What do you remember?

I was sitting with an elderly friend of mine (I'm privileged to call him friend) the other day and we were discussing various random things as usual and we got on the subject of one of the ballot measures here in California relating to unions.  He asked me if he had ever told me about his first experience with unions.  In the neighborhood where he grew up in was a factory.  One day the union workers decided to strike and picket the shop.  Well some of the workers actually crossed the picket lines to work, and what ensued afterward has determined his attitude towards unions throughout his life.  What I thought was amazing about his story is not what he remembered (he was fairly detailed) but the fact that he was six years old when this occurred!  My friend just turned 90 this past summer.

This leads me to my title "What do you remember?"  What is your earliest recollection?  What kind of impression did it leave.  What actions by others has formed who you are as an adult?  Then take that one step further what kind of impact are you leaving?  What impression are you instilling in your children or their friends and your family.

My memory is full of things my parents said or did, things my grandparents said, places they took me, things we did etc.  Even beyond my family what about my neighbors, teachers, friends, or friends parents.  All of these have become points of impact that have formed who I am and what I think and do.  Will I remember these things when I am 90?  I don't know, sometimes I can't remember what I ate yesterday, but I do know that sometimes I have random memories of things long forgotten things that somewhere along the way made a lasting impact on my life.

We all make an impact, the question is what kind of impact are we making.  Are we making memories that are going to last 84 years?  And if it does last 84 years how is that memory going to be measured?  Is it going to be thought of fondly or negatively?  Or will it be passed along to make an impact in another persons life for another generation. Randomly, my friends did, how about you.

Log in my eye

God has a funny way of getting his point across.  This morning in my devotions I was reading through Matthew and I was in the part where Jesus is giving the sermon on the mount.  In Matthew 7: 1-5 Jesus is warning us to clear the "log" from our own eyes before attempting to remove the speck from our brothers eye.  Why is this relevant?  Well because I'm a dad and a coach and a boss that's what I do, I correct (sometimes).
I coach a boys volleyball team, a few of the players play with fear or timidly.  As they approach the line to serve and I can see the fear in their eyes, they're intimidated by the other team or the game itself I'm not sure.  They have a fear of "messing up"  yet during practice they nail that serve 75% of the time no problem!  So as I coach I try to encourage my players to step up and just play don't worry about the other team or of messing up, just hit the ball and get it over.
So as I was relaxing this evening and thumbing through a book the following quote caught my attention.

"Self defeating actions will continue to give us self-defeating results"

I immediately thought of my players, but then I thought what about me!  I'm no different... I allow fear to immobilize me from moving forward or grabing God's best for me.  I stare at the future like my players are staring at the net - with fear and trembling. 
But I'm the coach!  I'm supposed to encourage and help them through their fear, help them become better, improve their game etc.  Exactly!  God's not saying don't, but he's saying first examine yourself Ga 6:1-5 and then encourage one another.  So maybe then I should take to heart the encouragement I was trying to give to my player and apply it to myself and my situation.  Then maybe we can both grow together towards God's best for our lives.
What was that advise:

1. You know how to serve (you know what you are doing)
2. You can play as well as anyone out there.
3. Just relax and play the game.

Cooking for fun

I've always had an interest in cooking but mostly new things that I haven't tried before.  I figured this came from watching my dad cook odd things or try new combinations in the kitchen.  Or from enjoying the jam and preserves my Grandpa used to make every year.  But I just finished an article by Daniel Duane in WSJ that attributes this cooking tendency to my Gen-X-ness based on a study from the University of Michigan that is studying Gen Xers.  Well that's cool, either way the article inspired me to get back into the kitchen and try a few new things and write about it as well.  I figured I needed to write about something to get my momentum back (or started depending on how you look at it).  So this was a good start.  He even has a book coming out "How to cook like a Man"  Which I think I'm going to have to go out and buy, and try out a few new recipes.

Going Goalless?

Okay, so I posted a while back about my inability to meet my goals from year to year.  So for Christmas I requested a copy of Willpower: The lost human characteristic.  So far it's pretty good, in the first chapter it recommends focusing on one thing at a time, because the more we multitask the more our willpower decreases.  Interesting concept.  But looking at 2012 I have had a hard time setting any realistic goals for myself.  Oh I have things I would like to do or try (see previous post) but nothing concrete that says I'm going to do this!   Rather I have taken to focusing my energies to 3 "areas" that have more of an overarching impact on everything else I plan (or hope ) to do this year.  They would be Faith, Focus, and Follow through.
Faith because without it, it's impossible to please God, and a friend recently challenged me about stepping out in faith.  Focus because I tend to start something then set it aside for something else and lose focus when I add a third project and the first one falls further down the list.  Finally, Follow through based on my inability to complete projects once started or to expend needed energy to keep it moving forward once it is completed.  I don't know that these are particularly goals more of a philosophy of how I want to perform this coming year.   Oh and by the way I've done this before as well, I called it a theme for the year along with setting goals, but this year I think I'm just going to focus on implementing my theme. 
So you decide am I setting goals, avoiding goals or changing the way I do things.  Either way that's where I am at today it could change tomorrow, but we're almost a week into the new year and I think I'm going to go with it and see where it takes me after all it's only a year.