Like this:

No... not WHERE do you want to be, but WHO do you want to be! Big difference.

After you’ve asked yourself the question, Who Am I? (remember, the last entry on this blog had you define the roles/relationships God has entrusted to you and rank them in importance) you need to ask yourself, “who do i want to be”? Think about  how you would like to perform in those roles/relationships. Billy Dean had a couple of songs out a couple of years ago (ok… maybe it was like 15 but it seems like just a couple to me) called Young Man & Only Here For A Little While. They were all about thinking about the decisions we make on a daily basis. One is about a guy who went to a funeral for a man who died awfully young and spent all his time

“working hard and chasing dollars… putting off until tomorrow… things he should have done”.

So Billy Dean says, I’m going to change my life because we’re only here for a little while. There was another song called Young Man- the chorus of that song really spoke to me.

When I’m just an old man on the front porch in a chair Rocking with the memories from my past The lines you see on my face will tell a tale of no regrets I want to look forward, to looking back On the race I ran… when I was a young man.

I started thinking about how I’d feel about the choices I was making now when I was just an old man on the front porch in a chair, rocking with the memories from my past. I realized I had better get going if I was going to be proud of what I had done with my life… if I was going to become a person I could admire. I did my best but it wasn’t until I took that Franklin-Covey class that I talked about in an earlier blog that I got the tools to really add focus to that decision. One of the best things I ever did was write what Steven Covey calls, Tribute Statements for each of my most important roles. The idea is to picture yourself at your 90th birthday celebration with all your friends and family there to pay tribute to your life and then think about what you would hope that they would say about your life. Then start living today in a way that will make that tribute statement a reality. It will focus all of your choices and interactions with the people who will ultimately decide what kind of friend, spouse, parent, employee, etc… you were/are. One of the verses that really drives me as I go through this life is from a story Jesus told to His friends… basically the gist of the story is, that those who faithfully do what they think God wants them to will one day stand face to face with their creator and hear Him say:

Well done, my good and faithful servant. Matthew 25:21 (NLT)

That’s part of my tribute statement from God to me (at least I hope that’s what He’ll say to me…). Now write yours. Take your most important roles that God has entrusted to you and write out a tribute statement for each one. Picture your 90th birthday and think about what you hope they will say to you. It’s just one more step in adding some incredible focus (and therefore power) to your life… and will take you one step closer to hearing the words, “well done!” from your Creator. Have questions about any of this? Add them to the comments section and I’ll do my best to answer them…  below I’ve attached my tribute statement that I’ve written for God (what I hope He’ll say to me when I stand before Him- hopefully in a LONG, LONG time).

Role: Child Of God—Key Person: God—Tribute Statement:  Well done good & faithful servant!  You have discovered and lived out what & who I created you to be.  You enjoyed your life and helped your family and church to enjoy life as well.  And you helped me make Riverside into a place where people who were afraid of me or unsure of me could come and find out who I really am and discover how much I love them.  I am so proud of you. 

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