Tag Archives: nfl

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Wednesday Mind Dump…

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  • What a week it’s been in the Reich house.
  • Sunday was an incredible day.
  • Our Steelers beat the Chiefs.
  • Besides this being awesome simply because we won, much of Katie’s family lives in Kansas City and roots for the Chiefs.
  • Loved texting them to remind them they got beat by a kicker!
  • Revolution was amazing on Sunday.
  • We had 17 guests on a rainy, cold, holiday weekend.
  • Simply blown away by that.
  • And we had 83 people take the next step of working on their life map.
  • This is an exercise Katie and I did with the counselors from Crosspoint.
  • It is such a powerful exercise.
  • Katie and I taught together (which I love doing) on the topic of family of origin and your family narrative.
  • The response was overwhelming.
  • If you want to watch it you can do so here.
  • Katie will be back on stage with me this week as we talk about “how to enjoy your marriage” and do a live Q&A.
  • Can’t wait for that.
  • This topic fires me up and I think every pastor should preach on marriage every year.
  • It is that big of a deal.
  • The growth Katie and I experience when we do a series on marriage is incredible and it serves the people in your church well.
  • I get asked a lot about books and 2 books that have been influential to Katie and I on the topics of shame, family of origin and family narrative are The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves by Dr. Curt Thompson and The Relational Soul: Moving from False Self to Deep Connection by Jim Cofield and Rich Blass.
  • That was only the beginning of the excitement in our house this week.
  • Because not only is Katie and 3 of our kids sick with whatever is flying around Tucson right now, but our 9 year old broke his arm at a birthday party Monday morning.
  • Never a dull moment with 4 boys.
  • Time to get back to it.
  • Praying I don’t get sick!
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3 Simple Time Hacks for Parents and 6 Other Posts You Should Read this Weekend

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leader

Each Friday I share some posts that I’ve come across in the last week. They range in topics and sources but they are all things I’ve found interesting or helpful that I hope will be interesting and helpful to you. Here are 7 posts I came across this week that challenged my thinking or helped me as a leader, pastor, husband and father:

  1. 3 Simple Time Hacks for Parents
  2. 5 Tips to Blog Faster by Ellen Jackson
  3. Creating a Blog Content Plan for 2017 by Nicole Avery
  4. 6 Disruptive Church Trends That Will Rule 2017 by Carey Nieuwhof
  5. What Should Pastors Do with Personal Pain? by Charles Stone
  6. 10 Ways the Role of Pastor is Changing by Chuck Lawless
  7. The 12 Most Important Things To Read, Watch Or Listen To As You Start 2017 by Brian Jones
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Questions Every Blogger & Writer MUST Answer

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blogger

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about why every leader and pastor should blog. If you decide to blog, here are a couple of things you need to think through:

  1. Why. Most people struggle with what to blog about, more on that in a minute. Why are you blogging? Why is it worth your time? If your goal with blogging is to build a platform to write a book, that’s a poor reason. Do you want to help people? Serve people? Get better at writing? Be famous? It is important to have a stated goal when it comes to your blog. Not everyone should blog. If you don’t have a compelling reason to start blogging, once the fad of it wears off, you will quit.
  2. What. This is the content. For me, I blog about things I find interesting and helpful. I blog about leadership, books, preaching, family, marriage, NFL, fantasy football, crossfit. Things I like. I assume that there are others out there who are interested in what I am interested in and so far, that seems to be the case. I will share things I think will be helpful to my readers and my church, things I’m learning, things I want to rant about, things about my kids and Katie. Some blogs are focused on one topic, which is great if that’s what you want to do. You should have a focus though, a grid that helps you decide what you do and don’t blog about.
  3. How often. This right here is one reason most blogs fail. They don’t blog enough. You can read about how to design a blog, what plug-ins to use, how to connect it to social media (and you should do all this). If you don’t blog on a regular basis, your blog will not get off the ground. I probably blog too much, but that’s my choice. Some blog 3 times a week or everyday. The point is, your readers need to know how often you will blog. People will tire of checking back on your blog for new information and it isn’t there, they will give up. I would say someone should start blogging when they can do it 3 times a week.

Blogging takes work, it is a job in many ways. You will spend hours writing, working on ideas, finding pictures for posts, responding to comments, looking for links to share and doing it all over again.

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Control Your Own Destiny

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destiny

Yesterday was week 17 of a thrilling NFL season. As a Steelers fan, I could hardly believe that we still had a shot at the playoffs after starting 0-4. While it was disappointing we didn’t get in, and one of my sons did cry about it, but it got me thinking: football is easier when you control your own destiny. 

The same is true in life.

It is easier when you control your own destiny. 

Yet, so many people don’t.

Here’s what I mean.

We allow others to dictate what is important to us. What we spend our money on. What things our kids sign up for. Where we vacation. If we exercise or not or have an overall healthy lifestyle. Others dictate how we run our calendars, work habits, and even emotions.

For many people, very little of what they do is what they want to do.

Which leaves them tired, burned out, stressed, lifeless and ultimately, playing catch up instead of walking into the playoffs of life.

Here are 4 things you can do to control your own destiny:

  1. Decide you will. This is the first step of anything. If you are struggling with an addiction, you have to identify it and decide this is the time to change. It is the same with your destiny. Make a conscious choice to control it and put things into place to keep this true in your life.
  2. Accountability and systems to make it happen. You may need to have a friend hold you accountable with this. You might need to put some systems into place. If you have kids, keep the activities they do at a time to one. Not 4, but one. Keep the extra things you do to one. Will this keep you or your kids from having a well rounded, experiential life? I’m not sure, but that isn’t the goal. Who cares if they play 5 sports or do dance, horseback riding, cello lessons and soccer. Oh, you care? Someone else cares for you? Then read point #3.
  3. Identify the fear, idol, or desire that causes you to give away your destiny. This drives so much of what we do. We talked about this yesterday at Revolution. The fear we will miss out or not matter drives so much of what we do and the choices we make with our calendar, money and lifestyle. Stop it. Identify that this is a lie and identify the truth. The person who is driving this in your life did not die on the cross for you and rise from the dead to set you free. Jesus did. If you have trusted in this, you are approved. Your destiny is set. Which leads to the last one.
  4. Trust that God’s destiny is better than what someone else can come up with for you. Approval in God is hard to believe sometimes. The idea that I am approved as a follower of Jesus because of his death and resurrection is hard to believe. I can’t be more approved in him. There isn’t some approval waiting around a corner that I haven’t experienced yet. Because of this, my destiny is set and secure. This is a daily practice of reminding myself of this. Believing my destiny is secure and it is better than what I could come up with or the person(s) driving me right now.