Self Development

Self development is one of the most joyful engagements humans have the opportunity of being a part of. God gave you potential...you get the opportunity to develop it. A friend of mine was just telling me the story of being in the car with a 92 year old lady who was telling them how God was teaching her about her attitude and what she needed to do to improve it. How cool is that? Growth may seem hard (and it is) but really the sacrifices of growing are just a clever disguise. Once you pay the big price, you find that growth is actually very, very fulfilling.

Join us for this great day of learning and development. Make the sacrifices necessary to be a part of it! Deadline for early bird is April 15. You can register online at http://www.leadercastmoosejaw.eventbrite.com/

Leadercast Development Opportunity - May 4

JOIN US and if you know someone who might enjoy this ask them to join us. We are so excited about offering this leadership development opportunity to Moose Jaw and area.

Thanks Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler was a psychiatrist about 100 years ago. He developed a theory based around the idea that our weaknesses actually turn out to be advantageous because they help us develop strengths in other areas. For example, many people who do poorly in school become small business owners (entrepreneurs). In one study, over 35% of small business owners were self-identified dyslexics. A weakness in one area, forces people to become "overdeveloped" in another area. Many of the most accomplished people in history had some of the greatest handicaps, some of the worst life situations and some of the most horrific inner battles. The very things that we often think are our worst setbacks actually can be used to our advantage. Mark Batterson in his book Souprint writes, "perceived disadvantages such as birth defects, physical ailments and poverty, can be springboards to success. And that success is not achieved in spite of those perceived disadvantaged. It is achieved because of them.

Where can you leverage your perceived disadvantages in order to develop a stronger area in your life?
What challenges have you faced? How have those challenges made you better? Stronger?
Could it be that part of God's plan in molding you into a msterpiece (Eph. 2:10) is to use difficulties in your life to chisel something good, beautiful and strong in you?
What trials, struggles or difficulties are you facing right now? What can you do to co-operate with God so that your difficulties mold you into His vision for who you need to become?


“What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning - and some of them many times over - what do you find? That you can swim? Well - life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!” Alfred Adler

Significant Experiences of My Life Pt. 4

Returning from missions in the summer of 1990 I was a radically changed young man. My sole purpose in life was to pursue an intimate, personal, real, knowledge of God, being fully surrendered to Him in every moment and share the wonder and glory of my new reality with anyone who would receive it.  Several significant things happened together:
1. My parents accepted and encouraged my enthusiasm instead of trying to contain it. (This was no easy task as I was overly fanatical for the average bear!)
2. The people in my church, (which happened to be a calm, traditional church) took note of my changed life and encouraged me to share. This allowed me to speak to adults and children in church services, adult classes, children's classes, small groups and one on one. It affirmed my new found passionate faith and helped me discover what I was good at and not so good at.
3. Though some friends rejected me and we went our separate ways, several people at school were significantly impacted by my influence and we started several Bible studies, prayer groups, witnessing groups and more. This gave me confidence that God was at work in and through me.
4. I read, memorized and devoured the Bible (along with sermon tapes and church services) and spent lots of time in personal prayer. (One of my favourite memories from this season of my life is kneeling on the red throw rug in my room by my bed, enjoying God's presence.)

All of these things worked together to form a time of great growth in my life. But one more significant factor here...
5. I blew it a lot! I sinned. I lied, I got arrogant and proud, I lusted, I manipulated, I dishonoured my parents and much much more. How could that be? Well...that what I asked myself every time I recognized my own sin. Then I would repent, thinking I would never, never, never do it again. Of course, I would sin again. I learned a very important principle in that season. I am a mess, apart from Christ I will do nothing by blow it. I need to quickly repent and slowly improve my holiness.

Fixing You and Serving Me

In relationships we can be tempted to focus on the other person when it comes to improvement. We want to fix their faults and ignore our own. The strange thing is that we are focused on them when it comes to fixing but we are focused on ourselves when it comes to meeting needs and wants.
Of course, this is backwards. We need to focus on ourselves when it comes to fixing; examining and working on our faults while learning to overlook others. Then we need to focus on the other person when it comes to meeting wants and needs.
It is better to fix me and serve you than it is to try to fix you and serve me. Putting this into practice would revolutionize many marriages. It is the path of joy.

Growing Relationally

Oh man. This is something that matters WAY more than we give it credit. We can get better at relating to people by working at it. Why wouldn't we work at it? We can become better spouses, parents, friends, co-workers, neighbours, even better at interactions with strangers. Relational intelligence is one of the most missing ingredients in society today. Parents used to teach this to their children by modelling and by daily training. Sadly, today most parents don't have the relational skills to teach their kids or to model it. We have raised a generation on relationally broken people and our broken relationships are evidence of it. May I plead with you? Work on this! How?
1. Take the relational words of scripture seriously (ie. Phil. 2; Rom. 12; Proverbs 1-31; etc.). They are not just spiritual truths, they are practical advice that really works if you do it.

2. Notice those who are great relationally; observe how they behave; learn from them. Practice doing what they do.

3. Set goals for yourself; work consciously at it. Most of our relational habits are subconscious. In order to change them, we have to become intentional; we have to work at it. Any new behaviour feels awkward and takes lots of energy at first. The more we do it, the more it becomes natural.

4. If you’re really ambitious, read great material on it. "Everyone is Normal Until You Get to Know Them" by John Ortberg. There are several great John Maxwell titles on this subject (Be A People Person; Becoming a Person of Influence; 25 Ways to Win With People and more).

5. Ask for help. There are people in your life that would help you if you solicited it. Most people don't want to push relational advice on us because it seems rude to give it uninvited. We need each other. Ask for help.

Growing Spiritually

What is good for your soul? You are not just a physical being. I knew this as a child looking in a mirror at my physical body. I knew there was more to me inside that what I saw on the outside. In fact, you are more soul (or spirit) than you are a body at all. You live in a body but you are far more than your body.

How is the state of your spiritual life? What is the state of your heart? If we could do a spiritual heart exam, I wonder what it would reveal?

Things left to themselves tend to become chaotic and die. Our souls can fill up on junkfood and fill up with weeds; we need to tend to them or they will get sick.

What does the soul need to be healthy? I could tell you to read great books, or even the Bible. I could tell you to spend time in solitude, prayer or with great friends. I could tell you to go to church or to listen to great music and worship or to spend time in nature. But as true as all of those things are, they are skirting the real issue. They are all means to an end. What does my soul really need?

The Living Bread, the Living Water. In a word, JESUS. I know it sounds simplistic. But it's true. Not the idea of Jesus, not belief in Jesus, not the inclusion of Jesus into our already overcrowded lives...but Jesus the person. Jesus known and loved. Jesus encountered personally. Do you know Him? When was the last time you feasted your soul on Him?

Grow

One of the most satisfying things in life is to grow. Children are curious about life, always asking questions. Learning new things is one of my kids' favourite things to do. Life gets stale fast if we stop growing. God made us to grow. What is God teaching you lately?

The matrix I use for growth is Luke 2:52. "Jesus grew in wisdom, stature, favour with God and favour with men."
Four areas to keep growing:
- mentally
- physically
- spiritually
- relationally

I am off to a marriage conference to grow. Have a great day!

Failing Forward Some More

This whole idea of failing forward is one of the key concepts we will need to engage our lives, our families, our churches and organizations in continuous change. It creates a posture of learning and growing. One of the sayings I use around our church is that 'everything new is an experiment'. I introduce a new program or plan with words like this, "We are trying this out" or "we are experimenting with this." That way we develop an experimental and learning culture. If it works, our experiment was awesome and it succeeded. If it doesn't work, we learned from our experiment and try something else.

Here are some helpful hints I read recently,
“Rules for Being Human.”
Rule #1: You will learn lessons.
Rule #2: There are no mistakes – only lessons.
Rule #3: A lesson is repeated until it is learned.
Rule #4: If you don’t learn the easy lessons, they get harder.
Rule #5: You’ll know you’ve learned a lesson when your actions change.

"Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly." Matthew 36:74-75

"But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘ And it shall come to pass in the last days..." Acts 2:14-17