A West Texas cowboy was herding his cattle in a remote pasture when
suddenly a Brand new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban
sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, "If I
tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will
you give me a calf?"

The cowboy looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his
peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers,

"Sure, Why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects
it to his AT&T cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet,
where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix
on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans
the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it
to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he
receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed
and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC
connected excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a
few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full color, 150 page report on his Hi-tech,
miniaturized HP Laser Jet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and
says, "You have exactly 1586 cows and calves."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says the
cowboy.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused
as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the cowboy says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly
what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why
not?"

"You're a consultant for the Federal Government." says the cowboy.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required." answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even
though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already
knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter
than me you are; and you don't know anything about Cattle . Now give
me back my dog."

Psalm 119:60 "I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands."

A heart to quickly obey comes from a heart that meditates on the word and converses with the Lord throughout the day. This is His process for molding our will to His. It gives us strength, courage, and will to obey. Seeking the results without going through the process is as futile as trying to perform a sport like a pro without the vigorous practice.

May this be the day we no longer delay...the kindness we are to show, the apology we owe, the courageous action needed, the bold witness to a lost one, the decision to do the right/difficult thing, the initiative He's put on our heart...

Lord, today I will obey what you've put on my heart. I will trust you to overcome my fear, my pride, and my selfishness.

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dave@youronedegree.com

A young man had been to Wednesday night Bible Study.

The Pastor had shared about listening to God and obeying the Lord's voice.

The young man couldn't help but wonder, "Does God still speak to people?"

After service he went out with some friends for coffee and pie and they discussed the message.
Several different ones talked about how God had led them in different ways.

It was about ten o'clock when the young man started driving home. Sitting in his car, he just began to pray, "God...If you still speak to
people speak to me. I will listen. I will do my best to obey."

As he drove down the main street of his town, he had the strangest thought to stop and buy a gallon of milk.

He shook his head and said out loud, "God is that you?" He didn't get a reply and started on toward home.

But again, the thought, buy a gallon of milk.

The young man thought about Samuel and how he didn't recognize the voice of God, and how little Samuel ran to Eli.

"Okay, God, in case that is you, I will buy the milk." It didn't seem like too hard a test of obedience. He could always use the milk. He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home.

As he passed Seventh Street, he again felt the urge, "Turn Down that street."

This is crazy he thought and drove on past the intersection.

Again, he felt that he should turn down Seventh Street.

At the next intersection, he turned back and headed down Seventh.

Half jokingly, he said out loud, "Okay, God, I will".

He drove several blocks, when suddenly, he felt like he should stop. He pulled over to the curb and looked around. He was in semi commercial area of town. It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst of neighborhoods either. The businesses were closed and most of the houses looked dark like the people were already in bed.

Again, he sensed something, "Go and give the milk to the people in the house across the street." The young man looked at the house. It was dark and it looked like the people were either gone or they were already asleep. He started to open the door and then sat back in the car seat.

"Lord, this is insane. Those people are asleep and if I wake them up, they are going to be mad and I will look stupid." Again, he felt like he should go and give the milk.

Finally, he opened the door, "Okay God, if this is you, I will go to the door and I will give them the milk. If you want me to look like a crazy person, okay. I want to be obedient. I guess that will count for something but if they don't answer right away, I am out of here."

He walked across the street and rang the bell. He could hear some noise inside. A man's voice yelled out, "Who is it? What do you want?" Then the door opened before the young man could get away.

The man was standing there in his jeans and T-shirt. He looked like he

just got out of bed. He had a strange look on his face and he didn't seem too happy to have some stranger standing on his doorstep. "What is it?"

The young man thrust out the gallon of milk, "Here, I brought this to you." The man took the milk and rushed down a hallway.

Then from down the hall came a woman carrying the milk toward the kitchen. The man was following her holding a baby. The baby was crying. The man had tears streaming down his face.

The man began speaking and half crying, "We were just praying. We had some big bills this month and we ran out of money. We didn't have any milk for our baby. I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk."

His wife in the kitchen yelled out, "I ask him to send an Angel with some. Are you an Angel?"

The young man reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he had on him and put in the man's hand. He turned and walked back toward his car and the tears were streaming down his face.

He knew that God still answers prayers.

Train your athletes to make life choices!
In one hour of competition, an athlete lives about a week's worth of choices and emotions.

You, as a coach, of course, live a lot more.
It is true, isn't it? Athletics really is a microcosm of life.
That's why your coaching has such a life-impact. The way you train your athletes to make choices will stay with them in the working world, and in raising their families. God put it this way in Proverbs 22:6.

"Teach your children to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it."

Okay, he's talking about parenting in this proverb. But doesn't the same principle apply to coaching? Aren't you helping equip your athletes to carry what you teach them into all arenas of life?

So, how do you train your athletes to make choices?
One way is to let them in on how you do it. How do you weigh the various options for long term decisions? How do you use your priority of values for the quick decisions?

No, you can't tell them about every decision you make. You wouldn't get much coaching done. But you can let them in on some of your decisions.

Hey, isn't that coaching, too?
In fact, in might be some of your most important coaching.
At least, for the long haul.

Psalm 119:46,47 "I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame, for I delight in your commands because I love them."

Am I bold to share His truth with those around me, including those in power? If not, it may be a "saturation" issue rather than a character issue. If I delight in and truly love the Word, my boldness will come more naturally because it's an overflow of my relationship with the Lord. Your love for the word will follow your commitment to take it into your heart on a regular basis.

Lord, make me a person who delights in and loves your Word. Make me a light to those around me.

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dave@youronedegree.com