Skip to main content

What To Do First to Make a Profit

The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat  ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're  not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director.  Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year.  God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started inve
Post a Comment

He's All Growed Up! (Sigh)


He's 23 today.
Twenty-freakin'-three.
[sigh]

Time stand still?
Please stand still.

Changes are hard.
Even good ones.

And they just keep coming.
And there's nothing I can do about it.
Nothing.

Lord knows I've tried.
And like most other things in life, it's out of my control. (And that's probably a good thing, most times.)

At least he's turned out perfectly wonderful.
The best a parent could ask for.

I'm talking about one, Dustin Michael Shrodes, if you didn't know by now.

He's our youth pastor now, by the way. Just in case you crawled out from under a rock and didn't know. Or you are reading my blog for the first time and have no idea who the main characters in this real life scenario are. Please meet my absolutely perfect first born son:



You can read some day-to-day happenings of his early years in a hand written blog I kept and shared here a while ago. You'll love it, I promise, if you have any sentimental bone in your body whatsoever. You can see the hand of God working in his life from the very beginning. Cause' that's just what God does.

We talked about going out to Kobe like we do many times for family milestones, but all he wanted was his momma's pot roast dinner with gravy and mashed potatoes and corn and homemade rolls. And...a Batman cake. [sigh]

I'm not that artistic.

I make tasty meals and homemade bread and stuff like that, but I am not a Mom who makes decorated cakes. I just make frosted ones. I could sense a failure on the horizon if I tried to create Batman.

So I called a bakery and explained what I wanted.

Here's how it went:

Bakery: What kind of cake would you like to order? 

Me: A Batman cake. For a birthday.

Bakery: Okay, what size?

Me: Well, there will just be seven people, so not a real big one.

Bakery: Well, we have Batman on a motorcycle or a scene from the Dark Knight but I don't know if I can fit that on a cake that feeds seven people. Our size cake appropriate for that amount of people feeds about 10.

Me: Okay, I just need a Batman cake that looks good. What can you put on the cake that feeds 10?

Bakery: Well, we can't fit the whole Batman scene but we can use Batman colors, write the child's name and include the toy that the child can have to play with even after the cake is gone. The child is mostly going to be interested in the toy so I think if you have that even on the small cake, as long as they have that, they should be happy, right?

Me: Well, um......they aren't exactly a child.

Bakery: Mmmmmmkay. I see. So, it's for a teen?

Me: Not exactly...it's for my son who is turning 23.

Bakery: Oh. [chuckle] Okay. Well, do you think he will want the motorcycle Batman or the Dark Knight?

Me: I'm not sure. Let me ask my husband.... (messaging Larry to find out) Okay, his father says he will want  the motorcycle Batman.

***

So, we'll be dining on the family favorite pot roast dinner and a Batman cake with Dustin's girlfriend and another best friend he wants to invite.

This is the son who, for his 21st birthday two years ago, requested a keg party...with nothing but a keg filled with orange juice. Preferably "Simply Orange".  Because that's all he drinks.

Why the Batman cake?

When Dustin was two years old my husband took him to see the opening night of Batman at the theater. They have gone to the opening night of Batman ever single time since. They go no matter what. In sickness, health, snow, rain, sleet, hail or anything else, it matters not. Larry says even if they have to fly to one another someday in the future to do the opening of Batman, they will. It's tradition.

He's such a good boy. Oops...young man!

I'm still getting used to this, ok?  But the Batman cake does at least give me a little bit of an illusion that nothing's really changed. Yet. Right?

A Mom can dream.

 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Relevant Church doing something...

incredibly RELEVANT!

I just heard some news today that really inspired me. A church here in Tampa, Relevant Church is doing a new thing this month called the "30 Days Sex Challenge." (I've never visited the church but Pastor Trinity - our children's pastor - has visited or has met some people from this church and he was very impressed.) Realizing that this is a major element missing from some marriages (the frequency factor) their lead pastor, Paul Wirth, has issued a challenge for all the married couples to have sex for 30 days in a row. At the same time he has issued a challenge for all unmarrieds to completely abstain from sex. Of course we know the Bible says that those who are unmarried should not have sex in the first place but the point is, a lot of unmarried's aren't obeying the Lord's command to abstain and this is just one pastor's way of trying to get them to see that indeed, there is a better way! (God's way!) At the same time, many married couples are not
29 comments
Read more

Excellent teaching on Criticism

My friend Pastor Leanne posted this today on her Myspace blog and I thought it was excellent and so timely. It's a blog post from Pastor Perry Noble , about criticism. I think it's perfect for the pastors at Relevant Church right now, as well as any other person going through this. I would like to note that when he says, "when God begins to move" it wouldn't necessarily just pertain to your church but to your life, your family, your marriage, anything that concerns you. I have found that the greater God does things in my life and the more He blessed me the more I should expect it. This teaching is good, so good I was almost wavin' a hanky in my office. Okay, here we go... You Will Be Criticized When God Begins To Move–Expect It And Get Over It. (Pastor Perry Noble at http://www.perrynoble.com/ ) I've never met a devil worshiper–to my knowledge that is. When I first became a Christian I was convinced that I needed to do all that I could to be ready to comba
3 comments
Read more

What Verbal Abuse is Really Like, and Why We Must Care
Guest Post: Terri von Wood

In my speaking travels, I meet the most amazing people. Some are connections that go beyond just a night or a weekend of preac hing. One day on my journey, I met Terri von Wood, and we immediately clicked and have been friends ever since.  Just a reminder that all of our guest bloggers this week are available to chat with you in the comment section here on the blog or on my facebook page where the blog is also published.   *** People who have never suffered through or witnessed abuse (including pastors) often don't know how to help women in abusive situations. Knowledge is power and it is my belief that if the church understood the prevalence of abuse, help would be made available.  First, we must acknowledge that the divorce rate is the same  in the church as in the world.  Second, we must understand that the 50% divorce rate does not include all the women who are abused but stay because they do not know what else to do or do not have anyone to turn to.  If those women we
12 comments
Read more