"Where do you struggle?"

I was working around our farm recently when I noticed something growing under a very large oak tree. I discovered a small maple tree struggling to live under that huge oak tree.

I say “struggling to live” because it was very tiny. Its leaves weren’t fully developed and they were kind of turned down, like they were barely making it.

It occurred to me looking at that stunted maple tree struggling for life under that big oak that as long as the maple tree remained there, it would struggle for life, and probably never grow to become a mature maple, much less reach its full potential. Transplant it out in the open where it can get sunlight and won’t compete with another tree for rainfall and it thrives.

You are like a tree. If you stay in someone else’ shadow too long, you never reach maturity or your full potential. Transplant you where you’re nourished and you thrive. Step out of the shadows today and get where you can grow as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

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"Can you really eat half the sugar and get the same great taste?"

I’m sure you’re like me when it comes to food—we’re all trying to watch what we eat a little more carefully these days. Even eating healthy foods requires us to read labels.

For instance, I eat a bowl of oatmeal every morning. I really like the apple and cinnamon flavor. It’s good for me, right? Yea, well, then I’m in the grocery store one day and I notice that my favorite oatmeal now has a “Half the sugar, same great taste!” variety. I compare the amount of sugars in the two and discover that I’ve really been eating more sugar than I wanted.


So I get the “Half the sugar, same great taste!” version and the next morning fix some. Nope, it doesn’t have the same great taste. It can’t because they cut the sugar in half and sugar tastes good. But, it does still taste good enough, and I’m eating less sugar, so for me, it’s worth trading the sugar for a taste that’s almost as good.Life is full of choices and choices involve sacrifice.

Sacrifice is a good thing if in the end, you make a life and not just a living.

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"Are you ageless?"

Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to see a dozen or more people that I grew up with. Some of them I hadn’t seen since we graduated from high school together. So we had a lot of catching up to do. Most of them are married with children who are about the age of our daughters, some older, and some younger. Many of them have divorced and remarried. Some of them have moved away. Some are still close by where we grew up and a few live there where we all grew up together.

And you know what? They had all aged! I couldn’t figure it out—I look exactly the same: no wrinkles, head full of hair, same weight, but they had all aged. You know I’m kidding, right?

Actually, we had all aged, some of us more gracefully than others. But you know, as we sat around the table or stood and talked, there was one thing that was the same—the laughter. That twinkling-eye, throw-back-your-head-and-roar, slap-your-leg laughter hadn’t changed. Laughter comes from within, in your spirit. And that’s ageless. So laugh as you listen to life today!

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"Do you listen to life at the table?"

I was talking recently with our daughter about her college experience and how it was going. Everything was great until she started telling me about the food.

“Daddy,” she said, “the food isn’t very good. I mean the meat isn’t really meat. I miss Mama’s cooking.”

“I remember,” I said. “My college didn’t cook like my Mama, either.”

“Well, it’s more than just the food,” she said.

I knew what she meant there, too. She meant she missed sitting around the table talking about her day and listening to her sister describe her day and her mother and me doing the same. She meant that there’s something intimate about sitting around a big oak table and sharing life along with the roast beef and potatoes. That laughter around the table sweetens the carrots and opinions shared spice up the salsa. That something besides eating takes place there. We pass spiritual nourishment as well.Listen to life around the table today as you make a life, not just a living.

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"Is there a purpose for every season?"

Have you noticed with the change of seasons comes less daylight? When I get up in the mornings, it’s dark. There’s just not as much daylight now.

I understand all about the earth’s rotation and the seasons and distance from the sun. But somehow having less daylight affects me. I feel more tired at the end of the day, because it gets dark so much earlier. In the summer, when it’s light until nine some evenings, I go home and work in the yard or cut the grass. I have all kinds of energy. Now it seems like I’m ready for bed by nine.

I guess there’s a rhythm to life, isn’t there? A beat that is fast sometimes and slow others. There’s a purpose to every season. I mean I couldn’t work forever at a summer pace. So maybe the purpose of fall is to slow you down a bit, to get you to back off of the throttle for a while and coast a little more, to help you remember to breathe deeply, to force you to find a lower gear.

Find your rhythm in this season, hopefully a slower pace, and enjoy this season for what it is as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

Click here to listen to Dr. Joey