Ten Ideas for Developing a Child’s Leadership Ability

by Andy Wood on May 4, 2010

in Esteem, Five LV Laws, Leadership, Life Currency, Principle of Legacy

Ask an adult to define leadership, and sometimes you’ll get a blank stare, or a wad of contradictions.  Ask a child to do it, and he or she will often have a much easier time.  The leader in a kid’s world is the one who can get his friends to do what he wants them to do.  Or leadership may begin with the words, “Hey, you know what would be funny?” 

One thing adults should know that kids often don’t, however, is that anybody can lead.  That skinny, awkwardly-shy girl in third grade may be a corporate CEO or trailblazing missionary in the making.  That boy who’s always picked last for the kickball team may own a sports team one day.

Everybody is a potential leader. Leadership is not synonymous with talent or personality types.  Leadership ability is not always obvious.  And it sure isn’t the same thing as authority.

Leadership is influence.  And influence – especially good influence – can be taught.  And here’s the really cool part:  You can teach a child to influence others without them knowing that’s what you’re doing.

So whether you have kids of your own (works for grandchildren, too), or you work with children in some capacity, here are ten ideas for fostering leadership in the kids in your world. [click to continue…]

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I Knead Thee Every Hour: Seven More Half-Baked Ideas I’m Working On

by Andy Wood on May 2, 2010

in Half-baked Ideas

I have been greatly encouraged and motivated lately by a simple little thought that has helped me with larger tasks and goals – particularly helping me with attitude.  The idea: Win little victories.  I may not be able to climb the whole flight of stairs, but I can take the first two.  I may not be able to lose 100 pounds, but I can lose 2.  I may not be able, metaphorically, to take the Promised Land, but I can cross the Jordan River.  Tom Peters calls this milestoning.  And it’s a critical thing to do. 

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Thirty-seven years I have followed Christ, and somehow this hymn and its lyrics have passed me by.  I saw the words last week, and it blew me away.  Written in the mid 1800s by Anne Cousin, before it was a hymn it was a poem inspired by the letters and the last words of Samuel Rutherford. Only later was it set to music.  (Sorry hymn purists, but I’m ready for a 21st-century musical update.)  It actually has 18 or 19 stanzas, but here are the ones that are typically sung: [click to continue…]

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A Hurt and An Altar

by Andy Wood on April 30, 2010

in Tense Truths

Yesterday I was talking to an old friend on the phone, and heard myself say something before I realized what I was saying.  (Does that ever happen to you, or am I just weird?) 

Before I tell you what I said, I guess I need to fill in some white space first.

A few days ago I had an experience that left me disappointed and hurt.  The details aren’t important; what is important is what happened in my heart as a result of it.  I will tell you that it was a church wound (one of the most difficult of all), and that I had similar initial feelings to other kinds of pain in my life.  I wanted to go into a cave and hide.  I was fearful of being hurt again.  I wanted to be angry and pout.

But almost immediately, I noticed another kind of result in my spirit.  I was sobered.  Humbled.  Unusually aware of the holiness, wisdom, and love of God.  Emotionally and mentally aware that God is no man, that I can fool, manipulate, or even impress Him.  Even more aware that neither I nor any man can despise the profound work of grace He has made in my life.

And regardless of how any of us behave, He still owns His church.  I can sit on my high horse or hide in my cave all I want, but at the end of the day, He is still God, and still expects me to reflect His character and power.  And He will even use busybodies, gossips, accusers and politickers in Church World to make His case.

Ouch.

I don’t know that I have ever been in a painful situation in which I was more aware of the awareness of God.  And if I may say so, even in the pain, I felt safe and loved.

Here is what I said to my friend, after I filled in some details:  [click to continue…]

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Your Most Precious Possession

by Andy Wood on April 28, 2010

in Five LV Laws, Gamblers, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Principle of Legacy, Protecting Your Investment

Think fast.  Salvation aside, if you were to lose everything you own – visible and invisible – what would be the most costly to replace?  Your house?  Your land?  Your health?  Your friendships?  Your family?  Your valuable antiques? 

Tough question, isn’t it?  But it’s an important one.  After all, we spend a great deal of time and money protecting ourselves against possible losses.  That’s what the insurance industry is all about.  And just as insurance underwriters have a system for determining “replacement value,” we also need a clear sense of what is most valuable.  The Bible gives us some direction for that in Proverbs 22:1:

“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,

Loving favor rather than silver and gold.”

Your most irreplaceable possession cannot be bought or sold.  It isn’t a commodity – like family or health – that can be earned or borrowed.  Your most precious possession is your integrity.  Your good name!

I can hear some of your brains now.  “Oh, THAT!  Yeah, I guess so.”  

But think about it. [click to continue…]

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The Foolproof Plan for Profiting

by Andy Wood on April 26, 2010

in Enlarging Your Capacity, Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Freedom, Principle of Increase

If I were to tell you that I can show you a completely foolproof plan to make extraordinary gains in every dimension of your life, would you be interested in learning more?

Yes, money.  Still curious?

Relationships, too.  How ‘bout now?

Sure, it works for getting more out of your time, improving your professional life, and deepening your spiritual life.

This one secret, handed down through ancient wisdom, has always – always – marked the difference between winners and wannabes.

Oh, and what if I were to tell you that this guarantee is backed up by God Himself?  Meaning, of course, that it works for all time and eternity, too. 

I know, I know.  If it’s that obvious, and that old, everybody else will know it and be doing it, right?

Not exactly. [click to continue…]

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The Day from Hell

by Andy Wood on April 24, 2010

in Enlarging Your Capacity, Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Freedom, Turning Points

“I swear, I keep thinking, if somehow I press through, I can get where I want to go.  If, of course, it doesn’t kill me or I don’t kill myself in the process.”  (from my journal, July 18, 2005)

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“This is warfare,” Robin said.

“It’s God!” I snapped back, dispirited and resigned.  “Let’s just go home.”

Well, there you have it.  Now you know what we fight about at my house. 

It was the day from hell.  It started with a hard funeral – a suicide victim – at which I was to speak.  My message to the grieving family and friends was to “be still – cease striving – and know that he is God.”  It was on a Monday, following a very harried and stressful Sunday, in the middle of a very harried and stressful summer.  

But this was the Monday when the scenery was supposed to change.  With the help of my office staff, we had scheduled a trip to the mountains to write.

As in, the LifeVesting book.

Here’s a little proverbial advice, for what it’s worth:  Beware of trying to change your scenery on Monday.  [click to continue…]

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Choosing Your Mistakes: Something I Need to Say Before I Die

by Andy Wood on April 22, 2010

in Five LV Laws, Hoarders, Life Currency, Love, LV Alter-egos, Pleasers, Principle of Legacy, Tense Truths, Time

In the course of this short year so far, I have been reminded suddenly, and sometimes rudely, how short life can be, and how there are no guarantees of the things or people we tend to take for granted in this world.

I have also been reminded that life is filled with the potential to make mistakes.  Sometimes those mistakes arise out of misguided values.  Sometimes out of boneheaded stubbornness.  Sometimes mistakes arise out of good things taken too far in self-serving directions.  Often those mistakes come when we lose our sense of balance.

I’ve thought a lot lately about how short life is, and frankly, sometimes how much shorter that I wish it could be.  Hillsong United’s “Soon” sure sounds appealing: [click to continue…]

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What’s Your Handle?

by Andy Wood on April 20, 2010

in Ability, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Freedom, Protecting Your Investment

It all started with that 55-mph speed limit.   In the mid-1970s, Americans traded in their muscle cars for Toyotas and slowed down.

But a certain segment of the population balked.  These people were paid to transport goods to their destinations in a timely manner, and felt that the new speed limits were doing considerable harm to their livelihood.  So they started working together to cover each other’s back.

This created a fad that spawned a counterculture, complete with its own lingo, music, and personal identities.  Everybody, it seemed, rushed out to get a CB radio.

Once the stuff of rescue workers, hobbyists, and the like, citizens-band radios became standard equipment in many vehicles.  Gone were the official call-letters used by the “legal eagles” who actually paid for a license to use the things (KFN 0508, if you even remotely care what ours was).  Everybody used a “handle.”

A handle was a nickname you gave yourself so that people could “grab hold” of you by saying something along the lines of, “Break, one-nine.  How ‘bout that Blue Goose?  You got your ears on”?  And you, assuming that was your handle, would reply something like, “Ten-four, good buddy.”

No, children, I’m not making this up.

CBs, for the most part, have gone the way of the 55-mph speed limit, though our trucker friends still use them.  But you still have a handle – a unique identity by which you can be “grabbed.”  [click to continue…]

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It’s a Good Day to Be Dead

by Andy Wood on April 18, 2010

in Ability, Life Currency, Tense Truths

I have a friend who used to say, every time somebody asked how he was, “It’s a good day to be dead.”

No, he was not a Klingon, or a descendent of Crazy Horse.   He was actually referring to one of the most revolutionary truths in the Christian life.  And truth be told, he wouldn’t just stop with the whole dead thing.  He’d say, “It’s a good day to be dead, and alive in Christ.”

The truth to which he was referring is expressed most succinctly in Galatians 2:20.  Here’s how the New Century Version translates it:

I was put to death on the cross with Christ, and I do not live anymore — it is Christ who lives in me. I still live in my body, but I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself to save me.

The implications of Paul’s simple declaration are profound.  It tells me what I have received in order to live victoriously in this life, and to fulfill my purpose for which God created me and saved me.

I have received the life of Christ (“Christ lives in me”).

I have received Christ’s faith (“the faith of the Son of God” – a possible translation).

And I have received Christ’s self-giving love.

There is no situation, no bondage, no need for transformation, no frustration, no failure that the life, the love, and the faith of Jesus in me cannot respond to with power.  And the same is true for you, assuming you have trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior.

So how, then, do we apply this truth? [click to continue…]

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From Shame to Grace

by Andy Wood on April 16, 2010

in Esteem, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos, Pleasers, Principle of Freedom

And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God.

You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.

Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion,

and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance;

and so they will inherit a double portion in their land,

and everlasting joy will be theirs (Isaiah 61:6-7, NIV).

It’s a scary journey, the move from shame to grace.  But it’s a journey every growing believer in Christ, every recovering addict, every healing soul must take.  The paths are often unfamiliar.  Lessons must be un-learned and relearned.  You will be forced to face down familiar, but largely unchallenged beliefs.

People who live in the realm of shame live in a world the Brennan Manning describes as “huffing and puffing to impress God.”

It’s a realm of performance.  Brownie points or self-condemnation.  Self-fixing mixed with wallowing in guilt.  Comparing ourselves to others in order to feel superior… or to prove what an absolute joke we are.  “You’re nothing,” shame whispers.  “And if people really knew you, they would agree.”

As much of a liar as shame is, sometimes it’s more comfortable to return to old patterns of thinking and feeling.  It’s embarrassing and uncomfortable to confront the truths of the scandalous grace of God.

“I am a creation of infinite worth?” Ridiculous.

“I am totally forgiven?” What do you mean, “totally?”

“I am completely loved, fully pleasing?” In what universe?  What absurd fantasy?

Challenge that!  Confess the truth, whether it lines up with your feelings or the twisted logic of shame or not.  And most of all, learn to accept the grace of God as it is expressed through the graciousness of others.

The secret is gratitude.  When a friend encourages you, when someone offers a gift, when another praises you, receive it with the same graciousness in which it was offered.

Try this for practice: [click to continue…]

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