Trust in God’s Plan and Persevere


Today I would like to share a talk about listening to God and not giving up when it gets hard.

I guess let’s start with Oxford’s language definition of perseverance: Persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.

Personally, I don’t love that definition, because they still used a couple of $5 words in it. I mean how do you give a real definition if you use the root word in the definition persistence (I’ll bet if I googled the definition of Persistence it would have the word persevere in the definition. Lol)

Well..

My definition of perseverance is a little simpler.

Dan’s Definition: To not quit even when things get hard or harder.

It’s that simple.

Now comes the real question.

Why is having perseverance so important?

Let’s talk about kids for a second.  Most of our readers have kids. So you will most likely be able to relate to this.

Did you get pregnant the first time you tried? Most of us didn’t. Some parents are tired for years before it happens, and for some, pregnancy never happens.

Well, did you give up after that first try? HECK NO!!!!!

What about after that 100th try? Probably not. (I’ll bet that you still try as much as possible. OK you probably have taken a few precautions, but still. lol)

Hey, no one said that being persistent doesn’t have to be fun. It’s all about mindset.

Anyways!

What happened after that?

The kid(s) came and then you had to be persistent in teaching them how to walk, how to talk, how to eat, how to use the bathroom, how to learn.

Having kids is the definition of persistence.

Was it easy to teach your kids all the things you have taught them?

HECK NO!

Then they became a teenager, who knows everything.

But you still work on teaching them about relationships, and driving, (or both driving and flying in our house), and yes making babies or in better terms NOT making babies.

When things got hard did you ever just throw your hands in the air and say, Ph well I did my best, there is nothing else that I can do!?

HECK NO

I’ll bet that you are still trying to teach your kids. Even if they are 36 and HARD headed as a woodpecker, Sorry Mom & Dad. (Not really, lol)

My point is that we love our kids, so it is easy to persevere when it comes to them.

My BIG question is, why then do we not have the same or more perseverance when God calls us to do something?

Things get a little hard, or we run into a wall (or 20 walls in my case, every day. lol), then we stop and give up.  We don’t pivot and continue forward. we simply GIVE UP!

WHY DO WE DO THAT?

I can’t answer that question. I will say that not giving up is something that we have to learn, but it is instilled in us as humans from a very young age.

How many times did your little one fall before they learned to walk?

TOO MANY TO COUNT!!!

So, let’s take a lesson from our kids and be hard-headed when it comes to the things God has called us to do. And let’s not give up until we have accomplished what he needed us to.

 

Take Action


This is my favorite section of the devotional. (OK they are all my favorite sections)

Anyways.

Today I would like you to think of something or some time when you did not persevere. A time when you gave up before you accomplished what you set out to do.

Do you have it in your mind?

GREAT

Next, I want you to think: did God call you to do this or did you do this on your own will?

Either way, when it got hard did you turn to God for guidance or not?

Now here’s what I want you to do.

Next time you think about giving up on something I want you to ask yourself those 2 questions.

  1. Did God call me to this
  2. Have I asked God for guidance

Prayer


Lord, God you are amazing and such an inspiration when it comes to perseverance. I mean the very beings that you created turn away from you every single day and you still never give up on us. We sin and falter every day (especially me) but yet you are always there.

When I forget to pray or get too busy to read your word. You still accept me back when I discover what I’m doing. God, you are amazing, and we don’t tell you enough how much we appreciate everything you do for us. Today God, we would like to say, THANK YOU!

Thank you for being such an amazing creator and giving us so much more than we deserve. Thank you for instilling in us the art of perseverance from birth. Thank you for giving us that instinct. We pray that you would help us to utilize it more.

We ask all these things in your precious Son’s name.

Amen.

A Little More


I have been pretty quiet about my experience of becoming a pilot lately.

Partially because of the circumstances I have been facing, partially because I have been extremely busy, and partially due to my being embarrassed.

As you most likely know back in late April we bought a plane. A twin-engine Cessna. But we haven’t been able to utilize it very much yet.

You see, I was working with a local instructor. I encouraged him and helped him to get his multi-engine instructor qualification using our plane.

Then one day about 1.5 months after he got his instructor’s license, I went for a lesson on Tuesday and on Wednesday I got a call from him. “Hey Dan, do you have a moment to talk?” 

He continued, “I am no longer going to be an instructor.  I will continue to run my flight school, but I’m not going to instruct any longer.”

There was nothing I could do to convince him to keep working with me. I tried everything.

To say the least, I was deflated.

That same day I started making calls across the nation to find someone who would be willing to work with me to go straight to multi-engine certification.Â

The answer I kept getting was, we would be happy to help you as soon as you get your single engine cert.

I knew that God had a plan, but I couldn’t see what it was at the moment.

So, after another week of scouring the nation, I pivoted again and found another local instructor to help me get my single-engine license (certification).

After our first lesson and feeling like I was creeping into that single-engine “pop can” I knew that I wanted to finish getting my multi-engine certification. (I call it a pop can because I swear someone can fart on the ground and you can feel it while you’re in the air in those little planes. Lol)

I scheduled a check ride (test) as soon as I could in September. There is only one local tester in the area. I felt ready for that exam.

I showed up and passed, but only by the skin of my nose. It wasn’t pretty, to say the least.

I kept flying a single engine honing my skills. But the day after I passed my single-engine check ride I started hunting for a multi-engine fast-track program.

I found tons of them, but they were all booked out until the middle of January.

Then on a stroke of luck or divine intervention, I did a quick search and found a school in Florida that had a fast-track option and had an opening in the middle of October.

I asked if it was possible to get the add-on” multi-engine certification in a week. They said yes but it’s going to be intense!

I’m a pretty motivated guy, who doesn’t give up too easily. So, I signed an agreement with them, bought tickets, found a car in the area, and found a place to stay.

There wasn’t much else I could do before I got there.

When I arrived the first morning I got my high-performance rating before noon. And that afternoon we went straight into multi-training.

I spent the next 4 days 8+ hours a day training in a multi-engine aircraft. We did 7-8 Stalls every day. We’re constantly turning one of the engines off. Over 50 landings, and tons of ground school so I would be ready for the exam.

I should mention that while I was doing this my team at home was doing an amazing job with the business. When. I got finished for the day. I would head straight for the house, cook dinner, then work until after 10 pm to catch up on everything I missed.  Then I was up at 4-5 am studying for the next day’s lessons and finishing up work stuff.

Jenna ran our crazy house for the entire week.  She is such an amazing person and wife. I am so blessed to have her as my partner in everything. Her support and the support from our kids have been absolutely amazing.

It was a grueling week, to say the least.

There was one time we were flying out to check out the ocean and the instructor killed the fuel to one engine. I noticed the change right away and started troubleshooting. As soon as I figured out the fuel was off I asked if she wanted me to restore the engine or secure it.

She said you did great; you can fire it back up.

Then 2 days before the check ride, my original tester called the school and said he was sick and couldn’t do any exams.

So, they called everyone they knew and found me a tester in another city. He was an amazing corporate pilot who flew the NY Yankees around. He is their main pilot.

During the check ride, I was doing the maneuvers and was just about finished. We were getting ready to land and finish the test. When we had a minor malfunction with our landing gear. 

We were supposed to have 3 green lights, but we only had 2. I did exactly what I was supposed to do and ran through everything. Then I/we made the decision to do a flyby of the tower and have them inspect the gear to see if all three wheels were down.

As we flew by they told us it looks like we have all 3 down. So, we made the decision to land.

As I came down it was probably the smoothest landing I have ever had. We kissed the runway and gently set down the nose.

The gear held. As we taxied to the parking spot we made the corners slow because the tester said, if the gear is going to give it’s going to be when we turn.

After we parked we inspected the gear and decided it was safe to fly because it was locked in place. But when we flew it home we did NOT put the gear up. 

I am so grateful for my support system at home and all that Jenna has done to allow this to happen. She is the perfect partner for me. God sure did bless me when he placed her in my life.

In the end, I now know some of the reasons God intervened in my original plans.

  1. He needs me to know that as long as I persevere I can accomplish anything. Where there is a will there’s a way.
  2. You can push someone else to be better, but you cannot make them do the right thing. You can help someone up, but you can’t drag them to the next level with you. They have to want to come.
  3. Sometimes slowing down is the best thing you can do. When you go too fast you forget steps and get caught with your pants down.
  4. And most importantly, my respect for the multi-engine plane is much higher than it would have been, had I just gotten my multi-engine certification right away. I know how capable the machine is and just quick it can get away from you. When you go twice as fast things can happen twice as quickly.
  5. Trust that God has a plan. He does everything for a reason! I mean EVERYTHING! Trust God with everything and he will take care of you
  6. Without a support system it is WAY harder to succeed. Jenna and the kid’s encouragement was so helpful, and I couldn’t have done it without them. Never take your support system for granted!