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 i...
A lot of people comment about how amazing my kids are. No argument there. They rock. Mostly not because of me. I've actually made a ton of mistakes. Nevertheless, people ask me, "how do you raise kids that grow up to be Christians? How do you guide them into developing Godly morals that they actually keep into adulthood?"
I don't claim to be an expert and beside the point, I've only raised three kids. Well, I've actually raised two to adulthood and one to teenage years to be perfectly technical. But these are five things that have helped us thus far:
1) Don't just talk about Jesus. Live Jesus. It's more caught than taught.
2) Love the heck out of them. Love covers a multiude of sins. I'm a terrible sinner at times, but I sure do love my kids.
3) Go to church with them, don't just drop them off. And once you get there, don't just attend. Be a part of things. Serve. If you want your children to one day prioritize the things of God when they are adults, you prioritize the things of God now.
4) Discuss why you hold the values that are dear to you. Talk about it all the time. Converse about it at dinner, in the car, or wherever the opportunity presents itself. You can't over-talk about it. Talk until you're blue in the face, then talk some more. People often ask me, "when did you have THE talk with your kids?" We never had THE talk. We have a million talks.
5) Be excited about church. They will be too. And one more thing, free of charge here...don't expect to criticize your church or your pastor and have your kids grow up to love God or the church...any church. Really, that's backwards thinking and behavior. Why should they love anything you just talk smack about all the time? Be excited and be positive.
And speaking of the awesomeness that is the Shrodes offspring, here are some recent photos from an outreach we had at Town & Country Skateworld. This is our church's "Holy Roller Night" - our October outreach. They were all excited about their costumes. They still get excited about church, outreaches and dressing up. :)
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| Savanna and Jordan |
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