I wish I wasn't the type of person that needed to get hit in the head with a 2x4 before I take action. I really do want to be the type of person who heeds the warning signs that appear when someone else is walking through a challenge and is able to apply them to my own life. I am 44 years old and I have a literal lifetime of warning signs, sounds, flags, banners, smoke signals and alerts that have been going off all around me. It isn't a news flash that obesity causes a variety of health-related issues. I took health in junior high and high school. I have been told many times by teachers, trainers, coaches, doctors, and nurses that I cannot outrun or outlive poor choices in diet and exercise. As an adult, I have read many books on topics of health and self-improvement that encourage healthy habits and stress the importance of using daily exercise to reduce stress, improve cardiovascular health and increase energy. I have read about the importance of treating food as fue
Have you ever had an older friend, someone who is wise, someone who has a lovely heart, someone who tells amazing stories, someone who greets every new friend with a warm hug? Have you ever had the opportunity to introduce someone new to this old friend? You kind of get a little giddy just thinking about the ways your new friend will respond to this older friend of yours. You have a certain anticipation about the ways that they will connect with each other. You smile at the thought of the ways that your older, wiser friend will get at your new friend. In the end, you sit back and smile as you watch the conversation unfold. You laugh at the shared stories, you grin as your friend learns new wisdom. This is the clearest way I can think of to explain how it felt to lead 16 students on a short-term missions trip to Haiti. My role was to simply make the introductions. There was little that I could actually teach these young people, they weren't there to learn from me, they wer