"What do you understand?"

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A second grader came home from school and said to her mother, “Mom, guess what? We learned how to make babies today.”
You can imagine that the mother was more than a little bit surprised, thinking that she should have signed some sort of paper stating the teacher could start offering such information. And she thought, “Isn’t second grade a little early?” But she kept her cool anyway.

“That's interesting,” she said to her little girl, “How do you make babies?”

“It’s simple,” the little girl said. “You just change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add ‘es’.”

Amazing, isn’t it, how you think you know what someone is talking about and you don’t? That’s why listening to life today for what God has to say is so important in your spiritual growth. That’s why listening to life and making a life, not just a living is so critical to your joy. You assume you know what someone means, even God, and oftentimes don’t.

So as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living today, listen with an open heart. God may mean something different than what you’re thinking.

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"Have you ever heard of store rage?"

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I’ve never really thought about store rage until I got a call from a man about it. This guy went to the trouble of finding my phone number and calling me up to ask me to do a story about store rage.

It seems that a person walked into a store where the man’s wife works and pretty much verbally abused her. The person just went on and on, getting louder and louder, and more abusive about something that was beyond the clerk’s control. The person got really angry, called the woman a few names, and stormed out, leaving her in tears.

You know, it’s really easy to take your problems—that you can’t control or change—out on someone else, especially someone who’s paid to be nice to you like an associate in a store. It’s easy to get store rage.

But what does that really accomplish? You don’t feel better when you’re through, because the more you feed the rage, the larger it grows, shrinking your spirit.

So the next time you feel the rage growing, take a deep breath, get quiet, and listen to your life so you can make a life, not just a living.

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"Had a meeting lately?"

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I coach a lot of business people, helping them set professional and personal goals and moving strategically from where they are to where they want to be, in essence, listening to their lives. Much of what we talk about is taking action on values that are important to them.

One of my common themes is that most meetings waste productive time. We put folks in comfortable chairs in luxurious, climate-controlled rooms with something to eat and drink and suddenly everybody feels like they have to say something so they can stay in the room longer.

One of the people I coach sent me something recently which reads, “Are you lonely? Tired of working on your own? Do you hate making decisions? Then hold a meeting! You can see people, show charts, feel important, use a laser pointer, impress your colleagues, and eat doughnuts all on company time! Meetings…the practical alternative to work.”

But you know, there is one meeting that’s worthwhile everyday: your quiet time with God as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

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"How do you touch life?"

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Okay, so call me old-fashioned, retro, or a stick-in-the-mud, but I really like listening to music played on vinyl records. I know, I know—the quality’s not as good as a CD what with all of those pops and cracks and skips. I know—I can’t take a turntable to the gym and listen to tunes while I work out.

Just so you’ll know, our family has multiple CD players. I burn CDs of my show and ship to some of our LIFE Network radio stations. Other radio stations download my mp3 files from our website and some of you are listening to me right now via my podcast on your iPod. So I don’t have my head in the techno-sand, but…

…there’s just something about touching the music that I like. I watch the needle tracking across the vinyl. I get up out of my chair and turn the album over to the other side. You can’t do that with a download.

Listening to life is kind of like playing a vinyl record. You can’t just sit there and expect life to just play without you touching something, and getting involved. So reach out and touch God’s music as you make a life today.

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"How do you like your tea?"

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Did you know that here in the U.S. June is National Iced Tea Month?

Now for those who grew up in the southern U.S., I suspect every month is National Iced Tea Month. Most likely you were weaned on iced tea and probably sugar-sweetened iced tea. You drink sweet iced tea with at least two meals a day and maybe even for breakfast, too. For you, iced tea is…well, normal.

But go to another part of the world, like the Orient, and iced tea isn’t normal. When you ask for tea, it’s not iced, but hot. It may not be black tea, but green tea. And you drink it from a tiny cup, not a 20 ounce tumbler filled with ice cubes.

What’s interesting to me as I listen to life is that so many of us assume everyone else grew up like we did, e.g., gulping iced tea or sipping hot tea, and that our way is the right way. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Since God has the whole world in hand, expand your horizons a bit today and accept others as they are, regardless of how they drink tea.

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