A Father's Book of Wisdom

Front Cover

 I purchased this book from the Good Will bookstore in Agoura Hills, CA a few weeks ago. I planned on giving it to  my dad for Father's Day (which I will when I see him in 12 hours!) but had to take some time to take a few of the great quotes for this blog.

Book Title: A Father's Book of Wisdom

Compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Hope you enjoy!

 

Treat everyone like a gentleman...

@TimTebow Foundation Quote of the Week:

 "Treat everyone

like a gentleman,

 not because they are,

 but because you are."

 -Ed Sabol

Advice

"Advice is sometimes what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't."
 - Erica Jong
REAL SIMPLE magazine spine, June 2012

It's never too late...to push your boundaries!

It's never too late . . .


to push your boundaries!

We all have boundaries.
They are almost all illusions,
 Drawn by fear,
Or self-protection
Or laziness
Test some.
push them slowly at first.
See how they bend and disintegrate.
learn not to trust them,
Take pride in pushing through them.




"It's Never Too Late" by Patrick Lindsay

Your money is where your heart is.

Your money is where your heart is.

Better relook at your finances and see where you're putting your money.

Are you slaving away to car payments or clothing to impress others? Is this where you want your heart to be?

Today I have the power...

Today I get the choice.

Today I have the power.

Today I decide where I walk. Today I decide what goes in my mouth.

Why am I making poor decisions when it comes to these decisions?

I have the power to put good food in my mouth. Why do I instead choose to put processed or chemically enhanced food in my mouth?

My body is an advertisement of who I am. People who are obese are showing that they have no self-control or obedience. People who take care of themselves show self-respect by taking care of themselves.

What is my advertisement (of a body) showing about me?

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SaraHHouse365 | It's Never Too Late...to push your boundaries!
SaraHHouse365 | The Week of Reflection, Round 2
SaraHHouse365 | Do not blame...

Colored by what you're feeling inside...

Rick Warren‏@RickWarren

How things look to you outside is always colored by what you're feeling inside.

Rely on God's Promises.

--Rick Warren via Twitter. June 12, 2012

One Line A Day

ONE LINE A DAY
A FIVE-YEAR MEMORY BOOK

Love this book!!
I saw it while I was waiting in line at Barnes and Noble. Since my life is a lil' crazy and I'll never know where I"ll be from one year to the next, I thought it would be fun to try it out.
Also, when I journal, I tend to write much more than I intend to which leaves me burnt out.
I love that its only one line (actually 4 short ones).
You write down the important stuff and that's it.








Same day, just 5 different years.



Mountain Shadow Church & Tim Tebow at Qualcomm Stadium

What a great weekend!
Mountain Shadow Church holds service at Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego.
Special guest speaker Tim Tebow.

I headed down towars San Diego on Saturday afternoon and made a pit stop at Bob and Cindy's. We had a great dinner at Villa Nova in Huntington Beach right on the water.


An attempted try for a panaramimic view shot of Bob's new beachhouse view

A plane flying by: HAPPY FATHER'S DAY   JOHN 3:16

Santa Monica traffic, 6/17/12

more traffic....

oooh getting into the concrete jungle - gotta love LA traffic (sense sarcasm)

great chin shot

singing car tunes!

sunset at Bob Donnell's pad to be!

View from front porch/patio of Bob's new beachhouse!!
Newport Beach, CA

great turn-out for Tebow & Mtn Shadow Church sermon

Bob, will you ever get sick of these sunsets?!

Tim Tebow speaks to Pastor David Jeremiah about the role his father had on his life.

what a view!

Bob and Cindy showed me the new pad - just a few weeks until Bob moves in!

Cindy and myself both loved these chairs that are currently sitting on front deck
 at Bob's beachhouse to be. Very vintage looking!

Messing up a new day with yesterday's failures...

I am amazed by how many individuals mess up every new day with yesterday. They insist on bringing into today the failures of yesterday and in so doing, they pollute a potentially wonderful day.
"I can't believe you did it. I don't think I'll ever forget it. You can't possibly know how much you hurt me. I don't know how you can sit there so smugly after you treated me that way. You out to be crawling on your knees, begging me for forgiveness. I don't know if I can ever forgive you."
Those are not the words of love, they are of bitterness and resentment and revenge.


*Gary Chapman's "The Five Love Languages" book

Encouragement requires empathy and...

"Encouragement requires empathy and seeing the world from the other's perspective."

*Gary Chapman's "The Five Love Languages", page 45

Active Happiness vs. Passive Happiness

There's two kinds of happiness: active happiness and passive happiness.

Active happiness is where you have to take action in order to create your own happiness.
Example: Planning out a trip to Disneyland is effort. Taking the kids is work and plenty of effort. But it's for fun. It's for your happiness.

Passive happiness is flipping on the remote control and watching reality television. Very little to no effort goes into passive happiness, it just happens, very minimal work involved.
Examples: naps, playing with your dog, taking a walk.

Who of you by worrying add a single hour to his life?

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

 --Luke 12:25-26

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SaraHHouse365 | A time for everything...

SaraHHouse365 | 20 Things Life is Too Short to Tolerate

Everyday is a BIG day!!!

Read the shirt!


Everyday is a BIG day!

The Beauty of Discipline

My brother sent me in in an email. It had me from the first line, "I have to admit, I've always hated discipline." It was great to be reminded how important discipline is and how we need it in our lives.

	Pat's POV: February 2012
	The Beauty of Discipline I have to admit, I’ve always hated discipline. But at an early age my dad told me that discipline was key to success in life, and because I could see implicitly that he was right, I practiced discipline diligently in just about everything I undertook, from sports to school to work. Looking back I can’t deny that discipline was critical in everything I did well (as well as the culprit in everything that I didn’t do so well). I can say without doubt that my dad was right, that taking extra steps to do things the right way, again and again, really is key to success. But there was a problem. See, in my mind, the ultimate reward for years of discipline would be the arrival of the day when I could discard it. Someday, I promised myself, I would be successful enough to live a discipline-free life, to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. No two days would be the same, and no one would be able to expect anything of me that I didn’t feel like doing. That would, in fact, be the definition of success. I don’t think I’m terribly different from many entrepreneurs and leaders out there. Though we all understand the importance of hard work and diligence in meeting our daily responsibilities, many of us quietly yearn for the day when our businesses will be in a place where we can be spontaneous and free, where we can choose how to spend our time depending on what we feel like doing at any given moment, on any given day. Well, things don’t always turn out the way we think they will. For me there were two flaws in my thinking: First, when it comes to having a family, freedom and spontaneity are really rare. There always seems to be an appointment, a game, a recital or a family activity to attend when you’re a parent or a spouse. And on that day when there are no activities, there’s usually an illness or an unexpected emergency. But even if my home life was out of my control, I vowed to find a way to be discipline-free at work. That meant that whenever I wasn’t working with a client, writing a book or traveling to give a talk, I would free myself from time commitments and responsibilities that I didn’t enjoy. I would go to the office and bounce from one conversation to another based on whatever whims moved me that day or that hour. I would be as free from discipline as I had ever been in my life. Well, to a certain extent, I was able to achieve that goal. And that’s when the second flaw in my thinking became apparent: freedom from discipline left me feeling empty. Not only did my productivity diminish – which wasn’t a total shock – but something else happened that surprised me. I came to dread any activity, even relatively enjoyable ones, which prevented me from exercising “freedom.” I found that even though my days began with the promise of spontaneous creativity, they almost always ended with a sense of sluggish disappointment. I’d drive home feeling like a conscientious seventh grader who had spent his entire weekend playing video games. Aimless. Wasteful. A little ashamed. In a very limited way, I think I caught a glimpse of what it must be like for professional athletes and famous actors who, when they’re between projects or seasons, have so much freedom in their lives and still seem unhappy. There is just something ultimately lonely and unfulfilling about not having any clear responsibilities, even if those responsibilities aren’t exactly stimulating. And there is a point here for leaders and managers who, like me, often dread having to live more structured, disciplined lives than we think we want. After having indulged my life-long desire for freedom, I am now a reformed advocate of discipline, not just because it works, but because it has its own rewards. Don’t get me wrong. I still greatly appreciate and understand the need for occasional freedom and unstructured time. We all need that. But I have to admit that I didn’t realize that freedom becomes its own kind of prison without a general sense of structure and limits. By embracing the need for discipline in our lives, at work and at home, we receive a sense of peace and humility that is far better than freedom. And ironically, it makes occasional opportunities for freedom much more enjoyable. And so, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my wife and my children for filling my world with so many to-dos, which I probably never would have chosen for myself, thereby preventing me from the misery of too much freedom at home. And I’d like to apologize to my colleagues for tolerating my random interruptions during my prolonged period of adolescent rebellion. I guess it’s better to learn something at age 46 than never at all. Yours, Link to Vertical Response SaraHHouse365 | 10 Virtues of a Proverbs 31 Woman SaraHHouse365 | How to Discipline Children SaraHHouse365 | Discipline

The best thing we can do with the failures of the past is to let them be history. Yes, it happened. Certainly it hurt. And it may still hurt, but he/she has acknowledge his failure and asked your forgiveness. We cannot erase the past, but we can accept it as history.
We can choose to live today free from the failures of yesterday.
Forgiveness is not a feeling; it is a commitment. It is a choice to show mercy, not to hold the offense up against the offender. Forgiveness is an expression of love.

*Gary Chapman's "The Five Love Languages", pg. 47-48

Serve Day 2012!

Serve Day

SERVE DAY.
Usually right around the beginning of June, our church gets together with other area churches and we find ways to serve our community.
Today 14,00 people got together as a part of ACTIONVC (Area Christians Taking Initiative on Needs)  to serve our community, the greater Los Angeles area / Conejo Valley / Ventura County.
 I was assigned to painting in the elementary area at Conejo Elementary School. I can't tell how much I enjoy being a part of this sense of community coming together. It was especially fun to do it a long side my girlfriends. Even my boss Kent served!

I heard one person mentioned, "you know, before all the government programs to assist people, people took care of people. Neighbors took care of neighbors. Community took care of each other."
Today that's just what we did, we took care of each other!
You name the way people take care of each other and it was done: There was window washing, power washing, painting, soccer camps, dance routines, houses being built, gardening, visiting assisted living homes, children singing to nursing homes, construction, playgrounds being built.


I remember last year when I did Serve Day, I was in a mobile home park and I washed the windows of an 86 yr. old women's mobile home. She told me she had been waiting over a year and half to have her windows washed but she simply couldn't reach or move items to get to the windows. I couldn't believe it. Here I lived only a few miles away, a young active 24 yr. old woman who was more than able to do such a simple project of washing windows.

Painting Conejo Elementary School as part of
 our project on Serve Day.
June 2, 2012

I overheard Kevin M. talking to the kids after they put on a soccer camp for kiddios. He told the story of Jesus and the blind man as told in John 9.
After Jesus spit on the ground and made some mud with the saliva, he put it on the man's eyes and told the man to go wash it off. The man did as he said and came home seeing. His neighbors questioned him how it happened. Who did it?!
²⁴ A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
²⁵ He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
Kevin went on to say, "before today, we didn't know who you were, you didn't know us. But one thing I do know is that Jesus loves us. And he loves you! We were brought here today to love you just as he has loved us."

Well said Kevin! We sacrificed our Saturday mornings to serve because he sacrified his life so that we can have eternal life wit him! whoop whoop!