When I see a young person who is well mannered, pleasant, smiles at people, talks to people in a way that shows that they are obviously concerned about them, asking good questions, takes initiative when in a group to introduce themselves, makes a point to target older people to honor them, doesn’t talk critical about others, and has an obvious poise and confidence in who they are but not obnoxious or haughty, I think to myself, they have been well parented. Patty and I had eight kids and one of the major purposes of our life was to raise champions. They are all adults now, seven married with their own kids, and when I am around them I enjoy watching and listening as they interact with others. I don’t think anything gives me more joy at this stage in my life then seeing the character that they all have that makes them a very positive influencer of those around them. We have 22 grandchildren and though it is different I still try to think how I can be an influencer in their life so that they are champions. The most important thing I have done and continue on a daily basis is pray. I believe that God gives great authority to parents and grandparents with Him when they intercede for them faithfully, specifically, and diligently. The second thing that I can do is be a good model when around them of godly character. As I get older I have found that I have a strong inclination to be withdrawn and uninvolved, to grumble and be grouchy, and to just figure my job is done. As I regularly and often review this purpose of my life it prompts me to be proactive as a Dad, father in law, and grandfather and to choose how to act when around my family. A third thing that I work hard at is to praise them for who they are and what they do. A forth way to influence is to give counsel for living when there is an opportunity and it is approiate without lecturing. The last part of that is difficult and I find myself repenting often of it as I review the day. The last is to help whenever I can by meeting needs financially or by doing things that help with needs or problems. Being a Dad, Father-in-law, and Grandfather is a high calling from God, and I want to do it well.

My personal dozen “Purpose Statements” are 1. Love God, 2. Love Patty, 3. Love people, 4. Raise Champions, 5. Make disciples, 6. Keep it simple, 7. Train well, 8. Be strong, 9. Be wise, 10. Work hard, 11. Be a witness, and 12. Finish strong. I wrote about loving God and loving Patty in the last 2 blogs, in this blog I will write about loving people. Of the 12 this is the one that is most difficult for me. Not difficult to do but difficult to stay motivated to do. That is because I am so selfish as most are. The first thing I do to overcome my natural selfishness is to pray for people. I do this systematically so that I will be faithful. I used to have a big 3 ring binder with one person per page where I would write the needs, problems, and character issues I needed to pray about for each person. Now I have an IPad where I do the same. The second thing that I do as an act of love is to forgive anybody of anything no matter what they do or how many times they have done it. The third way I can love people is to honor them by listening and paying sincere attention to them when they share their story, needs, problems, and dreams. I am always in a hurry so this is a discipline that I must work at diligently. The forth commitment that I have as an act of love is not to gossip or slander a person to another individual. The last thing is to meet needs in those around me if given the opportunity. I try to pay attention to those obviously God ordained opportunities that come into my life. None of these aspects of loving people will happen unless I review these regularly and think about how I am doing.

One of the commands in the Bible that seems impossible to obey is Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her”. This whole list of 12 purpose statements began when Patty asked me what I meant when I told her That I loved her. It took me a number of days to think that one through and when I finished I wrote out a list of commitments or promises that I was making to her every time I said “I love you”. The first commitment is that she is the only woman in my life. She is the only one physically, emotionally, and mentally. Every time I say “I love you”, I am remaking that commitment. The second promise that I am making to her every time I say “I love you”, is that I will not get angry at her, not even a little bit irritated no matter what she does, no matter how many times she does it, but I will forgive her of anything quickly. The third is that I will talk to her any time she wants for as long as she wants listening attentively, paying sincere attention to her words. The fourth is that I will not be overly dependent on her and possessive of her time, and I will encourage her to develope her Spiritual gift and personal ministries. The fifth promise I am making to Patty every time I say “I love you” is that I will pursue her like I did when we first met and will work diligently to grow in our intimacy and closeness as husband and wife.I review this list of commitments regularly and often so that my declarations of love to Patty are not thoughtless and meaningless. When I finished this statement of love to Patty I decided to do the same for God and then the remainder of my personal “Purpose Statements” followed.

The first of my 12 purpose statements is “Love God”. It seemed reasonable to me when I was making this list that this should be the one on top. Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”. Knowing what the great commandment is, is not the hard part, the hard part is how. As I mentioned in my blog a couple days ago I have 5 specific “How’s” under each of the purpose statements. I will love God by seeking Him. I will seek Him by spending time with Him in solitude daily praying, listening to my thoughts and writing them down in my journal. I will love God by worshiping Him. I will work at thanking Him all day long for everything working at taking nothing for granted and taking credit for nothing that He has accomplished through me. I will be conscientious in corporate worship times to sing loud and to direct the words I sing to Him and pull my thoughts in when they wander away. I will love God by honoring Him by grumbling about nothing that happens no matter how bad it may be, and will choose to rejoice instead, always. I will love God by keeping His commandments and confessing all known sins quickly. I will love God by giving money to Him sacricially to help keep myself from loving the world and the stuff in it and being an idolater. I will be very careful to reflect and examine myself often recognizing my flesh’s proneness to wander away from God and leave my first love.

These are the dozen short statements that control the direction, priority, and focus of my life. I wrote these after a year of writing and erasing, writing, and rewriting as I considered all the possiblitities. I tried writing full sentences, but knew I would struggle remembering them, and finally settled on this list of 2 and 3 word statements as the best possible choice of words that would guide me in all that I did. I finished this on my 50th birthday, 17 years ago. I remember thinking at the time, boy, I wish I hadn’t waited so long in my life to come up with this list, but now it seems so long ago and as I have constantly reviewed, thought about, and meditated on these 12 short statements they have been instrumental in excellerating my pursuit of character and fruit in my life, rather than slowing down as I have gotten older and developed various health issues and problems. Just reading this list is like drinking an energy drink, I wake up, get excited, and start planning and making goals and todo lists. It is now 9:30 pm and I have not yet pedaled my stationary recumbent bike for an hour, and I don’t want to in the worst way, so I read these values that are the focus of my life, and I get up out of my recliner and get after it. Not that I want to any more than before, but now I know I have to so quit procrastinating and just do it.

1. Love God
2. Love Patty (the way Jesus loves the Church)
3. Love people
4. Raise champions
5. Make disciples
6. Keep it simple
7. Train well
8. Be strong
9. Be wise
10. Work hard
11. Be a witness
12. Finish strong


In yesterday’s blog I said that I had 12 “Purpose Statements” also called “Mission Statements” or “Value Statements”. These are the foundation of my life and the basis for all of my decisions and the basis for all of my goals. I make new goals every year, but my “Purpose Statements” never change. It is the fact that they are fixed, never changing that keeps me headed in a straight line in my life, with out detours. yesterday I wrote about one of the twelve, in fact it is the last one on the list which seems reasonable as it is ” Finish Well”. I was going to write about a new one each day, but a number of you asked what they were so I will give you the list first.

1. Love God
2. Love Patty (the way Jesus loves the Church)
3. Love people
4. Raise champions
5. Make disciples
6. Keep it simple
7. Train diligently
8. Be strong
9. Be wise
10. Work hard
11. Be a witness
12. Finish well

Each of the 12 has a number of Bible verses that go with them that I have memorized and meditate on. Each one of the Statements has a number of sub points, usually 5 that describes in more detail how I will successfully become these values. Reading through the 12 “Purpose Stayements”, the verses that go along with them, and the 5 or so sub points under each one slowly, thoughtfully and reflectively is a great exercise that helps me see weak areas of my life that I need to work at a bit more. I don’t want to live my life frantically, but I do want to live it motivated and hot. I don’t want to be lazy and indifferent, but I do want to be relaxed and stress free, enjoying the journey. These “Purpose Stayements” have been a great tool for me.

A goal is very specific and measurable. It is like a bullseye, you know if you hit it or if you missed. I write and pursue goals as a way of life. My goals are based on my “Purpose Statements”, also called “Mission Statements”. My “Purpose Statements” are general and broad, stating a direction or priority of my life. I write new goals every year, but my “Purpose Statements” stay the same. I have 12 clear “Purpose Statemnts” that define what my highest values are in life. All 12 of my “Purpose Statements” are short, and easy to remember and to mentally review. One of the twelve is “Finish Strong”. It is based on Revelations 2:10 “Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life”, also Revelations 2:3 “You have perseverance and have endured for My Name’s sake, and have not grown weary.” Also 2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Endurance is a result of being in shape and though I exercise an hour every day the key area is spiritual. Faithfully every day without compromise I spend time reading, studying and memorizing the Bible, I give God a daily chunk of time in private, devoted prayer, I spend some time reflecting and examining my life and confess all know sins to God, every morning I present myself to Him as Lord of my life and ask for His strength, wisdom, and protection, and I always end the day by thanking Him for all He has done for me. I see a lot of people who are not finishing well in life, but are drifting away from God, coasting, plateauing, and making bad choices. I live with a healthy fear of messing up before the race is over so I do all I can to stay close to God so I won’t.

My Mom came down for a few days to see us all and attend the Christmas drama at JBC. Having Mom around always prompts my brain to reminisce about growing up, how I was raised, how we raised our kids as a result and how our kids are raising theirs. I have been doing some fresh writing on the topic of how to raise champions because I am scheduled to do a seminar on parenting in Nevada next month. Probably the main thing my Mom taught me, and Patty and I had as a main goal raising our kids, and the more I counsel people I am even more convinced now that it is super important. That is to raise our kids to be able to stand alone. I am not talking about being indifferent or being a standoffish person. I am talking about being a person who does not get their self worth from other people. So many are obsessed with pleasing or impressing others, worried about what their opinion is of us. It makes us easily offended and hurt by the words and treatment of others, we don’t live with values and convictions that we own, but those of the people around us and they change all the time. We are easily intimidated and bullied. We can’t really serve others well and with right motives until we are free of being controlled by their opinion of us and how they treat us. So many parents today get upset if their kids aren’t treated well by others. It is better to take advantage of those events to teach them to rise above what others do and say. When I was in grade school a kid named Fred would steal my lunch and eat it. I told my Mom and the next morning she had two lunches made for me and told me to give one to Fred on the bus ride to school. Seemed stupid to me but I did it and repeated the action regularly and Fred became a good friend and because he was such a big kid a great protector from other bullies in school. The basic lesson learned from my Mom was don’t react to others bad behavior, but do what is right for God’s approval and you will get worth and value straight from Him. Jesus said to do good to those who mistreat you. Not very many people live by that principle today.

I have a 300 gallon plastic IBC tank buried in the ground in my green house with 282 Tillapia in it in various sizes. Tilapia will die if the water gets below 60 degrees for very long and below 70 degrees they don’t eat much or grow. So I have a hot water heater element in the side of the tank with an electronic temperature controller hooked up to it to keep the temperature right at 75 degrees. I went out to feed my fish this morning and the water temperature digital display screen said 85 degrees. What!! How can that be? I stuck my little handie dandie thermometer into the water and it was down to 62 degrees, oooooooo that is not good!! the temperature controller had obviously malfunctioned. I quickly wired the heating element direct so it was on continuously while I tried to fix the problem. I played around with it for an hour trying to get it to work, but it seemed like it was toast. I had another one in my aquaponics box of stuff for a back up, but when I got it out of the box to hook it up the instructions were all in Chinese. It was a different brand then the one I had been using, but I thought I could get it wired up without the instructions. Got it all done and flipped the breaker on and I fried my controller! Oops, that wasn’t very smart!! Meanwhile I kept checking the water temperature and turning the electricity off and on to my heating element to keep the water close. Then I did what any smart person does, I typed in “how to fix a Racon electronic temperature controller”, on Utube on my IPad. I watched several videos that sounded like my problem and I gave it a shot. Got done, hooked it up and success, it works. I now have a new skill.

I don’t know about you, but I regularly have thoughts like, “that’s not fair”, or simply, ” you gotta be kidding me”, or ” give me a break”. So many things in life are not right, not fair, not just, and thinking about them can make you very angry, frustrated and ultimately bitter. We live in an age where because of communication tools we can read a lot of other people’s frustration about various situations and conditions of life. Reading and hearing about the problems of so many leads to a definite pessimistic attitude about life in general. I have an anchor that I pull on periodically to make sure I haven’t drifted to far. That anchor is my believe that Jesus is coming soon and when He does He will straighten everthing out. God is totally just and there will come a day when Jesus will rule on the earth and those who have been faithful in serving Him will rule with Him. I meditate often on the end. I really believe that Jesus is ultimately just and fair. It will all work out in the end, at the end of the world as we presently know it.