“I think forgiveness is a great idea until you have someone to forgive.” Ed Dobson
I watched an incredible video on forgiveness today and I want to share it with you. Ed Dobson was the pastor of a large church for many years before he was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ”Lou Gehrig’s disease”).
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.
When Ed stepped down from pastoring his church, he discovered the emptiness of life caused by unreconciled relationships.
How many of us have relationships that require forgiveness? I know I have too many to count!
Enjoy the 10 minute video and I pray that someday we all can say, “The list is done” as we look for opportunities to forgive and to ask for forgiveness. ~Matt
“When I die, I don’t want people to be silent.” Ed Dobson
You, my 3 readers, have the distinct privilege of reading an excellent article from my most awesomeness wife. I have seen first hand how a woman can lead a fulfilling role in the home as a mother, wife, and home-maker. Enjoy the article. Matt
I recently finished a book study on biblical womanhood and it was fascinating, to say the least! A group of girlfriends, including one of my personal friends and mentors Lisa Hawkins, read the book True Woman 101: Divine Design. Coming from a background of gender competition (I can be the primary bread-winner in our family – and was for a time), it was refreshing to read how God uniquely designed women. It was a wake-up call to me (again) that there needs not be competition between the sexes. The book study was a great reminder to continue to strive to live my life as a woman of God, rather than as a woman of today’s modern culture.
I grew up during the 1970’s and the feminist movement had already left the station. The movement was a rebellion against the traditional ideas about womanhood, marriage, motherhood and morality. Would I have been a passenger on that train had I been of age? Possibly, but even though I was too young to realize it, I was already being carried along in a culture that was embracing new ideas about women. As a child of the ‘70’s I yielded my Charlie’s Angels lunchbox (I wanted to be talented, tough and attractive too!) and sang songs of gender neutrality and individuality from “Free to Be You and Me.”
Feminist ideals paved the way for my right to vote, the encouragement of a father who instilled in me the belief that I could grow up to be a female doctor in a primarily male-dominated profession, and a culture that normalized my desire to succeed, no matter what my gender.
I was inundated with messages that taught me to pursue my rights, my career and my independence as a woman. As I grew up, the role of wife and mother never seemed attractive as I watched even my own parents “swap” gender duties. You see, when I grew up, both of my parents worked outside the home. Yet, my father had a more flexible schedule, so it was my Dad who greeted me after school, sitting at the kitchen table and asking how my school day was as I ate my snack.
Needless to say, I was confused about womanhood.
During the time of my medical training, female physicians were still relatively uncommon. I remember trying to seek out female physicians to learn how they “balanced” work and home. I somehow sensed that I was still going to need to manage both and that advocating my domestic responsibilities to my husband or daycare provider wasn’t going to get me completely off the hook.
Sadly, I was so career-oriented at that time that getting married during medical school and starting to have children during residency was almost a distraction to my ultimate goal: to become a pediatrician. Today, I think it’s embarrassing that Matt’s first gift to me (ever) was a cookbook, recognizing that I hadn’t learned that all-important domestic skill! And I think it’s somewhat ironic that I chose a profession (pediatrics) where I could “practice” being a mom, just not to my own children. I didn’t get too far away from my inner desire (even if unrecognized at the time) to nurture children!
I found an article from Kathleen Parker, columnist for The Washington Post, published in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on 2/14/13, that was relevant to my recent book study. Her article looks at the consequences of Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique”, written as a manifesto of the women’s liberation movement. Parker writes that, despite marinating in the mainstream ideas of feminism, women of these last 50 years have experienced a paradigm shift away from feminism that Friedan and many other leaders of the feminist movement may not have predicted.
Parker writes: “(We) were becoming unwitting hostages to myths that few were brave enough to challenge. My own skepticism came to full fruition the moment I became a mother.
“Unlike (Betty) Friedan, I wasn’t tethered to home but to a job. Rather than resenting the prospect of staying home with a baby, I was stricken by the realization that I couldn’t. The ‘strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning,’ words Friedan used to describe thwarted ambition, was for me the sense of having abandoned my son.”
That’s exactly how I felt as the desire to be home with my own 3 children grew to volcanic proportions in me. I was struggling to balance work and home as my heart was being pulled more toward my own kids, longing to raise them myself.
In October 2009, Time magazine pointed out that, ironically, as women have gained more education, more economic independence, more power, and more freedom, they have become less and less happy.
That was me! After trying to work 60+ hours a week as a part-time pediatrician and struggling to find time at home with my husband and 3 kids, I had had enough. I realized that the common myth that life would be more satisfying in the workplace than in my own home was false.
As Kathleen Parker writes, “And while women have the same need as men to lead meaningful lives, the feminist mystique’s great failing was in advancing the notion that caring for children posed an obstacle to self-realization.”
My recent book study has helped me realize that there is no obstacle to fulfillment and true freedom when I follow God’s divine design for women.
I highly recommend the book! And I highly recommend finding a group of friends and mentors like those in the LIFE community to show you the hope and joy that comes with following your divine design to be a wife and mother!
Below is a copy of the most recent blog post by Orrin Woodward. The LIFE business recognizes there is a problem, but what is so refreshing is the solution that we present. Enjoy the videos with discernment as the language is not child-friendly. It’s time for a LeaderShift in this country, who wants to be a part of the team to make sure it goes in the direction of a freedom shift and not a force shift?
Jeff Daniels believes America is in decline. In fact, he believes this so emphatically that some of his language in this video is not children-friendly. I apologize in advance for some of the wording in this video. However, the points he makes and the discussion around it are so valuable that I decided to post it. Mr. Daniels has pinpointed the effects of the Five Laws of Decline upon American society. Nonetheless, identifying the effects and solving the issues are not one and the same thing. The Five Laws of Decline must be rooted out of our culture, ending the plunder of working citizens on both sides of the political aisle.
LeaderShift is Oliver DeMille and my proposal on how to do just that. I am posting Jeff Daniels video which states the challenge and then the trailer for LeaderShift which responds to the challenge. Yes, America, and the West, have much work to do, but what a great time to be alive and play a part in the LeaderShift!
I’m not an economist by any stretch of the imagination, but I know that something isn’t right about our economy. We are losing are economic freedoms at an alarming rate and we are in the middle of a LeaderShift movement across North America as we discover the daily losses of those freedoms and the need for principle-based leadership in our country.
I remember very distinctly seeing a graph titled “The 45 Year-Plan.” It visually described the age that people start making money, the “flat-line” of income that occurs during the average working career, how much less money a person makes during retirement, and the discrepancy between the cost of living increases and the average raises. At the time, I remember hearing that the cost of living was increasing 7-10% each year while our average raises were only going up 3% each year.
I was confused. During this same time, the government was reporting that the average raises were keeping up with the cost-of-living increases, cancelling any negative effects of inflation. It didn’t make sense to me personally as I learned that more and more families were living paycheck to paycheck and running out of money before they ran out of month.
Recently, I found an answer to my confusion.
Peter Schiff is a well-known economist who recently shed some light on the possibility that our government isn’t accurately reporting the cost-of-living, downplaying the actual increases and therefore trying to create a false sense of confidence and comfort.
Watch the video and then click on the link below his video to read Schiff’s commentary on this topic.
Click on Schiff’s commentary below to get more details to the problem.
I believe its time for the public to start a self-directed education so we can identify when something doesn’t sound right. As best-selling author Orrin Woodward describes his latest book LeaderShiftas a vehicle:
“…to provide new thinking to an old problem, using the Five Laws of Decline…….[LeaderShift] isn’t just a book, but a movement to restore the freedoms lost over the last 100 years (read 1913 for more details).”
As my kids play sports, I tell them, “You need to play better than the referees bad calls.” In the case of our lives, we need to become better informed to make decisions, in case the referees of life (government, teachers, employers etc.) make the wrong decisions that affect us. Take control of your future and don’t leave it in the hands of someone else. Start your Life self-directed education today. Godspeed on your journey.
“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink….but you can salt his oats.” Orrin Woodward
There’s a Leadershift happening in our country and I’m so thankful we have the LIFE business to help us with the transition.
How many of you have come across a situation in life where you know the right thing to do, yet you don’t do it? For whatever reason we as humans have an innate ability to “know” a lot of great things but often times never apply that knowledge at the appropriate time. But when we do, the results are spectacular.
I love my children. They provide so much joy and happiness and so many ”teachable moments,” as LIFE founder Orrin Woodward calls them.
Recently, my 14 year old son was playing a basketball game for his Christian home-school team- The Saints. The game wasn’t very close as Adam’s team outmatched their opponents, winning by a large margin. I could tell something was happening on the court as I heard one of the opposing players say to his coach,”Tell #5 that he better shut-up.” Sounded like a little “trash-talking” was going on. My son is number#31, so I felt a bit relieved that “my boy” wasn’t causing all the fuss. Yet, I was concerned because these boys were playing on a Christian home-school team and they should be playing to represent Jesus Christ.
As the game progressed I could visibly see the opposing players getting more frustrated as one of the players “leaned a shoulder” into my son as he walked by him. It was the kind of action that inferred, “Watch out, you want to fight?”
After the game, the opposing coach came over and detailed how our boys were taunting and trash-talking their players. I could see why his players would be offended, but it was nothing super serious though. After all, it’s the heat of the game and it’s nothing like we see professional athletes do on TV.
Not a big deal right? Not so. The situation was a big deal to me because these boys are supposed to represent the core of great sportsmanship, self-control, and grace. They play for a Christian basketball team called the “Saints” for crying-out-loud. In the locker room I shared with our boys what the opposing coach said, shared my thoughts, and presumed that was the end of it. Until my son told me he was “one of the boys.” Geesh.
Needless to say, I was disappointed in his behavior. We’ve had many discussions over the years regarding good sportsmanship, encouraging others, leading by example, playing above the referees, and so on.
What was done was done and it was time to move on and I prayed it wouldn’t happen again. I also prayed for another opportunity to play that team and a chance for Adam to make things right with the players and coaches that he offended.
The opportunity came the other day. A few days before the game, I seized the chance for a “teachable moment” and encouraged Adam to find the player and coach and apologize. Adam knew the right thing to do but completely rejected the idea because his pride was in the way (You can lead a horse to water…). He wanted to protect his ego and not look stupid, rather than develop his character and integrity and do the right thing by attempting to fix the relationship.
I tried not to press the issue because I wanted this to be his struggle and victory. I didn’t hear anything from Adam until we were on the way to the game and he decided he was going to apologize. I could see this wasn’t easy for him as he sat quietly not listening to the typical pre-game music. I complimented him on his decision but raised the bar by asking, “What about the coach?” Adam threw his head back into the seat saying, “Awe Dad!” The rest of the car ride was deafeningly silent.
During the warm-up I watched the scene unfold. Adam went up to the player he offended and apologized. Then he found the opposing coach and did the same thing. Both player and coach acted quite surprised. There was a little buzz on their side as athletes and coaches pointed at Adam, smiling as the message of his apology spread throughout their team. I knew after that Adam had earned a victory no matter what the final score would be.
The game ended with our boys having another lopsided victory. Yet, there was a different feeling during the game. One of sportsmanship, hard playing and healthy competition. After the game I went up to the opposing coach and apologized for my responsibility in Adam’s behavior. He smiled and told me how he brought his team together before the game and let them know, ”They apologized, It’s all OK now.” The coach released them of their anger and resentment diffusing what could have blown-up into something regrettable.
It was a proud moment for Dad to see his son think and act like a leader at such a young age. Adam showed me what true wisdom (information applied) and humility look like in real life. Adam was given the right information, thought about it, and acted appropriately which provided a great teachable moment to share with others.
Pride is a huge problem that plagues our culture and prevents us from acting appropriately with the right information. I’m so thankful the LIFE business helps families and individuals navigate the prideful waters of life. LIFE is self-directed education that helps teach individuals to identify problems and find solutions. It teaches us how to think and apply. I’m not sure how that scenario would’ve played out without the LIFE business, but I do know it gave me the skills to lead the horse to water and help him drink. Join the movement and experience your own life victories.
A couple of years ago I was inspired by LIFE business co-founder Orrin Woodward to write an article on encouragement. Its a topic you can’t get too much of. Without it you can slip into hopelessness and despair and with it you can move mountains.
The root word for encourage comes from an old French word corage - which means heart. To have courage can be thought of as “to have heart.” The prefix ‘en’ in encourage means “to make or put in.” To encourage someone can be literally translated as to give heart or to put heart in someone.
Read the post from my good friend Dan Hawkins, LIFE co-founder and fellow encourager.
As I watched this video I could not help but smile and think of the all the people in the LIFE business who have encouraged me over the years. Greg was kind enough to send me this link and is a friend who has always had a smile and a kind word for me.
It will take courage to accomplish in todays world and become awesome! Encouragement is the best way to help others muster up the courage to go out and succeed in LIFE.
Enjoy this video and remember to be an encourager of others! Make 2013 your year to be awesome!
This is totally awesome!! Orrin Woodward and the founders of the LIFE Business have done it again. Incentive trips of a lifetime to reward individuals and couples for going out and serving people by providing life-changing information. Below I have inserted a post from the blog of best-selling author, 2011 IAB top Leadership award winner, Orrin Woodward. Watch the video and then read how this has blessed our good friends Mike and Robin Schilling!
The first round of qualifiers for free trips are selecting their destinations. I am so excited about this program. The first level to qualify for a trip is just 6,000 points! With $1,800,000 paid out in one-time bonuses and incentive trips, this is one of the best programs for growth that the LIFE Business launched last year. Plus, you get to choose your destination. No herding everyone to one location. Instead, you select the vacation that fits your families needs and wants. Here is video footage from the major weekend with some of the qualifiers and the qualification criteria for both trips is below the video.
Sincerely,
Orrin Woodward
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“We finally get to take a honeymoon!” Robin Schilling
A little while ago I posted an article about Mike and Robin Schilling and how we have been celebrating their accomplishments in the LIFE business. Mike and Robin, and their family , have been some of the hardest working people I know. They run a family farm, Mike works as a pharmacist and Robin home-schooled their 5 children up to high school age. Needless to say, they were busy and have never been able to take a trip outside of the state, not even a honeymoon, and they’ve been married for 25+ years!
Well, all that is changing now as they have earned an all-expense-paid trip to Arenal, Costa Rica, at the base of an active volcano, through the LIFE business! Michelle and I have had the privilege to have a front row seat in watching this incredible couple define their dreams in life and pursue them with passion. We couldn’t be more proud of their accomplishments so far, and they are just getting started. They are already planning their next LIFE incentive trip and dream of taking Robin’s father on a 10-day Alaskan cruise.
Thank you LIFE business! Thank you Orrin Woodward and the founders of LIFE for giving us this vehicle to give back to others. You have paved the path for the common man and woman to achieve success in what matters in life and the beauty to determine what that success looks like. Godspeed to 1 million people!
Orrin Woodward and the Policy Council just put on one of the most impressive LIFE leadership meetings in the history of community building! I think the most astonishing part was seeing all the individuals and families cross the stage, by the hundreds, or maybe thousands, having life-changing victories. $1.8 Million in bonuses and all expense paid trips given in the first year – unheard of!! Below is a copy of Life Founder, Orrin Woodward’s blog post on the event. ______________________________________________________
It’s Monday morning after an amazing LIFE Business Major Convention. Thousands of people were recognized on stage for achieving new pins, numbers, and vacations. From Thursday night through early Sunday afternoon, the LIFE community experienced it best information and inspiration weekend ever. The teams within the community have united together to break more power players than ever before.
There were many magic moments in Columbus. If you attended the event, please share you magic moments and key nuggets you are taking away from the major to grow. The LIFE Business is changing the world one person at a time!
It was Saturday afternoon and my family was heading to the University of Wisconsin Badgers football game. It is a yearly tradition for us to don the Red and White and fanatically cheer with 80,000+ fans in celebration of a hopeful victory for our alma mater.
There was a season in my life when I believed that my entire identity was wrapped up in being a “Badger.” I was a face painter, I had season football, basketball, and hockey tickets. I was the first to be in line and last to leave the stadium. My moods would rise and fall based on if the Badgers won or lost. Strangely though, if they won my joy lasted about 24 hours, but if they lost, I would be depressed for a week. Up and down, week after week, I allowed my identity and my emotions to be dictated by something I couldn’t control – a sports team.
My observations over the last 2 decades are that many people, especially the youth, are lacking a personal identity. As my children grow in age, knowledge, and curiosity, my wife and I spend more time trying to impress upon them the importance of developing a healthy identity in life and not just going along with the crowd. We often quote best-selling author Chris Brady:
“Whatever way the crowd is going, run the other way!”
How do I know people are struggling to find and express their identity? Look at the exponential appearance of body art (tattooing) in our country. It’s an individual’s way to express themselves and say, “Hey, look at who I am. I’m more than just what you see on the surface.” Look at the maddening fascination with sports, sports TV, MTV, fantasy sports leagues. People are trying to grab on to some team, or some symbol that defines who they are. Recently, we learned one of the most common admission’s to the adolescent wing in a local psychiatric hospital is sexual identity crisis. Wow, if that isn’t evidence of a lost identity for young people.
There are multiple directions I could go with this post, but I want to focus on one area in particular: the loss of our national identity.
What does it mean to be an American?
Recently I attended a lecture from best-selling authorOliver Demille at a LIFE leadership convention in Milwaukee, WI. DeMille described the battle that exists, often undetected, for our families, the sanctity of marriage, morality, free enterprise and freedom in general. It is a battle that intends to strip us of our identity.
In terms of a national identity, a healthy nation is a group of people with a shared heritage of the past and a shared vision of the future. This, in essence, is the nation’s IDENTITY.
Demille described how every healthy nation has an identity. It looks like a giant tree with two main tap roots. One taproot is a national book (higher authority) and the other is the nation’s epistemology (understanding of truth). Without them, the nation has no identity and therefore is limited in developing a healthy nation and providing a foundation for the development of healthy individual identities for its people.
DeMille referenced a question posed to Americans over the decades:
“If you were kicked off the planet, what two books would you take?”
DeMille detailed the surprising and alarming trends that developed over the last half century. In the 1950′s, the Bible and Declaration of Independence were the predominant answers. In the 1960′s, the Bible was still the nation’s foundation for truth but the country was starting to lose an identity with a national document. By the 1970′s, the answer spaces were left blank, or filled in with a question mark. And by the 1980′s, people apparently had no idea what documents help us understand our national identity or what we could reference for universal truth. The deficit was glaring as Americans would answer with the title of their favorite song. In four short decades our source for authority and understanding of truth was stripped away.
Why Do We Need a National Book and What Really is Epistemology?
A national book gives the people a higher authority that people can turn to when questioned. It provides a foundation to rely upon in times of trouble. It can also give a historical road map to help a nation and individual to live by.
Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge. Basically, epistemology helps someone determine if something is true. Below are some well known examples of how someone can come to understand truth.
Pragmatism- If it works for me it must be true.
Aestheticism- If it’s beautiful it must be true.
Humanism- If most people believe it then it’s true.
Empiricism – Scientific method has proved it to be true.
Mathematics, Logic and many others.
The most powerful epistemology today is Credentialism: the “experts” with the most credentials determine what other “experts” say is true and right. These people are highly educated by other credentialists and have a lot of letters and titles after their names (My wife and I were the poster-children for credentialists). Doctor of flippity-flop, and director of such-and-such, PhD, MD, CDC, ABCDEFG. I beg to ask the question, “What if the credentialists aren’t right?” After all, we’ve lost our framework and foundation for what truth is and I would think that now more than ever, we need to question what the credentialists positions are, what is their message, and what sources are they using as their foundation of truth.
Credentialism is in direct conflict with another powerful epistemology known as Independent Thinking. Independent Thinking would state that an individual should listen, read and gather all the data themselves then come to their own conclusion. Independent Thinking, with the foundation of studying and learning from historical examples, is what established our republic and the prosperity of our nation for the first 150 years.
Where do get your national identity? Do you rely on someone else to tell you what it is, or do you gather the information and study it yourself to make your own conclusions?
In America people are struggling with an identity crisis as the national identity is divided into 2 camps: The Credentialists (CR) and the Independent Thinkers (IT). They are in a battle of epic proportions, yet very few see it, or even know it exists. The CR would have you believe the national truth and identity should come from Freud and Nietzsche, while the IT still believe in the Bible and the Constitution for our truth and identity.
Which nation do you belong to? Perhaps, it’s a little of both. For me, I was highly educated, but I had little awareness of the battle going on. Therefore I wandered around my world with the only identity I could grab – A University of Wisconsin, face-painting, Badger fan. My identity ran deep and my emotions rose and fell based on the weekly outcome. One season I’m a loser, the next, a winner. I was a face-painting credentialist that didn’t know how to lead my family or children. I learned a lot of book knowledge, but after college, TV took over as the teacher and gave me all the wisdom and examples of how NOT to raise a family and be a good husband. So I ran around confused, with a broken identity, like so many families and individuals in our world today.
Here’s the Good News!
The business of LIFE is here!! There is a way, a self-directed education if you will, to gain insight into this battle and most importantly what you can do about it. The LIFE business is specifically designed to walk the individual down a path of discovery in 8 specific areas in life: Faith, Family, Finances, Fun, Freedom, Following(leadership), Fitness and Friends. As the masses walk around grasping for an identity in all the weird places, there is now a map to help them find an identity and a much clearer path toward a life that they always wanted.
I spend less time at Badger games, but I do spend a lot of time with tens of thousands of friends that are filling up arenas and stadiums around North America celebrating “LIFE” victories.
I still enjoy a good Badger game, but the only thing I paint on my face is a smile for every “LIFE” victory I see. A true victory that lasts for generations. A male discovers he can be a “man” in this world and it’s cool. I love seeing a mother come home, guilt free, to be a stay-at-home mom. I love seeing someone start making tough decisions with their finances to get out of debt, or to break free from a life-long addiction. I love seeing marriages saved and extended families reunited after years of conflict. I love my new LIFE identity and I know you will too. I invite you to check out for yourself the life you’ve always wanted.
Have you ever been in a position in life where you asked the question, “Why does God have me here?” Perhaps you don’t believe that God even exists because why would such a good God allow such awful things to take place on earth.
I personally believe that we have a great God that allows circumstances in our life to teach us things. I want to share with you a fascinating devotion I was reading this morning from Pete Briscoe. Please read below.
“Prayer is weakness leaning on omnipotence.” —W. S. Bowd Aaron Boyd was in way over his head. On a mission trip to Thailand, he and his band, Bluetree, played one night in The Climax Bar, deep in Pattaya’s red-light district. There, they rubbed shoulders with those stuck in the worst of the worst. There, he and his band discovered what can happen when someone “prays in the Spirit,” allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through them, in a way that was natural to them. Aaron remembers:
“Everything you can imagine goes on in that place. You see kids as young as 8, 9, 10, just selling themselves, you know?! You see 60-year-old guys walking down the street with two 13- or 14-year-old girls…”
The band was overwhelmed with grief for what they saw around them. When it was time for them to get up and play, words were hard to find.
At one point I just started singing out. I started singing “Greater things…” something along those lines, almost prophesying over the city… slowly this groove emerged…
The band began to fill in with voices and instruments—praying in the Spirit with music. The Spirit’s words, flowing through them, began to come together in a passionate intimate conversation with God—the Spirit was writing a new song on the spot:
You’re the God of this City You’re the King of these people You’re the Lord of this nation You are
You’re the Light in this darkness You’re the Hope to the hopeless You’re the Peace to the restless You are
… For greater things have yet to come And greater things are still to be done in this City…
This song, God of this City, is now sung worldwide. What is the Spirit going to sing in your heart today? Are you listening to what He is going to pray through you?
Holy Spirit, I’m listening. As we walk together today, lead our conversation. Speak to me and pray through me with all kinds of prayer in all situations. Amen.
Greater things are yet to be done in our daily lives. Greater things are yet to be done in our world no matter what the circumstances. Join the LIFE personal development and leadership journey to discover your God given potential and start your path to living a life of significance. God Bless.
