In the amazing book, Season of Life, author Jeffrey Marx writes, “What happens when you decide to be a man built for others?You strap on the oxygen tank and start climbing stairs to save people in the World Trade Center.When you’re the CEO of a company, you make sure everybody has a living wage, everybody has health insurance, and everybody is treated with dignity and respect.When you’re a high school football player, you play every single snap as hard as you can, with all your talents, because you play not only for yourself but everybody else.As a father, you make sure that you focus on what your children need.You make sure that there’s no one, ever, treated better than the gal you marry.You do the things that you know you’re supposed to do.”
Are you a man built for others?Find out with these 10 ways.Tony Dungy shares his thoughts on what a man built for others looks like. Click Here for the full article.
Post-Election Football: Did the Family Win?
We like to view elections like our favorite sport, football for example. For your information, MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL - my Pittsburgh (where I grew up) Steelers beat the Cincinnati (where I used to live) Bengals last night. Yeah! We want to know who won and who lost. What was the score? Some are reporting because the Repbulicans won most US elections last week, therefore biblical morality (kindness, honesty, integrity, self-sacrifice, compassion, charity, etc,), American principles (freedom, limited government, etc.) and family values are the victors. I think it's more complicated than that. Bob Patterson, author, friend and pastor provides some insight in his article, "Republican plan ignores the American family crisis."
Why is family important? It is the fundamental unit of society. It is the first social unit, the first church, the first corporation, the first school, the first hopsital, the first , the first court, the first goverment, etc. If you want to solve any problem in society (not just put a band-aid on the symptoms) then you need to start with the family (the source of human capital and the future of humankind). Let me provide you with some quick examples (according to the scientific facts coincidentally they also reflect biblical truth):
Poverty - statistically, natural married families are the least likely to end up in poverty in the US (if you want to guarantee you will never be poor do three things - graduate high school, get married at age 20 or older and have children after you get married - sounds like some pretty simple goals actually)
Crime - single males from fatherless homes represent the greatest risk to commit crimes (includes me)
Domestic Abuse - the greatest risk factors for spouse and child abuse include children in divorced, separated and cohabiting families, especially with live-in boyfriends
Healthcare - intact natural married families are healhier, live longer and lower healthcare costs
Environment/CO2 Emissions - Intact married family households use less resources, use less energy and create less waste per person. Single households in the USA are the most wasteful!
You know I'm not a big country music fan (I like Rock, Rap, Classical...everything that can be good)...but you have to admit the best lyrics often come from country songs. What kind of music do you think they play in heaven? Rhetorical question, but I bet this video is on some angelic iPods....
They called them crazy when they started out
Said seventeen's too young to know what loves about
They've been together fifty-eight years now
That’s crazy
He brought home sixty-seven bucks a week
He bought a little 2 bedroom house on Maple Street
Where she blessed him with six more mouths to feed
Yea that’s crazy
Just ask him how he did it; he'll say pull up a seat
It'll only take a minute, to tell you everything
Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse I Love You
Go to work, do your best, don't outsmart your common since
Never let your prayin' knees get lazy
And love like crazy
They called him crazy when he quit his job
Said them home computers, boy they'll never take off
He sold his one man shop to Microsoft
They paid like crazy
Just ask him how he made it
He'll tell you faith and sweat
And the heart of a faithful woman,
Who never let him forget
Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse I Love You
Go to work, do your best, don't outsmart your common since
Never let your prayin knees get lazy
And love like crazy
Always treat your woman like a lady
Never get to old to call her baby
Never let your prayin knees get lazy
And love like crazy
They called him crazy when they started out
They've been together fifty-eight years now
Aint that crazy?
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NOTE: Thanks to AllProDads.com for this inspiration. If you don't subscribe to their daily email, then you should disown your computer and live in the forest. It is the best DAILY EMAIL EVER! Don't believe me, then ask Tony Dungy! Sign up NOW at www.allprodads.com
Larry's Last Words was created for me to share my VAST knowledge (hardly?!) of God, life, family, business, sports, purpose, fulfillment, joy, money, power, etc. - did I leave anything out? :) Ok. Seriously, my recent encounter with my own finite humanity (i.e. I almost died in May, 2010) has prompted me (perhaps it's a spiritual prompting?) to share whatever wisdom I have gleaned and continue to gather (and learn) from this life with you and posterity. This is a real "stretch" for me - because I am wired as an introvert and I've never liked writing about myself. May this wisdom help you, either because of me, or in spite of me. Most of all, may it lead you to the one who created you, loves you the best, and is pursuing you right now!
