Now for our fourth trail pursued this week, we covered: "5 Influences You Can't Ignore". This topic made me wonder - how many men realize these influences in their lives and how important they are? For those of you who have thought on this and would like to add your comments - please do. For those of you who were not able to join us for our meeting, I'll recap these for you as follows:
1. Appreciate the "Tribe" (the community) that you are a part of. They all are diverse, have different experiences and skills. Are we aware of these resources and do we leverage what we can learn from them?
2. Find the "Elders" (the mentors and coaches) that have already learned a lot on the ups and downs of life, whose insights can help you to pursue the right path forward or how to avoid the wrong path to trouble.
3. Set your "Personal Standards" (the principles, ethics) that you have learned that help you to set high standards for yourself - the framework that you want to use to guide your life.
4. Hear your "Internal Voice" (the guidance system) that reminds you of right, wrong and of importance.
5. Pursue your "Spirituality" (your relationship with God) to understand and to enable your purpose.
Now the above are "trail markers" for we knights to leverage as we navigate our way through the "forest" (our environment that we can influence) as we pursue real manhood. We also covered aspects of how the "forest" was originally designed, how mankind's choices impacted the "forest" and what we must now do to succeed, to lead, to influence as we should. It all comes down to the decisions we make.
Let us know if you would like to know more on the above and remember advice shared;
". . . acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever." (1 Chronicles 28:9)