After nearly four-years of my blogging experiment my wonderful wife Connie has entered the blogosphere…well sort of. I don’t think I will ever talk her into having her own blog.
She has the honor of being a guest blogger on our friends Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo’s Blog.
Here is her first post. Pass it on to new Mom’s that you may know and look for more to come.
By the way Growing Kids God’s Way is one of the absolute best things I have ever done for my family.
My thoughts almost exactly…I will wait to see if Tony can figure this out…I am thinking that I am 14 years older than I need to be to understand Facebook.
I am not sure that I have ever truly understood the power of words like I have come to as a parent. Over the last two years we have been training Isabelle on a few key words to help her develop “habits of the heart”. We have been learning some amazing stuff through the parenting class, Growing Kids God’s Way, that we offer at Seacoast Church. I thank my friend’s Mr. and Mrs. Ezzo, for so much wisdom.
Obedience. Big word for a two-year old, but she needs to know what it means.
One way that we work on teaching Isabelle what obedience looks like, ultimately shaping her knowledge of the word towards God, is by expecting first time obedience.
When Isabelle was about 15 months old we started working on having her responding to us with “Yes Mommy” or “Yes Daddy” anytime we gave her a instruction or command. Not just “yes” or even “yes ma’am or sir”, but a very specific “yes mommy”.
Using these exact words this was an acknowledgement of the fact that she heard and was aware that there was an expectation of obedience. This certainly did not happen overnight, but with just a little prodding we get a “Yes Mommy” or “Yes Daddy” about 90% of the time now.
Our next step was to get a “Yes Mommy Coming” or “Yes Daddy Coming” anytime we call her from anywhere in the house or at a store or a Park. You get the picture.
We started this about six months ago and a couple of days ago it dawned on me that about four times during the afternoon and night I had said, “Isabelle” from somewhere in the house and that this little two-year old had run to me saying, “Yes Daddy coming!” In fact I would say we get a “Yes Mommy coming” about 75% of the time with no prodding and about 99% of the time with just a little nudge.
This first time obedience started with the training of what words mean.
I tell this story because it illustrates something that I think we have lost the art of in this new world. Words
I think we have a responsibility as leaders and for some pastors to teach words and model what they mean.
My friend Steven Furtick once told his church that in order to watch MSNBC you would have to learn some of the jargon and the words to understand and no one would apologize, but that sometimes in the church we shy away from words that really mean things. I agree.
Words are amazing.
That is the time I ran 4 miles in last week.
I have let a barrier and a goal of breaking 26 minutes haunt me for a few months now and just could not get over it in my mind. I have even hit 26:04 one time but just could not break thru – it was really starting to annoy me.
Last week after writing out some personal goals for 2008 as a leader and helping craft some major goals for my department I decided I needed to go break-thru this personal goal as a great kick off for the year ahead (I know its almost March, but I am a little slow).
I learned a couple of things. Three things coincidently.
1. Pace is important, but to really break-thru on a goal you will need to sprint on occasion. I had tried on several occasions to just set the speed on the treadmill at a 6:28 mile and plug away but found that steady wins the race is not always possible. During this time of success I went as fast as a 5:18 mile and as low as a 8:00 mile.
2. Pain is always a hurdle to success. Every runner is different, but I always hit a wall around the two-mile mark with my legs. It a short but painful wall (could be because I never stretch, buts thats another post entirely) and most of the time I slow to a 9:00 pace for a few minutes which is always hard to recoup. To get past this hurdle took a little pain.
3. It feels really good to reach a goal. I am always surprised at how good I feel when I reach a goal. This reminds me that I need to be more diligent about writing down my goals and celebrating them when I meet them.
Next Goal 25:29…Any tips?
After posting about the multi-site exposed conference last week, I also got confirmation that I am going to be teaching two break-out sessions at another brand new conference: ECHO Church Media Conference. The ECHO team has summed up the conference as “a conference for church leaders who love using media, technology, and the Internet to be more effective in sharing God’s story.”
I am going to be teaching sessions called:
“The Myth of Excellence” and “200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One”
Here’s what you need to know:
When – August 14-16, 2008
Where – Watermark Community Church in Dallas, TX
How Much – $269 Super Early Bird
Big Names/Heavy-Hitters – Donald Miller, Mark Batterson, Matthew Paul Turner, Mark Steele, Brad Abare, and Todd Wagner
More Info – http://www.echoconference.com
1. Sometimes people wake up in a bad mood. She must have said to herself this morning “I am going to have a bad day and why not take Mom and Dad down with me.”
I need to remember that sometimes this 33 year old does the same thing…and so do my co-workers. Grace is the word on those days.
2. Training happens best in times of non-conflict. Honestly if her mother and I had tried to discipline over every offense in the first 30 minutes of this morning it would have just gotten worse. So we decided that a little “strategic ignoring” would be best.
Never try and train volunteers under stress, never try and teach into team members during intense fellowship and never try and lead up when you are arguing for your point.
3. Mom’s are incredible. My wife is amazing at training at the right time, disciplining appropriately and also knowing when to just ignore. I try and micromanage the situation and often micromanage myself into a stand off with a two-year old that is willing to take me down to china town if needed. Five minutes later, after some ignoring, she was playing peacefully while her mom fixed breakfast.
Find your inner-mom…or something like that. Be a peacemaker when possible and discipline when needed.
My friend Todd Rhodes e-mailed this morning to let me know that the registration site for the multi-site exposed conference is up and live!
This is an incredible conference with regional options (including right here at Seacoast) that you do not want to miss if you are interested in, already gone or getting ready to go multi-site.
Go check it out!
I really want to be a success as a father. Connie and I are doing everything we can to learn to be wise.
In that same thought I saw this great post on the Desiring God blog…
On the humility that comes from having a successful child: “Nobody stands around looking at the launching pad after the rockets have taken off.” Gregg Harris
