Jesusgreek

Our children are the lights of our lives. We all start off as parents envisioning nothing but success, love and happiness for them. However, these dreams often do not manifest because they are not getting the important things they need to become disciplined, mature and motivated adults. The following are eight parenting f*ck-ups that will guarantee your child will suffer from depression, anxiety, anger, tense family relationships, problems with friends, low self-esteem, a sense of entitlement and chronic emotional problems throughout his or her life. 1. Ignore or minimize your child's feelings. If your child is expressing sadness, anger or fear and you mock them, humiliate them, ignore or tease them you minimize what they feel. You essentially tell them what they feel is wrong. When parents do this they withhold love from their child and miss opportunities to have open and vulnerable connections teaching them to bond and to know they are loved unconditionally. 2. Inconsistent...

A hint: It has nothing to do with delivery or style. It has everything to do with the most important kind of content. There is a world of difference between preaching a sermon and living a sermon. No amount of study can compensate for deficiencies in your life. You can “study it” but if you aren’t “living it” it’ll ring hollow.  The opposite is true as well. Jesus’ teaching was authoritative because it was backed up by his life. You can’t back up your sermons with a seminary degree. You’ve got to back it up with your life. My advice? Don’t just get a sermon. Get a life. Then you’ll get a sermon! Let me be blunt: if your life is boring your sermons will be, too. If you have no life outside of church—no hobbies, no friends, no interests, no goals—your illustrations will feel canned, your applications will feel theoretical instead of practical, and your sermons will be lifeless instead of life-giving. The greatest sermons are not f...

While I spend my professional time now as a career success coach, writer, and leadership trainer, I was a marriage and family therapist in my past, and worked for several years with couples, families, and children. Through that experience, I witnessed a very wide array of both functional and dysfunctional parenting behaviors. As a parent myself, I’ve learned that all the wisdom and love in the world doesn’t necessarily protect you from parenting in ways that hold your children back from thriving, gaining independence and becoming the leaders they have the potential to be. I was intrigued, then, to catch up with leadership expert Dr. Tim Elmore and learn more about how we as parents are failing our children today — coddling and crippling them — and keeping them from becoming leaders they are destined to be. Tim is a best-selling author of more than 25 books, including Generation iY: Our Last Chance to Save Their Future , Artificial Maturity: Helping Kids Meet the Challenges of Beco...

Each year I keep a running list of the movies I've watched from that particular year. As I watch more and more films, the list will grow. On average I see about 20 movies a year in the theater. My 5 star ratings system is pretty straight forward... ***** I would own this movie **** I would watch again *** A good and enjoyable movie but not worth seeing again ** Waste of time * I'm dumber for having watched it So with that being said, here's my list for 2014... 1) Guardians of the Galaxy***** 2) Lego Movie ***** 3) Grand Budapest Hotel **** 4) Lone Survivor **** 5) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes**** 6) Godzilla ****   7) Captain America: Winter Soldier **** 8) Big Hero 6**** 9) Fury *** 10) Penguins of Madagascar*** 11) The Boxtrolls *** 12) Xmen Days of future past *** 13) Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb*** 14) Blue Ruin*** 15) Amazing Spiderman 2 *** 16) Rio 2 ** 17) The Nut Job ** 18) Ride Along** 19) Lucy *

Over the past several years, my wife Beth and I have had the privilege to take in many of the top touring Broadway shows around as they've visited the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte, NC and DPAC in Durham, NC.  This is a list of my favorites, from best to worst. This list is just my opinion. I realize that most people would disagree with the placement of every show on my list. I know there are some legendary shows that are pretty far down my list but honestly they just didn't do it for me. Some really surprised me at how good or great they were while others simply did not live up to the hype.  This list will be continually updated. Wicked Motown Book of Mormon Rock of Ages The Last Ship Annie Sister Act War Horse Catch Me If You Can Beauty and the Beast Newsies Billy Elliot 42nd Street Mama Mia Peter and the Starcatcher We Will Rock You Once Jekyll and Hyde Pippen  Les Miserables Sleeping Beauty The Lion King Phantom of...

1. The Vision I s Not Clear If people don’t know where a church is supposed to be going, then it will attempt to go everywhere and eventually wind up nowhere.  (Interesting experiment—ask people this coming Sunday at your church, “What is our vision” and see if people give you the same answers or different ones.) 2. The Focus Is on Trying to Please Everyone There is NO church on the planet that will make everyone happy every single week—and according to the Scriptures, that isn’t really supposed to be our obsession.  Too many times, we become so concerned with offending people that we actually offend Jesus. 3. Passionless Leadership When a leader does what he/she does for a paycheck and not because it's their passion … it’s over.  I’ve said it before … I want difference-makers, not paycheck-takers.  Also, it is hard to be passionate about a place when a person's average stay at a church is two years or less. 4. Manufacturing Energy If a pr...