self-worth | Heartstone Journey

Men Your Words Have Power, So Speak Life To Your Kids

First things first men. How much time are you spending with your kids? Doing life with them, having fun, teaching them whats important and leaving a legacy? If you spend quality of time with your kids, awesome. If you don’t, you need to get your head out of your @$$ and start.

For most men we have our sights set on stuff such as; a house (and a vacation home), car, boat, money, climbing the corporate ladder, fill in the blank ________. Most of us don’t leave much room for things that really matter and our values become our kids values.

Ok guys, here’s a test. You’re walking on the beach and a genie bottle washed up onto the shore. Of course all your senses tell you it’s not real, but you rub the lamp anyways out of curiosity and out pops a genie. Here’s the catch…instead of three wishes, the genie only gives you one wish.

What do you wish for?

10 Things I Learned From Divorce About Facing Life’s Obstacles [Series]

It’s impossible to fully understand the sorrows of divorce unless you have journeyed through its dark valleys of anguish. I have learned that these valleys only yield a desolate emptiness to anything that was once close and dear. During the agonizing process of divorce, we do not have the capacity to clearly see that we are blindly making the choice to end a marriage, a family, and are starting a vicious circle that only erodes. People have no idea of the painful realities of what lies on the other side of the violent ripping of a one-flesh covenant God intended. Divorce is always destructive, and its ripple effects are far-reaching and long-lasting. No one would argue that love and intimacy are essential to any marriage relationship, but when we assume that love and intimacy alone will sustain a marriage is when problems begin to emerge. When we build sandcastles around our hopes, dreams, and expectations, it all is violently swept away when the tidewater comes raging in. This modern culture has reduced a God-given covenant between a husband and wife into a self gratifying contract, complete with terms, conditions, indemnification and an exit clause!

The best way I can sum up divorce is that it just sucks!!!

Having many years behind me on the other side of divorce, let this series be your first step in discovering how you can start conquering life’s obstacles.

You cannot conquer what you will not confront!

-Paula White

Why Gender Reassignment And Altering Pronouns Won’t Change Who Bruce Jenner Is

By now most people on the planet have seen the picture of the “new” Bruce Jenner on the upcoming cover of Vanity Fair. As a Dad who is raising a son to be man, the very idea that culture is praising Bruce Jenner for his so-called “brave” and “courageous” decision is such a foreign idea to me.

I remember Bruce Jenner winning the decathlon in Montreal Canada in 1976 making him the male athlete of the year — the guy got on the Wheaties box! When I look at the upcoming cover of vanity fair I see a man plastered with makeup, hair extensions and wearing who-knows-what-that-is. His entire persona has been artificially altered by hormone pills, Photoshop, and plastic surgery.

What happened?

There’s a tremendous amount of buzz in the mainstream media and social media spaces, but here are some items that caught my attention. The White House said that President Obama believes Bruce Jenner’s transition into Caitlyn shows “tremendous courage.” Bruce Jenner’s “female” alter ego Caitlyn got over a million Twitter followers in four hours. Wikipedia has already gender altered the history and lifestyle of Bruce Jenner. Caitlyn Jenner will receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPN Espy’s this year.

Really?

There are so many thoughts swirling around in my head right now, but I want unpack some of them as I feel they are very important in the conversation of today’s culture.

Why The Enemy Has Your Affirmation In The Crosshairs

There is an epic battle going on for the human heart because rescuing your heart is everything. God is pursuing your heart with an invitation of life — to become fully alive with a new name, a purpose and a mission.

This is the theme of Heartstone Journey, but it’s also the backdrop for our story too. The mistake many of us make is being blind to the battle over our lives. There is a God who is after our heart with the invitation of life; and there is an enemy who will stop at nothing to take you out! Until we come to terms with this, we will misinterpret most of what is happening around us — and to us.

Are you tracking with me?

Our enemy is cunning and is systematically hunting us down, carefully watching every move we make so he can take the shot. Once you come into clear focus he takes the shot delivering a paralyzing blow. The worst part…we don’t even know what just hit us.

Let’s start unpacking this tactic of the enemy as so many of us find ourselves centered in these crosshairs and are taken out with a single shot. The good news is that God gives us access to the battle plans and we can learn how stay out of the crosshairs and walk a victorious life.

Let’s step into the narrative of Jesus’s third test in the wilderness.

Continue Reading (on bradandres.com)

Why All The Questions About Ferguson Are Perfectly Answered Through Jesus Christ

If you turn on the TV or do any surfing on the Internet you will run into a story surrounding the events in Ferguson Missouri. The nation watched as many in the town of Ferguson reacted with outrage and disappointment, when the prosecutor announced that officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

I am not weighing in on the justice or injustice of the events surrounding Ferguson, I am writing about a deeper issue of humanity.

Honestly, I never understood how the color of someones skin defines that person. Never understood the anger of the Black Panthers in one direction and the anger of the KKK in the other. While the modern race problem has economic, political, and social implications I believe its primarily a moral and spiritual problem.

Jesus loved without discrimination, without looking at our worthiness.

—Tim Keller

Parsing through all the news narratives and ambient conversations on social media, I wanted to highlight the words New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson shared in the national conversation on race, racism and policing in America.

In a thoughtful commentary that was liked on his Facebook page more than 800,000 times and shared more than 450,000 times as of November 30th, Watson explained that he chose to write down his thoughts on the Ferguson decision after news broke Monday night.

Here are those thoughts and more…
Continue Reading

Men Your Words Have Power, So Speak Life To Your Kids

10 Things I Learned From Divorce About Facing Life’s Obstacles [Series]

Why Gender Reassignment And Altering Pronouns Won’t Change Who Bruce Jenner Is

Why The Enemy Has Your Affirmation In The Crosshairs

Why All The Questions About Ferguson Are Perfectly Answered Through Jesus Christ

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