Category Archives: Life

Boldness

Life

Hebrews 4:16 says “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in a time of need.”

Being bold does not only help in your life here on earth but it is also very helpful when you go to God for help. James 1:5 says that when we need wisdom, let us ask God and he (God) will not withhold it from us, but verse 6 &7 are the real deal. Verse 6 &7 says “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed and let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord.”

Translation: God expects us to be bold even when we are talking to him and asking for his help.

I heard a preacher one time paint a mental image of this subject that has stayed with me for many years. The image is of a daddy with a candy bar in his shirt pocket and his little son crawling up to his daddy and asking him if he could just lick the wrapper of the candy bar. That’s just foolishness isn’t it? The image God wants us to get is of the little boy running and jumping into his daddy’s lap and grabbing the candy bar. That is the image of who God is that is burned in to my consciousness and I hope is also in yours.

Be bold in life but especially be bold in the sight of God because you are his little child just like the little boy in the story. KT

Be careful how you speak to yourself

Career, Life

Some of the most powerful words you will ever hear spoken are your own words. These words will either edify you or tear you down. The bible speaks to this when it says “whatever is in your heart in abundance will come out of your mouth.”

Years ago I had no teaching or basis for understanding this cornerstone of life, but I just knew in my heart that I needed to be careful with the words of my mouth. Especially when I speak to myself. There have been many times when I embarrassed myself in a presentation or messed up a pitch or didn’t respond with the right words or in my case even say the words fluently. I was always tempted to get in my car and say things that would tear down my spirit. Somewhere in there, I just knew that I needed to be careful when I was alone with myself because I was my own worst critic.

One time in New York I was speaking to a group and I blundered, stumbled, stuttered and basically felt embarrassed when I finished. I felt that I have really blown the speech. The next day a friend of mine that I trusted came up to me and told me it was one of the most moving and timely speeches he had ever heard. When I told him how I thought I had messed up, he said to me, it was actually very powerful. What we often think people are saying about us, many times is not true at all.

The speech I gave was one evening and what the friend told me was the next morning. I had that whole night to think alone and potentially beat myself up. I will confess I did think about it all evening, but I refused to speak to myself wrongly.

I have heard people say things to themselves like “you’re stupid,” “you’re dumb and ignorant,” “you will never succeed,” “you will never make it,” “nobody wants to be your friend,” “you always make bad decisions,” “you have no friends,” “no one likes you,” “you always fail,” “you always lose,” “you are ugly, overweight, or whatever.” These are the kinds of things that people say to themselves when they are alone and no one is listening or watching.

Many actions and decisions we make in life can be wrong because we make those decisions on the spot. It would be far better if we decided ahead of time what our decisions would be before we had to make them. When the Navy Seals land in enemy territory, they don’t looked at each other and say “what do we do now?” No, they do exactly what they had already trained and planned ahead of time that they would do. This is how we need to look at some choices and decisions in our lives.

Make a decision today that you will only say edifying and uplifting things to yourself and that you will be careful how you speak to yourself. KT

I will see the goodness of the Lord in the here and now

Career, Family, Life

My oldest daughter, Lanie Beth, shared a scripture with me that is really really powerful. The passage is Psalm 27:13. In the New International Version it reads, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

Translation, “I will see” the goodness of the Lord in the “here and now”

So many people go to church all their lives and only expect to see God’s hand and his goodness when they die. This passage says that I will see it, meaning while I am alive in the here and now.

In Psalms 23, it says in verse 5 that “he will prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Well, your enemies are not in heaven rather they are right here on earth in the living. Get the image of the Lord preparing a table/feast for only you in front of the people that mean you harm while they have to watch. Your enemies will know that God is with you.

In Malachi 3:10 &11, says “If you are a tither, he will rebuke the devourer for your sakes.” This means if you are a tither, God will have your back and rebuke and handle those people who try to bring you harm.

I heard a Wall Street portfolio fund manager say during an interview that tithing was the best investment you will ever make. I believe this is true. The bible speaks to people that make money and lose money as though they had holes in their pockets. I believe tithing is the umbrella of God that will cover you over a life span. It doesn’t mean you will always make the right decision and never make a mistake, rather it means that in your later years you will look back on your life and see that God was with you and your decisions more times than not and that he protected and insulated you.

All three of these passage speaks to God being involved in our lives in the here and now and not just when we get to heaven. He loves you as a father and wants the best for you and your family but he will not force himself into your life, rather he will wait for you to call on him. KT

Are you good enough?

Life

Many people if they were honest with themselves would tell you that they don’t think they are good enough to expect success and joy in their lives. This is Satan’s main weapon he uses very quietly against us. He knows where the image weakness is in each of us and he exploits it if we allow him to. Let me say that again, if we allow him to.

I will give you a few examples of his handy work. You are not smart enough, educated enough, the right color, the right nationality, the right weight, the right age, handicapped in some way, don’t speak right, dress right, act right, inferior, shy, low self-esteem, senior citizen…. I could go on for 5 pages about the ways “we” allow Satan to hold us back.

I can tell you truthfully that whatever is holding you back, there is someone else who has less than you and they still made it.

I believe the first stage of changing the way you think is to recognize and acknowledge the self-images you have been allowing to hold you back. Once you identify them, you have made one of the biggest steps you can. Me, I stutter when I talk and God still saw fit to make me a salesman. I think God has a sense of humor at times in our life because who would put a man that stutters into a sales role where you have to talk. Ha. Satan’s image he tries to sell me every day is one of the failure to speak. Every now and then I will let it get the best of me, but I refuse to let it control me.

I think being honest with yourself about where your weak points are is the first step to making a change in how you respond when Satan tries to give you that image. The images he gives are always of failure and never of success. See, the very last thing Satan wants is for you to walk away from the images he controls you with.

Once you know what the images are, get by yourself and have a conversation with God about starting a new future without being driven by images of failure. If I know God, I believe he will run to show you how to get past those images and start a new future. KT

Putting on the dog

Career, Life

In the Deep South there is a term called “putting on the dog.” This term means before someone comes to visit or before I meet someone, I am going to wear the nice clothes I have and clean the house or the office. In other words I am going to impress these people. It is similar to the term “putting on the Ritz” but somehow in the south the word Ritz and dog got switched up. Ha

In the movie “Sweet Home Alabama” Reese Witherspoon’s mother tells the New York Mayor (played by Candice Bergen) that if she had known the Mayor was coming to her house she would have “put on the dog.”

This stuff cracks me up. You wonder where that saying came from. Can you imagine the first person that said that term to someone? They probably just looked at them and wondered, what is he talking about? Well the term somehow stuck (not with me) but with other southern folks and it means to do your best.

I think in life we should put on the dog every day, meaning we should do our best and try our hardest to be all that we can be. I am not talking about having ego and arrogance and wearing fancy cloths and trying to show off. What I mean is to be the best we can be with every person we meet and every task we undertake. If you are writing an email or a presentation, write it the best you can. If you are on a conference call with a client, really focus, prepare and do your best.

We have another term in the south called, “winging it.” Winging it is the opposite of preparing and doing your best. Some of the greatest relationships people have in business today were probably formed because they were not casual in their approach to the client. A client knows if you are prepared and he/she can see through a person that is winging it.

So in life and in business mentally put on the dog or in other words try your best in everything you do and you will succeed far more than you fail. KT