God has a plan. He is great! Have you ever had an experience where your expectations are different than the reasons for why you are in that situation? It was made perfectly clear recently that my reasoning for being hired was a lot different than what I had thought.
In my career I've developed a level of knowledge and experience to create some of the most beautiful and expense aircraft interiors in the world. I've travelled the world and had the chance to meet interesting and powerful individuals. I have developed some of the must innovative and interesting solutions to creating these interiors. I had gained great experience in the process of launching my own company. I put in my time and have reached a point in my career where I was ready to take on a leadership role of that opportunity was out there.
Through the process of building my own company I came across an opportunity to join a new company that wanted to do things differently! I thought with my expertise and knowledge I could bring a lot of value to the table, being in the financial situation I was in, I could not pass it up. Besides this was an opportunity to create a design studio from the ground up and get paid doing it!
I start in, even before my official start date of outlining how this now facility could streamline the design process thus saving time and money in the upfront process, which was the vision of the company as I understood it. I was ready to work within the management team and outline the integration of the design with engineering and production. Being strong with developing processes I was energized! God had called me to this opportunity and I was ready to embrace it with all of my being. God gives us our gifts and talents for opportunities like this!
After being in this role for several weeks it was becoming clear that some of the ideas and objectives I had envisioned for playing a lead role in creating the best interiors in the world was dimming.
I was starting to realize that my desires were different than the companies. The time finely arrived to provide some direction to the path I was headed down. A meeting was scheduled to discuss certain aspects of my work assignments. (As a side note, even though the results from this meeting did not , as I felt came out in my career favor, it was freeing to know that the responsibility for the design would not be on my shoulders, God has bigger plans.) It was made perfectly clear that design would not be managed by "us" internally but by an outside design firm, we would be operating in a support and coordination role. I would be using my 20+ years of knowledge and experience to promote someone else's work above my own.
This shows that God has more important plans for my life then becoming the best designer. He is showing me that I need to put him first in my life and my accomplishments second (John 3:30). This is a good test of over coming worldly desires to be number one and promoting someone else.
God, keep me focused on you so my heart grows closer to you. Teach me through this experience to be humble and that you are first, not me.
Showing posts with label Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christ. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Friday, April 19, 2019
Being Unique through Christ
Put Jesus first. Discipleship is the imitation of the teacher not just in his teaching but also in living. Live like the master. Romans 8:29
Christ allows us to be who we are, liberates us from this world, but at the same time conforms us to be more like him.
Interesting how conforming to Christ is actually freeing and liberating us from this world. God creating us uniquely. 2 Corinthians 5:17. We are called to be unique through Christ.
Saturday, November 12, 2016
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
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...
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