a prayer of abundance

do you wish to be FREE?

tbV and i are friends with a guy called Mark Scandrette, who together with his wife Lisa, just finished a book called ‘Free: Spending your Time and Money on what matters most.’

the presentation that they did for the book was so inspirational that we signed up to lead an 8 week book study which will be starting early October. the main question the book asks is whether you are spending your Money and your Time on the same things that you claim to Value most in life [which most of us probably aren’t]. then through activities and discussions it seeks to help you put some things in place and change some mindsets so that those things will line up a lot more.

i have just started reading the book and this ‘prayer of abundance’ really connected with me. The invitation is to pray this prayer daily as you are working through the book:

I know that I am cared for by an abundant Provider

I choose to be grateful and trusting,

I believe I have enough and that what I need will always be provided.

I choose to be content and generous.

I know that my choices matter for myself, for others and for future generations.

Help me to live consciously and creatively,

celebrating signs of your new creation that is present and coming.

Creator, who made me to seek the greater good of Your kingdom,

Guide me to use my time, talents and resources to pursue what matters most.

Teach me to be free,

to live without worry, fear or greed in the freedom of Your abundance.

Give me my daily bread, as I share with those in need.

Thank You for the precious gift of life.

[From ‘Free’ by Mark Scandrette]

imagine what the world could, and would, look like if we all prayed that, and meant it, every day.

[To look at the next post i did on Avoiding the Rush of Life, click here]

How to raise your children as world changers: Meet David Fee and the gang…

So cousin Brett asks for some practical, creative suggestions that can inspire parents to inspire their children. And we have 5 children of our own and 4 long term foster children. All boys. And people are often saying nice things to us about the boys.  And we get good reports back without looking for them. Often from people we don’t even know. So I’m thinking straight away, like the truly humble guy I am: “Yep, I’m the man for this job”. 

Joel, Daniel, cousin David and Michael

And I know the kind of thing Brett is looking for, because he spells it out in an email. The kind of stuff that I’ve often planned to do, or thought it would be good to do…but actually, in practice have never got round to, or had very little success with. Like getting the boys to choose a charity to which the money which  usually gets spent on them for christmas would go to. That was in my mind to do last year. But I ended up taking them all for a days go-karting. Which of course isn’t a bad thing, but not what my cuz is talking about in this instance.

But here’s my offering. It’s a very obvious one. It’s simply about maintaining a relationship with a child, so that suggestions made when they are young men or women aren’t rejected out of hand. Two years ago our second son Michael, who has very itchy feet, was planning to go travelling. So we said: “Hey, why not go and help at this place for street children in the Philippines, which the daughter of some friends of ours is running?” And that’s what he did for 3 months. He loved it. Now he’s in South America, building walls of horse dung on a community farm, visiting Ecuadorian prisoners, working in bars, doing border crossings from, ahem, Columbia to Peru. And, um, other stuff. We get skyped every 2 or 3 weeks, and Michael tries to scare his mum.

So, yeah. No prizes for originality to me. Or for following the brief. Though I’m looking forward to hearing other people’s input so I can be creatively inspired. It’s never too late. But, you know,  I’m going with: talk, talk, jabber, jabber, laugh, giggle, get angry, apologise for your mistakes, don’t be a judgemental monster, get ’em to adulthood with at least a little bit of that free spirit they had when they were 4.  

ps. And also make sure to follow through on your own dreams so that doing so will seem normal to them. Can’t expect them to try to change the world for the better if you’re not doing the same.

pps. In the changing the world stakes, and for the record, I think the funny vids Brett makes are just as important as all the other more obviously world changing stuff. Brad Fish is my guru! So I could probably do with some counselling really…

[David Fee is my mom’s brother’s son and lives in the United of.Kingdom. We like to refer to each other as ‘cousin’ cos that is what we are. One of his gifts is that of songwriter/singer and if you sign up for his mailing list you can receive his music for free over here]

[For another great story on how to raise your children as World Changers, read Candi’s post over here]

What are you passionate about?

So i tweeted this tweet yesterday and then went out for the day and when i came home i couldn’t understand why my Tweeter had gone mental:

If i asked you, instead of what you do for a living, what your passion is in life, what would you say?

Ah, then i spotted it – Don Miller, author of the popular ‘Blue Like Jazz’ and who has over 179, 258 followers on Twitter had retweeted it and the fun and games had begun with hundreds of favourites and retweets and some replies…

I came up with this while sitting at the singles table of a wedding years ago when i realised that the typical ‘What do you do?’ question didn’t always tell me a lot about the person i was trying to get to know. i don’t really care [lt’s be honest here] all that much about what you do, but i do want to know who you are [and sometimes it’s the same which is incredible].

What is your passion? What are you passionate about in life? seems to open up ‘Who are you?’ a lot more than ‘What is your job?’

So the tweet went far and wide but sadly i didn’t get to see many of the answers of it, and that is what i am hoping to see with this blog. In one sentence or less [less than one sentence?] answer that question for me, if you will be so kind… in the comments section below.

What is your passion? What are you passionate about in life?

And don’t tell me you’re not passionate about anything as some try to. Maybe just take a few more minutes to figure out what it is, if needed.

So that’s what this post is about… whether it is what you currently do or not, i am interested to hear what you are passionate about in life?

And go…

The Weekend Watch-up 24 Aug

So what videos caught your attention this week? From the incredible to the ridiculous, this is what held my attention:

This look like way too much fun to be had without me being a part of it – The Human Slingshot:

 

This is a bit of an older one but it’s really great and deserves a spot for those who may have missed it – Kenichi Ebina doing dance-ish Matrix moves on ‘Talent:

 

The next two were the car wreck you just can’t help slowing down to stare at as South Africa launched its new news station care of the Gupta family and it was BAD:

 

And suddenly #ANN7 became a trending tag on the Twitter… but fortunately we can’t claim World’s Worst on this one as this bad day on the job suggests:

 

If you made it to the phrase “Boom goes the dynamite” you have more stamina than most… suddenly Ben Affleck as Batman doesn’t feel like the worst thing we’ve seen this week.

How about you? Any videos you see this week worth sharing? Send us the links…fun

 

 

How to raise your children as world changers: Meet Bruce and Gemma, Emily, Mikaela

Their voices matter. 

I have 3 daughters. All beautiful. All unique.

All noisy.

There are many donkeys missing hind legs because of their incessant talking. It’s the easiest thing to tune this out. Their voices can so easily become white noise, punctuated by my “ums” and “aahs”, tricking them into believing that I’m actually listening.

That’s not how it works, though. Kids have built in “parents-are-ignoring-me” sensors. Either they’ll shout louder in order to be heard or, sadly, they’ll walk away, learning time after time that they have no voice and their opinions don’t matter. 

That’s why my wife, Yolanda, and I have decided to be intentional about listening. We make time in our manic existence (that’s usually around a meal or in the lull before bed time) to actively listen to our girls.

What does that have to do with being a world changer?

Here’s my take on it:

When we listen to our children and ask pertinent, probing questions, we will begin to hear what is being shaped in their heart. Their life’s purpose will begin to become audible. As we listen, we earn the right to speak. We receive an invitation to be part of that heart shaping. We have an amazing opportunity to help them understand their kingdom purpose. And, if they understand that, they will change the world.

I have no idea how my girls will change the world but I do know that they already are. I can hear it as they speak of the joys and pains of every day. I hear it as they empathise. I hear it as they pray with mountain-sized faith. I hear it in their tear-filled sobs and in the things that break their hearts.

My girls must know that they have a voice. I desire with all my heart that they understand that that voice has a kingdom purpose. I desire that that voice (their voices) will change this world.

[Bruce Collins is a close friend of mine and he loves Jesus, his wife Yolanda and three girls, coffee and then other stuff. He has a blog he seldom posts on, but when he does it is usually transforming and life provoking stuff which you can check out here]

[For more creative parenting ideas, take a look at this post by my United Kingdom cousin David Fee]

Pearls before baby Swines

Why choosing your words carefully when announcing big news [to shtupidt people] is wise as Stephan Pastis from Pearls before Swine brings it again:

[For more great Pearls before Swine moments, start here]

Caught between a rock and a hard faith.

Two weeks ago i got to preach at a church called Re:Generation where tbV and i have been going and it was a lot of fun and they have just put my morning preach up on iTunes if any of you would like to listen to it [and hear what i sound like – wooooo] and the topic was ‘What to do when there is an obstacle in your path [and who put it there?’ or something like that:

http://recastweb.regenerationweb.com/media/GuestSpeakers/Brett_Anderson_08_04_13_AM.mp3