So proud of Bee for graduating college!

Family Strengthening is making sure everyone has enough

Young and Old

When you leave your house to go somewhere you have never been to before, how do you know you will arrive at where you want to be?

Do you drive aimlessly, hoping something will just "feel" right?
Do you just follow the car that happens to be in front of you hoping they are going where you are?

Probably not.  

Or do you get google maps going and make sure you are correctly following the directions?

Yet, how many of us go through life without ever thinking where we are going or who we are becoming? 

Getting where we want to go when you are driving is important, how much more in life?

We must build a life.  

It doesn't happen by accident. 
It takes time, intention, and continual, ongoing work.
It is easy to float through life, but it is hard to steer.   

It is certainly true that not all of us face the same struggles or barriers.  

But in our own life, what matters is not how we measure up to the people around us, but what we are making of the life we have.    

I believe everyone can have a good life; and I believe we were meant to. 
But that doesn't mean it will be easy.  

I am grateful for opportunities to preach with our Thai family

Helping out dad

A little can go a long way

Here is a quick recap of what we have been learning so far about building a better life:

1.  Be open, not closed to new ideas, new ways of thinking, acting, and living.  No change is possible where there is no openness to change.  

2.  Cultivate Gratitude in your life to inspire your goals.  Look at what is good where you are, and how to make it better.  

3.  Do what you need to do, until you can do what you want to do.  Be consistent, be present, work hard, live simply so you can find some freedom to pursue what really matters to you.  

4.  Take the Leap.  When opportunity comes, calculate the risks, and take a chance to take a big step forward in improving your life and pursuing your goals. 

Which brings us to part 5 today: Keep Adjusting the Trajectory of Your Life, so you get to where you want to be.

Have you ever thought much about trajectory?

Imagine you are a rocket scientist responsible for a hunk of metal and a giant fuel tank blasting away at hundreds of miles per hour.  

How do you steer something like that?

How do you make sure it goes where it is supposed to go, and doesn't end up taking out a neighborhood by mistake?

It is a high stakes game, and so is your life.  

One slight change in your trajectory left uncorrected, can leave you in a place you never wanted to be.  

Thankful for good friends

Proud of all these scholars

Proud of Mew for graduating college too!

I look back on my teen years with some trepidation.  

I think what makes those years so crazy is that you are still a child in so many ways, but can make a decision in a moment, that will affect you for a lifetime.

Talk to former drug addicts.
Talk to teen moms.

In a less dramatic, but no less significant fashion; the rest of our lives follow whatever path we are continually setting for it.
  
Or, if we don't set any path, it follows whatever current trend happens to be prominent in our culture.

There is something to be said for not trying to be a control freak over every detail of your life
(we will talk about this in another blog).  

But if you aren't steering the ship of your own life, you cannot complain about how it turns out.  

You may not be able to control everything, but until you start trying, you won't know what you can control and what you can't.     

So take time to learn about yourself, to better and better equip yourself; pursue the opportunities open to you, and submit that whole process to God---who knows better than you do what is best for you.  

Staff meetings are fun every month

Life is not often easy, but children bring joy everywhere

We now purchase so much boxed milk, we buy directly from the suppliers

Not fatalism, nor self-determinism, but active submission. 

Do what you can, trust where you can't. 

Ultimately, I am convinced the best life for each of us is an actively submitted life.

Why?

Fatalism breeds despair, and self-determinism breeds pride. 
Active submission breeds humility and peace.  

We are neither passive observers, tossed by forces and powers too big for us, nor are we entirely the masters of our own fate.

We are something better and something humbler---we are humans living in a wild, wonderful, complex, beautiful and broken world, under a good Creator who loves us all---despite all the terrible things we often do to each other and the earth.  

No one gets life right on the first try.  

We are all constantly making mistakes, and those mistakes have consequences---good and bad. 

Here is the important part: keep making adjustments. 
There isn't some secret you discover and then just ride along. 
It is a constant reevaluating and adjusting of everything in your life.

Cute little Sawadii Kaa

Always room for humor

Single Dad's are not as common as single moms, but they need help too

I preached a sermon at our Thai church about a man named Elijah who was struggling with depression.  

God comes to this man, and after having him take a nap and eat breakfast, he asks him:

"What are you doing here?"

It is a question about more than his location.  

Have you ever asked yourself that question?

What am I doing here?
Why am I doing this?

It is also an identity question:

Who am I?
Who do I want to be?
Who am I called to be?
Who am I becoming?

The process of becoming is a long one. 

We are constantly making choices, and choices are adjustments on the road to life----to becoming the men and women we were made to be.    

So what are you doing with your life?

If for any reason your life isn't where or what you want it to be; what needs to change?

Sometimes we need to take giant leaps, sometimes we need to take small steps.  

More important than where we are, is where we are going. 
More important than who we are at this moment, is who are becoming.   

George MacDonald says the only vital difference between a man destined to be a saint, and a man destined to be a devil, is the direction they are traveling. 

It isn't about where you are now, but where you are going that is important.  

That should be a warning to all of us who are feeling pretty satisfied with ourselves, and it should be a comfort to all of us who have screwed up our lives at some point.  

Life can be a harsh teacher, but there is a lot of grace in life too.  

Perseverance is worth more than talent or privilege. 
I once heard character described as the result of the things you repeated do every day. 
Because your habits shape your life.  

Here is the good news: you can begin to change your habits right now, and if you can change your habits, you can change your life.  

Ezra's first day of 1st Grade!

14 years and counting

Audrey cutting loose

Look at the different parts/roles in your own life.

How can you improve your career?
How can you improve your marriage?
How can you improve your family life?
How can you improve your friendships?
How can you improve your financial situation?
How can you improve your physical health?
How can you improve your mental health?
How can you improve your spiritual life?

Take one thing at a time and look at where it is leading you, how it is affecting your life, and if it isn't good, make an adjustment.  

And if you don't get it right that time, adjust again.    

So glad to have the Bieks in Thailand for a whole year!

Two of a kind

Lovely ladies

Embrace your incompleteness, while refusing to lower your aspirations.  

You and I have no idea the potential God buried inside us.  

But if we embrace the truth that life is a good thing, a precious gift---with all its mess---we can believe that life can get better.  

The greatest weapon against apathy and cynicism is hope.

If we can imagine a better future, a better life, we can overcome unbelievable adversity.  

I see this every day in our kids at Faithful Heart.  

Many of them are from broken families, they have very little materially, they have survived trauma, abuse, and poverty.  

Their resilience is my daily inspiration.  

They can take life's blows and keep choosing to grow better not bitter. 
If they can do it, than surely I can! 
And you can too! 

Lots of love, 

the Pound Family 

The whole crew!