The Instant Survivor by Jim MoorheadThis weekend I was listening to the Bobblehead Dad Podcast because I have a real desire to be, well, a better dad. (I also secretly want to have my own Dad podcast, but that is a long way off as I’m not even managing the YWAM Podcast very well at the moment.) Bobblehead Dad is a great podcast, with some good thoughts from the host, Jim Higley, and some great interviews.

I’ve been trying to catch up on past episodes of the podcast and listened to an interview that Jim Higley did with author Jim Moorhead. I found the content of the interview to be quite intriguing and thought provoking (you can listen to it here).

Jim Moorheads book is entitled The Instant Survivor – Right Ways to Respond When Things Go Wrong. In the book it goes through a 4-step system for “conquering professional and personal crises”. The description of the book at Amazon is:

This is a crisis-management handbook that shows readers the four steps to going from head-in-the sand denial to head-held-high success. Jim Moorhead reveals the methods top companies use to tackle crises. In an energetic, upbeat style – laced with compassion and practicality – he explains how executives audit their businesses and fix problems before they mushroom into messes. When crises do occur, a crisis management team talks through the company’s business and legal goals, analyzes the people and resources to deploy and the allies and experts to call upon, and debates the options before agreeing on a strategy. Whether the problem is downsizing, divorce, disability, or debt, Jim Moorhead, a seasoned trial attorney and crisis adviser,outlines four action steps to help any individual prevent and tackle life’s hard and soft crises in an organization:

  • STAY FROSTY: Remain calm and focused when a crisis begins
  • SECURE SUPPORT: Tap into your network of personal and professional contacts
  • STAND TALL: Take full charge of your response
  • SAVE YOUR FUTURE: Prepare for post-crisis success

As he explains his steps to overcoming disasters and predicaments, Moorhead selects from firsthand accounts and anecdotes amassed during thirty years of experience in law, politics, and consultancy to inspire and encourage readers. These intriguing stories – of people overcoming everything from disease, debt, and job loss to car bombings and wrongful imprisonment – engage readers as they illustrate the author’s key points.

On Jim Moorhead’s Instant Survivor web-site you can subscribe to his mailing list and receive The Instant Survivor Handbook for free. I’ve gone ahead and done that and received the book. It is a 7-page handbook with step by step instructions for surviving a “current” crisis. It looks interesting and could be a very useful tool for someone when things are going wrong.

I would recommend listening to the Bobblehead Dad podcast to start with, then if it sounds like something that interests you or could serve you, then sign up to Jim Moorhead’s mailing list to get the free handbook (you can always unsubscribe after you get the free ebook). After that, if you still want to know more, go ahead and buy The Instant Survivor Book.

I have written before about how I feel it is important to tell our story as missionaries and Christians. One of the easiest ways to tell your story is through a blog.

Although it is relatively easy to start a blog, one of the areas that you need to focus on, but that can easily be neglected, is to have a plan for your blog.

Courtney Chowning over at Biblical Blogging has created a few great tools to help you create a Bible based blog. They include a workbook on creating a plan for your blog and also some blog planning pages.

Creat a Plan for Your Blog

Tomorrow I am planning to spend the day at the Alberta Children’s Hospital as my eldest son is due to go in for surgery to replace his Cecostomy tube. I’ve downloaded both of these free workbooks to my iPod and plan to go through them for the projects I am currently developing.

Although the worksheets are written for blogs, they will also translate well for podcasting. The projects that I am currently developing are podcast related, so this should help me wrap my head around them and get a good plan in place…

 

Didn’t you know that as Christians we have to be happy all the time?

No, really, all the time, otherwise “the Devil scores points” …

As Christians things are not “hard”, they are “challenging”.

When you are asked how you are doing things should always we great, blessed, fantastic, good, or at the very worst, fine …

So how about you, when you get asked how you are doing do you give the real answer, or the “right” answer?

In response to my article entitled “Fathers, Do Not Embitter Your Children“, I received a very heartfelt question;

In regards to both scriptures in Colossians about children obeying your parents and fathers not embittering your children. How do either of the scriptures apply to a father/parent that has not raised you. Has been in and out of your life, I am now grown, he wants the respect a father should get but does not want to do things a father does. I have no grudges of the past but things that are going on now are very relevant to the present state of our relationship.

The scriptures that I referred to in the original article were Colossians 3:20-21;

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

Boundaries Book

Based on what I have heard from other Christians I recommended the book Boundaries, by Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend. The books subtitle is “When to Say YES, When to Say NO, To Take Control of Your Life”.

I also linked to an article entitled “How do we honour and abusive parent?“. Although the absent father was not “abusive”, I wondered if some of the issues would be the same.

How Do You Think the Reader Should Honour Their Absent Father?

I felt like my answer was inadequate to fully answer the depth of  the question I was asked.

I would love to open up the comments for other people’s thoughts on the readers question and how they should honour their absent father who is now back in their life…

In 1 Corinthians 13 we can read about what “Love” is, and what love is not.

According to Paul if we don’t have love, we have nothing of value.

One verse that is especially challenging is 1 Corinthians 13:5 which states:

(love) keeps no record of wrongs. (NIV)

Do we live up to that?

Can we live up to that?

If we forget all of the wrongs people do to us, as God does for us through Jesus Christ, how will that transform our relationships with others? How could that transform relationships between nations?

From Paul’s description we can read that love is completely selfless. It is not something that we do to benefit ourselves, but rather is it something that costs us for the benefit of others.

We all fall short of this description of true love, no matter how hard we try, but that doesn’t mean we stop trying…

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. (Romans 2:23-24 NIV)

Loving unconditionally, forgiving others, and forgetting other’s wrongs against us is not easy in our own strength. So instead of trying to do it ourselves…

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV)

How do you approach your relationships? Are you ready to throw out your relationship score card?