Thursday, January 24, 2013

Week before Ireland

Hey blog peeps! As the title states this is the last End of the Week review before I go to Ireland a week after tomorrow. Let us just say that I am, a little excited. This week was dangerous, manly and profound. This week was MAN week!! Not only did we do manly things, but we learned a lot on how to be a Godly, manly man. On Monday, we shot sporting clays on a gun range, and it was awesome. Not to mention the grilling steaks with our hands afterwards. Though we did not learn about attributes of a Godly man, it was cool to hang out with men and shoot some shotguns. On Tuesday, Adam Martin took us down by the lake and sat us down for a manly talk and to do some manly activities. Though the activities were fun, the things he said to us were more worthwhile. The thing I walked away from that day was the difference between fault and responsibility. You can have responsibility without fault. That's big. Let me break this down. Even though things could not be your fault, as a man you must accept responsibility for it. Example, You are overseeing some kids playing with gnarly fireworks. One kid burns himself. Even though it is not your fault, you take responsibility for it because you were in charge. On Wednesday, Bruce Morgan, director of Point 11, came and talked to us about what a Godly man looks like. On of the man things a Godly man has that a worldly man does not have is security in Christ as opposed to security in people or possessions. This is a key thing to find happiness because your emotions will be based off of the grace of God and not a moody person or a possession that will eventually break down. Today, Adam Donyes spoke to us on the difference of being a man versus a boy. On of the key things I took out of this talk is accepting responsibility and letting your yes be yes. I really took in the responsibility aspect of this talk and I am trying to apply this to all areas of my life. Letting your yes be yes was a big one for me. I can sometimes not commit fully or go back on my commitments so hearing this really challenged me to follow through. This week was great. The Godly, Biblical man is a dying breed and I got a whole week learning how to be one. I am very blessed and I pray to be the man that God desires me to be.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Back from Break

It's good to be back in Branson. I have returned for another semester of link year. On our first week back we have been blessed with an excellent speaker, Ted Cunningham. Ted is a local pastor of the church that I go to called Woodland Hills. Besides being an awesome pastor, Ted is one of the top marriage and parenting counselors in the country. This week Ted talked out multiple topics ranging from marriage to parenting. The first topic Ted talked about was symptoms and solutions of a stuck marriage. Even though none of us at Link Year are married, it is good to learn about healthy marriage and signs of trouble in a marriage so hopefully we can avoid the latter. The next topic he switched gears and spoke on parenting. Ted talked about, what he called, trophy parenting. This type of parenting, prolongs adolescence and, what he believes, causes an unnecessary delay in marriage. The reason why this is bad is because of Genesis 2:24, which states that a man should go from his fathers house to the house of his family's. This scripture does not suggest an unnecessary delay. The third topic he spoke on was the 6 levels of communication. With the 6 levels of communication being the deepest. Knowing these levels helps keep healthy communication between couples and communication is key. Throughout this week I have really been blessed with the knowledge that Ted presented and I feel that I can apply it to all aspects of my relationships now and the future.