I ordered a book a few months ago from Amazon.com. Amazon had suggested this book based on previous purchases I had made. I ordered the book and it sat on my shelf for several weeks. One day last week I picked up the book and began to read it. It only took me a couple of hours to read through the book (only because it is a pretty short book, not because I am an extremely fast reader).
The book, The Generosity Factor by Ken Blanchard and S. Truett Cathy (the founder of Chick-Fil-A), is a good book if you get a chance to read it. In the book the authors tell a sort of fictitious story about an encounter between a financial broker and an executive. The broker was curious about the lifestyle of the executive, so he spent some time learning from the executive. The executive shared (among other things) he felt he had a responsibility to give of his Time, Talent, Treasure, and Touch. This got me thinking a bit…
Each of us have 4 T’s, we have Time, we have Talents, we have Touch, and we have Treasure (some have more than others), but we all have these gifts to share with others. If I am to spend out of one of these categories, it may cost me being able to do something I want to do. If I spend one of my hours volunteering in the community, it costs me an hour I typically spend in another area of my life. That is at least what many of us think of giving our time. This thought hit me as I was sitting in a meeting with other leaders of the Northwest Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. We were discussing our use of time and resources as we planned for the future work of our Conference. Our Bishop said something that drove my thoughts back to the executives 4 T’s. We were discussing a lot of things that would be very effective, but the Bishop asked are these things helping us be effective in our Mission?
I can use my time effectively. I can use my talents effectively. I can use my touch effectively. I can use my treasure effectively. But just because I am effective in using the gifts that I have, does not mean I am using them wisely or impacting the world around me. If I want to use my time or my talents to impact lives, I may have to spend my time and my talents in a different way so that I am being effective in the Mission I have for my life. If I want to use my treasure to impact others around me, I may have to delay a purchase so that I can use my treasure to be effective in the Mission I have for my life.
What is your Mission in life? Do you have one? What are some of the hopes you have for your family, your neighborhood, our community? Are you using the gifts you have available to you to make the hopes and dreams you have for those around you a reality? Are you using the gifts you have to make your mission in life a reality?
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Choices
When my family and I returned home from our Christmas travels, I started feeling a little under the weather. This feeling quickly turned into not feeling good at all. I spent the better part of a week reclining on the couch under several blankets and I still could not keep from shivering. I didn’t eat because I wasn’t hungry, watching movies or TV was not relaxing, reading a book was not relaxing. Nothing seemed to help take my mind off of my shivering, or my aches, or how bad my body hurt, etc…
While trying to find a more comfortable position on the couch I started playing with my cell phone. I have downloaded a lot of apps I rarely use, and since nothing else was helping to distract me from my pitiful condition, I thought I would look through these apps and see if I really needed all of these programs I had on my phone. One of the first apps I opened was one that helped count calories and track a person’s diet. I had downloaded the app because I really wanted to lose some weight; I just have a hard time making the choices to get the extra weight off. The more I played with this app the more I wanted to use it to keep up with what I put in my body. Since I had nothing better to do I began inputting the foods I was eating, and then I went back several days trying to remember everything I had eaten and input that into this program. I knew what I had been putting into my body but did not realize what exactly I was consuming. I did not realize my guilty little pleasure every morning (a 12 oz. can of Coke) was taking up a lot of the calories I was allotted per day. I did not realize how many calories I was blowing through with the little snacks I normally had at the office.
In less than a week my body shed 20 pounds. I would highly recommend not losing weight by being sick. But I now have several choices before me. I can go back to the way I was consuming food and quickly regain those 20 pounds, or I can begin to make changes in what I consume to keep the weight off and possibly get down to a healthier body size. I can choose to do what I have been doing or I can choose to make changes in my life to spend more time exercising to make my body healthier.
Twelve days into this New Year, most of us have choices before us, not just about how much we eat or don’t eat, or exercise or don’t exercise… We have choices before us to begin to change our lives and the lives of those around us. The choices we have are sort of like the choices of food we consume. If my New Year’s Resolution is to be a better spouse, am I going to “consume” choices that help me become a better spouse? What about a better friend? Or a better parent? Too often we view our choices independent of all other choices we make, but too often our choices are dependent on other choices we make. Each choice can help us become a healthier person, a better person, the person we have hoped we could become. There are no wasted choices, no choices that really don’t count. Poor choices can take away valuable time, energy, and resources that could be dedicated to moving us closer to our desired resolutions.
The choices we make today will impact our lives tomorrow. My hope is that we all make better choices, so that we become who God created us to be.
While trying to find a more comfortable position on the couch I started playing with my cell phone. I have downloaded a lot of apps I rarely use, and since nothing else was helping to distract me from my pitiful condition, I thought I would look through these apps and see if I really needed all of these programs I had on my phone. One of the first apps I opened was one that helped count calories and track a person’s diet. I had downloaded the app because I really wanted to lose some weight; I just have a hard time making the choices to get the extra weight off. The more I played with this app the more I wanted to use it to keep up with what I put in my body. Since I had nothing better to do I began inputting the foods I was eating, and then I went back several days trying to remember everything I had eaten and input that into this program. I knew what I had been putting into my body but did not realize what exactly I was consuming. I did not realize my guilty little pleasure every morning (a 12 oz. can of Coke) was taking up a lot of the calories I was allotted per day. I did not realize how many calories I was blowing through with the little snacks I normally had at the office.
In less than a week my body shed 20 pounds. I would highly recommend not losing weight by being sick. But I now have several choices before me. I can go back to the way I was consuming food and quickly regain those 20 pounds, or I can begin to make changes in what I consume to keep the weight off and possibly get down to a healthier body size. I can choose to do what I have been doing or I can choose to make changes in my life to spend more time exercising to make my body healthier.
Twelve days into this New Year, most of us have choices before us, not just about how much we eat or don’t eat, or exercise or don’t exercise… We have choices before us to begin to change our lives and the lives of those around us. The choices we have are sort of like the choices of food we consume. If my New Year’s Resolution is to be a better spouse, am I going to “consume” choices that help me become a better spouse? What about a better friend? Or a better parent? Too often we view our choices independent of all other choices we make, but too often our choices are dependent on other choices we make. Each choice can help us become a healthier person, a better person, the person we have hoped we could become. There are no wasted choices, no choices that really don’t count. Poor choices can take away valuable time, energy, and resources that could be dedicated to moving us closer to our desired resolutions.
The choices we make today will impact our lives tomorrow. My hope is that we all make better choices, so that we become who God created us to be.
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