Life is a Valley

“Life is a highway, I want to ride it all night long.”

With all due respect to the great country trio, Rascal Flatts, I don’t think life is a highway with some twists and turns here and there and then there’s a small dip in the road between this chapter of your life and that one.

I think of life more like a valley with big highs but with those big highs comes “valley lows.”

You hear so much about people hitting “rock bottom” as their very lowest of the low in their lives. What’s at the bottom of a valley? Most times there are jagged rocks ready to rip you apart to the point you’re not sure you can put yourself back together again.

And The Winner Is…

Have you ever been in a fight with your spouse and you’re walking with a little bit of a swagger because you think you won that round?

What normally happens a few hours after that?

There’s an apology from one or both of you because you soon realize that winning a fight isn’t really winning a fight, is it? Winning a fight with your spouse, a fight that may end up hurting the other person, isn’t a win at all.

Half The Battle

If you haven’t had a chance to watch or listen to guys like Eric Thomas or Inky Johnson, you’re missing arguably the two top motivational speakers that you’re ever going to hear. In fact, Thomas might remind you of that coach you wanted to run through a wall for, he’ll get you fired up but also drop some serious life altering nuggets that will change how you look at every day.

It was Thomas who made me do exactly that and made me want to get up early every day to start my day with God, to read the devotionals that I tried to read during the day but they never reached my heart because it was just routine to get them out of the way. I wanted it to be more than that, I wanted it to make an impact on me as I started my day and I wanted it to change how I was facing every day.

So that’s exactly what I started doing.

Like a Child

When we were kids we were taught by our parents to pray because they told us God would respond and God would talk to us about our prayers.

Those prayers were easy because we were told God was real, we trusted God was real, so our prayers were with 100 percent faith that what our parents was true. Our prayers were 100 percent authentic because we were told God was real so our prayers were genuine and real and we didn’t have to believe they were going to come true we expected they were without any question at all.

What’s Your WHY?

When I was working at the former company for eight years I spent a lot of time asking God what I was still doing driving to this place. What was I doing still giving this company more than I knew they were going to give me and give my family. I spent a lot of time wondering why I was wasting my talent at a place that was never going to give me the opportunity to get better or to move up.

Let me tell you a quick story about how bad this situation was and this was the moment that I had hit rock bottom at this place.

My wife and I got pregnant with our first child during my time there and when it got close to time when my wife was going to bring our daughter into the world this company didn’t want me to take any time off.

I had to use a week of my own vacation time to be gone with my wife and our first born child and during that time there was no phone call to see how we were doing and when I  got back to work no one asked how she was doing, how my wife was doing, how things went during delivery, it was just another day to them and they couldn’t care less what was just added to my life.

This is MY Prayer Time

In a devotional I was reading this morning, and it’s funny when God does this because His time is always perfect, it talks about the things that worry you and the things that keep you up at night are perhaps the things you aren’t trusting God with. At least not completely.

Whether that be finances, your job, your kids, your marriage, or even your friendships that might be falling apart or at least be a little strained, you’re trying to handle them under your own strength.

We were never meant to handle things on our own. I talked about this yesterday in the blog that I wrote, God created Adam AND Eve so they could help each other, be there for each other, walk through life together.

Time for an Upgrade

How many of us are in careers or jobs that we’ve been in for awhile and we’re ready for that next role or that next promotion or we’re wondering why we’re still in the same role because you think you’re ready for what’s next.

What about your home? Do you need an upgrade there too? Or your vehicle? How about the relationships you’ve been in that haven’t gone anywhere and you’re tired of being single? You’re ready for that person that completes you and makes you feel like you’re ready to face the rest of your life?

For eight years of my life, after moving to Texas from Southern California, I sat in a job that I absolutely hated. There wasn’t a day that goes by, during my morning commute, that I didn’t ask God this question, “what am I still doing here?”

Hot or Cold

I had a couple of conversations in one day that I thought I was the motivating person in the conversation.

It wasn’t until shortly after those conversations that I realized God was laughing at me. It wasn’t that I did anything that was funny, but the things I was saying God was sitting there wondering if I was going to look in the mirror because the things I was saying to someone else I should have been saying to myself.

I was talking about working hard, having the ability to make an impact, to be better than I was, to not quit because if we want to be great at something we need to be able to work at it, to grind, to go get it every day and work towards your goals no matter what that took?

I was driving home last night from a volleyball game with my daughter and immediately God wanted to know why I’d give someone advice when I was facing my own commitment issues to the goal that I wanted.

I grew up playing basketball, it was the game that I loved. No, I didn’t love the game that’s the wrong way to say it….I L-O-V-E-D the game.

Every Motivating Thought

There are days that I find myself wanting to find videos to watch to find that motivating word that someone might put out. Something that resonates with me that helps me get ready for the day or something that fires me up.

That always used to be something that had to do with sports.

It was mostly basketball and baseball growing up and while I’m still a huge baseball guy, the motivation no longer comes from a sport but from a pastor like Robert Morris (Gateway Church), or Steven Furtik (Elevation Church).

Recently I’ve been watching a guy by the name of Inky Johnson.

He’s a former football player at the University of Tennessee, with aspirations of playing professionally, before a freak incident during a play ended that dream altogether. He had every reason to be mad at that dream crashing down around him but what didn’t leave him is his passion for life and the lessons he’s learned that he shares with athletes or while speaking to different groups or churches.

While I can’t relate to completely losing the use of my right arm the way he did, the way he speaks and how he gets fired up is what I relate to the most.

However, those aren’t the only three that I watch and try to learn from or find something motivational within.

Mom Deserve, But So Do Dads

This was a post I held off writing for a long time.

It wasn’t because I didn’t have enough to say on the subject, it was mainly because I was sure that a lot of people would take this out of context and writing for me was never about ruffling anyone’s feathers or making anyone mad.

Writing for me has always been about what was in my heart and what I believed to be true. I don’t ever write anything just because it’s what people want to hear. We can disagree on just about anything as long as we’re able to have a conversation about it.

When it comes to being a dad, I’m grateful to my wife who has always encouraged me and tells me all the time how good of a husband I am to her and how good of a father I am to the our two kids.

I don’t say that to toot my own horn or to brush a little off the shoulder as a ‘look at me’ kind of thing, I do that to say there are plenty of dads who make a huge effort for their spouse and kids every day and they don’t get that kind of encouragement.