expectations

Nothing good ever happens to me.
It's just not in my future.
Why should I get my hopes up?

These are a few of the comments I've heard people say about their life.

They are expecting negative.

When we expect negative things it's a pretty safe bet that negative things will happen.

The word expectation means to anticipate or hope.

Whenever I read the bible I see that there's a pattern of how God wants us to place our expectation (anticipation or hope) in Him.

And as I read the bible I seeing a pattern: sometimes God doesn't intervene until it's looks like it's too late.

Why? God loves impossible odds and God loves getting all the credit.

Maybe our expecation should be to trust God no matter how impossible the odds are.

And remember to give Him the credit when He meets your needs!

LivGirl

Today after my Emma gets home from school I am taking her to Target and buying her a LivGirl.

This purchase is a reward for a solid week of having a positive attitude.

For awhile she's struggled with controlling her attitude. So we set a goal (1 week) of her having a great attitude and she achieved it!

Beth and I want to reward our children for good behavior (not just punish them when they misbehave).

So Emma - Daddy is proud of you!

Spider

Last night I was walking in our backyard and saw IT - (cue scary music) - this spider was close to finishing it's web when I spotted it.

It's a pretty good size spider!

I wasn't sure what to do or how to kill it - so I just hit with my hand and down it went - unfortunately for me it was dead but hurt. It later died and I almost felt bad.

I actually got a little anxious before I swung - guess I've got a small fear of spiders.

In fact, spiders are number #3 on the list of most common fears (after public speaking & dying).

That (little) bit of fear got me thinking - am I living my life out of fear or out of faith?

I want to say I have faith (in God) that everything will work out or be OK but often I find myself fearing what may never happen.

I read a few months back 90% of what we fear will never even present itself in your life. We actually are only born with TWO fears (fear of loud noises & fear of falling) all other fears are learned.

Which means our fears can also be UNLEARNED!

So my goal each today - choose to live by faith (and hope the spiders don't get any bigger).

175,000

My car just passed 175,000 miles!

So blessed to have a car that runs great and is dependable - (thanks Todd Burton)

Great Day!

Ha - it's been a few months since I've done this blog thing - so my plan is to jump back into it w/a goal of updating my blog 3X a week!

So today was a very productive day -

Morning Devotional
Early Workout
Met w/ new attender to Victory for breakfast
Got kids all signed up for school
Had good study time for Sunday @ Victory
Lunch w/ a young believer
ManUp (Men's Small Group) tonight went great
Reading a great book tonight
Blogged!

And I'm asking myself - why was today a 'great day?'

It wasn't because of all I did but how I started.

We all do something 1st each morning (hit snooze, complain its too early, watch TV, wish it was the weekend) why not make the first thing you do productive.

I'm convinced how you start your day determines your outlook on the day.

So how will you begin your morning?