My Son, My Love
As I approach this new day I am truly grateful, I am reminded that no day is promised to me. If today was my last day on earth and I went home to be wrapped in the embrace of my Lord, what would I want to impart to you? My son, my love, here are a few important lessons for life, I leave to you…
1. Vulnerability is NOT weakness, I know the culture will tell you otherwise, but vulnerability is really an act of enormous courage and depth.
2. Don’t confuse meekness with weakness, meekness is power submitted to your own self-control.
3. A woman will not complete you. But you can most certainly enjoy life with a godly one. You must be spiritually and emotionally healthy in order to truly give and receive the blessing of marriage.
4. Love is a verb. Love is a choice, it’s self-sacrificing, an act of your will, not a fleeting emotion.
5. Actions will always speak louder than words.
6. Set up healthy emotional boundaries, being very clear on what’s okay and not okay in friendships and relationships whether they be romantic or professional.
7. Boldly walk in truth son, because denial is powerful and seducing. Denial is a dangerous way of self-soothing. Beckoning you into a false confidence and it can be as addicting as any drug.
8. Don’t be afraid of change, be afraid of not changing. We can break generational patterns.
9. A wounded heart is fertile ground for the devil’s lies.
10. True empathy for another soul can only come when you’ve allowed yourself to feel the depths of your own wounds. Empathy can then come from the overflow of healing in your heart. True healing and wholeness is only found in Christ.
11. Happiness is not permanent. Wholeness is. Don’t confuse these.
12. True humility comes from the sobering conclusion we all struggle and fall short at times.
13. An unhealed person is easily offended by pretty much anything someone does, and a healed person understands the actions of others have absolutely nothing to do with them. Each day you decide which one you will be.
14. Treat the janitor with the same respect and dignity as you treat the CEO.
15. If you’re not careful you can make yourself a prisoner of your own past, let your past be a lesson not a life sentence.
16. Rejoice in your victories AND your trials. Don’t ever be stingy with your story. Life’s ups and downs, struggles and victories are given so you can help and inspire others.
17. Let your yes’s be YES and your no’s be NO, in other words … say what you mean and mean what you say.
18. Choose your words wisely. Life and death is in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat the fruit of it.
19. Leadership is displayed by example, don’t ask anyone to do something you are not willing to roll up your sleeves and do yourself.
20. Plant your feet firmly on biblical hope. Worldly hope is rooted in uncertainty, biblical hope is a present certainty of a future blessing.
21. Faith: Believing in advance, what only makes sense in reverse.
22. Fear and Faith cannot coexist.
23. As in water, face reflects face, so a man’s heart reveals the man.
24. If someone loses their faith in Jesus because of the actions of people, then their faith was never in Jesus. It was in people.
25. Manners never go out of style, say please, thank you and pardon me whenever the circumstance warrants it. Open doors, pull out chairs, respect your elders and don’t interrupt someone when they are speaking.
26. You’ll either have excuses or results you cannot have both.
27. “Can’t” is a cop out.
28. Practice your God-given passions.
29. Let your keen sense of observation fuel creativity.
30. You are always free to choose, however you are not free from the consequences of those choices.
31. Treat women the way you’d want another man to treat me. Treat a woman the same way you’d want your future daughter to be treated.
32. Many times women ask questions in an effort to build intimacy.
33. Sometimes a woman just needs to talk and is not searching for advice, it’s best to ask.
34. When complimenting people, strive to go beyond the physical. Recognizing their character, their intelligence, and their heart, these will be words of life over their soul.
35. Reserve “I’m sorry” for when you truly are!
36. When accepting an invitation into someone’s home don’t go empty-handed (with your arms swinging).
37. Stand up straight.
38. Always ask for what you want, the worst that can happen is someone will say no.
39. Knowledge is good. But wisdom is better, it’s the life application of knowledge.
40. Intelligence can turn to arrogance without humility.
41. Sometimes the longest journey of your life will be the 18 inches between your head and your heart.
42. Our thoughts determine our words, our words determine our actions, our actions determine our character, our character determines our destiny.
43. Forgiveness does not excuse someone else behavior, it simply frees you from carrying the weight of someone else’s offense.
44. Unforgiveness it’s like drinking poison, and excepting the other person to die. It’s toxic to body, mind and spirit.
45. Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it.
46. Sufficiently mourn your losses, then remember you are an overcomer kept by the power of God.
47. Anger is a secondary emotion, seek out the most vulnerable emotion that lies at the root of the anger and take that emotion to the Lord.
48. Aim for unity in diversity.
49. Tears are words that are sometimes best articulated in writing.
50. Know that I will always love you, and not for how you perform but for who you are son.
