Thursday, October 24, 2013

#WakingWithPurpose

One year of waking up early early is in the books!!!  It is crazy that it has been a year.  Last week marks the first week that I began waking up at 3:45 a.m. - 4 a.m. a year ago, the reason why I did it... well to explain that there is no better resource than looking back on the blog I wrote last December on why I had begun to wake up early... so check that out here - WHY ARE YOU WAKING UP EARLY BLOG POST (CLICK TO READ)  


Make sure you read that post if you never have before continuing on as the rest of this will not make sense!
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Did I sleep in ever this year???  So the first question that everyone is going to ask did you really go every day for the year?  I do not wake up this early on Saturday and Sunday's and Thanksgiving/Christmas.  And I can count on two hands the amount of days that I didn't do this during the whole year.  Four of which have been since we moved to South Carolina.  I slept in the following the three days after we moved (July 3rd - 5th) and I slept in the day after the Virginia Tech/Georgia Tech game of this year till 5:45.  One of the days I am counting, I woke up got out of bed and went out to my couch and fell right back to sleep, so not counting that.  And the only other time was the ONE time the whole year that I actually didn't get out of bed when the alarm went off.

I believe the real question is NOT how many days have I slept in during this year?  But from the first blog post about it, have I really kept up the Purpose, Passion, and Motivation?

I would answer that question with a resounding YES!  
This change in my life has grown me in my:
Faith - By allowing me the one on one time with the man upstairs that I really need everyday.  It has given me time for prayer, time for reading the Good News, certain Bible Studies, and even reading several books to help my growth.  The one thing I do know is that I wouldn't be able to wake up this early every morning without knowing my real PURPOSE of it - to grow in my Faith! God has allowed that change through this time and I thank him for it every morning when I wake.  If someone were to begin waking up this early every day I don't believe they could hold on to it if they did it for themselves as it would be hard with self centered intentions, but knowing He is with me and I am doing it to bring him glory it gets me out of bed every morning!

Twitter posts - Well what started with #RiseAndGrind as I am sure some of you all remember.  Changed in 2013 to #WakingWithPurpose.  As I felt that the real reason I was waking up early was for PURPOSE and and I am not sure if prayer time/devotions/reading are considered "grinding".  To stay on the topic of Twitter, it has been an interesting ride, when I first started waking up early I really felt that twitter was a great way to spread some positivity and some of the Biblical values that I try to live every day by to help lift others up so they may be able to find his/her Purpose.  I reached a point about 6 to 7 months in that I was forcing this.  Thinking I needed to do this just so someone would re-tweet it or favorite it and I started to lose why I began to do it in the first place.  It started to become self centered, so that is why my tweeting in the morning slowed a little bit, but at the same time, whatever and whenever I was tweeting in the morning has become way more sincere and from my heart instead of just doing it to do it, it comes back to having that real PURPOSE behind it!

Family - I am going to let Morgann have a guest post on here soon to let her share what has been her perspective of me waking up early and how she believes it may have changed our marriage and growth as a couple.  So expect that post in sometime late November/December.

Will I continue to do it?  ABSOLUTELY!  Anything that I believe you can look back on in life and see that it is growing you spiritually in your faith in a positive direction, only helping your marriage in a positive way, and ultimately making life have PURPOSE through my faith, why wouldn't I?

#WakingWithPurpose

Proverbs 6:4-11 - "Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids...Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! ... How long will you lie there, you sluggard?  When will you get up from your sleep?  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man." 


Monday, October 14, 2013

August/September Book Review

Quiet - By Susan Cain and 

Experiencing God - By Henry Blackaby  

Even though I finished these two books recently, they did not make this post as I will have separate post for each of them in the future as Quiet was "AMAZING", and Experiencing God, well, I just have more than a paragraph to say about it.

Now onto the reviews...

What is the What
By Dave Eggars
I had gotten this book from a goodwill several months back, it intrigued me by all the accolades it had received.  So with it being the end of summer reading I thought why not pick up the longest book I have ever read and get started.  The author takes you through the ride of a man from Sudan, Valentino Deng.  Reading through this book the whole time I kept saying, this is just like one of those movies where some people love the artistic side of a film when really I might just rather be watching Old School or Dumb and Dumber.  I can see how it received so many awards for writing and how so many people have read it.  It just wasn't for me.  There are really two stories going on at once, one of Deng in Sudan and the other him living in Atlanta.  All the chapters on Atlanta I was loving reading about but the coinciding stories going on at the same time just weren't put together well for me.  So if someone loves to read I would say go at this and see what you think but if you are a one book a month kind guy or gal, don't ever pick it up.


Toughness
By Jay Bilas

So this book was told to me by a friend to try out and see what I thought.  I thought it was really good.  As I told him, it is not go out and pay 15 dollars on it kind of good, but rent from the library kind of good.  He bases the book off of a piece he wrote for ESPN.com several years back about what "toughness" actually means.  I think this book is great for any coach, and honestly any high school or college player of any sport.  I really wish I had read this in high school when playing sports.  So if you are a parent then this would be a great book for your son or daughter to read if they are beginning to play sports competitively.  It is a quick read so if you are interested in sports, leadership, and to compete the "right" way then I would pick this up.



The Case For Christ
By Lee Strobel


I had read this book about 8 years ago and felt it was time to take it off the shelf again.  It was a great read once again.  Lee was an Atheist, who was on the search for basic facts of why he should "believe" in Jesus Christ after his wife became a believer in Christ.  He travels around the country in the book having conversations with great philosophers and apologetics of today to find answers to his questions.  A great read for anyone that may be have questions about Christianity, and the life of Jesus Christ.







The Heart and the Fist
By Eric Greitens

Honestly have no idea where I got the idea to read this book, but it was on my "to read' list on My GOOD READS PAGE (click to see)  so I figured why not pick it up from the library.  This book is the biography of Eric Geitens,  who goes from Duke, to becoming a boxer, to Oxford, to being a Rhodes Scholar, to the Navy, to becoming a Navy Seal, and then serving in our country Afghanistan and Iraq.  So if that procession of events intrigues you at all I would recommend this book to you.  He goes into detail about his training as a Navy Seal, so if that interests you, you will fly through this book and not be able to put those chapters down.  The book does get a little old when you realize he has not one bad thing to say about himself and you start to wonder if he has ever done anything wrong, but all in all a good quick read if those above topics interest you.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Princess

So I had to find out the hard way.. It is Morgann's Birthday (2011), we happen to be in Denver together as I am speaking at a conference.  I thought I had done it up, gotten the best Birthday gift I have ever gotten anyone!!!  Tickets to see Taylor Swift!  Well, I was wrong, and being a guy I didn't know why!  I get back from some conference action in our Denver Hotel room where I am expecting to reveal the big gift.  It is there that I officially find out that on Morganns Birthday it isn't about the gift, it is about the Celebration/Love Shown, the day together, the fun, the birthday is more of an experience and not just a gift we unwrap.  (Duh Chris... Just like LIFE)

So with that said, with Morgann's birthday tomorrow, I thought I would reveal what I did to celebrate Morgann's 28th year of birth, post Denver/T.Swift year.  And thought that doing so may help any ideas/thoughts that might help fellow husbands/boyfriends out there celebrate their boo's special day.  (I was told by a student this week I need to start just calling my wife "my boo"?)

So last year I created a theme... PRINCESS.  I have found that celebrating in "child like" ways makes life so much fun!!!

So I created a Princess house, and made EVERYTHING Princess!



On the Princess house I created 7 doors, so everyday for 6 days leading up to her birthday Morgann got to open a door a day.  Inside the door was a poem/letter, a writing of some sort that would have hints, etc. on what the gift of the day may be.  The gift for each day was inside the Princess House (retractable roof very similar to what the Vikings have planned for the future), so not only did we have a Birthday, we had a Week of Birth Celebration.










It is through doing this that I truly found out that it isn't about the buying of gifts for Morgann, it is about the time - time spent together, time spent in preparation, time spent SHOWING LOVE.








Lesson learned for all future birthdays(and in life)!
1)  Be like a child at heart
2)  Prepare with love in your heart
3)  And always don't just buy a gift - because time is more important!