I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, back in the early ’90s working on a hotel we were selling. I had a couple hours before the meeting, so I was in the hotel room making some notes and turned the TV on for some background noise. I was flipping through the channels on the TV trying to find a news station. 

At the time, I was deeply in debt with the restaurants, and my financial life seemed to be in free fall. I was at the point where I needed a fresh word from God.

So, here I was sitting in a hotel room flipping channels, and you know how it is when you are trying to find something that will hold your interest. There was channel with this lawyer who was speaking at some business event; he also happened to be a Christian. I didn’t want to hear this guy, so I listened to him for a few seconds and flipped the channel, I got a few channels over and went back to hear for a few more seconds. After I went back to the channel where he was speaking about the fifth time, I decided to hear what he was saying. Thirty minutes later, I was crying sitting on the bed because it was exactly what I needed to hear at the time.

The attorney’s name was Bob Deal from Richmond, Virginia, and he was speaking to a large audience, telling a story that simply captivated my spirit. Bob Deal had a friend that was having financial issues, and the friend asked Bob to go have dinner with him and give him some advice on his situation. Remember that Bob Deal was and attorney but also a Christian. Before the dinner meeting, Bob prayed that the Lord would give him the words he needed to speak into this man’s life. Here they were at dinner, and the friend was clearly in financial trouble and could not see a way out.

Bob was still waiting for the Lord to give him the wisdom to share with his friend. After the plates were taken away and they were having coffee, Bob had a ding in his spirit and looked at the man and said the weirdest thing. Bob said, “Tell me what your closet, dresser and garage look like.” The man looked at Bob like he had lost his mind. Finally, the man told Bob that his closet hadn’t been cleaned or organized in years, the top of his dresser was stacked with stuff, and his garage was so full he couldn’t get his car in it.

Bob Deal looked at the man and said, go home, clean your closet, your dresser, and your garage; Make sure you do it well, perfect and completely as though it were the first time. Don’t just stuff things under the bed and don’t hurry. Organize it. Do it very well because, during the process of this mental cleansing of the clutter in your life, the Lord will give you the answer to your financial situation.

At this point, I was still sitting on the bed in the hotel room, and it was a though he was speaking only to me. Bob Deal’s friend did as instructed, and he developed a new path for his financial situation that worked out for him; he was able to avoid bankruptcy. I also did what Bob Deal told his friend to do, and it was as though it was spiritual therapy for me at that crossroad in my life. The cleaning out of the everyday things helped me be more organized in my thoughts and greatly helped me navigate through my own financial mess back in the early ’90s.

So, I now clean my closet and garage several times a year, and I have one of the most organized garages in town. Sometimes, it’s the simple things that are within our control where we need to start. The first act of faith is to simply step forward, even when you don’t know exactly where you are going. Just maybe the first step or act of faith is cleaning up where you currently live. KT

This simple five-word question, if asked before big decisions, would greatly impact many of the decisions we make in life. It would help us with decisions regarding Jobs, relationships, investments, health, homes, cars, money and probably many other areas.

Let’s say you have an opportunity to change careers or the company you work for. In many decisions we make, we often look at only the upside potential, but rarely do we look at the downside. Take a job change for instance, you have the ‘feeling’ the new job will be better that the one you have, but sometimes that greener grass on the other side of the fence doesn’t quite turn out the way you planned it in your mind.

Take important financial moves. If we asked ourselves, “what if I am wrong,” and if you can answer that it will still be ok and that it won’t upend your life, then maybe it is an ok decision. Many times, people act like they are playing poker with the decisions in life and just push all the chips to the center of the table without asking, what if I am wrong?

Those five words could be some of the best advice we could ever hear because it forces us to actually answer that question. If you can ask that question and come away with an acceptable answer, then you will probably be alright.

I have made some doozies of bad decisions in my life (like buying the chicken restaurants) and if I had honestly asked myself that question before jumping off, I wouldn’t have lost my shirt,,,,, and my pants. So, the next time you are facing an important decision in any area of your life, ask yourself, “what if I am wrong?” If you answer honestly, it may just save you from owning some chicken restaurants. Ha. KT

Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) was thrust into the Presidency of the United States on November 22, 1963, after John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  He was a seasoned leader with many years of experience but was still unprepared to step into the presidency the way it happened.

As soon as the flight from Dallas got back to Washington, he called all of his national advisors and the whole cabinet together and made a statement that reverberates even today. It also offers an example of what true leadership looks like.

He looked at everyone in the room, and said, “mistakes will be made, but inaction will not be one of them.” He basically told them to get ready because while the sadness of that day was ever present, there was no time to shut down. The US had to still lead the world.

When I think about us today and how to put this into practice in our own lives, I think about the mountain tops and valleys of life. When we are walking through the low points of life, (the valleys) it is easy to get scared, afraid and complacent and want to just get under the covers and turn the lights out and hope things will change on their own. In the real world, those reactions are simply not an option for people who are not ready to quit life.

Harmon Born was my mentor and passed away several years ago. He owned the Ford Dealership in Downtown Atlanta and for many years, his dealership was the highest volume Ford dealership in the nation. He used to say, “you just have to chin-up and move forward.”

I think this is the message for all of us, regardless of the stage of life you are in. Inaction just isn’t an option; we must keep moving forward. You just can’t camp out in the valley of life, you have to get back to high ground. As LBJ said, “mistakes are going to be made, but inaction will not be one of them.” KT

Have you ever been around someone you secretly wanted to be like? You wanted to emulate that person? The truth is, it seemed better to fit into someone else’s story than the story for which you were meant.

My parents divorced when I was young and I lived with my mother and stepfather (whom I loved very much) up through the ninth grade of high school. I did not mean to, and it was not my intention, but I broke my mother’s heart when I told her at 15 years old, I wanted to live with my father and stepmother for a year. That one year turned into two, three and here I am still in Georgia.

I cannot explain this but in Virginia where I lived with my mother and stepfather, I was surrounded by kids my age that seemed better at all things than I was. I had fallen into this cycle I cannot explain where I expected to be the third string on the team, the below average achiever. Something deep in my young soul (certainly God) told me i needed to move to Georgia and start over or I was going to end living a life that was much less than what God planned for me.

I moved to Georgia in the summer between my 9^th and 10^th grade year and immediately had a better set of friends. I tried out for football as a sophomore and made the 1^st string varsity team. I went on to be the senior class president and captain of the football team and seemed to excel in high school at every turn. It was a God thing. There is no other explanation. It changed my life’s trajectory

I loved my Mom and Stepdad with all my heart, but I knew I was in the place where I could become the someone I was supposed to be. I have been blessed beyond my imagination with a beautiful family, great career and a life of which I could only dream.

Becoming the someone you are supposed to be, many times requires change. Change in our environment, changes in how we think, but mostly a change in how we see ourselves. Our own self-image. Elaine and I always knew if we could only teach our babies one thing, it would be how to develop a positive self-image and be the someone they are supposed to be. We succeeded because it would take 10 pages to write about the fine women they have become.

Change often requires effort but most importantly, it requires the hand of God on your life. KT

How many times have we spent hours worrying about tomorrow, only to wake up and discover that God was already there waiting for us?

The truth is, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. Many of the fears that once seemed so overwhelming never happened. And the challenges that did come were met with strength, wisdom, and God’s faithful provision. Yesterday’s anxiety accomplished nothing—but today’s reality reminds us that God carried us through.

Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34). He wasn’t telling us to ignore life’s responsibilities. He was inviting us to trust the One who already holds tomorrow in His hands.

If God was faithful yesterday, He will be faithful today. And if He is faithful today, He will certainly be faithful tomorrow. Instead of borrowing tomorrow’s burdens, embrace today’s blessings. Worry imagines the worst, but faith expects God to do what only He can do.

So the next time anxiety whispers about the future, remember: today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday—and God has brought you safely this far.