Today’s quote is in honor of my wife’s birthday.
I pray that I have been the fulfillment of many of your dreams!
Happy Birthday! I love you!
Developing An Environment Of Growth, Part 3
Your growth as a leader is one of the most important aspects of your leadership. If you are not growing as a leader, you will soon stop being a leader. It’s that simple.
And so, developing an atmosphere in which you can sustain and encourage your own growth, as well as the growth of those around you, is crucial.
We’ve taken a look at several different key elements in developing a growth-oriented environment. You may want to refresh your memory on the first three elements we examined, and then the second group of three.
Today, I want to briefly look at four final characteristics that are found in growth-oriented environments. I see these in all types of organizations, whether that is a church or ministry like my situation, or a business of some sort. These principles ring true across the spectrum.
Creating a growth environment is important. Someone once said that “when you’re through improving, you’re through.” I don’t know about you, but I’m not through.
Here are the final four elements.
Developing An Environment Of Growth, Part 2
One of the ways that leaders grow is by maintaining an environment of growth. Without building such an environment in your life, you could be setting yourself up to fail. Or, at the very least, setting yourself up to experience difficulty in leadership.
In my last post, we looked at three indicators of a growth-oriented environment.
Today I want to look at three more.
Epictetus is credited as saying “It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.” This is true. Without an environment designed to foster growth, you will not grow.
Coffee Break – 10.15.2012
The Holdster – These guys are geniuses! They’ve created a way to use a simple Mason jar as a coffee cup! With my dad’s long love for all things in the craft of leatherwork and saddle making, these hit pretty close to home. Their website says that they are sold out, but you can still snag one from their Kickstarter campaign. Consider this added to my wish list.
Squids Have Rhythm – Who Knew? – This just goes to show that we can throw money at crazy projects, call it research, and that makes it all ok. Well… But in this case, the discoveries are pretty cool. Researchers found a way to tap into and stimulate the Chromatophores cells of squid, and sent audio and electrical impulses to them. The resulting video is pretty sweet, but it doesn’t say much for the squids’ taste in music…
Removies: Movies With One Letter Removed – Some people have minds that never quit creating. This website takes movies, removes one letter from the title, changing the entire premise. They then create a movie poster for the new results. Pretty cool. Pointless, but cool. My personal favorite is the Jurassic Ark poster. It would make a nice Christmas gift….
Live First, Write Second – Jeff Goins is a blogger, author, and I usually find great content on his blog. However, this post struck a chord with me. Goins has a guest blogger, Adam Jeske, who has lived all over the world. Jeske writes about living in the moment. One of my biggest goals is to be fully present, no matter where I am. And I strive especially hard to do this with my kids. Definitely worth a few minutes of your time.
Engaging Your Kids In Discussing Their Day – Author Michel Kelley posted an article on his blog that discusses what to do to go deeper than a one word response when engaging your kids in talking about their day. If you are a parent of a teen, you’ve heard the typical one word answer, “fine.” If you’re a normal American, you’ve probably said it yourself. Kelley gives five suggestions on how to take the conversation to the next level. Good stuff.
How To Cultivate Fresh Faith In The Gospel – One of my goals in life is to know the Bible well. But more importantly, I want to know the God of the Bible well. The Resurgence blog, part of the Mars Hill Church, has a few suggestions on how keep it fresh and ever-growing.
Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid only of standing still. – Chinese Proverb
Memorize Scripture – Week 41
This is the last passage on our journey down the Romans Road. A lot of the lists you’ll find describing the salvation process found in the book of Romans doesn’t include this verse.
But I believe that the follow through is crucial to the salvation process as well. And I believe Paul did as well. See what he wrote in Romans 12:1:
This passage is often quoted with verse two attached, which speaks about not being conformed, but being transformed, by being informed.
And while that is important, the part of the passage I want to focus on is verse 1.
After we have accepted Christ into our lives as Savior, the story doesn’t end there. On the contrary, it’s just the beginning.
In this passage, Paul gives us some instruction on how to begin to live our lives. They key is to offer all of ourselves, and to do so in worship.
Paul brings to mind images of the Old Testament sacrificial system, which was what the early Christian would have been familiar with. But he makes a key distinction: our worship sacrifice, of ourselves, isn’t to be killed, as was the norm. No, we are to be living sacrifices, continually.
It’s part of the life transformation that begins when Christ invades our lives. When he comes in, it’s impossible for us to remain the same.
And as we strive to live in a manner pleasing to him, this lifestyle becomes a part of our worship.
That’s great! But it’s also difficult.
Someone once said, the only problem with a living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling off of the altar.
That’s very true. The biggest hindrance to living with a worship nature… is my sinful nature. And that’s where verse two comes in, giving us a glimpse of just how to do that.
Do you find it easy or hard to maintain a worshipful attitude and lifestyle? What makes it difficult? What helps you out? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
How To Handle Anger
Book Review – Unstoppable by Nick Vujicic
I love reading stories about overcoming adversity.
And that is exactly what Nick Vujicic has done. Born without any arms and legs, Nick could be expected to give up, overwhelmed by the difficulties of life facing someone with such disabilities.
Nick did no such thing.
In Unstoppable, Nick describes the power of faith and how it has enabled him to do things he, or anyone else, ever thought possible.
In the book, Vujicic talks about his struggles, from being bullied to thoughts of suicide. he talks about lessons learned, from faith and love to financial difficulties. And he talks about dependence and independence, depending on God more and depending upon himself less.
Here’s what I liked about Unstoppable: Nick tells his story, and it is fascinating. He also adds the stories of several people he has met who have overcome tremendous obstacles in their lives, and how they have stayed faithful to God in the process.
On the other hand, though, there were a few things I didn’t like about the book. While the content was excellent, Nick’s writing style aggravated me. It didn’t flow well, and jumped around too much. Some chapters were hard to follow because of this. It seemed, at times, like rambling.
All in all, I enjoyed reading the book. And the points he made in each of his chapters were solid. This is a book I can certainly hand out to teens in my youth ministry who may be struggling. I’m sure it will be encouraging to them, as much of it was to me. I’m sure it will be to you as well.
How do you respond to adversity? What can you to do help yourself respond better? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
If you are interested in reading Unstoppable, by Nick Vujicic, you can purchase it at Amazon.com.
Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Multnomah Books as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Also, some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.“