Do It For God
“Whatever you do, do it from the heart of the Lord and not for people.”
COLOSSIANS 3:23
Sitting here writing this devotional there are about 1 million ideas running through my mind of what to write this on.
Since I am extremely involved with business….
I’m not going to write about this.
I’ll bet you’re thinking, “FINALLY a devotional that is not about business! Praise the Lord!!!”
This devotional isn’t over yet, I still might tie to business. Lol
Anyways……
Since I like big equipment………
I’m NOT going to relate it to construction.
Since I’m such a GREAT husband (some days, lol)……..
I’m NOT going to write about relationships.
Since I LOVE speaking from stage…….
Ok, I think I drug this on long enough!
Today I would really like to talk about all aspects of life and doing it all for God. From business (oops I Just can’t control myself. Lol) to marriage, to raising your kids, to what you do for fun. Everything you do can be done for God.
Yes, that includes hunting! (That was for Billy, my oldest, he loves hunting.)
The point that I really want to make here is that everything in this life that you do can be done for God and in his name.
I think all too often that a lot of the world takes credit for what God has done. At least when it’s a good thing.
Like when we host a live event, and the room is booked. It’s really easy to say, “Look at the great job of marketing we did!”
Instead of saying, “Thank you God for helping us to fill this room for this amazing event. Help us to deliver the message YOU need us to.” (oh man, I did it again, tied it to business. My bad. Lol)
Or when one of our kids makes an amazing play in sports or plays this amazing song on their instrument.
I think that you get my point.
Giving credit to God is important in every aspect of our lives.
You might be thinking, “Dan, what do giving credit to God and doing it for God have in common? Aren’t they 2 different things?”
Well……..
They kind of are 2 different things. But if we start to change our mindset to giving credit to him it will be much easier to do everything for him.
Think about it for a second.
When we give credit to God for doing everything! “Thank you Lord, for giving me the inspiration to make this amazing sandwich!”
Pretty soon we start building the sandwich to new standards because we are quite literally giving all of the credit to God!!!
How cool is that?!?!?!?!?!
When it comes to parenting, do not raise your kids so that they will be successful. Or be Good people. Instead raise them with the love of God in their hearts so that when they come on harder times, they have a friend to lean on. Someone who they can ask advice from and who will NEVER steer them wrong.
Then they will be everything and have everything that you want for them!
When it comes to your relationship, don’t stop the “heated discussion” (fight) because you are tired of fighting. Do it because you love them. When you bite your tongue so that the argument doesn’t happen, give that credit to God for giving you the willpower.
When it comes to work, do it all for God. If you are rebuilding an engine, do it as if it were going into God’s hotrod!!! If you are getting new customers, treat them as if you were saving their lives from the enemy. If you are building a new product, build it as though it will drastically change every life that touches it.
When you do it for God, can you fail????
NO!!!
You know what I say about failure, don’t you?
Fail stands for First Attempt In Learning!
ACTION:
Today I would like you to pause for a second and write down everything that you could do for God or in his name.
Not the things that you are thankful for, but what you could do in his name.
Did you do it?
GREAT!
Next, I would like you to simply give thanks to God for everything that has happened in your life today.
Waking up, having power, having food, the taste of water, your possessions (what you own), the people in your life, the people who are no longer in your life, the life you live, the work you do, the fact that my kids remembered to brush their teeth!!!
Prayer
Lord, Today we come to you with our hearts full of love for everything that you have ever given to us. They are also full of love for you, our families, where we work, our clients, and the people that you placed in our lives! God, we have one small ask from you today. Could you please help us to step it up, just a little, for you? Help us to do more for you. Help us to live our lives FOR you. Help us to have you in our hearts for everything that we do. Help us to grow closer to you. Help us to give you credit for everything good that happens in this world. help us to KNOW that you are in control, and everything is happening for a reason. We might not know why today, tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now, a year from now, or ever. But help us to be ok and understand that you are the reason. And that you know what’s BEST for us. Lord, today we ask that you help us to live our lives FOR you.
We ask all these things in your precious sons’ name
Amen
A Little More
As I pulled my key card out of my wallet and held it against the reader that opened the gate my heart and mind were racing.
I could feel the pressure setting in.
My heart was pounding harder than I had felt it pound in quite some time.
I was nervous and excited all at the same time.
My mind was racing through all the procedures that I was about to start doing. I was thinking about the route we were going, the mountain ranges that we were about to cross, the traffic that we might encounter, and the well-being of my family.
Not to mention all the delicate details that I HAD to remember. And if I messed up on any of them, it might mean injury or possibly even death.
This time there was more pressure than ever before.
Because this was the first time ever that I would be the PIC (Pilot In Command) for our aircraft with my entire family on board.
We decided that it would be a BLAST to head to Colorado Springs for a quick day of running around and having fun.
Usually, the Springs is about a 6.5-hour drive from our house. Not a day trip by any means.
But flying we can leave by 9:30 and land by 11:15 ish or maybe even earlier if we get a good tailwind. Grab a bite to eat, hit a few stores, then be home before dinner.
So, we thought let’s give it a shot and see just how much we enjoy it.
We drove down to the plane and made sure we had enough fuel to get us there. While I did the walk around to make sure the plane was ready to go. Jenna and the kids loaded up.
We untied her, started her up, and took off for Colorado Springs.
I was a little nervous, to say the least.
This was the first time ever that I had flown my whole family anywhere. And we were making a nice little trip out of it.
We got up to our cruise altitude of 15,500 feet and headed across the rocky mountains straight for our destination.
In no time at all 1 hour 45 minutes, we were on the ground and grabbing some fuel so that when it came time to head for the house we didn’t have to worry about that.
After enjoying our day in the “Big City” we caught an uber back to the airport.
Did you know that it gets pretty darn dark early in the winter? Yeah, go figure sunset is like 5 pm.
Well, we got back to the plane at about 4:30. I untied her, and everyone took a quick bathroom break. Then we all loaded up, fired her up, and went to do our runup.
A “runup” is where you bring the engines up to operating speed (1700 rpm) and then do a few things to make sure that everything is working properly.
It’s kind of important to do these because it’s not like you can pull over the side of the road when you are up in the air. Lol
We did our runup and I noticed that one engine was lacking just a little bit, but it wasn’t bad. She was just a little slower than I thought it should be.
We waited on 2 planes to land. Then we took the runway.
I pushed the throttles forward. as I did it I noticed that the left engine wasn’t gaining as much power as it should. So I pulled them back down. Made the mixture richer and tried again.
The same thing happened again; the left engine was not as responsive as the right.
So…..
I got back on the taxiway and headed over to the end of the runway again. I wanted to do one more quick run up to see what was going on.
As I got over there I leaned the fuel to see if that would help.
That worked great. The left engine came to life and ran like a champ. She wasn’t sluggish at all.
We took the runway again and I was extra attentive as I pushed the toe throttle forward. She responded exactly how she should.
We took off and climbed out with no problems.
The only issue was now the sun was setting. I really wanted to be home before it was dark.
It was an amazing ride home. We got to watch the sunset the entire trip. We enjoyed looking at the little towns we flew over and all of their lights.
As we got close to Farmington, NM where we keep our plane. It was definitely dark.
We found the airport and headed straight toward it.
Our landing was AMAZING! I kissed the runway with the rear wheels and then gently set the nose gear down. We taxied to our tiedown spot and headed for the house.
Our first-ever trip as a family in our plane was a GREAT experience.
Who knows where we’ll be heading next? It could be San Diego, Phoenix, Florida, or maybe North Dakota!
The sky is LITERALLY the limit!
Will you pray with us?
Mankind throughout the world throughout our current situation
All law enforcement and emergency response personnel
For all military personal serving our country and their families
Those in Leadership positions throughout the world
Prayer
Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts. We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us. We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us. And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.
We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name
Amen
A Little More
The other day I got a call from one of our clients.
I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.
“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”
My smile immediately vanished.
I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.
So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?”
To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.
They gave me the details.
My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.
But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.
My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.
I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.
so……
I made sure not to smile when I made the call. I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!
That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.
Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!
Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal. I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad.
Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.
The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.
No problem. Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.
Well……..
After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.
Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.
I told him that I would NOT make any promises.
But my team went to work!
Guess what????
We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.
My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.
Here’s the point of all this.
When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.
That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.
Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol
Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!
Dan Greer
