Fatherhood and Manhood part 5

I am prepping for a Fathers Day Sermon this weekend (Service starts at 10AM at PleasantView Community Church) so throughout the week I want to share some songs, tidbits and statistics regarding fatherhood.

Please feel free to share any thoughts or comments about the posts or better yet, share a favorite memory about your father!

Dads, children will do what children will see. This is an essay by motivational Speaker John Maxwell. It is primarily based towards the work environment, but reflects human nature as a whole. IT applies to us Dads. Act the way you want your kids to act. Act as the the man you want your daughter to marry. Act as the husband you want your son to be. Act as the man you want your son to be.

People Do What People See

By Dr. John Maxwell

In your life as a leader, many things are beyond your control.

You cant control what your people say about you or think about you. You cant control the decisions prospective clients make about your company. You cant control your competitors marketing tactics. You cant control the national economy, the stock market or the weather.

But in the midst of an ever-changing, often uncertain environment, there is one thing you can control—your integrity. When it comes to being honest, principled and ethical, you are the master of your own destiny. Other people and external forces might test it in various ways, but at the end of the day, you alone control your integrity.

Integrity is all-encompassing. Its not something you demonstrate at home or church and set it on a shelf at work. People of integrity don’t live bifurcated lives; their morals, ethics, treatment of others and overall character are the same wherever they are, what ever they’re doing.

The foundational element of leadership is crosses geographic, religious, cultural and socioeconomic boundaries. As Fed Ex founder Fred Smith says, “If you look at every religion in the world, they all have the identical Golden Rule, almost word for word. It does not make any difference what religion or geography it is. There are universally transferable fundamental truths about how you treat people in both the business world and in the larger scheme of things.”

When you follow the Golden Rule and live with integrity, you set n example that has a far greater impact than any words you could ever speak. Why is leading by example such a powerful concept? I can answer that with five short words: People do what people see.

It sounds so simple, but it’s absolutely true. And it applies to so many areas of leadership.

First of all, its the No. 1 motivational principle. If you want to motivate your people to go to a whole new level, get motivated to grow and develop yourself. Remember– people do what people see.

Second, it’s the No. 1 training principle. When someone asks me, “How do you train your people?” I don’t have to think twice about it– people do what people see. If they see their leaders constantly learning and acquiring new skills and competencies, they’ll be inspired to do the same.

Thirdly, “people do what people see” is the No. 1 mentoring principle. What do you do when you mentor someone? You flesh out your life for them– you give them an insider’s view of what you’re experiencing and how your handling it. The goal, of course, is for the person you’re mentoring to learn from your mistakes and successes so that when they are faced with something similar, they make the right choices.

Finally, its the No. 1 values principle. A company might spend a great deal of time formulating impressive-sounding values statements and core beliefs, but these principles don’t mean anything unless the leaders in the company– from the corner office on down—model them consistently.

Why is adhering to the right values such an important par toff leading by example? Paul O’Neill, retired Alcoa chairman and former Treasury Secretary, gives us a clue: “If people can find even trivial examples of deviation, these deviations will become the norm,” he says. “You really have to be almost religious in making sure that you don’t do something somebody can point to in a negative way.”

In other words, if you want to lead by example in a positive way, you must be committed to living a life of integrity. When you are right on the inside, you lead correctly on the outside. It starts with you and spreads out to everyone in your circle of influence.

If you want to be a successful leader in turbulent times, live with integrity and lead by example. Remember– people do what people see.

This was given to me at a previous job by one of the only managers who believed in me. It had a great affect on me at the time in my poriofessional and personal life. When I left that job I actually lost the paper it was printed on and, though I always remembered it, I let it slip from my convictions.

It really can and should be used in our personal lives as well. I have been doing a lot of studying and some mentoring in regards to Biblical Manhood and this seems to fit right in. Men, this is vitally important when learning how to lead your families. Your wife, your kids, everyone around you,will do what they see.

Remember — people do what people see. Dads, your kids are going to grow up wanting to be just like you.

Casey

Fatherhood and Manhood part 4

Please feel free to share any thoughts or comments about the posts or better yet, share a favorite memory about your father!

Adam Mitchell’s Speech for Fathers – Courageous

As a law-enforcement officer, I’ve seen firsthand the deep hurt and devastation that fatherlessness brings in a child’s life. Our prisons are full of men and women who lived recklessly after being abandoned by their fathers, wounded by the men who should have loved them the most. Many now follow the same pattern of irresponsibility that their fathers did.

While so many mothers have sacrificed to help their children survive, they were never intended to carry the weight alone. We thank God for them.

But research is proving that a child also desperately needs a daddy. There’s no way around this fact. As you know, earlier this year, my family endured the tragic loss of our -year-old daughter, Emily. Her death forced me to realize that not only had I not taken advantage of the priceless time I had with her, but that I did not truly understand how crucial my role was as a father to her and our son, Dylan. Since her passing, I’ve asked God to show me, through his word how to be the father that I need to be.

I now believe that God desires for every father to courageously step up and do whatever it takes to be involved in the lives of his children. But more than just being there or providing for them, he’s to walk with them through their lives and be a visual representation of the character of God, their father in heaven.

A father should love his children and seek to win their hearts. He should protect them, discipline them and teach them about God.
He should model how to walk with integrity and treat others with respect and should call out his children to become responsible men and women who live their lives for what matters in eternity.

Some men will hear this and mock it or ignore it.
But I tell you that as a father, you are accountable to God for the position of influence he has given you.
You can’t fall asleep at the wheel only to wake up one day and realize that your job or your hobbies have no eternal value but the souls of your children do.

Some men will hear this and agree with it but have no resolve to live it out.
lnstead, they will live for themselves and waste the opportunity to leave a godly legacy for the next generation.

But there are some men who, regardless of the mistakes we’ve made in the past, regardless of what our fathers did not do for us, will give the strength of our arms and the rest of our days to loving God with all that we are and to teach our children to do the same, and, whenever possible, to love and mentor others who have no father in their lives but who desperately need help and direction.

We are inviting any man whose heart is willing and courageous to join us in this resolution.
In my home, the decision has already been made.
You don’t have to ask who will guide my family, because by God’s grace, I will.
You don’t have to ask who will teach my son to follow Christ, because l will.
Who will accept the responsibility of providing and protecting my family? I will.
Who will ask God to break the chain of destructive patterns in my family’s history? I will.
Who will pray for and bless my children to boldly pursue whatever God calls them to do?
I am their father. l will.

I accept this responsibility, and it is my privilege to embrace it.
I want the favor of God and his blessing on my home.
Any good man does.
So where are you, men of courage?
Where are you, fathers who fear the Lord?
It’s time to rise up and answer the call that God has given to you and to say, “I will. I will. I will.”

Casey

1 Cor 16:13

Fatherhood and Manhood, Part 1

Please feel free to share any thoughts or comments about the posts or better yet, share a favorite memory about your father!

Casey

Welcome Back Baseball….

Its the greatest time of year. Spring Training is over. The smell of freshly cut grass and hotdogs and peanuts are in the year. Every team has a chance, Its opening Day.

But withe baseball (FINALLY!!!!) back, I thought I would share some wonderful quotes (mostly the same as last year, but I hope to add some more throughout the day) and a video at the end that gives me goose bumps every time I watch it. Do you have nay great quotes to add? I’d love to hear them in the comments section below.

You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you.- Roy Campanella

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. ~A. Bartlett Giamatti, “The Green Fields of the Mind,” Yale Alumni Magazine, November 1977

You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time. ~Jim Bouton, Ball Four, 1970

“Character, Courage, Loyalty.”

Little League Motto

One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to, reach down and prove something- Nolan Ryan

Don’t tell me about the world. Not today. It’s springtime and they’re knocking baseball around fields where the grass is damp and green in the morning and the kids are trying to hit the curve ball. ~Pete Hamill

That’s the true harbinger of spring, not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of a bat on a ball. ~Bill Veeck, 1976

People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. ~Rogers Hornsby

Baseball is beautiful….the supreme performing art. It combines in perfect harmony the magnificent features of ballet, drama, art, and ingenuity.-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn

Casey

Proverbs 16:3

A mother’s joy

As mothers, we get to share our faith with our children often. Sometimes by reading bible stories, other times answering questions, and sometimes using life as object lessons. With all, we pray that some of it sticks. You know the verse, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” I do this often, just praying that a tenth of the good I teach sinks in, not the things I do wrong. But I was reminded this last week, that it is not what I say or do that gets to my childs’ hearts, it is Christ Himself and His word that works in their lives. I got to see that with Finn.

I was in the kitchen, cooking dinner, when he came around the corner, cute as could be, playing a little doggy guitar his aunt had given him for his last birthday. He started singing, not asking me to be his audience, like many other times. He already had one. He sang, ” I love Jesus, God you are strong, God you are the only super hero in real life, God is good for sin, He takes our sin and timeouts. God you are beautiful.”

My 3 year old was praising God, and in his simple song, was more profound than many so called preachers in the pulpit on any given Sunday. He, with his child-like faith, showed understanding I strive for and miss on many days. I bent down, misty-eyed, and thanked him for singing. He asked me, “mommy, did you like my song?”

“Yes, Honey, I think it’s the best song I’ve ever heard in my life.” I got to see the grip God has on his life, and am so excited for his next song.

Our Weakness is Gods Strength

So today was the day. January 12, 2014 was the day I first got up in the pulpit and preached my first sermon. I was given the parameters of giving my testimony rooted in Scripture. One of the funniest parts was that the verse I based my sermon on, (Hebrews 11:6) I had not noticed until just a few weeks ago at one of the Bible Studies Ive been attending since moving up here.

I had already been working on this sermon for over a week and had no idea what I would be saying. Then, over the course of a day and a half, good revealed to me what direction this would take. I took inspiration from that verse, and from a book called The Explicit Gospel by Pastor Matt Chandler.

It only ended up being about 20 minutes, but with my nervousness and lack of experience, Im just fine with that. Thank fully the good people at Pleasant View Community Church posted it very quickly so here it is.

Questions, comments, concerns?

Any and all feedback welcome!

Casey

Matthew 7:21-27