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.