I will

I will exhalt Jesus at all times: his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.

I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man (me) called and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he saves them. Thanks God, were cool...

Friends and Family deserve love over language!

Taken from an excerpt I read so I don't take any credit for this one!

Even if you are right, there is nothing gained from letting yourself become adversarial with your loved ones. Remember how much more important these people are to you than is the issue you are talking about.

For example,
Aaron is always right. At least, he thinks so. Whether it's a matter of a trivia question or the best way to hang wallpaper, Aaron knows the answer. When his family challenges him on some point, any point, Aaron launches an inquest. He asks people to tell him why they disagree, and then he tries to catch them in an inconsistency. His follow-up questions are like those used by a lawyer trying to get an unreliable witness to admit his faults. Aaron almost always wins. He almost always gets a concession from his witness. The problem is, Aaron's witness is not a criminal in a courtroom but a friend or loved one who holds a different opinion. Some of his friends have concluded it's just not worth disagreeing with Aaron and others have concluded it's not even worth talking to him, since you never know when a topic will lead to a fight. Aaron wins all the little battles, but he loses the metaphorical war. He loses the opportunity to spend enjoyable time with those he cares about.

Can't buy me love...

There is a movement in the United States of people called the minimalists. These are people who have decided to live on less money. They buy less, spend less, make less, and have less stuff. They also spend less time at work and more time with their friends and family. The minimalists have made a conscious conclusion that money did not buy them what they wanted most. They don't chase after money just because most people do. If money could buy happiness, there would be high-priced happiness stores on every corner! I read a study that looked at 20 factors that might contribute to happiness. Nineteen of those factors did matter and one did not. The one factor that did not matter was financial status (Hong 1995).
Don't get me wrong, I don't claim to be a minimalist, but I admire their outlook. It is kind of like people who call all Christians hypocrites. Well of course we are but at least we are trying to do something about it! A hypocrite is one step closer the Christ than the guy who just sits back and calls us hypocrites. Here's to loving you!

Solid Concrete

Do you want to be better at something. I do. I want to be better at my job, I want to be a better parent, I want to be a better servant, I want to be a better friend to you, and the list goes on. We need to be able to MEASURE our progress, to know that things are improving. You can't accomplish an abstract goal, because you'll never be sure if you're finished or not. I relate this back to when I was taking a class on how to vary the assessment tools of my students. For instance, tests, quizzes, homework, classwork, projects, participation, labs, etc. were all very important because they tools I could use to evaluate the learning of my students and I could do it in so many different ways then everyone could be successful. If you were a lousy test taker then just participate and do a good lab and such and you could make up for your short-comings on the tests. Too bad there aren't many teachers that care enough to put the effort into varying their assessments of students. I could go on forever on that topic but the point of this blog is to set your goals so that you can accomplish them. Make them concrete. See yourself cross the finish line. See your profit margin increase. Don't just wish or pray to a cosmic Santa Claus! It is old research (1996) but Lindeman and Verkasalo reported that perceptions that life is meaningful, and therefore worthwhile, increase 16 percent with concrete thinking. I am going to give it a whirl :)