If you haven’t noticed yet…life seems to flow in cycles. If you are aware of this you may just catch some of the messages being sent your way like a barrage of artillery in the middle of a war.

Or…as I like to say…”Lord, hit me on the head with a 2×4 if you really need me to hear something.” Of course, that is not the way I operate mostly in my relationship with God because most of our communication is rather quiet and unassuming.

However…there are those times…these past two days have been one of those times where a thought or concept seems to make itself visible multiple times in a row. I have been confronted with three specific instances where a communique was only partially true with the (intended or not) results being a mis-direction of the facts. When I took just a moment to think about this topic, dozens more examples flooded into my mind as well over just the past couple of weeks.

I am going to categorize these mis-direction strategies into three categories…those intentionally trying to cover the truth through deception, those unknowingly communicating partial truths and those purposely not sharing the whole truth for the good of the listener.

Examples of all three of these ways can be found in our government. Politicians are masters of mis-direction. In times of war, mis-direction can be used to intentionally mis-inform the enemy and/or to protect the troops in battle. Our wartime commanders have a responsibility to protect those under their charge. They do not have a responsibility to share all of the facts with the general public.

However, this same strategy can also be used to intentionally deceive the very people who are holding you accountable for your actions. In this case…politicians (in wartime or not) often tell partial truths to deflect the hearers to focus on something only partially related.

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If you have hung out here long enough you know I love to share things from my family life that has an impact on me. I believe these things are “given” to me to not only experience for myself but to share. There are people that need a lift today in this area and I simply want to help in any way that I can.

Just a few moments ago I got up from the computer to go get a drink of water. I spent most of the morning bouncing around visiting and sharing some of my favorite people’s content with other fine people I’m privileged to be associated with.

I share other people’s stuff with my friends and followers because I want to be a support for them in their endeavors and I also want to get good inspiration and information out to people.

We live in an incredible time when we have access to so much that can be helpful. Not everything is helpful to everyone…but if I can share something that will help one person today…whether it be from myself or from someone else…then I have helped to make the world a better place (at least on this day).

My Beautiful 2 Year Old Boy…

With that spirit in mind I just want to share what just happened with my youngest son. For those of you who don’t know…I have seven children and my youngest just turned 2 in December.

As I was walking through the living room on my way to the water dispenser I saw my youngest son watching my next youngest son (a month away from 6) playing with a toy. I am not sure what you call this toy but it had a wheel that moves along two curved rails as you move your wrist. The wheel lights up and it is a bit fascinating to watch.

My 2 year old wanted it and as I was walking into the living room I overheard my wife telling him that he needed to say please (he actually signs it at this point) or he would not get to play with it.

I saw his reaction and he just stood there. I could see that this was a moment of deciding for him. Was he going to listen to his mom or was he going to be defiant? You can see the thinking going on in his head. I stood and watched for just a moment and he chose to not listen…to just continue whining mildly.

As I watched I simply had an great desire to  “love on him.”  I came up to him, wrapped my arms around him and kissed his neck a number of times until he started giggling and his demeanor completely changed.

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There is a great deal of talk about taking action in the Internet Marketing industry. While I agree that you must take action in order to be successful…perhaps we should just take a moment and break this down a bit.

If you have ever read Charles Givens you may know where I am heading with these thoughts. There is a difference between being efficient and being effective. There are countless books, seminars, online courses and so forth on the topic of efficiency…but not nearly as many people are talking about being effective.

For instance…you can turn any endeavor from an inefficient endeavor into an efficient endeavor but it may not get you any closer to bringing you to the place you ultimately want to be.

I have an example of this from my high school years in Track & Field. I was a pole-vaulter. I was strong, fast, powerful and highly motivated. I had tons of potential…so much so that if I would have ever been able to put all of these things together at just the right time, I would have been a candidate for winning the State track meet. I’m from California…so that is quite a feat.

The problem was…I never really learned how to pole-vault while attending high school. I could tell you now how to be very successful in the pole-vault today (I learned in college at the University of Santa Barbara) but it would have been great to know these things while in high school for sure.

I am sitting here right now injured as a result of not knowing how to pole-vault in high school. I landed off of the landing pads more than I landed on them…many times on my feet. My back and neck were jarred and compressed over and over again…hundreds if not thousands of times.

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Understand the law of attraction and how it applies to you, your life and your finances.

If you can capture the essence of this powerful principle…you will begin to see your life and finances dramatically take a positive turn in the direction that you may have only previously dreamt about.

Have you ever watched “The Secret?” If you have then you are a bit familiar with the “law of attraction.” If you haven’t…then I need to start at the beginning and give a short introduction to the amazing power behind this 2^nd step.

When you think a thought, have an emotion, have a belief, interact with other people and a host of other things, those activities combine to create energy that goes forth from you into your surroundings. It continues essentially forever.

From a practical standpoint…what does this mean?

It means that your input into the universe and into your world and into your communities and into your families is real and impacting others at all times. The energy that you are sending out continues as long as you have life.

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One thing I have learned especially over these past few years is if you want to dance beautifully, you dance with a dancer. I will tell you a story of a friend of mine to help you see what I am talking about in a moment.

This principle applies in many areas of life. I use it in my relationship with God. I don’t need to see the whole picture of what is coming around the corner or have the full revelation (or any for that matter) of what is happening in my circumstances to be able to relax into what He is doing and let Him (who knows all and sees all and has history in His hands) walk me through it. It takes trusting but I simply am learning to live in this moment to its fullest extent and let God take me through from one moment to the next. He is an expert “dancer” and I can dance with Him if I simply allow the moment to moment dance to happen with God taking me in His arms and “whisking” me around the dance floor.

See if you can picture this with the following story…

My friend and his wife were taking dance lessons to learn how to improve their steps for their daughter’s wedding. They were getting the steps fine…the mechanics of the dance…but what they were doing actually looked nothing like a dance.

They had the right steps, even the right timing…but they were not dancing, flowing around the floor and creating beauty together. The instructor stopped the class and asked to dance with my friend’s wife.

She had a choice to make…step out and take a risk or step back and not look foolish. Those were the choices and she was tempted to choose the latter…

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Leonard E. Read (1898-1983) founded FEE  (Foundation for Economic Education) in 1946 and served as its president until his death.
“I, Pencil,” his most famous essay, was first published in the December 1958 issue of The Freeman.

This is his essay! It is not mine…but I believe it to be very important. I did not get permission to post this here so I hope they will forgive me for doing so. The book is available for free in pdf format here: http://fee.org/library/books/i-pencil-2/

If you like this essay please visit the FEE website and look around. I say this not because I have spent a huge amount of time there…but I feel like I need to encourage you to do so because it would normally be the place where you would find this essay. I simply want to be a link to them since I am using this essay. You can also purchase the physical booklet at this website among other resources

Here is is:

I, Pencil

I am a lead pencil—the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write.^*

*       My official name is “Mongol 482.” My many ingredients are assembled, fabricated, and finished by Eberhard Faber Pencil Company.

Writing is both my vocation and my avocation; that’s all I do.

You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery— more so than a tree or a sunset or even a flash of lightning. But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background. This supercilious attitude relegates me to the level of the commonplace. This is a species of the grievous error in which mankind cannot too long persist without peril. For, the wise G. K. Chesterton observed, “We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.”

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My eldest daughter and I travelled down past Matthew Neer’s territory into the heart of Central California tonight. Fortunately there were only small patches of fog and none of that thick car crashing cannot see sort of fog that is so prevalent in the heart of the central valley of California. We drove nearly four hours for a soccer tournament this weekend in the small town of Lemoore, CA. Are we a bit insane? Perhaps…but there is more than just soccer happening here… Please Continue Reading…