Life, Leadership, and Football

Drew is fired up because he just finished putting that "big boy" puzzle together "all by himself" (almost). I am still pretty new at being a parent. Drew is my oldest child, and he just turned three a couple months ago. The last three years have been a crash course in parenthood. Every day I learn something new, and every day I realize more and more just how important his mother and I are to his overall development. That responsibility weighs heavily on me. I love my son, and I want him to experience the absolute best things that life has to offer. Just like every other parent out there, I want him to be successful at everything he does, and as I sat at the kitchen table with him tonight while he worked on his puzzle, I wrestled with a very tough thought: No matter how much I want him to succeed, there is no way I can guarantee his lifelong success or happiness. How'd we go from the simple, joyful task of putting together a puzzle to dwelling on such a...

"Daddy, why do we watch fireworks?".... "Daddy! Why do we watch fireworks?!" With that, my son managed to snap me out of my iPhone-induced trance, and without knowing it, he inspired this blog.  We had been sitting on the tailgate of a truck for at least an hour, waiting for the fireworks show to start in a small Southwest Oklahoma town about eight miles from where I grew up. While we were waiting, I knew I had some time on my hands, so I began sifting through the list of ideas that I have for future blog posts (we've got some good ones coming!). I was trying to figure out what I was going to write about today. I bounced back and forth between a few ideas. In fact, I started writing two different posts while we sat there. It's amazing what you can do with your phone these days. Then he hit me with that question. I had not anticipated it. That was a mistake on my part. It only makes sense.  He's three years old, and he has just started the ...

I read an article once that featured Richard Robinson, the CEO of Scholastic Books. In the article Robinson tells about a time when he was visiting their distribution center in Jefferson City, Missouri. As he was touring the facility, he started talking to a man driving a forklift, and during that conversation, he asked him, "What is your job? What are you doing here?" I'll never forget what the forklift driver said. "My job is to help children love to read."   What a statement! If Robinson was asking us the same question in our own workplaces, how many of us would have responded with such a statement? Most of us would respond with something along the lines of "I'm a teacher," "I'm a coach," "I'm a forklift driver," or "I'm an insurance salesman." All too often we allow our job titles to define us. It's easy to do because most of us take great pride in our job titles. I know I am proud of...

"'Am' always follows 'do' in American culture." - Alex Himaya, Senior Pastor, theCHURCH.at I was sitting in church a couple weeks ago, and when our pastor said this, I knew I had to include it in this post.  I don't think it's a profound statement, but I do think it points out a troubling truth. Our culture tends to define us by our accomplishments.  We see it all the time.  Let's use Dan Marino as a quick, easy example. Dan Marino is arguably one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game, but every time the debate comes up, the first argument against Marino is the fact that he never won a Super Bowl.  The critics ask, "How can he be the greatest if he never won a Super Bowl?"  Really?!  Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl, and if I had to pick between the two, I'd take Marino every time (no offense, Trent). "If you ain't first, you're last." - Ricky Bobby The problem, as Pastor Alex went on to point...