Lean In

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”


Romans 8:18

Jenna and I have been married for 17 years this year! That’s crazy. We have officially been together longer than we have been apart as far as our lives are concerned.

The one question I get from younger people is, has it always been easy.

My answer usually shocks them, What time of day are you talking about, there is a good chance that I did something stupid that upset her already today and a pretty darn good chance that she did something that aggrivated me already today too.

Jenna loves it when I use that answer. Lol

Anyways.

Most people look at couples who have been together for a while and think that it is all roses.

Well. I have another saying for that too.

In order to have GREAT-looking roses, you have to shovel LOTS of CRAP!.

Just kidding, kind of. 

Recently Jenna and I were not on the same page. She said it right when she came up to me and said, Dan I know we are not on the same page, but babe I’m not sure we are even on the same chapter anymore!

The difference between a new couple and an aged couple (I guess we are aged now, lol) is that we know we will weather the storm.

New couples sometimes aren’t sure they can weather the storm. They jump ship when it starts getting tough.

Life is the same way.

If you jump ship every time it starts to get rough, then you will never have the experience to get through anything hard.

One of the new phrases that I have adopted is, DO HARD THINGS

Others back down when it gets tough.

Not me!

From this point forward. When things get HARD I am going to LEAN into them.

When it’s hard to make a call, I am going to pick up the phone and make that call.

When it is rough to keep my mouth shut because one of my kids has made ANOTHER smart-alec remark. I am going to do hard things and not say anything. 

I’m going to do my best to not even talk with my eyes at them and tell them how dumb they are really are for arguing with me. Just kidding, not really. Lol

Anyways.

Why is it so important to teach yourself to lean in when things get tough?

Because if you never lean in then it will be extremely hard to learn how to do it.

How many restaurants folded up when COVID hit?

TONS!!!

While others leaned in and pivoted their business and now that it’s over, they are beyond thriving. Because they have adopted new GREAT ways of serving their customers.

You are the same way.

When things get hard in your relationship, do you lean in, or do you bail?

I lean in!!  I want to learn how to make it not happen again.

Will it happen again, maybe? But at least I have a potential solution or know how to start finding a solution.

Do you see how important it is to lean in instead of jumping ship?

I could tell you a million more stories about why it is so important not to jump ship.

But…

I hope that you are picking up what I’m laying down here.

Take Action


Next time when things start to get hard, instead of bailing, LEAN IN.

I’ll bet there is something in your life right now that you can Lean Into.

 What is it?

I want to hear about your success. Next time you lean in I want you to post it on social media!Tag me personally in it Daniel Greer!

I want to give you praise in public for taking action!


Prayer


Lord, you are amazing, and I am so glad that you chose to lean in and not jump ship. You chose to lean in with Noah, you chose to lean in with Daniel, and you chose to lean in with us every day. God help us to lean into you. Help us to lean into hard things. Help us to DO HARD THINGS. Even when we don’t want to.

God, we also want to take a second to say thank you for being there for us. Especially when we do hard things. God, we are so thankful for every ambition you give us. Now if you could just give us the courage to act on those ambitions, we would really appreciate it.

Lord, thank you for helping us to know that we can never fail. We simply learn when things do not go the way we expected them to. You have this amazing way of teaching us. And thank you for that. God the last thing that I would ask is that you help us lean into you every single day.

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

Amen.

 

A Little More


The other day we were on a trip.

Go figure.

We NEVER travel.

So it was a huge shock that we were on a trip, right???

Just kidding.

As you know Jenna and I love traveling around seeing God’s amazing creation and the different people he puts in our lives.

Anyways.

We were on a trip and we definitely weren’t on the same page. For a while, I thought we were in different books. Lol

Then we did something.

We leaned into each other and God.

I said, hey let’s leave the kids here and go for a short walk.

As we walked it helped us to talk about everything that was going on.  We were both stressed. I had a trip coming up to Ohio and Kentucky. I was also working on a few more trips. One to Houston and another for our family to go with me to Pismo Beach, CA.

Jenna was getting ready for bible school and in the process of doing something WAY new for her. She and Brianna were starting up their online store. Talk about scary!!

To say the least we were both stressed out, just a little.

Did I forget to mention that I had just hired 5 new people? The biggest jump we have taken to date on hiring!  (how cool is that???)

Anyways..

Things were crazy all the way around.

When we left for the walk we both decided that no matter what neither of us was going to be judgmental or get upset.

We both said it out loud!

Try that next time you are working through something, it makes a huge difference.

We walked and talked for about 45 minutes.

During this, we discussed lots of stuff. We talked about the kids. The businesses (yes that’s plural, CRAZY!) we talked about our relationship. We talked about the plane and the future. We talked about where we were going and what we really wanted to keep a hold of. Then we talked about what we wanted to let go of.

Then we talked about decluttering more and what causes us stress that we can easily change.

You can cover a lot of topics in 45 minutes if you’re talking to me.  I like to talk.  Lol

By the end of the walk, we were both back on the same page. Not only that, we had a plan to stay in the same chapter.

Over the next few days, we continued our conversation in bits and pieces as we could get it in.

By the end of the trip, we were 100% back on track.

Here are a few things that I decided might help you.

  1.   Pray as a couple. Every night.
  2.   Pray as a family, every night.
  3.   Read the bible daily, shoot for one chapter every day.
  4.   Take time for each other daily.
  5.   Schedule time in our calendars for family and as a couple.
  6.  Go on one date at least every other week. This can be simple like running to town and grabbing a bite to eat, it can be a flight, it can be whatever. But it needs to happen, and it has to be JUST US.

These are just a few of the things that we implemented that might help you.

Things aren’t always easy, and that’s ok because nothing good ever comes without a little struggle.