Pre - Read

Emily has made it safely to Ecuador and is busy serving and learning over there. Here are a few books I recommended to her before she took off. I think she got to one or two of them at least.

The Language of the Fall

Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”


 "Complaining is the language of The Fall"


I recently heard this, and it resonated, so I thought I'd share.

The reason the fall came about was because it seemed that all that was provided was not good enough.

As the lines above spell out, the fall also led to plenty of other reasons to complain.

 But, it is not the language that we should use. It leads to more dissatisfaction and more poor decisions. It is the language that led to The Fall of mankind and it is the language that continues to spell out our fallen state.

Learn a new language.

A Three Pronged Attitude

We spend a good deal of time at our house discussing attitude and the importance of it in daily life. We also spend a good deal of time having bad attitudes and seeing firsthand the effects of living with a bad attitude.

I recently read this book and some others around here are spending some time with it as well. Unlike many books describing the Navy Seals, it does not spend extensive time describing BUDS training ans how hard it is and all that. While those books are certainly informative, interesting and challenging, this one has some very unique merits.

Jason Redman is a former Navy Seal Officer, who was initially an enlisted Seal before getting into a program that led to his commissioning. While he is most known for life altering injuries he sustained and a a sign on his recovery room door that warned visitors not to feel sorry for him, this book is compelling because it delves into his attitude.

He did not start out with a stellar attitude. Far from it, as he ably describes. He also does a great job of showing his transformation in attitude, the difference it made in his life and career and the struggles before and after this transformation, including the injuries he faced.

This book has plenty of battlefield action, insider viewpoints and the like to keep you interested. But for me, the best part was the hard won lessons Redman shared about life, leadership and how attitude makes a huge difference in both.

Redman's Nonprofit Organization: Wounded Wear

The Sign:

Highlights

  

Sometimes things don't turn out as you have planned, exactly. But I have found that one of the best ways to face disappointment is to be grateful for the good things that are there.

So, this year wasn't really full of disappointment. I set you up with that one. But, I do have plenty of things to be grateful for. Here are some of the highlights of the year.

- Diane and I  got to head out to Lake Tahoe where I performed the wedding ceremony for the kids of some of our great friends from Sacramento.

- We spent the week at Angel's Camp in California with some of Diane's family and some other great friends!

- I was selected to be The volunteer Chaplain for the Northwest Fire Department.

- Our family was privileged to help welcome a refugee family from the Congo to our community with a team of friends.

- I was invited to be a board member with the Tucson Refugee Ministry.

- Emily decided to make a big leap of faith and sign up for a missions trip to Ecuador.

-We had a great support party for Emily's upcoming trip and were truly blessed by the support that those that attended (and many that weren't able to) showed us.

-We got to take a trip out to Colorado to see T.J. before he left for a second deployment to the Middle East.

- We had some great visitors stay with us for the holidays!

- My work assignment changed, which made me sad, but I got a new and interesting assignment working with a good team.

Cheers to you as we head into 2014! What are you grateful for?