Motivation

Stop for a moment and think about something that you really enjoy doing. For me, I enjoy coaching sports... Baseball, softball, or basketball mostly. I enjoy teaching kids the proper technique and fundamentals, along with seeing them improve throughout the course of the season. I learn a great deal from the experiences and it motivates me to continue.

Have you ever stopped to wonder what motivated God to send his only son, Jesus into the world? It would have been so easy to give up on the filthy sinful world... but He never has. As John 3:16 so blatently puts it...

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

If you really stop and think about this statement for a moment... I don't know about you, but this blows me away. God loves us so much that He was motivated to go as far as sending Jesus to help save us. That's how far gone we were. There was no other lever to pull. Jesus had to come down to provide us with the opportunity to save ourselves. That's right... for us to save ourselves. I say this because God doesn't send us to Hell, He gives us the path to Heaven. He respects our free will and we, by our choices, beliefs, and motivations send ourselves to Heaven or Hell. Of course, God has the final say in everything, but my point is we can either be motivated to propel our ourselves (and the people we interact with on a daily basis) on the path to Heaven or toward the path to Hell.

What is your motivation?

God bless you. And this is for His Glory!

Simplicity

Have you ever stopped to think why we make bad choices? Is it that we are just caught in the moment, is it deliberate, or even premeditated? In any case, I believe that self discipline is a critical safety net that we can use in any of those three scenarios.  Lately, I've been trying to focus on simplicity.  I've found that over complicating a problem tends to make it harder to solve. When caught in a moral dilemma, I try to reflect on one basic principle:

"What is the right thing to do?"

Taking this principle one step further... I would ask myself, "do I think (what I'm about to do) would be pleasing in the eyes of God?"

If the answer is "no," the appropriate choice is to cease and desist the course of action.  Small wins of resistance will increase self confidence, resiliency, and discipline.

You can read this short passage in Ephesians 6:10-18  "The Armor of God" to hear what the Bible says.

God bless you. And this is for His Glory!