If we are loving God with all our hearts it will naturally change the way we notice and love others. The love of God will capture our free time, our wallets, our willingness to leave our comfort zones, and our outlook on the future.

In other words, others, including your family, will take notice. Love and faithfulness then are not things we do, but rather a way of living. Living and loving this way results in actions that demonstrate the validity of our faith to those around us.

Our understanding of God does not change the facts about God. His love is real. It will transform your life like nothing else ever will. You can’t outrun it or do anything to make him feel otherwise about you. 

February is love month.

The same is true for our big life dreams. The dreams are not more important than the giver of those dreams.  God gives us these dreams as a way to honor Him and impact the world for Him. 

As you begin the process of looking at “what could he” and take small steps forward you will have to choose courage over comfort time and again. You will have to choose it when you can’t see a clear outcome.

Friend, the same is true for you. No matter your past, your mistakes, your failures, God has not forgotten. He says to you just as he said to the Jewish exiles over 2700 years ago, I know the plans I have for you “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

So, our goal is to apply Scripture and Scriptural principles to each day of the week, starting Monday mornings. I want to help us all get our week off to an intentional, positive, and purposeful beginning and have that carry on thru Friday.  As the tag line says, “Starting and Finishing Your Week on Purpose”. 

This day we have no doubt that we made the right decision because we said yes. Yes, is what made the choice right, not the outcome of yes. The outcomes of yes are in God’s hands not ours. The fact is, when God calls you there are only two choices, Yes or No. The peace that comes with saying yes is irreplaceable.

Like Naomi and Ruth, our journey through life generally allows us to see only the portion of the scene we are in. But that is not the entire scene let alone the entire story.

There are many stories in Scripture of ordinary people who were faithful in obedience but didn’t get a lot of attention, and still don’t. That makes their lives no less remarkable or impactful. The same is true for your life

I would further emphasize that this atmosphere starts first and foremost with the leader. A leader with excessive ego or an unhealthy need for status will have great difficulty creating an atmosphere of humility. This leads to

What about you this morning? Would it be worth taking a serious look at My To Do List and identifying some things that need to go on My To Don’t List?

A leader must be secure enough in themselves to let go. In many ways it starts and ends here. One of the quickest ways to kill your team is to take great care in hiring talented people and then not empower those people to do what you hired them to do.

Days turn into months, months into years and years into decades, not a single one of which can be reclaimed.

You don’t install new kitchen cabinets until the old ones are removed. You don’t replace the front porch until the old porch is demolished. The same is true in the renovation of our minds.

Some of you may be thinking that your stories aren’t as dramatic as those we celebrate from the Bible. That is likely true for most of us. But that in no way diminishes their significance.

How much time will you spend this week trying to make others happy; seeking their approval?

Chances are, if you have the opportunity to lead others, you are in that role because someone took the opportunity to invest in you; to get up close to you and use their influence for your betterment and the betterment of the entire team.

There is something else that our amazing brain makes possible. It allows us to communicate with God. It allows us to talk to Him, contemplate His greatness, His love, His grace, and