"Do you understand what someone else needs?"

Click here to listen to Dr. Joey tell his story!

How do you teach someone else how to do something that you’ve done for a long time and no longer really have to think about doing it?

That’s the question I faced when I started teaching our younger daughter how to drive. I mean it’s been a long time since I started driving. I did teach our older daughter to drive, but that’s been five years or so.
I discovered that it’s easy to get impatient with yourself and the person you’re teaching because you have to stop and think about what you do, why you do it, and how you do it. A lot of us just assume the other person knows what we know.

What I’ve found most helpful is to let her ask questions and use them to help me think like she does. That gets me to a place where I communicate better and more patiently with her because I realize it’s not about me. It’s about her. I’m a better teacher because I understand her needs.

God understands your needs. And God wants to teach you everything you need to know about driving your life as you listen to life and make a life.

Discover more great stories like this one!

"How do you get experience?"

Click here to listen to Dr. Joey tell his story!

Our daughter drove along the highway with me sitting beside her. It was her first time out on the highway.
"Daddy, I’m so nervous," she said. "I’m afraid I’m going to do something wrong."

"You’re doing fine," I told her. "Your driving is great. You’ll relax as you gain more experience."

"How do I get more experience? Just drive more?" she asked.

"That’s right," I told her. "The more experience you have, the more you learn."

"What do I learn?" she said.

"Well," I said, "with experience comes mistakes. And when you make mistakes, you learn from them. Like running off the side of the road. You learn how to correct without over-correcting. But you have to experience it."

"Whew," she said, "I’m glad I don’t have to do it right the first time."

Do you think you have to do life perfectly for God to be happy with you? You don’t. God is all about helping you learn from your mistakes and saving you from the consequences of your mistakes ruining your life.

As you make a life today, ask God to help you learn from your mistakes.

Discover more great stories like this one!

"How do you start something new?"

Click here to listen to Dr. Joey tell his story!

I wanted to make sure that our daughter started driving in a safe place. I didn’t want to just hand her the keys and say, "Honey, let’s head for the expressway."

Instead, I drove to a local school that has a large parking lot. It was after hours so there were no other cars in the lot. That’s where I started her out driving, going around and around the big parking lot, turning from one lot into another; changing her patterns so she didn’t get bored.

When you start a new project, start with the end in mind. My goal was to get our daughter driving on the expressway, but that’s not where we started. So with your goal firmly fixed in your mind, start in a way and at a place where you succeed in beginning to move toward your goal. A safe place where you can get a "Win" under your belt.

You see, success breeds success. So start out moving toward your goal with small steps and watch them grow as you move closer to realizing your goal.

Ask God to guide you as you successfully make a life, not just a living today.

Discover more great stories like this one!

"Where are you looking?"

Click here to listen to Dr. Joey tell his story!

I’m teaching our younger daughter to drive. Recently she was driving and we were talking about how and when to use your rear view mirror. She was asking, "How often do I look in it?" and as she looked in it, I noticed that she was really staring into it.

"Instead of ‘How often…’", I said, "let’s talk about how long you look in it. You just glance in it. Avoid staring in it. It’s not a good idea to drive forward while staring backwards."

You know, that’s not just good advice for learning to drive, but great advice for listening to life and make a life, not just a living, too. You’re trying to move forward in life, right? Climb the next mountain. Get the day’s work done. Be a great parent. Or, www.StayMarriedForever.org.

But the temptation to look back, to get stuck in nostalgia, to peer in your rear view mirror is so strong, isn’t it? But as Will Rogers said, "Things aren’t the way they used to be and probably never were."

Look forward today. God is ahead of you, preparing the way.

Discover more great stories like this one!

"How much do you learn as the teacher?"

Click here to listen to Dr. Joey tell his story!

Every time I find myself teaching someone something, I’m amazed by how much I learn. For instance, our younger daughter has her learner’s permit to drive. The primary responsibility for initially teaching her to drive falls on my wife and me in the state we live in…

…which means I got to go first teaching her. One of the things that amazed me right away was that she didn’t say, "Daddy, I already know that." Many teenagers think they can drive before they get behind the wheel. She listened carefully and put into practice what we discussed.

I decided following those first experiences teaching her to drive that the four deadliest words we may ever say are, "I already know that." Far too often it seems that an ego gets in the way of genuine learning taking place. That it’s a challenge for us to admit—"I don’t know how to do this."

Whether it’s at work or school or at home, avoid these four deadly words—"I already know that"—suspend your ego needs, and learn something new as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living today.

Discover more great stories like this one!