Taking my youngest daughter to see Young the Giant this week in Knoxville. I’ve listened to them a bit, but I was feeling unprepared for the concert. This morning I pulled a set list from a recent show so I could make a playlist, then immediately confessed to both my daughters that I felt like I was cheating and cramming for a test.

And then I thought:
What other areas of my life do I feel like a poser, or where am I cramming to look more prepared than I am?
Can I be good with living my life in the moment, enjoying the time with my daughter, instead of having to look like a fan?

Next week: Bethel Music, in Knoxville, no cramming required; then Switchfoot, (on the 15th) & a friend just gave me their new album.

Here’s a thought for your Monday morning, and your week ahead:

“At the end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of my life, I want to say I contributed more than I criticized. It’s that simple.” – Brene Brown, Dare to Lead

And here’s a thought for your year:

“How about this be a year that we work hard to embrace what the Lord has declared over our life and make that the only thing we say?” – Bill Johnson

We get to choose to strengthen and build and encourage others by what we say. We can make the same choice in how we speak to ourselves. Change your language and see if things don’t start to change around you and inside you.

While my word for the year is Intentionality, I feel like a sub-theme for the month has been Awareness. And, wow, there are ways I am so massively working on this.

For example – stayed overnight in Nashville, at a friends. Using google maps, the pin puts me in front of their house. I can only see the first three of four numbers on the mailbox, but it lines up and looks like their house from what I can remember. My friend had texted, “come in thru the garage,” so I did.

I get inside. I can see thru a glass door into the house and I think, “huh, I don’t remember them having a dog.” And a woman appears who’s not my friends wife, followed by a man who is not my friend. I am super apologetic, it’s 10:30 at night, a stranger in their garage with his overnight bag, laptop and clothes on hangers, ready to crash at their place. I’m so glad they were nice people and I didn’t get shot.

As I said, working on awareness, grateful for people who are becoming love, and of God’s kindness, grace and protection over me as he loves me thru my stoopid.

I’m reminded of Psalm 5:12 which says, he surrounds us with favor, as with a shield.

We’re around people we love and care about all day, and part of our relational interaction is being influenced by them, and also influencing our friends for their good.

I can try to make that sound like I have this figured out, but alas, I’m guilty of often wanting to tell people what to do, rather than influence.

In Everybody Always, Bob Goff says, instead of telling people “what they want” (my words, what to do) tell them “who they are.”

“We’ll become in our lives whoever the people we love the most say we are.”

When I first came back to Claris Networks, a customer gave me an earful about the performance of one of our project managers. I ran into one of our then owners offices (Dave Sagraves), vented, and asked for the name of this PMs manager so I could put the feedback where I thought it belonged. Or really, did I just want to blow someone up for no reason?

Dave challenged me, “Before you do that, have you just talked to the PM about it?”

Great advice. Once the PM and I talked, I understood the situation better, saw the issues our PM was tackling on the customers behalf, and was able to assist with bridging the communication gap for all of us.

So – when someone dumps on you about a peer, consider whether you’re hearing the whole story. Then love your teammate with direct communication. We all need good feedback and you can honor your co-worker by keeping it real (and safe) by giving the person a chance to hear it and respond.

“There are two sides to every story. The first one to speak sounds true until you hear the other side and they set the record straight.” Proverbs‬ ‭18:17‬ ‭TPT‬‬

God’s always doing a 2-for-1.  My daughter works at an amazing coffee shop (The Empty Cup), and she and a friend/co-worker were working hard while cutting up behind the counter.

A customer got the giggles, not needing to know what they were laughing about, just catching their joy.  And guess what?  As she walked out, she left a $100 tip that will go to support adoption.  How cool is that?

Laughter blesses everyone, sparks generosity, an adoptive family is blessed, and everyone wins.