ONE topic each Tuesday with 2 quick thoughts, 2 quick quotes, and 2 quick actions covered in 2 minutes or less:

"The fastest way for Christian men to stay focused and stay in the fight."

Topic:  Honor

2 Thoughts:

1. Honor Begins with Self-Respect: True honor starts with respecting oneself as a man made in the image of God. To be the man God made you to be you must first understand your intrinsic value and worth in God's eyes. You honor God best when you live for Him first and foremost.

2.  

3. Honor in Relationships: Honor your commitments, whether it's in marriage, parenting, friendships, or your professional life. Be a man of integrity, faithfulness, and humility in all your interactions.

2 Quotes:

"Honor is the reward of virtue." - Cicero

"Honor is simply the morality of superior men." - Henry Louis Mencken

2 Actions: 

1. Be men of your word.  When you...

Fear is a powerful emotion that can paralyze us from reaching our full potential. It’s something that everyone experiences but few of us men like talk about.

As Christian men, however, we are called to live a life without fear and to trust in God’s plan for our lives.  Over and over again we are admonished in Scripture to, "Fear not...for I am with you!".

Yet, fear often gets in the way of our relationships and keeps us from living our best lives.

Here are 6 of the biggest fears that keep us from living a better, fuller life and some practical ways to we can overcome them.

6 Common FEARS Men Face

Fear of Rejection

One of the biggest fears that Christian men often face is the fear of rejection. We fear rejection in our relationships, our careers, and even in our faith. Whether it’s the fear of not being accepted by others or the fear of failing God, this fear can hold us back from taking risks and pursuing our dreams.

To overcome this fear, we need to remember...

ONE topic each Tuesday with 2 quick thoughts, 2 quick quotes, and 2 quick actions covered in 2 minutes or less:

"The fastest way for Christian men to stay focused and stay in the fight."

Topic: Leadership at Home

2 Thoughts:

Lead with Love: Effective leadership in the home starts with love. Remember, as Christian men, you are called to love your spouse and children as Christ loved the Church. Huge task!! Your love should be sacrificial, selfless, and unwavering. When love is at the core of your leadership at home, it sets a powerful example for your family.

Servant Leadership: Jesus taught us that true leadership is servant leadership. In your home, this means putting the needs of your family before your own. It means serving your spouse and children with humility, helping them grow spiritually, emotionally, etc. This servant-hearted approach is how Christian...

Being married is awesome!  But it doesn't come without its challenges.

One of the major challenges that married men face is communication with their wives. But we often start with the communication piece while ignoring the underlying connection.  Communication is critical.  But it can only be successful if there is a strong connection and intimacy first.

Unfortunately, many men struggle with building a deeper connection with their wives and then inaccurately diagnosis the problem as a communication problem.  That may be true.  But if you can improve the connection with your wife you'll likely find that the communication you have with her changes for the better too. 

In this post, I’ll be sharing five practical ways to build a stronger connection and build deeper intimacy with your wife.

5 Keys To Stronger Connection

1. Show Affection:

This may seem like a given, but in many cases there's simply not a lot of affection that men show...

If you're a Christian man, you know that making good decisions is important. You want to live a life that honors God, serves your family well, and makes a positive impact in the world around you. But how can you make decisions that will lead you in that direction?  Not only that, but how can you make decisions on a day-to-day basis that lead you to a life with fewer regrets at the end?

Andy Stanley's book "Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets" offers some excellent guidance, and perhaps the most powerful tool in the book is what Stanley calls "the maturity question."

In this blog post, we'll explore what that question is, how it can help you make better decisions, and why it's particularly important for Christian men.

What is the Maturity Question?

The maturity question is simple but profound. It goes like this: "What does a mature person do in this situation?"

Andy suggests that we ask ourselves this question in any decision we face, whether big or small. The reason is...

One of the best gifts that God has given us is our conscience.  That part of our lives that allows us to evaluate our thoughts and desires and determine what is right or wrong.  However, if we don't allow our conscience to be under the control of the Holy Spirit - we can find ourselves in situations that hurt us and lead us astray.

So, why exactly do we have one?  Ultimately, our conscience is designed - when controlled by the Holy Spirit - to help lead us to live life to the fullest.  Or, as we like to say in our ministry, to help lead us to become the man that God meant for us to be.

But we don't always allow it to do its job and there's one big reason why.

Paying Attention To The Tension

Everyone has the ability to let their conscience help them evaluate situations they're in and make wise decisions - better decisions that lead to fewer regrets.  But we often make one simple mistake - or decision - that leads to unwanted...

First comes love.  Then comes marriage.  Then comes baby in the baby carriage!

We all know the jingle but we don't always know what to do once the baby carriage shows up.  As Christian men, we just know that we want to have a great family.  We know it won't be easy...but we know it will be worth it in the end! 

So how do we get there?  What do we have to have in order to have a great family? 

3 things come to mind:  Alignment, Guardrails, and Letting Go. 

3 Things You Have to Have 

#1. Have Alignment

Leadership and maximum impact starts at the top with you and if you and your wife aren't in alignment about what matters most - it definitely won't reach the ears or hearts of those following in your footsteps.

We all know what it's like when a car is out of alignment.  Tires erode quickly and the car just doesn't drive like it's supposed to.  The same is true with your home.  If you want your family to operate at the...

Parenting is one of the most challenging yet rewarding journeys that a Christian man can embark upon. As a father, there are many things that we want for our children:  happiness, success, good health, good character, etc. However, it's essential to remember and stay focused on what our ultimate goal really is: to lead them to Jesus and to teach them to follow Him.

Today, we will explore how the gospel can help us understand how to parent our children, using Paul David Tripp's ideas for five questions to help our kids consider what's really going on when things get out of control.

5 Key Questions

For many Christians, the Gospel of Jesus is simply an introduction to salvation and then the hope of heaven later on when we die.  But to think of it in these terms alone is to miss so much of what it can do.

The Gospel is the good news of Jesus.  That he rescues us from our sin and bondage and has written our names in heaven where nothing on earth below or heaven...

What story do you want to tell about your life? 

What story/stories would you like others to tell about you?

These are incredible questions that Andy Stanley offers to us for consideration.  He calls it The Legacy Question and for good reason.

When your life is no more and the only thing left are the stories told about you - what will they be?

This - for better or worse - is your legacy.  It is what lasts when you're no longer around.

Stories

I've actually thought a lot about this question as God was prompting me to start my ministry called Get In The Fight.  I spent a lot of time thinking, writing down ideas, and praying about this very question and it lead me to what we now use as our 4 Principles of Get In The Fight:

Honor - Discipline - Strength - Joy

When I was a kid, I was very focused on sports.  I wanted to be remembered as the greatest athlete to ever come out of my school.

Today, I don't really care that much about that.  In fact, it would be...

"I don't know you.  But I know something about you."

That's what I would tell complete strangers that I'd meet at retirement benefits trainings that I lead years ago while working for another wealth management team.

I'd go on to say this:  "At some point in the future I believe that every one of us will one day either say, think, or feel one of two things:  1) I'm so glad that I did.... or 2) I wish that I would have...."

I'd go on to talk about planning for the future and why retirement planning was so important.  But the reality is that planning for the future is critical for everyone - but not just when it comes to money.

The difference between "I'm so glad that I did" and "I wish that I would have" is night and day!  The first one is light, easy, full of joy and peace.  The second is as heavy as it gets.  There is nothing in this world much heavier than regret.

That's what we're talking about in this conversation today.  How to live the...