ToDay with E.G: Introduction! Part 1

I still wasn't sure what to present exactly and how to approach the subject. And it was already 10 am. Few hours before the event. So i had to go along with my computer to the meeting place where i kept consulting my notes related to the subject i was assigned to present. As i got closer to the hour of decision, trying hard not to sweat out my fear for public display i started remembering a similar event. I can't exactly recall
when that happened, but it was sometime this year. I was also on schedule and i felt lost. Then came a friend of mine Brice. He probably saw my uneasiness and accepted to pray for me. Though the fear did not go right away, i did amazingly well during the preaching. So i decided to repeat the experience. It is not as if i had the choice. My breathing rhythm started to be out of control and i couldn't focus to pray my way out of it. That is when the lovely Dominique came to me. As the M.C officiating the afternoon event at the Hotel, she agreed to
spare some time and fervently prayed with me. The rest as we say is history.

I kept hearing from different sources how timely and indeed very appropriate was the presentation i gave them. Matter of fact, i couldn't stop thinking about what i had said  myself. Three A.M (3 a.m) in the morning the day that followed  I was up. Couldn't stop thinking of the implication of the message. I finally left my bed for the Living Room and confined myself to prayer. I had a good time, took new resolutions at that early morning time.Below is a short summary of what I said at that meeting.

For those who weren't there, let me share with you just the grand lines of the presentation and then i'll let you know more about my audience month resolution and what i'll be doing from today up to the end of this months here on Help Me Understand.

The theme title was simply this: Loyalty, Perseverance and Consistency.

Well, my brother Yves remember it differently. He told me yesterday that he remembers the message as being better titled, "Just throw 'la fiesta' for yourself"! Hmmmm ... it looks like everybody might remember the presentation in their own way. I guess that was to be expected for such kind of message. smile.

The three items of my theme title are not simply things that need to be done by Christians. I argued that they were principles of life that needed to be inserted in our characters and behaviors. These character ethics are not merely divine commands but also Divine attributes that we have inherited from our Father who is in heaven. Long story i can't explain that now.

Then i pointed out that habits are like fruits, see Galatians chapter 5 and that they are not given to us as gifts but they are produced over a season of time. How do we test loyalty? Not by judging the subject by one loyal action. Loyalty is measured over time by repetitive loyal acts. The very essence of the word perseverance (patience) or consistence imply a duration and a repetitive track records of those qualities.

Finally i submitted that i wanted to present a way to build and integrate behaviors into our character . This goes also well for breaking a behavior as much as building it. The key is action. Repetitive and uninterrupted actions. Repeating an action for a season of time ends up installing a new behavior or habit. As the maxim says, "Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny".

So we took the month of November (30 days) as test-month to integrated the new habits that reflects our Christian values such as self-discipline, friendliness with everybody including our house-servants, being a model and not a critic, being a light and not a judge, etc. As i mentioned some of the things that we shall avoid are not essentially negative by themselves but there is a time for everything and this month is the time to build some new habits and that will be done by suppressing the expression of some others at least for the whole month just the time to allow those new habit(s) to take root in our characters. Then maybe we will see how to strike a balance between them in our lives. The new habits and those initial ones (if they are worthy to be kept)!

To achieve that i said i would present three steps to take, but due to time i only had the privilege to share two of them.

1. Be proactive: resourcefulness and initiative

2. Start with the end in mind: the double creation

3. First things first.

The reason of presenting this point was to echo the reality that private victories should precede public victories. In the first point, i argued my point briefly through some biblical characters among which was the big brother in the prodigal son's story of the New Testament Gospel of Luke 15. Hence my young brother peculiar title, "il faut faire la fête soi-meme". :) -- A difference between being proactive and having a positive thinking mind was delineated and somehow differentiated.

The second point was introduced with a visual experimentation. I am big fun of visualization but not a la 'The Secret' or 'Easter Mysticism'. :) .. I had to precise that even before i took my audience to the harmless experiment which i am sure many have probably had in the past before i even suggested that to them during the weekend. Taking my audience approximately 3 years in future at their own funeral, we tried to establish on a personal basis what we really value. With the end in mind, then we could identify the kind of attributes we really valued above all others, and maybe the true essence of our core values, if the experiment was done properly. With that we could know the direction we would want to take and the habit(s) we think we should integrate in our lives to achieve that mental vision success or those values we uphold and would like to
see left behind us as a legacy of passage here on earth.

The third point wasn't touched, i was way beyond my time. If i had time, It would have been about managing in an orderly fashion point 1 and 2.

I hoped with that presentation to attract my audience's attention to what constitute what Stephen Covey called the circle of concern. In that circle of concern i wanted them to find the niche where they can actually make a difference. That niche is called the circle of influence. Not all aspect of our circle of concern are under our control. Hence finding that niche is key for expanding our private victories. By gaining private victories in small things, strong character are formed, and an inner integrity is developed. I referred to pray, praising and reading the bible among the few examples for workable progress.

Of course i can't explain everything that i said and spoke about then now. However, if you are interested next weekend will be a Q & A session* at Living Word starring Michel M. and E.G! So feel free to join us for the dialogue and the sharing. Your inputs or questions will certainly be welcome if you ever are able to free yourself for next weekend! ;)

That's it for today. I guess my next post will be the day after tomorrow as tomorrow yahoo Group will not be operational for maintenance! I'll be posting from Monday to Friday on this related topic of personal leadership growth.

May the Lord bless you abundantly as you increase in your stature in the likeness of Christ Jesus (Ephesians 4),

 * Q &A session: question and answer session
P.S: Though i write it in the present, the event happened in october 2011.