My daughter Ainsley is in 3rd grade. Here in Florida that means it’s day 2 of FCAT testing for her.
For those not familiar with FCATs, a student can’t move on to 4th grade without passing it. Additionally, schools are graded and part of their funding based on their students’ performance on FCATs. So, there’s a lot of pressure on everyone – school boards, principles, teachers, parents, and students – for students to do well on them.
Few will say it out loud, but at every level there is a palpable fear of failure.
I have never been anxious or fearful of tests. I think it has a lot to do with my attitude towards them.
Whether you’re a student or a parent here are 8 positive things to keep in mind that will help to reduce your anxiety about tests.
To be honest, when I first received a copy of The Search for God and Guinness I was not all that excited about it. I love God and I like beer, but I am not a big reader of biographies, preferring “more practical” books on leadership, spiritual issues, or social media. So, it sat on my bookshelf for several months.
When in finally cracked it open I was sorry I waited so long to read it.
In the Search for God and Guinness, Stephen Mansfield tells the story of the Guinness family starting with Arthur Guinness, founder of the famed brewery, and continuing through the Guinnesses of today. While the book recounts the amazing rise of one of the must successful breweries in the world, what makes the book and the Guinness family fascinating is the accounts of their character, faith, and generosity.
Because of their commitment to excellence and innovation in brewing the Guinnesses became exceptionally wealthy and influential. But rather than selfishly squander it on themselves, they were exceptionally generous with the pay and benefits they gave their workers and they demonstrated an unusual commitment to improving the conditions of the poor in Ireland and Great Britain.
Congrats to “J Rae” winner of the 4th of 5 copies of Worldliness by C.J. Mahaney. I’m giving away one last copy of the book today. Keep reading for details.
One of the fears I had going into this discussion about Worldliness is that it would come off sounding very anti – anti-media, anti-secular-music, anti-stuff, anti-women. Plus it could easily be misinterpreted as legalistic, judgmental, or isolationist. One of the things that’s most concerning to me is that Christians are known more for what they’re against than for what they are for, and I didn’t want this conversation to reinforce that stereotype.
Neither did C.J. Mahaney when he wrote Worldliness as he wrapped it up with a final chapter called How to Love the World. In it he mentions 3 ways to love the world, I’ve added a 4th that is weaved throughout the book and should motivate all our thinking about how we engage the world.
Today starting at noon eastern time, Leadership Network is presenting Aha! It’s a free, totally online leadership conference featuring 40 exceptional leaders sharing their “Aha!” moments, those moments when the light bulb went on with a critically important idea or realization.
I’m going to blog about Aha live as it happens, so refresh this page often during the conference. And stop by and share your thoughts on the Aha! in the comments.
I’ll also be tweeting about it. You can follow me at @PaulSteinbrueck. Or follow the official Aha! hashtag #ahaLN
If you haven’t registered and would like to take in this experience yourself, I believe you have until 11 AM (less than 30 minutes) to register.
Congrats to Rusty Akers winner of the 3rd of 5 copies of Worldliness by C.J. Mahaney. I’m giving away another book today. Keep reading for details.
Of all the chapters in Worldliness, the one that I found most revolutionary was the one about modesty. I’ve heard plenty of people talk about the influence music, media, and materialism has on us, but this is the first time I’ve read anything that tackled the issue of modesty in the way C.J. Mahaney does in Worldliness.
Mahaney includes this quote from a young college man.
The thing women do no seem to fully grasp is that the temptation towards lust does not stop; it is continual; it is aggressive; it does all it can to lead men down to death. They have a choice to help or deter it’s goal. Sometimes, when I see a girl provocatively dressed, I’ll say to myself, “She probably doesn’t know that 101 guys are going to devour her in their minds today. But then again, maybe she does.”
Congrats to Karen Mundy winner of the second of 5 copies of Worldliness by C.J. Mahaney. I’m giving away another book today. Keep reading for details.
Consumerism was the triumphant winner of the ideological wars of the 20h century, beating out both religion and politics as the path millions of Americans follow to find purpose meaning, order, and transcendent exaltation in their lives. –April Witt
Americans live in consumerism. Like the air we breathe, it surrounds us. Most of the time we don’t even realize it’s there.
On average we’re exposed to somewhere between 500 to 3,000 advertising messages a day. Advertising is intended to create discontentment. Every ad is designed to tell us we’re lacking something, something that product or service can provide. “You’re not pretty enough.” “Not cool enough.” “Not safe enough.” “Not having as much fun as you could.” “Not giving your kids all the advantages you could.”
Most of us would never think we’re one of the millions who finds purpose, meaning, and order in material positions. But without even thinking about it we live in ways the demonstrate we believe our lives would be better with just a little more of this or a little bit better that.
Yesterday, we kicked off a 5 part series based on the book Worldliness by C.J. Mahaney. With each post, we’re giving away a copy of Worldliness. Congrats to Lee Buford who is the winner of the first copy. We’re giving away another copy today, with details at the end of the post.
To recap… Worldliness challenges Christians with the words of Jesus found in John 2:15, “Do not love the world or anything in the world.” The world is full of things that attempt to seduce and distract us from our primary calling to love and serve God. Surveys show the lives of American Christians are not noticeably different from those who are not Christians. Whether that’s true for you or not, it’s clear that all of us battle the temptations of this world on a daily basis.
Two areas the book examines are media and music, which we’re going to take on together today.
Thanks to Crossway Books, I’m giving away 5 copies of Worldliness over the next two weeks. Keep reading for details on how you can get a copy.
Worldliness by C.J. Mahaney is a book written to challenge Christians with the words of Jesus in John 2:15 – “Do not love the world or anything in the world.” Mahaney defines worldliness as “to gratify and exalt oneself to the exclusion of God.” And the book delves into how that verse applies in 21st century American life.
Specifically, Worldliness focuses on four areas where American Christians
Media consumption
Music
Consumerism
Modesty
It then wraps up with a chapter about how Christians should love the world.
Mahaney goes to great lengths to make it clear that he is not promoting legalistic guidelines nor is he advocating Christians separate, hate, or hide from 21st century American culture, though I’m sure many will accuse him of those things anyway.
Instead, Worldliness challenges Christians who genuinely want to follow Jesus by asking soul-searching questions and providing practical suggestions for how to live lives that more resemble that of Jesus than the world today.
Derailed by Tim Irwin takes a look at 6 extraordinarily talented CEOs who experienced “catastrophic failures of leadership.” It looks at the causes of those failures, the process of derailment, and then provides guidance on how to develop the character and systems to avoid the same mistakes.
For all 6 CEOs – Robert Nardelli, Carly Fiorina, Durk Jager, Stephen Heyer, Frank Raines, and Dick Fuld – the failure had nothing to do with competence. All 6 leaders failed because of character flaws – not in the sense of ethical failures, but four specific character areas they were lacking.
These four areas, which Irwin says can prevent a similar derailment if developed, are:
We have a Valentine’s Day tradition in our family. Well, we’ve done this two years in a row now, so that qualifies as at least the start of a tradition.
Jennifer, Ainsley, Aidyn, and I gather around the coffee table in the family room for some chocolate fondue. This year the items we dipped in chocolate included pound cake, banana slices, cherries, and pretzels.
Of course, everyone loves dipping stuff in chocolate, but we’ve added something to make it even more special. Each time a person dips something in the chocolate they have to say something they love about one of the other people around the table.
I’ve never kept track, but I probably correct my kids more than I affirm them in every day life, so it’s important for me to be intentional about telling them how special they are.
And Lord knows they criticize, put down, and tattle on each other way more than they say nice things to each other. So, it was really neat to hear affirming each other and soaking up the affirmation.
My daughter Ainsley is in 3rd grade. Here in Florida that means it’s day 2 of FCAT testing for her.
Congrats to “J Rae” winner of the 4th of 5 copies of 
Today starting at noon eastern time, Leadership Network is presenting 
Congrats to Rusty Akers winner of the 3rd of 5 copies of 
Congrats to Karen Mundy winner of the second of 5 copies of 
Yesterday, we kicked off a 5 part series based on the book 
We have a Valentine’s Day tradition in our family. Well, we’ve done this two years in a row now, so that qualifies as at least the start of a tradition.
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