To My Family

district17 is a blog dedicated to my wife and my kids. Hopefully you will find inspiration, wisdom, and encouragement through these words.

Do not go gently into the night.

Like our calling to press in to the darkness, don’t go quietly, timidly. Go. Disrupt the darkness around you as you leave a trail of light for others to follow.

Spend money on experiences.

We can buy things or experiences. Things break, get lost, find themselves in the trash, or grown out of. Experiences stay with us. If you are going to spend money, do it on what lasts.

Your life moves in the direction of your words.

Stop speaking poorly of yourself, believing you aren’t worthy. I know this is a major struggle for me. But in the end, Christ didn’t come, die, and rise again so you and I could speak ill of ourselves. Speak life.

The fireground doesn’t build character, it reveals it.

My fireground is a literal one. But yours probably isn’t. That doesn’t mean this doesn’t apply. We are tested in our everyday lives–whether we are parents, teachers, cooks, CEOs, fitness instructors, dog washers, firefighters, and everything in between–and we often believe these moments are building our character. That’s not true. Yes, our personal fireground can…

Assume the best.

People need you to assume the best of them. We are all too used to people assuming the worst about the situation, about us, about others. People perform based on their perception of assumptions. Assume the worst, and you’ll get poor effort. Assume the best, and people will step up.