What Do You Value?

Do you ever stop and evaluate your values?

Your values are those relationships and things that are most important to you. Values are not accomplishments to be scratched off a bucket list but instead they are those people or things in your life that you want to maintain as priorities in your life.

Your values are constant. They are not to be sacrificed for any dream, goal, or action step. Your values are the things that keep you grounded. They are the foundation of who you are.

To serve as an example, here are the 9 values in my life that I wrote down on December 11, 1995:

1. Maintain a close relationship with God
2. Maintain a close relationship with my wife
3. Maintain a close relationship with my kids
4. Maintain a close relationship with my family
5. Have close friends
6. Enjoy good health
7. Enjoy financial security
8. Contribute time, knowledge, and money to others
9. Control my own business affairs
10. Travel

Your values may be completely different. Obviously, relationships are most valuable to me. The first five values on my list include relationships in my life. They have been prioritized in a specific order. The values at the top are more valuable than those at the bottom. God, family, and friends are more important to me than financial concerns. Some people want to get rich at any cost but what is it to get rich with no close friends or family? I think it's useless and meaningless.

The purpose of this list is to give you a foundation for the rest of your life. Your values may not be sacrificed for your dreams. For example, many of my dreams involve travel. Travel is also one of the things I value. But I will not travel without my wife or my wife's blessing. If I chose to take off on trips by myself or without her approval, my relationship with my wife would be jeopardized. In fact, I would travel by myself a LOT if I were to do it without her involvement! My marriage is more important than my dreams. In addition, because financial security is important, I will not compromise my finances for the sake of travel. I could easily travel the world and accumulate thousands of dollars in credit card debt but I will not do that because I value financial security over travel.

Your values keep you grounded. Writing down your values keeps you focused. Consider the things that are most important to you, prioritize them, document them, then put them in a safe place and revisit them every once in a while.

It will be a "valuable" experience.

Life Questions

• If your life was absolutely perfect, how would it look to you?

• What are your priorities?
• What do you value the most?
• What do you want to accomplish?
• What are you missing in life right now that is important to you?
• What are you passionate about?
• What do you want your life to look like in ten years? Twenty? Thirty?
• What gifts, talents, and abilities do you have that are not being used well, if at all?
• What are you willing to die for?

Real, Relevant, or Both?

Here's a thought-provoking blog post from one of my seminary professors. You can follow Dr. Dan Crawford here.

August 16th, 2010 by Dr. Dan

Recent studies have shown that as high as 70% of young Protestant adults between the ages of 18 and 22 have stopped attending church regularly. How could this happen? We tried so hard to reach them – with slick slogans, casual worship clothing, shorter sermons accompanied with power point pictures and video clips, upbeat music with live band on stage, no more welcoming of visitors, entertainment that almost matched the theater district, low lights and bright spot lights, etc. While there is nothing inherently wrong with any of the above methods, the relevant must be matched with the real. Young adults have been raised in a culture of distrust, dysfunction, and distaste. They are looking for something and someone that is real. The wrappings can be flashy or faded, but the contents must be authentic and genuine. Paul asked, “Do you look at things according to the outward appearance” (2 Cor. 10:7)? Could it be that we focused on the outward to the exclusion of the inward and in our zealous attempt to be relevant, we failed to be real?

How Much Allowance Should My Kids Receive?

I was going through some financial files today when I ran across the checklist I used to record when I gave our kids their monthly allowance. If you ask them, they will tell you that it wasn't really monthly because I would usually forget to give it to them until they reminded me about it every couple of months or so.

Our kids are adults now, but back in the day when we felt it necessary to give them allowances the obvious question was: How much should we give them?

Somewhere along the way I read or heard about this formula. It worked for us, maybe it will work for you.

5 cents per day X age X 30 days = monthly allowance

In other words, we paid each child a nickel a day (just for breathing air!) times their age. So if the child is 10 years old, he gets 50 cents per day.

.05 X 10 = 50 cents

Then multiply .50 X 30 days = $15 per month

They get a raise on their birthdays. When they turn 11 the monthly figure becomes $16.50 per month.

.05 X 11 = 55 cents X 30 days = $16.50 per month

Of course, you can plug in any number you want in place of the daily nickel. Your kid may be worth 10 cents a day X their age. If that's the case, then you'll give your 10 year-old $30 per month.

It worked for us! See what you think.

The Secret to a Happy Life

I don’t believe that pursuing stuff is the key to a full and happy life. Material things burn, rust, and wear out. They are fun for awhile but then we want something else. We’ve allowed ourselves to be easily swayed into believing that stuff will make us happy.

Dave Ramsey, the author of Financial Peace, considers this mentality a disease called “Stuff-itis.” It’s a disease we all have. We are tricked into believing that happiness comes from a thing or an event.

Think of the happiest people you know and list their qualities and character traits. Your list will probably look something like this:

• Love for God
• Love for family
• Love for others
• Content
• Hard-working
• Honest
• Humble
• Integrity
• Optimistic
• Patient
• Peace
• Prayerful
• Purposeful
• Thankful
• Values
• Worry-free

People are happy not because of what they have on the outside but because of who they are on the inside. The American Dream is consumed with stuff on the outside. Happiness and fulfillment comes from within.

A full life comes from realizing who you are in God’s eyes. When you understand that you are precious to your Creator, your perspective changes. God loves you more than you can imagine. You are totally accepted by Him, not because of anything you have done, but because of what He has done for you through Christ.

All you have to do is accept God’s gift of grace – Jesus the Savior.

This is a transformation that may take place instantaneously or it may be a slower process, but once you understand your worth and value to the God of the universe, you will never be the same.

And you will be happy.

Your life will be fulfilling and full of purpose. Your life will center on who you are more than what you have. You will value relationships over possessions. You will find contentment. You will worry less and love more. This is the secret to a happy life: Know who you are in God’s eyes.

Are You Making Footprints or Butt Prints?

Tom Sirotnak, author of Ultimate Warriors, wrote about a feisty, quick-witted 104-year-old man named Walt Jones. Jones lived life with zeal as explained here:

Walt outlived his third wife, to whom he was married for 52 years. When she died, someone said to Walt that it must be sad losing such a long-time friend. His response was, "Well, of course it was, but then again it may be for the best. She kind of petered out on me in the last decade."

Walt went on to explain that he wanted to purchase a motor home to visit all 48 of the contiguous states ten years earlier, when he was 94. His wife wouldn't hear of it, using excuses that, at his age, he would get them killed, they would fall victims to violent crime, or they would die and there wouldn't be a funeral parlor around. Walt persisted, "I'd like to make footprints in the sands of time before I check out. But you can't make footprints in the sands of time if you're sitting on your butt...unless you want to make butt prints in the sands of time."

What about you? Are you taking advantage of your time? Are you making a difference? Are you a player on the field or a spectator in the stands? Are you warming a pew at church or are you on fire for Jesus?

Are you making footprints or butt prints in the sands of time?

You Can Do This If You Work For Sega

I wonder if they did all of this work during office hours?

Every Life Has a Story

From Chick-Fil-A:

Are You Asking the Right Question?

Last weekend, I spoke at a Missions Conference in Guatemala. One of my topics was "How to be a World Changer." As I was writing this message, I determined that Christians who had a strong worldview and passion for evangelism and ministry ask themselves the right question. "Typical Christians" (for lack of a better word) ask themselves the wrong question.

The Typical Christian asks, "What is my vision for my life and how can God bless it?"

The World Christian (or World Changer) asks, "What is God's vision for my life and how can I bless Him?"

The Typical Christian wants to do their own thing. They want to live by their own agenda, by their rules, with their goals, and at their pace. The Typical Christian wants the American Dream and God's blessing on it. It is a very self-centered life. It's all about them. It's the mindset that if you go to church a few times a month, keep your nose clean, put some money in the offering plate, and act the part of the good Christian man or woman, you're good.

I disagree.

The World Christian submits to God's leading and authority in everything. They seek God's agenda for their life. They live by God's rules. They seek God's goals. They live at the pace that God has designated for them. They live with the understanding that God has blessed them immensely through Jesus and anything else is undeserved. It is a very selfless life.

The World Christian sees the big picture of God's purpose for the world. The World Christian cries out on behalf of the over 2 billion people on the planet who have never heard of Jesus Christ. They pray for the harvest (Matthew 9:37-38). They support missions and missionaries. They mobilize others to meet the world's needs and sound the alarm for global concerns. They go. Whether to a people group on the other side of town or another country, they go to assist in making Jesus known to every tribe, every tongue, and every nation (Revelation 5:9).

Which one are you? Are you asking the right question?

North Korean Soccer Team Shamed

Wow.

If you thought getting blessed out by your coach for missing a tackle, letting strike three get by you, or losing against your rival was bad, check this out.

North Korea Shames Its World Cup Losers

Out of Sync

I just flew in from Guatemala and boy are my arms tired. (Enter rimshot here.)

I've been out of sync lately with my blog posting. I'll blame it on my summer schedule. In May, I was away for two weeks in SE Asia. In early June we took our family vacation at Hilton Head only after attending a family member's wedding out of town. Beth and I celebrated our anniversary with a brief retreat to the North Carolina mountains in early July. She left on July 19 for two weeks in SE Asia with a team from TrueNorth. Less than 7 hours after Beth returned from her adventure late last Thursday night, I left to speak at a missions conference at El Camino Church in Guatemala.

Add to that a couple of Sundays speaking at TrueNorth (which tends to take away writing time) and there you have it. Sporadic, inconsistent blogging.

All of the professional bloggers say you have to consistently and routinely blog in order to keep your audience. So I apologize for not being consistent and staying in a routine. I know you anxiously await my posts. :) I try to post at least twice a week. Still working on consistency.

In addition, I've spent a lot of time working on a new blog. "What? You can't keep up with this blog and you're starting another one?"

Yep.

But this one will eventually shut down and be moved to the new one. I'll try to keep you posted. It will be awhile before that happens.

I think I'm in town for awhile now so I hope to get in a blog groove.

Stay tuned.