well...

I've been trying to figure out what to post about for a couple days now. I got back Saturday from an AWESOME weekend in Louisville, KY. Caught a little bit of a vision -- or a lot of a vision that I hadn't had before. I'm excited about that. I came back, and I believe I was talking to Herschel on MSN and he asked me how the weekend was and I told him I was going to change the world. Now, I know you're probably like whatever. And these are the thoughts that have been going around in my head.

Do you know that if you make a difference for positive or negative in one person's life, you've changed the world...at least their world. It all kind of goes back to my reaching your dreams post. Are you doing what God has created you to do better than anyone else? Are you even seeking that? For a while I wasn't. I honestly thought that since I didn't like myself that God probably wouldn't want to use me. So I went on a mission of learning how to be a better person, how to be a leader, how to achieve my dreams, and how to become more than what I've always just figured I'd have to settle for. Not that my life was bad growing up, but I know that there's so much more.

Anyway, so books I've read recently...just about anything by John C. Maxwell. I haven't read his whole library of books, but by the end of next year I will have. Right now I'm reading a book by Andy Stanley called Visioneering. Fantastic. It's about rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem in 52 days. Definite read. I read Reaching Your Dreams by Tommy Barnett. I read the Gift by Shad Helmstetter. These are just a few that have helped me see that I don't have to settle for where I'm at right now. I can become a better person. I am becoming a stronger person. But I think the one I've read that has had the most influence on me, and I think you've all read it, is the Bible :) What I've been doing along with my other studies is I've been going through Proverbs a chapter a day. There's 31 chapters and usually 31 days in a month. It's the ultimate book of wisdom in life, business, you name it. I don't know how many times in there it some something about not marrying a quarrelsome wife...lol You want wisdom and direction from God? Proverbs is the book for God-given wisdom.

So why I decided to post on this is in one of my weekly newsletters I get there was an excerpt at the end of it about changing the world...coincidence? I think not. Anyway, here goes...hope you like it!

This is an inscription on the tomb of an Anglican Bishop in Westminster Abbey:

“When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world.

As I grew older and wiser I discovered the world would not change –
So I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country, but it too seemed immovable.

As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.

And now I realize as I lie on my deathbed, if I had only changed myself first, then by example I might have changed my family. From their inspiration and encouragement I would then have been able to better my country,

And who knows, I might have even changed the world.”