Open Discussion/Dialogue

In order to learn, to grow, to be better and more wise, we need to listen.  We need to be willing to not only share our thoughts and desires, but also the thoughts and desires of others.  I have learned to be open to others ideas, thoughts, and experiences.  This characteristic has allowed me to view, as Robert Kiyosaki wrote in his book, "Why "A" Students Work for "C" Students, "see two sides of the coin from the edge".  Having this ability allows one to make wise decisions about a situation, verses a bias decision, although human nature and personal interests can sneak in, it is still better to understand both sides.

Being able to "see both sides" is a great characteristic to have and indicates a level of wisdom that not all possess.

My Testimony

My testimony is one of endurance and evolution.  I was infant baptized in the Catholic church, raised in the Methodist/Presbyterian church, grew up questioning organized religion.  I didn't understand why giving money to the church was helping the poor.  I believed that we needed to help and serve others.  I have grown in my faith and continue to strive closer to God on a daily basis, here is the rest of the story.

 Growing up my parents figured out that I wasn't interested in church (but still made me go).  Understanding this and wanting me to serve others they signed me up for a summer work weekend at our local church camp.  Since I love building and working with my hands this was a perfect fit for how good could use me.  In collage they offered me an opportunities to go on a mission trip to Juarez, Mexico.  Through this opportunity God showed me how he can use every skill and strength that he blessed me with to bless others.  I was able to added a second floor office stairs, ceiling over the baby room, figure out a way to install a sign on the roof of the church, design brackets to hang the sign, and have them built by a local metal smith, and with spare time and some scrap wood made wooden blocks for the kids to pay with and easels to hold up display boards in the Sunday service.  As I sat one of the nights on the concrete wall of the church compound that we working and living in, looking up at the stary sky, God revealed to me that all this was for his glory.

After graduating collage I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, and got a job designing aircraft.  Pretty much a dream job out of college.  I told myself I need to find a church.  Through that I got a chance to serve on another work construction mission trip.  This trip took a team to an orphanage in Guatemala City.  I was primed and ready to serve in pouring concrete, laying bricks, installing roofing!  Well, it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.  God had other plans.  Due to lack of materials and the progression of construction they were not ready for us to do the tasks scheduled for our team at the work site.  God said,"this isn't about you".  We did end up doing some minor construction projects, but a majority of our time was spent doing some over due neglected tasks around the compound and loving on the kids.  The chance to love on those kids was priceless.  They showed more unconditional and unafraid love by sitting on our laps and playing with us even with a language barrier.  God doesn't always use us as we plan!  

I got opportunities to serve on multiple other trips, have been baptized as a believer and continue to walk in faith that God has a greater plan.  After having kids, my mission field turned to raising 4 people to knowing the Lord.  God is still working on me and I have my struggles and ups and downs, but God is my refuge in this broken world.  

Currently I serve in my community as a member of the town council, coaching sports and robotics, the Lions Club, and Cross Timber's parking lot team (Parking Lot Cowboy).  

Divorce

This has become an epidemic in our country.  If we are a Christian nation this is a good reflection that we are not truly serious about our values.  There are a few items I would like to address when it comes to divorce.

Covenant
When we get married we are making a covenant with God.  A covenant is a promise, an agreement that goes beyond a contract.  I think a lot of people believe that a marriage is a "contract", contracts can be broken if the the other side does not follow thru with there commitment, they can be changed, updated, ripped up!  A covenant is a lifelong commitment, your word, your promise.  When we stand at the alter we are committing for a lifetime.  This is where the man is called to be the leader of the household.  This is a very important responsibility that God will hold husbands accountable for as he has called men to be the leaders of the household.

Selfishness & Forgiveness
When we commit our souls to a covenant we are committing for life to love, hold, and take care of one another.  This is a 100 percent, a 100 percent agreement, I am committing 100 percent to this relationship.  Our culture has taught us to be 50/50.  We set our expectations on the ideal marriage situation.  My new spouse will take care of me now, cook, clean, buy wonderful things for me, shower me with adoration, and protect me from whatever the world throws at us.  This is an unrealistic reality.  We need to reprogram ourselves to be 100 percent in.  This is not easy to do, me and my wife have struggled with this in our own marriage.  When we give 100 percent, a key to this is being able to forgive 100 percent.  We are all humans and we mess-up a lot!  I know some of you are thinking that forgiving is the same as forgetting, its not.  We need to communicate our desires for ourselves and our marriage so that we can work toward those ideals together.

Celebrate Differences

We have rich, strong, and wonderful cultures that differ from one another.  These differences are what make us unique and interesting!  We need to explore our differences and learn from one another.  We need to celebrate those differences not suppress and conform.

I have visited may parts of the world through my business travels.  These trips have allowed me to experience the people living there ordinary lives.  That is ordinary to them, but for me it was an opportunity to see people that shared common concerns as a mother or father, manage work life and family life, living in a city vs. rural, living with financial abundance and without, etc.  In all my experiences it has been wonderful to take in and observe human nature and its reaction to these influences in our lives.  These experiences have made my life richer.  As we live in this world of political correctness, that wants to separate us from exploring our differences and discussing them, we are robbed of experiencing a rich life.

Let us open the door to experiencing the richness that fills all our lives, the struggles and the triumphs.  Just like telling our testimony to others, to ourselves, our life seems dull and boring, yet when we are able to express the highlights that have made us who we are, suddenly there is a richness that others can experience and gain from.

Relationships

This year my resolution was "relationship"; a relationship with God, a relationship with others.  My focus was to be intentional about getting to know the people that are around me better, to go deeper than just "hi" and "how is your day".  Philippians 2:4, "not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others."  I have had those opportunities, but I have also not been successful as I would have liked.  Either way, that is what God put on my heart at the beginning of the year, and I hope it continues to foster being intentional about building deeper relationships as we come up on a new year.

It is interesting, we just attended the Heritage Fair in Waco after Thanksgiving, and one of the events I attended was the "Creative Writing" class.  The Instructor Amanda talked about how our social media access has changed our level of creativity in our writing, and I would add our relationship with others.  This form of communication has added to our social connections by connecting us to what I would call, the "greater community" and in other ways it has hindered our face to face connections by offering connections via the internet that falsely represent a "relationship".

We need to look for ways to be intentional about our relationships.  One of the first steps is connecting with our neighbors.  Saying "hello" over the fence or stopping to talk while someone is walking their dog, to go a little deeper and learn about what is happening in the neighborhood.  Another way is to get involved with a local community group.  This could be your church, HOA, town government, school, or other civic group.

As an introverted guy in today's society it is not easy connecting with others in a deeper more meaningful way.  One way I have been been able to do this is through a small group bible study.  It has been a great experience connecting with those that we can safely share our life struggles, challenges, and triumphs.  This is great for becoming stronger in God's will for our life, but we must also expand our reach outside our Christian realm and embrace or at least engage with those that don't know Christ.

In all our relationships we need to be Christ like and show others the love of Christ even if we don't advertise that this is love that we are showcasing.  As Christian's we are representing the hands, feet, and love of Jesus whether we like it or not.  This really is the essence of being a Christian in the world today.

Immigration

I was reading an article last week about the Christian view on immigration (http://www.wnd.com/2016/12/bible-response-to-refugee-crisis-missing-from-u-s-debate/).  It was very interesting and shed a little bit of light on why, I think, there are proponents of open borders.  Having open borders allows everyone that wants to come into our country to enjoy the benefits of this great nation and the ability to do so unimpeded, spreading the blessings to all that wish to come here.  This is a great and noble cause, but it is a bit flawed when it comes to reality.

In the past (and for the most part still are) we have been a country founded and operated on Judaeo-Christian values.  These values have been the cornerstone of our government and society in general.  Our legal system was established and is based upon upholding biblical truths no matter your religion, an economic system based on your willingness to participate, your inventiveness, and hard work, and having individual freedoms.  These values have caused people from all over the planet to flock here and legally go through the immigration process to be a part of this great experiment.  That immigration process is part of what makes this country great, because it is based on laws and being fair.

The issue with immigration today is we do not operate on these principles and values any more.  It is not fair that some can walk across and work, commit crimes and not be held accountable, or steal our services and benefits.  We need to uphold our laws, this is a reflection on our values and loving everyone, including foreigners, equally and without judgment.

Not all people that are coming here today are coming to experience the Judaeo-Christian values.  As we have become lax in our values and laws we have also shown that we are not serious about upholding the values that made this country great.  When others are not being treated fairly, it is hard to not judge the person getting the benefit, don't make decisions that cause this to happen.  Love is when we humble ourselves, are grateful for the opportunity, and can celebrate being welcoming into a "family".  It is ease to extend and accept love in that scenario.  When you are sly, doing things you should not be doing, and hiding in the shadows, it is hard for that person to accept love because they know they have done something wrong.  Let us not put people in this situation.  When we don't uphold our values, why would others coming here want to uphold those values.  We need to get serious about respecting the values that made this country great.  We need to make it a place where struggling people can come and experience the love, justice, and forgiveness of God again.  Let us personally show those around us this love, and let us nominate and elect representatives that uphold and honor these values when we go to the voting booth.

Sidenote: If we make it easy to become citizens, what does that show you about our seriousness to uphold the values that made this country great?  We need to get serious about what our values are and what values have made this a great country for others to want to come to.

Future Thought Leaders

We need to think critically, creativity, and logically in the future.  Since the beginning of civilization kids have gotten a majority of their education and knowledge from their parents.  In our modern connected urbanized world we have lost focus on educating our kids about our values, our dreams, and passing on our knowledge about the world.  We now depend on a socialized school system that was mainly centers around initial preparing kids for manufacturing jobs and know focused on going to college to get "jobs".  This is not what I would call a healthy system of education.  As pareents we have allowed ourselves to fall back on a system that corporately indoctrinates our kids with the idea that we all need to be the same, to fall in line with the status quo agenda of the day.  As parents we have accepted this system because it wasn't bad enough to make that big of a difference in the future of our kids.  But times are changing and this corporate way of thinking will not allow us to mature individually or as a society in ways that are needed to meet the challenges of the future.  Technology and our social attitudes have evolved to a point where it is hard to predict how our kids will respond to these changes.

In the past it was easier to see how the next generation would pass on the values and knowledge of the previous generation, today that transfer is almost nonexistent.  Parents connection to their children have been reduced to providing food, shelter, and transportation to ever increasing amount of activities either at school or available in the "community".  This is not how God intended it to be.  We need to look for ways to build a bond between parents and their kids.  (We need to foster relationships intergenerationally as well.  The wisdom and knowledge of previous generations are being lost.)  

To go along with this we need to look at new ways of teaching kids so they are prepared for the world of tomorrow.  The world of tomorrow will require deeper more critical thinking, thinking at higher level to develop the solutions that will be needed to tackle the challenges that are headed our way.  We need to think inventively, tactically, and critically.  We need to educate in ways that meet multiple learning abilities and skill sets.  As kids start moving into their teen years they need to start honing in on their passions, abilities, and strengths.  Some may say that they are not ready by then, I believe that is because of our low expectations and the amount of distractions that have encroached on our time.  At this time they may need to start looking at specific training or apprentice opportunities that will allow them to focus in on a certain area of interest.  This may take the form of alternate schools for different kids.  These schools would not be right for everyone, they would be more specialized and offer a connection to specific industries.  The typical schools that we see today would take on the form of preparing kids for professional jobs that require college education.

College has become a very expense and overrated requirement in today's world.  As you can see with the mounting college debt that students have amassed, it is becoming clear that college may not be the best investment, as it has been touted in the past.  This debt is surpassing the value that it adds to ones career and our economy as a whole.  We have lots of occupations and opportunities that do not require formal "college" education to do.  

As the world gets more sophisticated we need to evolve to be more efficient, teach our kids to be more creative in their thinking and be able to manage what value they offer the work force of tomorrow.  Let us start exploring these ideas today so that the kids that are growing up now can take on this modern world with all the tools tools they will need to be competitive and create new opportunities to expand our world.

Another item that needs to be taught is self promotion and selling of ones abilities.  We live in a world where there is no company loyalty.  Even if you work for a company you are still basically a contractor, they can let you go at any moment, you can leave at any moment.  I envision a time where there are no longer "employees" as we think of them today.  In order to stay a company you will need to constantly prove yourself (just as you would if you had your own business) to your employer, if you want an increase in pay, you will need to demonstrate that you have added additional value to the company, you will need to increase your skill set, and be innovative in how you approach your work to be increasing competitive with the growing labor pool.  

Prayer

I was driving in to work Monday morning and I was having a talk with God.  The Holy Spirit was revealing the purpose if prayer.  Deep down I feel I have always struggled with the practical side of prayer, yet deep down I also know that I have felt warmth, healing, and sense of community thru prayer.  Something else was revealed and maybe because I have been on a journey since reading the book by Francis Chan "Forever You and Me", almost a year ago.  In his book he talks about the greatness of God and how far that is above our family, friends, work, and other worldly items.

I pray, talk with God, and ask him to work in every aspect of my life and every minute I'm awake.  It is great incorporating love, compassion, and forgiveness into everything I do.  I think it is what God wants us to do.

One of my "resolutions" for 2016 was to put relationships first.  I would say that I am not a very good "relationship" person, but I wanted to be intentional about the times that I spent with people to be meaningful, and set aside time when possible to focus on meeting with people to learn about them and if possible have God speak through me to them.

The meaning of this post was to address the revelation about prayer, let e get to that, prayer is a method of putting the focus on God.  We know this, but there is something truly new to this idea for me.  Prayer is taking time out of our worldly lives to focus on the spiritual realm (which we do not live in) and focus on something where nothing else matters.  Think about this for a minute.  You are focusing on something that has no practical worldly reason.  Prayer may comfort us for a moment, allow us to connect to our inter being, allow us to relax, but even these are worldly pursues.  They are about us.  Prayer is about taking a putting a focus on how great God is.  It is looking at taking a personal limited resource, time, and dedicating that to something that is greater than all other things.  When we do this we are allowing God to be the center of our universe in that moment.  When we do this nothing else matters.

In the car a song I have not hear before came on the radio, it's title was, "Outta my Mind" by Anthem Lights.  The main line that caught my attention, which I typically do not focus on song lyrics, but again the Holy Spirit was pointing me to this, is "outta of my mind and into your heart", which is exactly what prayer is all about.  It is about getting our thoughts and ambitions out of being self focused and into the heart of God.

Teaching our Kids through this Election

Who we elect is a reflection of who we are as a nation.  The Democrats and the Republicans each nominated individuals that they felt represented who they wanted to lead this country.  They both had massive flaws!  Whichever candidate you supported those flaws were overlooked because you were a Democrat or a Republican and that is who your party nominated.  (it is a little more complicated than that) Each had issues and reasons for not being a good president (See my post on moral presidential candidates) I cringe at having to explain why this country would have elected Clinton with the disregard for the rule of law, try explaining that to your kids, or electing Trump and having to explain why we would elect a president that says insensitive crude sexist comments and doesn't seem to have compassion for others.  Both sides overlooked the candidate that they supported and we have elected a president that either side is not totally happy with.

These individuals that we nominated to represent us are a reflection of who we are (are we collectively garnering wisdom when making our selection?), in this election people held their nose as they went to the voting machines to vote against the person they had disdain for the most, not because the candidate they voted for was the perfect choose or that they truly supported 100%.  We need to bring civil discourse back into the public square, where integrity, humbleness, and servitude are characteristics of who we select to run for office.  These are the type of characteristics that I want to pass along to my kids.

A lot of nasty things have been mentioned by both candidates in this election cycle.  We need to take a hard look at the candidates that the two party system nominates in the future and make sure they are a true reflect on who we want representing this country.  If we do not, we will have an election cycle where we focus on the negative verses the positive and lose focus on the policies and actions that will make this country strong.  There are a lot of critical issues on the table and a lot of these issues did not even get addressed or brought up.  Let us be wiser in who we select in the next go around.

Social media has been a blaze with comments about ultimatums, threats, and even friends fighting over what other people are doing in the name of the candidate they are against.  Listen, we need to stop pointing fingers, look at the direction we are headed as a country and work together to fix it.  Even though we have elected a candidate that may not represent your position, lets work together to bring those issues to the table, lets have them addressed in a civil manner.

Toby mentioned a few weeks ago, that "I am more worried about whether you are praying with your kids every night than whether they are praying in the state house."  We need to get back to teaching our kids about right and wrong, there are going to be people in the world that don't like our hair, cloths, color of our skin, how much money we have or don't have, as parents we need to teach our kids the difference in right and wrong, that the things that people say may not be the most appropriate.  We need to discuss these with them and teach them that God is in control and we need to pray for those that do harm to us, so that they may see what they are doing is not acceptable and to open their hearts to forgiveness.  Do not allow your kids to harden their hearts for those that repress them, teach them to be creative in showing love to even their enemies.

There are things that we need to explain to our kids about both of these candidates leading up to this election.  We needed to talk about sex, sin, corruption, breaking the law, justice, etc.  Not exactly issues that come up in everyday discussion with your kids, and not something that presidential candidates should be mired in as we typically hold these people to high moral standards, but our kids  are going to be exposed to this at school eventually and it is better to talk with them about why this is not acceptable behavior, so they can make a difference in their sphere of influence.  Let us as parents each our kids about right and wrong.  We will always have "enemies" that want to repress us, let us stand against them and find ways to spread love not hate.

Let us take the first steps in ensuring the next generation make a positive different by being Christ followers and not worldly worshipers of man.  We live in a free country where each one of us has the ability to be a positive influence, let us each take this opportunity to make a difference.

Election 2016, Coming Together

I was very concerned about the direction of this country before this election and I am concerned about the direction of the country now after the election.  We have an opportunity to come together and we need to work to do this, otherwise we all fail.

Listening to Glen Beck today he brought up some interesting points.  We have gotten into a mindset of creating things that are "American" and if you don't do these things you are not American.  This has created a dangerous path to be on and creates an "us" and "them" stance.  This is not what America is about.  We have gotten into this pendulum swing of national extremism, which started after 9/11, everyone had to show patriotic colors, support the military, police, firefighters, etc., if you didn't you would be labeled un-american.  Then the pendulum began to swing in the other direction, millennials were concerned with the environment, sincerity of the government, being in wars and foreign affairs.  If you didn't support the policies of the president you would be labeled a racist, xenophobia, bigot, etc.  Now during this election it is swinging back to nationalism, protecting our borders, reduced federal government in our lives, etc.  We need to take a hard look at how we are treating people as we swing through these extremes and at some point we need to get back to incorporating biblical principles and civility in our public square, to have love and compassion for our neighbors even when we disagree.  The point is that as we support one extreme and the other, we are not coming together to understand those differences.  Neither one of these extremes are inherently bad, the problem is, each side is using their "power" over the other when in power.  We need to stop the pendulum swing and come back together as a country.

We need to work together for a government that enforces the rule of law, no matter what position you hold.  We need to sympathize with those that are different than us and learn to understand them, and work to make a country that allows us all to live with equal opportunity.  Those of us that think BLM is all about killing cops need to understand the true reasons behind why BLM is protesting, there are reasons that need to be talked about and understood, a dialog of love, forgiveness, and understanding needs to take place.

We have gotten into a habit of lumping groups together.  We say, "All whites are racist" or "All Muslims are terrorists" or "All blacks are on welfare or cop killers".  None of these comments are true and it produces hatred and shuts down dialog and an intellectual conversation about the issues that are plaguing this country today that need to be discussed.  Let us begin this dialog today.  Let us welcome those with opposing views and life experiences and truly understand what they, our neighbors are concerned with.  We need to stand together when the rule of law is not being followed or when justice is not being served, even when it is our "side" that is not following those rules, because when the pendulum swings the other way, you do not want the other side to us those same tactics against what you support.  Having "your" president work around the Congress to get "laws" enacted that you support is OK, just remember when a president that you do not support gets into office do you want them to do the same thing?  We all need to support the rule of law whether a "law" is to our benefit or not otherwise we eventually will have someone in there that creates "laws" that we do not like.

Let our differences not divide us, but let us work through these differences to make us all stronger, if we can work together to address these issues we can overcome.  We need to be leaders of integrity to bring us back together.  We do not all want to be the same, so we need to work together to create an environment that brings out the good in our culture and the differences we all bring to the table creates an ever changing, evolving, dynamic, and wonderful blend of humanly that you can not find anywhere else in the world.  Let us demonstrate the positive side of this melting pot not the negative side.

As Americans we need to come together to unite, understand that what one side is dealing with was what the other side was dealing with 4 years ago.  Let us not take "revenge" on the policies and decisions that defined the last 8 years with equal and opposite concern for the other side.  This is not the time for a tit-for-a-tat politics.  If that is the direction this next president takes, we need to all stand as Americans against them and any policies that go against our principles and Constitution.  As Americans and especially Christians we need to take advantage of this opportunity to build a loving, forgiving environment that reflects the love that Jesus has for everyone.  We need to take into account the concerns of our neighbors.  If we fail to do this, there will be a swing in the opposite direction down the road that will not be favorable for you.

Its time to get to work, let us work together for a greater tomorrow.

The Constitution

Do you understand the Constitution of your country?  It is not just a document that dictates how the federal government operates, but it also outlines limitations of government on personal freedoms.  We need to fully understand this and understand who and why we are voting for and sending representatives to work on our behalf.  We also need to understand the purpose and the reasons for the decisions that are made and whether our representatives have the authority to make the decisions they are making.

When we give up our duty to be active in our our representation we jeopardize our freedom to govern ourselves.  God has blessed this country with the freedoms that have allowed us to prosper, not only from a financial perspective but more importantly the freedom of thought, speech, movement, and other personal desires.

We need to be more aware of our importance in those that represent us, we need to educate the next generation to understand the duties they have, and we need to hold accountable those that do not follow the laws that this country was and has been guided by.

Moral Presidential Candidates

I was just reading an article about how a "well-known evangelical theologian" was no longer endorsing Trump and bemoaned his character.  If basing your decision on moral character is determining your vote, I'm not sure there is anyone to vote for!

Romans 3:23 

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"

We are not going to find a person of moral character that will be sinless, but I do believe that we can find people that live up to the next verse,

Romans 3:24
"and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

Let not our sin define us, but rather through grace and a striving to be more like Jesus everyday be the definition of who we are.  

We are looking for people of character, not that they are perfect, but rather striving for that perfection.  The reason we have gotten so caught up and divided with Donald Trump is the fact that he is not striving for something greater than himself.  As a country we want a strong leader, but also a leader who knows that God is the creator and ultimate leader.

I hope that through this process we take inventory of our own character.  Determine if as individuals we are striving to be more like Christ everyday.  If we all did this our world would be a much different place, still not perfect, but better.  

Vote your conscience this election, understand who you are voting for, and at the end we must come back together as a nation and stop the division that has struck us over the past several years.  

Future of Education

The education of the next generation lies with utilizing, incorporating, etc. the changes that have been brought about by the information age technology; database management, information search-ability, and access to infinite amounts of information.  The future of education will take full advantage of these opportunities to offer educational services to everyone who is willing to partake.

We need to understand how the next generation is being raised, what information they have access to, how they think (they think differently then being raised in a non information accessible generation) in order to maximize the learning experience and prepare them for their future.  Our current system of education, class room lectures, short periods of learning one subject and moving to another subject, corporate learning, everyone graded based on where they should be for their age level and in preparation for going to college, etc.  I would like to note at this time that college is a good alternative for kids that need additional training in a professional subject, but it is not the right choice for everyone, and in today's world even the idea of going to college is getting turned on its head.

It is amazing to see how all the schools in this country have finally gotten around to preparing all students to go to college.  We have eliminated shop classes (we are too smart to have to build things with our hands), we focus more on social agendas than factual information, and we have reduced education to teaching everyone that they need to think all the same so we don't hurt anyone's feelings.  Listen, we will not survive as a country if we continue down this path.  We need to understand, embrace, and learn to communicate our differences in a civil, critical thinking, and honest manner.  We need to offer opportunities for kids to fail, to understand that we are not all going to be successful at the same thing, or all live in the same type of life style.  We need to broaden the possibilities and the acceptance of the type of work that provides for our families, the type of lifestyles that make up a dynamic, fruitful society.

The future is not about getting a job, although that's what a lot of us will do and that's ok, but the job landscape is changing and we will get into that in a moment, its about preparing kids to be independent.  In our society today there is no company loyalty, we have moved to a "contract" mentality even if we work for a company as an employee we can leave at anytime.  We need to teach our kids how to represent themselves whether they go to work for a company, start their own company, or create opportunities that create an income; we need to teach our kids about all these opportunities and how to operate in this future environment.

When you look at some of the most successful people in the world, a lot of them did not have a college or even some a high school education.  As Robert Kiyosaki points out in his book "A's and B's work for C's", C's being capitalists, these are people that create opportunities.  They are the visionaries.  These are the people that create the future.  We need to prepare our kids to think like this in the coming "work" environment.  We need to teach them to think critically, creativity, and cognitively.  We need to offer them hands on experiences.  As they think critically they will discover to use their brains to solve complicated problems and overcome their failures.

We need to be teaching the next generation with the skills to think this way.  In a digital world we need to offer opportunities to be hands-on, to think strategically (verses data collectors, reference: "Making Your Brain Smarter" by Sandra Bond Chapman), and think independently.

What if we created an environment where kids could explore ideas, learn through doing (and failing), and get exposure to hand-on applications, and real life experiences?  An environment that will prepare them earlier in life for being leaders that are successful and productive in business, the community, and as citizens.  With the access to unlimited educational programs and courses on line this is possible, to gain insight from the best teachers in the world and at a fraction of the price of a college education.  We need to take advantage of this access and provide instructional support to guide our kids to thinking this way earlier in life.  The one piece of information that I remember from college about being a designer was, you just need to know where to look for information, because you are not going to learn everything in school.  I want to offer this opportunity to the next generation.  To teach them not about facts and figures, but about the learning process and that the opportunities are limitless, they just need to know where to look and how to manage that knowledge and they will go far in life.

Values to instill:

1. To serve God and our neighbors with all our heart, mind, and soul.

2. Instill critical, creative, and cognitive skills to foster innovation, creativity, and self reliant thinking.

3. We need to learn and work smart so we can give generously.

Teaching focused on:

1. Values and principles from the bible

2. Citizenship through History Study

3. Information gathering and management

4. Hand-on experiences

5. Business/Management Systems

The sooner one can fail the sooner they will become wise.  Through the exercise of trial and error kids can build upon that experience.  They not only learn that they made a bad decision (critical thinking) they need to work through that mistake (cognitive thinking) to develop a solution to being successful (creative thinking).  What if we provided the resources, guidance, and wisdom to get to a successful solution faster?  This is the idea behind the next generation "school".  It would be an entrepreneur experience that would immerse the kids in a high sensory learning environment.  At first this could be overwhelming.  Part of this experience will be to help manage and start to build a path that will lead to to being a creative, generous, and successful leader that will not only create opportunities for themselves, but others as well.  

Living with "Margin"

There was a time when we had time to visit a neighbor, take time to sit and read a newspaper, call someone just to see how their were doing.  Today we have gotten in this mode of always being busy, needing to fill up every bit of time with something.

Toby talked about this a couple of weeks ago and I think it is so important to have margin in your life, to stop and smell the roses.  Life goes by quickly and we aren't stopping to enjoy it.  By living this way we aren't "available" when He calls us to serve Him or others.  We have crammed ourselves to the hilt with activities, need for information about our friends and other people, we move on average every 4-7 years, so we are constantly meeting new people that we need to keep in touch with, we travel miles from where we live to work with people that we only see at work, and stop where we don't know anyone, we live in a public yet secluded life.  It is not wonder that we have a majority of the population on antidepressants.

We need to get back to a life style that brings everyone back to family, community (local), accountability to those around us.  To live in a community where we live and work and raise our families.  Where we teach our kids about being self-reliant and dependent on God and those around us.  Self-reliant isn't about doing everything yourself, its about have your own opinion, understanding the world enough to vote intelligently and carry on a logical conversation using critical thinking verses what others are pumping into our minds...

We live in a community, because God created us to live within a community, a community of believers, and people that support us.  Our marriage is a reflection of our relationship with God and God ordains this, this unit of two people is the smallest group of community.  As Francis Chan mentions in his book "Forever You and Me", marriage is Gods smallest battle unit.  It is a starting point for building community in our lives, we depend on our spouse and we do things with them within our community.  We experience life with them.  This is God's way of providing another person to walk through life with.

Not sure how we get back to this type of life where others matter enough to allow us to stop and take the time to help others in need.  If we don't do this ourselves it will be impressed upon us through other avenues, that will eventually tip the teeter totter in the other direction, and the outcome will more extreme then we can envision.  May we come back to this way of life before it is impressed on us...

Millennials

Millennials are the future.  Whether we embrace it or not.  Toby had a really good message on Sunday that spoke the truth about the position that the current church must embrace and about the position that the millennials find themselves in and are non the less concerned about.  This position is a position that is different than the previous generation, they are a generation of innovators, thinkers, and free wills, they are the "We" generation.  This in contrast to the previous generation of the "Me" generation, building wealth, and creating a stable, comfortable lifestyle.  There are pros and cons to both ways of thinking.  Glen Beck pointed this out from some books and authors he read and interviewed, I think the "Pendulum" was one of the books.

Toby talked about building the future of the church that includes building up the next generation of leaders, the problem is that the Millennials have a lot of ideas and energy, but no resources or money or wisdom to navigate getting successful results.  Generations need to work together to build a future of tomorrow that encompasses all of our strengths.  Together with can build anything, divided we fail.
We need to utilize our elder generation for their wisdom, they have so much to offer and we have already let many years of experience disappear and those that had learned so much pass a way without that knowledge getting handed down to the next generation.  We have lost our family history from being past on by dividing the family with sending our kids to school and we head off to work, only to be united briefly, if we are lucky for maybe a quick dinner.  We have lost the family as the nucleus of our society.

Millennials have learned from this, that friendship and love are more important then financial success, success that keeps us from Gods primary calling on our lives which is to love one another.  When we accumulate all this "stuff" we need to house it, store it, maintain it, and use it, it doesn't leave us with much time to enjoy life with those we are living it with.

We need to understand the Millennials are a generation of creative minds that want to create.  I met with a networking group of entrepreneurs in Denton about a year ago and it was very interesting that most of not all of them did not have business cards and most of them did not have a lot of money and din't seem to care about having any money as long as they were able to create.  Not that they didn't want to make money, but that it wasn't their first concern.

All this being said I believe that the direction that this thinking will head them is actually a good one.  One thing that humans will always have the ability to do is critical, creative, and cogitative thinking.  With the dawn of AI, robots are a long way off from being able to create outside of a logical process, I don't want to say they will never get their, but they are a ways off...   With this thought in mind the future belongs to those that can think critically, creativity, and cognitively.

We need to be teaching the next generation with the skills to think this way.  In a digital world we need to offer opportunities to be hands-on, to think strategically (verses data collectors, reference: "Making Your Brain Smarter" by Sandra Bond Chapman), and think independently.

(See Future of Education)

Focus on Christ

In this twisted world we need to stay focused on Christ.  We need to love God even more and continue to love our neighbor.  In this election season we have seen the worst of humanity, not just in the things said but also in the hateful nature those words and actions in some cases have demonstrated.  The part of being a part of a Christian based society is that, as Christians we do not conduct ourselves in this fashion (just another indication that we are in a post Christian era or not a Christian nation anymore).  There is civil discourse and as a nation we are not conducting ourselves in this way.  The traditional values that we have upheld from our founding have been taken over by entitlement, pride (striving for power), and self fulfillment and serving oneself.  If this is the future of the United States than I am happy to surrender myself to the one true King.  We as Christians need to understand that through the recent generations, we as a country have failed to pass on the Christian values that made this country great.  Through this failing we have entered the post Christian world.  Let us not be restrained by trying to sustain what has become an "American life style" without God.  Let us embrace a life style with God, living in a godless America.  Let us focus on what God has called us to do, let the world wander down the path of destruction, there is no need for us to follow.  Let us refocus our attention to love and raising Christ focused families.  When the world has imploded, Christ will prevail.  

When we focus on the discourse in the media, politics, and etc we lose focus on God.  This is very hard for those that believe that this nation has been blessed by God and find it had to believe that we need to give that up.  The issue is that we have been so focused on insisting on that God has ordained this nation that we have lost focus on the true target...

American Dream

What is the American Dream?  Our presidents' throw this idea around when they are talking about providing opportunities and benefits that the government can help the people reach a certain financial pinnacle.

The American Dream is not a tangible, it is an ideal.  The opportunity to struggle and succeed with out the restricts of class, government dictate, but within a rule of law that provides all the same opportunity to be successful in whatever endeavor that may be.  The typical reference to reaching this ideal is a house with a white picket fence.  This is not the "American Dream"!  This can be the thermometer but its not the goal.

We have become so caught up in the measurement of the American Dream we have lost focus on what it truly is.  The government has done as much as possible to provide, not an opportunity to reach the "American Dream" but rather, the house with a white picket fence, at the cost of future generations. This has come in the form of subsidy's for housing, college, and now phones, TVs, etc.

We need to teach our kids that the american dream is about what you make of your life not by what you gather.

Introduction

The United States of America was founded on biblical principles. We need to rediscover those principles. I felt a calling to raise awareness to what the bible says we need to be doing as Christians and contrast that with what our culture is telling us today.  My hope is that this will help reestablish biblical principles that will guide us today.

Through this calling and desire to bring Christ back to the forefront of this nation's consciousness, my intent is not to belittle those that are Christians but rather raise the question to ones own sole on whether they are acting as Christ would want them to act.  Providing a standard against the status quo of our contemporary society.  I fall short of these ideals but look to these thoughts as a standard to strive for in my own life.

As you read through these ideas please feel free to provide you thoughts and feedback.  I look forward to productive and civil dialogue with all representatives including those that may oppose wholeheartedly these ideas.  As a free society we must all be willing to listen and engage in ideas that may be extreme so that all grievances can be addressed, allow all to be included and take an active roll in the American experiment.

My intention is to focus on Biblical principles, but there may be a peppering of other thoughts that relate to other areas that I am passionate about.