shifts our desires to His
desires. He changes our focus from
ourselves to His divine, redemptive plan.
The key to prayer is giving yourself time to listen, which I am still
learning. Many times I start praying for
what I desire, then God changes my prayer to what He desires. It’s a matter of us dying to our will and
desires and praying about His will and desires for us. It’s definitely not easy!
35.
I used to think 36 was really old…now…not so
much!
36.
I can’t wait to see Jesus face to face! Paul closes his first letter to the
Corinthians by saying Maranatha, which is translated as “Lord, come.” I can’t think of a better way to end a list
like this.
