Respect #9

Teammates:

Over the past few days I have talked about respect in an acrostic fashion. As hokie as this may seem, I believe it is a good way to look at the topic of respect. I mentioned teammates each day and I wanted to make sure I made a point about this whole thing.

We have teammates in every area of our lives. We have those we work with, those we live with, those we play ball with, those we serve with, etc...

Many times we give respect at work and not at home. That needs to change. Everyone deserves your respect. You don't have the right to withhold that from them.

I pray that you will give your respect and I pray that God will work through that to make your teams more successful.

Respect #8

Thank - This is probably as important as anything. We need each other and we need to know we matter to our teammates. Saying thanks is a big part of that. Our teammates need to know we appreciate them.

Thank your teammates. Our church and God’s Kingdom would not be the same without the people we call teammates. We need every one of us to be successful in what He has called us to do. Take the opportunity to thank your teammates. Let them know that you recognize their contribution and the effort they put into their ministry. I thank each of you now for the work you do here. This church would be totally different if you weren’t here. I am glad you are. I will take opportunities to thank you going forward.

Respect #7

Challenge - For me there are many times when I get stuck in the proverbial rut. I can't see my way out, I need someone to challenge me to look at things differently, to try something else. I appreciate someone challenging me and I look for those opportunities with my teammates.


Challenge your teammates. A challenge is when we are instigated to take a step or do something we would not otherwise do. We all need to be challenged. We have talked about pushing ourselves to always be moving forward, finding new and better ways to reach out. Don’t be afraid to challenge each other when you see opportunities. Don’t be afraid of being challenged. I will continually challenge you to do more than you have done in the past. I will challenge you to get more of our congregation involved in ministries in and out of the walls of our building.

Respect #6

Elevate - This is another tough one. It requires me to not be concerned with how I stack up against others. I have to be willing to put myself aside and raise others up.

Elevate your teammates. Whenever you have the chance to elevate your teammates take that opportunity. To elevate is to honor, raise, or promote someone. We are only unwilling to elevate our teammates when we are worried about our own position. I will always honor, raise and promote you at every opportunity.

Respect #5

Protect - Have you ever been asked a question about a teammate that was obviously expecting a negative answer? We all have choices to make about protecting our teammates. I hope you will always make the right choice.

Be a protector of your teammates. We will all be confronted with situations that require us to make a decision. Will I protect my teammate or will I join in on the conversation to tear them down. We must always protect our teammates. There is not one of us who is perfect and we all have things in our personalities and ministries that we could do better therefore we depend on the protection of our teammates. I will stand up for you in all situations. As Mike Linch has said, I will assume you are doing your best until you prove differently and therefore I will defend you as my teammate.

Respect #4

Support - Have you ever wondered what you would be like without the support system you grew up under? What about the support system you have today?

Ask yourself this question, would the people around you be stronger with you as part of their support system?

Be a support and supporter of your teammates. A support is something that supports. A supporter is someone who backs a cause or keeps someone from falling. Hold your teammates up don’t allow them to fall when you can help it. Back your teammates in their work. I will be here to support you when you need to be held up and I will always be your supporter. I want you to succeed and I know you can.

Respect #3

Encourage - This is probably the easiest and hardest part of respect. It doesn't cost a thing to encourage someone, however it is very difficult to do consistently. The problem I have is that I get in the way. If I am encouraging someone I can't concentrate on my own problems. On second thought, maybe this is why I should be encouraging others.

Be an encouragement to your teammates. When you know that one of your teammates is down or struggling, take the time to encourage them and let them know you are there with them. Let your teammates know when you hear something good that they have done or has occurred because of their ministry. I will encourage you when you are in a tough spot. I will share the good things others say about you.

Respect #2

Risk - You say, "what does risk have to do with respect?" I believe part of giving respect is risking yourself for your teammates. You can see below part of the document I referenced in Respect #1.

Take a risk when it comes to your teammates. When you are speaking about your teammates to church members, community members or other teammates, always be positive. There is a term related to risk called “Optimism Bias” this term should exemplify our relationship as teammates. It means simply that we are overly optimistic about the outcome of whatever they are working on. I believe so much in you that I know whatever you are working on will be successful, I will RISK being wrong because I believe in you that much. Because of this, I will not speak negatively about you or your ministry to others.

Respect #1

For me respect has always been something you earn and I still believe that when I am thinking about myself. However, I am trying to not be as self-centered these days so when I think about respect in that context I realize that the people around me don't need to earn my respect, I need to give it to them. Even writing that now, it is a foreign thought to me. However, I want to give my respect to others.

As an introduction I have pasted an excerpt from a document I wrote a few weeks ago. Hopefully it makes sense to you and gives you an opportunity to think about respect. I am looking forward to the next 6 posts to discuss it. Your comments are welcome.

Respect is the greatest gift we can give each other as teammates. Many things make up the act of respect. It is an action not just a word. We have many different people on this team from many different backgrounds. Some have seminary degrees, some have business degrees. Some have worked in the church world their entire career while others have worked in businesses until recently. None of us are inherently better than others none of our experiences are necessarily greater. The truth is that the mixture of all our experiences and education make for a very diverse and effective team. The only thing that can get in our way is our lack of respect for each other.

LUNCH ANYONE?

If you know anything about NorthStar you probably know that we try our best to serve our community. In January, my wife (Kelley) began working with Marlon (Community Pastor) to help stratagize (if this is not a word please humor me), organize and mobilize a bigger and stronger group to reach out to everyone in our community.

Today we did our first lunch deal with MUST ministries in Marietta and Smyrna. We had 71 families build 1200 lunches and distribute them to kids who would not have lunch otherwise. If you have never seen 1200 lunches before imagine this:

Take 2 seats out of a 15 passenger van and fill it with lunches.
Fill the back of a 4 door Jeep Wrangler with lunches.
Fill the back of a Jeep Cherokee with lunches.
Fill the back of a full size GMC pick up with lunches.

There you have it 1200 lunches. INCREDIBLE!

I must brag on my wife. She got us involved in MUST (who does an unbelievable job of feeding these kids every day all summer), she organized the volunteers and the event and she delivered 300 lunches with two other ladies today as well. She is an incredible servant.

The amazing part is that our people dove in, built 1200 lunches and want to know what is next. UNREAL!!!

If you want to know what is next, go to www.northstarinthecommunity.com you will find a lot of opportunities there. I hope you will join us in showing God's love to a great community.

Live FLAT!

I don't know about you but I wish I could start my financial life over with the info I have now. I believe I would make much better decisions that would have me in a much better financial position today. I suppose I can't cry over spilt milk (which is difficult to do now that milk is $4 per gallon) but I wish it were different.

I spoke with a group of High School seniors and underclass college students yesterday about that subject. I think we have discussed here before about cycles in the economy and such, so you already know my thoughts on that.

How cool would it be if a generation were able to grasp the truth about economic cycles and begin to flatten those cycles out for themselves by preparing for bad times during good times? This could change the world. I am not saying that economies would no longer be cyclical, I am not near smart enough to figure out what the ultimate result of this action would be on a macro economic level. The truth is I don't really care.

What I do believe is that if we "Christians" stood out of the crowd during bad economic times as if we were unaffected, man would we have a story to tell. I may have said this before, but I am going to continue this tirade until we get it and change our actions. Think about it. When Joseph gathered the food during 7 good years, everyone came to him during the 7 bad years.

Did Joseph have a forum to speak to people?

Did Joseph create a means to meet everyone's needs?

And oh by the way, he also created a fortune for Egypt as well.

I want to make a wish for you, that may not be Christian but whatever. I wish for you that you would build a financial life for you and your family that will allow you to live a steady life. Not an up and down cyclical what is going to happen next life. A good, fun, happy, no stress, how can we follow God kind of life.

If you do that you will have a forum to share God's love. I promise.

Obvious or am I missing something?

As you know, I am not the smartest person in the world. For that matter, I am not the smartest person in my office (Niki just walked in). Anyway, economics have always been a matter of interest for me. I think it is cool that our economy is cyclical just like the earth rotates around the sun and causes seasons. It really is cool.

From a Biblical perspective, God told Joseph about 7 years of plenty in preparation for 7 years of famine. Another cycle. I am not saying that our cycles will be 7 years but it is an example of a cycle. You may even think of more Biblical examples.

Here is my problem. We have this example from a long time ago in the Bible. We have lived through economic cycles even if you are only 10 years old you have now lived through the IT bubble of 2000-2002 the relatively short good times of 2003-2006 and now 2007-2008 recession like time. However, we still don't seem to get it.

What I don't understand is why we can't get it through our heads that there will be ups and downs. We will have jobs, we won't have jobs. We will make money, we won't make money. Why don't we prepare for the tough times during the good times.

Okay, you are now saying, "what does that have to do with the title of this incredible rant?" I have attached a link to an article below that is saying exactly what I have just laid out for you. Of course, it may sound smarter coming from her. She is saying that our current downturn is a "blast from the past". Basically that looking at our current situation is more like archeology than economics. That is awesome as far as I am concerned. Archeologists are digging up junk everyday that proves the Bible to be true and this is just another example of that.

You can read the article and then Joseph's story. My point is the cycle should be obvious to us (especially Christians) by now ACT ON IT!

IF JOSEPH HAD HANDLED THE 7 YEARS OF PLENTY THE WAY WE DO, EVERYONE WOULD HAVE DIED!!

Ailing Economy Could Be a Blast from the Past

By Laura Rowley

My President

You have to be just beside yourself with the presidential election. If that was supposed to be capitalized forgive me. We hear so much junk during this process that you don't even know what to listen to anymore. I really don't get overly involved in politics. I enjoy the presidential election process as a technical process. I hate listening to all the "EMPTY" yapping. I mean how long are we going to talk about who is going to fix education, health care, global warming, taxes, etc... Candidates have told us for decades that they have a fix for these issues.

My question to you is "Has anyone done a thing about any of them?"

Here is my voting process TODAY. I will vote for the person I here the least out of. Today that is Sen. John McCain. Good for you for keeping your mouth shut, for the most part, for the past few months. Of course, he hasn't had anyone to talk about since they all dropped out. Anyway, he hasn't interrupted my TV viewing at all. Thank you.

I don't really think this stance will change since Hillary can not possibly keep quiet. I believe if she were running unopposed she would campaign against the presidential candidates in 2012. My bad, probably shouldn't have said that.

Forget all of that, what I really want is someone who will go to D.C. and work to solve some of the issues we have. I will not necessarily agree with everything (see previous global warming post) but at least something will get done.

Help us to get better as a country, as a people. Not just the poor, not just the rich, ALL OF US!

THANK YOU!

BALANCE

We have all heard a million difference sermons, talks, shows, read books, etc... about having balance. We know we should balance ourselves and it is not easy at all.

One thing I don't think we hear enough of is financial balance. Let's say you have your financial life straightened out, you only owe for your home, you aren't spending money wildly, etc... You still need to have balance.

Balance financially comes from what I believe God would have your life look like financially.

1) Giving - According to God's word in Malachi 3:8-10 it should begin at the church with 10%. Of course, it is perfectly OK to give more if you can make that happen.

2) Saving - According to God's word in Proverbs 21:20 only the foolish consume all they have.

3) Spending - spending is not a bad thing. Obviously, you have to buy things to survive in our current world, unless of course you live on a farm grow your own food, use solar panels, and your car runs on electricity from those panels.

I pray that you will try a life balanced on the three financial items above.

It is possible to live in this world and live as God has planned for us to live. It is not only possible but it is beneficial. If we would just CHOOSE to live this way God will take care of the rest.

It is His promise not mine. I trust Him to do that, DO YOU?

5 Rules for Thriving in a Recession

I guess we could argue for quite sometime about whether or not we are in a recession. I don't really know and personally it doesn't affect ME. Now, you might say that is a little hard hearted but I am strictly talking about me. God has blessed me with a wonderful wife who thinks even more frugally than I do. Because of this unity (for the most part) of thinking, we have created a financial situation in which we are sheltered from the general whims of our economy.

If you pay attention at all you know that our economy is cyclical and because of this we should be prepared. It is interesting that God's word gives us an example of how to do this. You can read for yourself where Joseph prepares for 7 years of famine during the 7 good years. You can find that story in Genesis 41.

Anyway I found an article today that is pretty good. The problem that I have with the article is that if we are supposedly in a recession now how can I possibly prepare for the recession. In other words, we should prepare for bad times (famine) during the good times (plenty). Generally speaking our problem is this, we spend everything we get, and then some, during times of plenty and have nothing set aside for the famine. I know what you are thinking and no I don't believe we will not have food as a nation any time soon. But, too many of us cause ourselves great pain and a lot of debt because we are unprepared for a layoff or economic downturn.

Truly recession is a matter of preparation more than anything else. If you are prepared for a recession you won't be affected by it. As a matter of fact, if you are a Christian you should stand out in your world as someone who is not affected by a recession. This will allow the opportunity to answer the questions of why aren't you affected and you can then share God's story. Think about Joseph here, everyone in the world at the time had to come to Him for food. What an opportunity.

We serve an awesome, giving and caring God. He wants you to look different from the world. He wants you to serve the world in bad times not be in the soup line with them.

If I can help you with this please let me know (jamie.maddox@northstarchurch.org). The link to the article is below and I also am giving you the link to Crown Ministries.

I pray that you will be all God has called you to be.

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/104616/Five-Rules-for-Thriving-in-a-Bad-Economy

http://www.crown.org/

Global Warming?

I believe I have stated in some of my past comments that I am not the smartest person on earth. If you have read many of these posts you, no doubt, agree with that. Today I may take many steps toward proving I am not very smart but I am wondering something. Here goes.

As you are aware, there are many people, (our government, Queen of England, even the Vatican) that are very concerned with this whole Global Warming deal. I suppose those people get paid to worry with things. I don't agree with a whole lot of what they worry with, but who am I. An interesting side note is that I don't know who I agree with most.

Anyway, I really don't know if we can intelligently speak about this global warming thing. Humans have been around for a while and we do have written record for a lot of time but our scales for measuring temperature are less than 300 years old. That's right, Fahrenheit (1724) and Celsius (1742) are relatively young. Now, I found a site with temperatures dating to 1659 (which is interesting considering the info above). If we believe the info on that site our AVG annual temp has increased about 2 degrees since 1659. It has risen less than 1 degree since 1975.

With that said, scientist have told us there was an ice age at some point before humans were here. If I believe that and I guess I should since I saw the movie, then the temperature must have risen since then to get rid of all that ice.

I guess my problem is why should we just assume that what we are doing is causing what we are experiencing. I don't mean to suggest we should continue doing things that we know are harmful for anyone but I think we spend way too much time worrying about the status of Global Warming and not near enough time worrying about the status of humans and their souls.
I believe it is fairly egotistical of us to believe we have enough control over anything to destroy the human race. I believe we should take care of this earth that God has given us to enjoy. I believe we have a responsibility to live a life worthy of Him. But, I also believe it is very selfish that we would spend more money trying to prolong our future (which we can not control anyway) than we do on helping God's people (4.1billi0n in 2000 for Global Warming vs 233 million for public welfare expenditures). The spending difference is more than 17 to 1 for Global Warming projects. Good Lord!

I would argue that we are WASTING money on Global Warming. If you believe the Bible, God has a plan for earth's end. I don't think we are going to have an affect on that other than trying to get as many people on His side as we possibly can.

Equity? What equity?

People have been buying places to live in for hundred's even thousand's of years. We are no different in that respect today. However we are different in how we pay for and use our homes. Of course, I am talking about the loans we have.

Back in the 1940's you could borrow to buy a home for a maximum term of 7 years. This practice was based off of the Biblical mandate that all property be returned to its original owner every 7 years (called the year of Jubilee). Anyway, today we can get loans for cars for 7 years and in some cases longer than that. Of course, if you buy some cars you need to spread the payments that long in order to be able to make the payment. Unreal!

As you know, you can get home loans for 30 years today but you may not know that you can get them for 40 even 50 years. You can get all kinds of mortgages today. You may have read about how the mortgage companies have contributed to the current housing mess with some of the loans they were making. I agree with that to a point but I want to call US out today. US being home owners. I will share a couple of points below and would love to hear your feedback.

1) We as mortgage consumers should never blindly accept what a mortgage rep (or anyone else for that matter) is trying to sell us on. If you can comprehend what they are saying go it alone, however the vast, vast majority of us are no where near prepared to make that decision based solely on what we are being told. Seek counsel, it is a Biblical principle you know (Proverbs 12:15)

2) We as homeowners should never use our equity as a banking account. As a whole, we want what we want when we want it (nice sentence huh?). This has led to the issue we find ourselves in now. (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080306/home_equity.html). Homeowners have the least percentage of equity since 1945. That is staggering. This is SQUARELY ON US. We have got to get our wants under control. In my mind, it is unacceptable to use your home equity to buy things you otherwise could not afford.


Enough of my ranting! I don't mean to sound course or nuts about this but it is a huge issue. If we continue to use our equity like this what happens when we have a TRUE emergency? We as Christians should stand out of the crowd when bad times come. They are coming, will you be ready??

How do I pray?

Kelley and I began a Bible study last night on Philippians. The study is really about having Joy under pressure. If you are like me a lot of things come to mind when you think of Joy under pressure, but my thoughts don't automatically turn to prayer.

The first 11 verses of Philippians chapter 1 are really Paul letting the church of Philippi know how he feels about them. Lesson 1 for me it is probably a good thing to let people know how much they mean to you.

He goes on to say that "I thank God every time I remember you, in all my prayers for all of you I always pray with joy..." Lesson 2 for me I need to pray for people other than when they are in a struggle of some kind.

Finally he says "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight..." Lesson 3 for me I need to pray that people we grow deeper in love with God.

Why do you think God created prayer? I mean usually we are praying to ask for help. Is that really why he created prayer? He already knows what we need. Anyone who saw Bruce Almighty knows that God knows everything. Is it possible that He wants us to talk to Him? Is it possible He wants us to recognize we need Him? Prayer is not a way for us to get our wants and needs fulfilled. It is a way for us to speak to our Father and seek His will for our lives in EVERY area. It is a way for us to intercede for our friends and family. If it is good enough for Paul I think it will do for us.

I ask you to pray that my love will abound more and more when you remember me. I need that for myself. I commit to pray that for you as I remember you.

If you don't remember me I am 6'3" 210lbs dark flowing hair, chiseled chin, rock hard abs, you get the picture.

Thanks for praying.

I Vote for MORE Government!!

Let me explain.

I am not a very smart person. I don't know who will be the best person to be president of our GREAT country. I don't know how NASA figured out how to put a missle in the falling satellite yesterday. I don't even know what time of day I am supposed to have my trash can out by. I mean, about half the time I miss those guys. I guess they show up at 4 am to pick up the trash. I'm sorry back to the point.

I saw a story on Yahoo that was created by 60 minutes (and you know 60 minutes is on top of it). If you are like me you don't spend a lot of time thinking about pennies and nickles and apperantly our government doesn't spend enough time on it. Here's the deal!

Each year the U.S. mint creates 8 Billion pennies and 1.3 Billion Nickles. That translates into $80 million in pennies and $65 million in nickles. That's a lot of value for something I don't even bend over to pick up. Maybe I should rethink that. Anyway, even though I don't have an idea why they still make pennies, my indifference to them is not the problem.

The problem is that our brilliant government spends $134 million per year to create $80 million worth of pennies and $124 million per year to create $65 million dollars worth of nickles. GOOD LORD!

Now that I think about it, why should we be surprised when candidates raise and spend well over $100 million to get a job paying $400 thousand per year. Not that I'm bitter.

Singles @ NorthStar

Every Sunday at 9:30 am @ NorthStar Church you will find around 70 singles meeting in our conference room. Today I was able to hang out with them for about an hour during their class.

They are all single for different reasons but it was obvious they were together in that room as a group of people seeking God's direction for their lives. They are seeking to serve God as they learn the gifts He created them with and how they can use them.

I am so glad that they have Greg & Julie Jones to lead them as they travel on their journey. If you are a single and want more info on what our singles are doing, go to www.northstarchurch.org

The 5 People you meet at the Ballpark

You may have heard of the book "The Five People you meet in Heaven", I was thinking about that as we started the softball season for real today with a "Friendly" tournament for Sierra.

If you think about it everyone has a story, their own experiences whether they have created them for theirselves, someone has caused it for them or it just happened. Everyone has a story and here are the ones I saw today.

Person 1: A great guy works hard has 3 kids a great job, etc... Somehow finds himself in the middle of a bad divorce situation. It doesn't really matter who is at fault it is what it is, but he will never be the same.

Person 2: A great lady has 3 kids a great husband. One of the children has a dibilitating disease. They obviously love him as you see how they work with him at the park. Her life will never be "normal".

Person 3: A great guy has 2 kids works hard. Gets involved in an auto accident caused by someone else, ends up having his leg amputated. Comes to the park to watch his girl. He will never be the same.

Person 4: Anyone else on the team. Have a relatively normal life. No real apparent drama. I guess the key is apparent. I know they deal with things everyday that cause anxiety. They will never be the same.

Person 5: Me. Great wife, kids and job. I live a realtively easy existance. Nothing overly exotic or stressful happening in my life. I have never been concerned for much of anything that I can remember. Being with these people week after week I will never be the same.

At NorthStar we are in the middle of a series called BraveHeart. We are talking about tragedy and how to deal with it. One of our staff guys (CA) coined the phrase that we are using (What Marks us Makes us). That is a great statement.

I am so grateful to know the other 4 people that will be with me in Heaven.

NorthStar In The Community!

If you have been around NorthStar at all you know how important the community is to NorthStar Church. We have been working in the Kennesaw/Acworth community for over 11 years now. It realy is incredible to see the work that has been done and the changes that have happened.

As you can imagine, the challenge is how to keep that work fresh. To continue what we are doing while finding new areas to work. The biggest difference between now and 11 years ago is really three things.

1) Marlon Longacre is on staff (for 9 years now) and working harder than ever to touch the lives of our community.
2) We have a couple of thousand people to help us touch this community.
3) Kelley (my wife) is now working with Marlon to take the ministry to the next level.

With Marlon's work ethic and Kelley's organizational skills the sky is the limit.

With this in mind Kelley and Marlon have launched a new website that will allow our church and community access to the inside working of the community ministry. There is now and will continue to be tons of outreach opportunities on the site as well as an opportunity for the community to respond to the efforts.

It promises to be a huge tool in our never ending work to show God's love to our community. You can find a link at northstarchurch.org.

Great work Marlon and Kelley. Keep working it will all come together!!

Politics are fun aren't they.

As I take time out of my busy life to do my duty and pay attention to the State of the Union address (ok, so I was very aggravated that there was nothing else on, I missed Wife Swap for goodness sake) I am reminded of how important it is to be involved and vote.

I would no more tell you who to vote for than give you a bite of my cheese burger but I am increasingly agitated with the whole process. A few weeks ago our Pastor spoke about Nehemiah and how his life was cushy yet he saw the bad situation in his homeland and how his people were being taken advantage of. The good news is he decided to use his cushy life and its influence to affect change. And he did. You can read about it in the Bible.

I guess for me I don't understand why those we elect can't remember who elected them and work for those people rather than whoever has the money. It seems simple to me. I know that things are never as simple or as difficult as they seem but aren't we making this WAY to difficult.

Anyway, take some time and get to know the candidates. Then vote for whoever most closely holds your view. But whoever you vote for have fun.

Who Am I?

I have been around for a long time. I have been married for almost 21 years. I worked for Coca-Cola for 17 years. I have a 14 year old and 11 year old, both girls. I have worked for NorthStar for 5 years now. I have seen many things. I don't claim to be the smartest person in the world, but I do have opinions on many subjects (some would say to0 many). I really don't do colors and decorating, fancy food, painting, politics, Lost or 24.

There are many many things that I know little or nothing about. There are many many things that I disagree with others about.

With all that said, WHO AM I, to be deragatory publicly about whatever they choose to do. I mean, if you want to support Hillary that is your decision. Personally I am writing in Queen Latifah ( I like her clothes). I just think you make your own decisions and you live with the consequences of those decisions.

Who Am I to attack the decision you made? I will not do that.

Now that I think about it I guess writing these words is doing exactly that, forgive me for wasting your time.

Real Estate

In the past Real Estate as always been a great place to invest money and expect a pretty good return. Unless you have been asleep for 2 years you know that Real Estate has taken a big hit and it is difficult to sell a house at all and virtually impossible to get what you think it is worth (which is usually based on what you heard 2 years ago.

Let me encourage you that as long as you don't sell in this tough market your real estate "value" will be fine. This market will bounce back. I have no idea when but it will.

If you are a part of one of the many industries that are affected by the housing market in Atlanta, I pray that God will provide what you need to make it through.

Be patient, work hard and know that God is still there.

Friday

Friday's are great aren't they?

For me Friday is an off day. I do my best to keep it that way. It is a day for me and Kelley to hang out, work around the house or run some errands. Either way it is a fun day when we get to be together.

I guess the reason I wanted to write about my Friday is I hope you have a day like that. It is not necessarily "down time" but it is not working at my profession. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do but I do need that time away from it and there are certainly a million things I need to do around the home. I really love the time I get to spend with Kelley as we "get things done" or just hang out.

I hope in 2008 you will find a day like this regularly to spend with your spouse and reset yourself.

Predictions?

There are two things that happen at the beginning of every year. New Year's resolutions and predictions. I for one don't do well with New Year's resolutions (follow through has been an issue). So I will begin in 2008 making predictions. I lean toward the sporting end of the world so they may be mostly sports related. But, I will try to venture into new horizons.

Before I give you a "short list" of my predictions, let me share some predictions from others that I find quite inspiring.

1) "Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further developments." —Roman engineer Julius Sextus Frontinus, A.D. 100 (Good thing no one listened to him, I haven't seen a camel to ride around here)

2) "Law will be simplified [over the next century]. Lawyers will have diminished, and their fees will have been vastly curtailed." —journalist Junius Henri Browne, 1893 (Another wrong prediction, unfortunately)

3) "The Japanese don't make anything the people in the U.S. would want." —Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, 1954 (What was this guy thinking? I love my Mitsubishi toaster)

4) "Before man reaches the moon, your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail." —Arthur Summerfield, U.S. Postmaster General under Eisenhower, 1959 (You know I read this quote and I really expected it to be noted as follows (Cliff Clavin , Cheers 1995))

5) "By the turn of the century, we will live in a paperless society." —Roger Smith, chairman of General Motors, 1986 (I bet he is telling his friends "I didn't say what century")

Anyway, just so you will know these great prognosticators (now that is a word) are my inspiration. So below you will see just some of my predictions for 2008.

1) Atlanta Falcons bring Steve Bartkowski back and he uses his hoverround to set single season rushing mark for quarterbacks in leading team to a 5-11 record. Reestablishing their prominence as a perennial cellar dwellers.

2) Atlanta Hawks after a first round loss in the playoffs to the Detroit Piston in 2007-2008 season, decide to trade Josh Smith, Joe Johnson and Josh Childers to the Boston Celtics for a two year supply of New England clam chowder, tea and Boston Baked beans. Team GM gurantees no games in April for 2008-2009 season.

3) Atlanta Braves coach Bobby Cox gets finger stuck in ear and is unable to coach the Braves in the 2008 playoffs. Braves run the table en-route to its second World Series Title with whoever replaces him.

4) The killer bees will finally arrive in Georgia. They will find there is no water here and go back where they came from.

I do wish a great 2008 for all of you. I pray your dreams come true and God is at the center of them all.