Dawn's Early Light: The Intersection of Scriptural Strength and Perseverance in Leadership

Because we can and we want to . We know it's corny , but we smile . We have fun putting these together . You know , if you've seen those dad jokes on Facebook or whatever , then them sitting there trying to make each other laugh . This is , you know , Dean and I , before the show .

We're trying to say things and then make us smile and a lot of times we save them , so we don't . We have that response when we're listening to them .

But I mean , the basis of our show is how leadership myself being a leadership speaker and Dr Posey having quite a history of how many years in ministry 45. , 45 . So so he's been doing this a year or two . So we tie the biblical and the leadership together and we have some fun doing it .

We're going to focus on perseverance , perseverance , and a couple of years ago and some of our listeners might remember this there was a move going on about one word , and try to find a one word that would summarize your year , and I would think that perseverance might be a good word for some people to say hey , this year I am going to persevere .

Now , sometimes you have to just cut your losses , right , but sometimes we just quit too soon , right ? So we're going to focus on that from a leadership point of view , from a biblical point of view , because perseverance is something that can be developed over time .

Some people are more gifted at than others , but I think everybody can have the potential to persevere more .

But you need to take a hard look of what worked with Den last year . Exactly right If you were persevering the whole time and you were committed . Is there something that hiccuped ? Was there something that you did not do that could have been successful ?

You can have the drive , but if you're not doing everything you need to do on a regular basis to make things happen , it's sort of like you know and one I got a couple companies my real estate company I tell new agents that you can make some really good money , but if you're sitting watching the soap operas eating bonbons in the morning , you're probably not

gonna be selling too many houses , and it's the same thing . You can have a lot of perseverance , you can have a lot of drive , but if you're not getting out there and actually doing the stuff to be successful , it's sort of a multi-layered sword . You know when you put it together .

I did a little research on this topic of perseverance and it just so happens , if you're into NASA and space travel and you know those kinds of things , you probably already know this , but there's a Mars rover right now on Mars .

You know the planet of Mars that's named Perseverance , right , and I did a little research on that , and so it was actually launched on July , the 30th of 2020 .

When we think of 2020 , most of us think of COVID . We were shut down , but NASA was in full steam . I mean , they were going straight . Now that took , once it launched , seven months to land on Mars . Seven months , and a lot of times we get upset if something doesn't happen in seven minutes or seven days . We get real upset .

And those engineers knew it was gonna be seven months from the time of the launch to the time of the landing , and the goal was for it to only be on Mars for one Mars year , for one rotation around the sun of Mars . That's about 687 Earth days , but it's still there . Okay , so it's been up two and a half years now and you're talking about perseverance .

So to me , that's the quality of those people that made that product and all the teamwork that went into it . What an example for us when we just wanna give up .

But I mean one of the things that gets me is the rovers I sent out in like what 80s right that are still going in deep , deep space , the part of space that we have a name for it I can't think of the name of it but they're still sending signals back . I mean they've been going for 20 some years and they're still receiving signals .

How many excited NASA people right that think , well , our job's gonna be over in seven months , you know we're gonna be done , sort of like them Perseverance .

And next thing , you know , you know , some of them are 20 , some years into it , some of them are years and years and they're still getting stuff back . And that's what a dream come true for some of the things that we don't expect sometimes .

Well , we all experience difficulty and discouragement , so it's not will we experience it , it's what do we do when we experience it , and I think one of the steps that I have found helpful to persevere in difficult times , knowing that those are coming , is to not just have a goal in my head , but actually write it down and put a timeline on it .

Yeah , and you know why you do that , right ?

You know you have to do all your exams , you have to do all your coursework , you do your qualifying , you know all that kind of stuff . You have to submit your proposal for your dissertation . This was I did this prior to the internet . So I had to send my thesis back to Atlanta , to where I was going to seminary From here , snail mail .

It got rejected 12 times . The 13th time it actually got accepted . So one of the things that I think I learned from that was my wife was a great cheerleader .

She was cause I got so discouraged because you know , you open up the package , you're so excited , you hope you get an acceptance letter and it's just bleeding red ink all over it and it was so discouraging , time after time after time .

But I think one of the things if we're having trouble with perseverance , maybe we need someone to walk alongside us to encourage us to have that same goal or to keep us accountable for what we're doing .

I think I can do that . I go well , you do do that . And she goes . Really , I go , yeah , cause every time we travel , every time we spend a night in a hotel , what do you make me do every morning , no matter what she goes , I make you go to the gym .

And cause I need to run on the treadmill and then the bike and you lift weights while I'm running on the treadmill . And you gotta understand my daughter . She's young , right , she's nine years old , so it's like , so that's her thing when we travel every morning she's like dad , we're going to the gym right now and whatever we do , we have to go to the gym .

I'm like I need accountability partner . I need somebody to make sure that I go out and work , cause we got like a little mini gym in our house and I said we need to go out and go to the gym every night . She goes , dad , I've got you . I'm your accountability partner and I'm gonna make sure you work out every day this year .

I have a goal .

So here's one of the things and it's funny that you read the dictionary version and I've got actually the one that ties into the biblical today and perseverance from meaning in the biblical sense it involves a steadfast commitment to a course of action or a set of beliefs , even in the face of challenges , obstacles or adversity .

So that ties into some of the thing . But I mean , we think about all the series we've had and we've talked about Noah and all the different things . Who do you think and I know I'm putting you on the spot here but who do you think has had some of the bigger perseverance from the biblical standpoint over the course of our history ?

Who do you think some of the top things that come to mind ? from all your knowledge and that noggin of yours .

Certainly Martin Luther would be one of the top on the list because he had so much persecution and yet he was very steadfast , translating the Bible , sticking to his principles when he put the thesis on the door of Wittenberg , and so . But then you have other people like the Wesley brothers . He came to America as a missionary .

He was , and some scholars believe he was a total failure as a missionary , went back , had an encounter with God , alderst gate street , and had totally turned his life around .

And then he was like the energizer bunny as far as evangelism is concerned and traveled hundreds of thousand miles on horseback because he was so focused on his mission and he persevered , persevered . And so you see the early American history of the Methodist circuit riders . They were young men and yet they rode . They had a goal .

They wanted to spread the gospel and it was a tough , tough life , but they had a goal , they had a vision and I think that is a part of perseverance . We've said that before you wanna have a goal not just in your mind , but you wanna have it on paper . You wanna have it not just on paper , but you wanna have it in your heart .

You gotta have it in proper perspective , and we both know that if you are committed to doing something , maybe you're a young pastor , you're starting a church , or you're looking for a job and you got a job , and maybe you're selling cars , selling houses , and you say , yeah , I've gotta do this , do this well , don't ruin your life , don't spend 21 hours a day

working . That you ruin your personal life or your health , and that's not good . So I'm gonna . Just here's a quote from the scripture . It's from the book of James . I think it's a really good passage on perseverance .

James , chapter one , verse 12 , says this blessed is the person who perseveres under trial because , having stood the test , that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him .

And I think the first part of that is so important the one who perseveres under trial because having stood the test and we all go through different trials , different tests , whatever that might mean . And the question is are we gonna cave into it ? Are we going to persevere ?

And I remember in college and I had to work , we had six kids and my family , so one of the things that we had to do if we wanted a college education , we had to work while we were in school .

And so during my last couple of years at school , I had to decide okay , what classes am I gonna do everything I can in to get an A , and then I'm gonna do enough to get a B in the other classes .

If I have time , I'll try to make an A and so , but those , those couple of classes that I said , no , I've got to get , I've got to get really good grades in these two classes , and these two classes are three classes .

If I get a B , you know , because I was still working and I was going to school and I but I had a goal , I had a , wanted to graduate on a specific time , and so the question is , what about those , those of you who are listening to this message ? What is it in your year , in 2024 ? That you're gonna say , okay , I'm gonna persevere in ?

this you know , it could be finishing your degree , it could be that you're starting a business , it could be that you're training for something , or you want to get your golf score under 80 , or whatever it may be . What , what is it ? You want to get your marathon time under 3 , 30 , whatever it may be , or six , or six .

Yeah , you want to run instead of walk . What , whatever it may be . What is that ? One thing , and and here's the thing you can't pick too many goals , because if you pick too many of them , you're not gonna do well . So maybe just pick one this year and say okay , this year I'm gonna do this okay .

What if you persevered and you put it on the calendar to make your marriage better and said you know , okay , once a month or twice a month , I'm gonna take my spouse out on a date you know and , and one date we're gonna go out to eat or movie or whatever , and then one time we're just gonna spend no money .

We're just gonna go to the mall , the park , walk around and just talk what , what if we did that as our focus ? And there's gonna be stuff that's gonna get in your way . You know kids might be sick or you know you might have to work late or whatever . But but let's , let's try to put that on the calendar , really focus on that relationship .

So it was just nice to sit there and just relax and Sort of that . That made me think of it like the no money thing . You know , usually it's a fancy , you know , let's get dressed up and go out , but it was just like just let's do nothing .

We'll do , you know , month goals will have three months , six months , year , and then we we , if we're doing a full We'll go out to 20 years on goal setting because we're trying to define a path right . It might not sure we'd be able to accomplish everything , but if I can point you in a direction , so what I don't want you to do .

If you decide you wanted to go to be a Minister tomorrow but you decide , well , I'm gonna start that . I , well , I'm gonna do that in 10 years from now . Well , you need to be doing things today that point you in a direction to be in a minister in 10 years .

Because if you don't do the things today that tie into something a little bit out there , you may spend a one , two years of your life doing something where you think is important , but then it's really not important to your ultimate goal your thing you know so . So there's a lot of things .

A lot of people just set goals and they don't really put a deep thought into Exactly how everything's gonna tie together .

And now that they're grown out of college and we're empty nesters , we said let's visit national parks . And so we've . There are 63 national parks as of right now and we've visited , I think , 44 of them , but we already have on our calendar to visit some parks up near Michigan Lake Superior this year .

Now we've had to change the date , but we haven't changed the goal Right , and I think that's sometimes . When things don't happen according to our timeline , we get discouraged , and that's where perseverance is so important . Is that ? No , the goal might have a different timeline , but the goal is still the goal right .

You need to be doing this in Michigan because there's another connection . You know we've talked about this many times right , that sounds so true , and so it's sort of that .

Patience , I think , is a big part of perseverance , and knowing that the timing of what the God's plan is of your life don't get upset because you didn't accomplish a goal in six weeks and it's gonna be a month later because there might be a reason .

Yes , they might have a goal of , okay , I wanna build this house , this is the floor plan , but then you have two weeks of rain , or you have concrete can't get delivered , or you have a wood shortage because of whatever , and you have to adjust the timeline . But you don't wanna adjust building the house , exactly right ?

Crashing a project means that I'm gonna additional resources or throw money at it to get back on the timeline so I can eventually hit the goal at the backside of the project . So it's sort of your thought , the same here , as we're talking about perseverance .

You know , if something throws you off a little bit , I think it was Edison that said that he was never discouraged about any of his inventions that didn't work . He just saw it as opportunities to grow and to learn from them .

Exactly right and if you've ever studied , like some of these guys , like Tesla and Edison , I mean , they had hundreds , not just one or two hundreds of things that never worked .

Just remind yourself when you're in the morning , if you have a devotional time , and I would say hey , this is the beginning of the year , this is a great time . If you've never done it , to start reading the Bible . I would encourage people to read one chapter a day . I've done for a long time .

Read one chapter in the Old Testament , one chapter in the New Testament . It'll take you maybe 10 minutes A great habit , but it's amazing . Over time and it'll take you about two years , you'll read the entire Bible and you just persevere a little bit every day . And I think that's what perseverance is all about .

You wanna take a step forward as often as you can toward the goal .

Are you getting up and you checking your phone , taking your emails , sending emails at that point , or are you having time where you're watching a motivational video , you're reading a chapter of the Bible , you're doing a meditation , you're in prayer for you know , 15 minutes , whatever it may be . Establish a routine .

And if you can establish that routine first thing in the morning and you can hold steady on that routine , that's gonna help you accomplish your goals , because that's gonna establish a routine to get you used to . Because you said , focus on that one thing .

And if you can get some kind of stability in your life , a lot of times people just feel like they're flying by their seat of the pants all the time or they're doing like the hamster wheel , right ? I get up take a shower , I go to work , I come home , I eat .

Even me , I'm not the thinker brain , right , the detailed , I mean , you're more of a little the detail brain For me , from B , but I had to train my brain to do certain things because I love flying by seat of my pants , doing this , going here , this , getting called over here , just because that's what my personality you know . You know that's my personality .

But at the same time I've trained myself in the mornings to do a set routine , to have something in place to give myself some kind of stability and to get my brain thinking more in terms of I need to do this , this and this today to accomplish this in six months .

So I was looking online and it's amazing how the technology of hydration belts has changed over time , because when I first started running many , many years ago , you just had a belt with some water bottles . Okay , there was no pack , there was no anything .

Well , now it's all about carrying your phone and you know they don't really care about how much water you carry . It's a pocket big enough to carry your phone . So I was watching , you know , looking this .

I didn't want that , I didn't want that , and I saw this one video of this person running with this particular water belt on and the phone rang and they stopped and answered the phone while they were on the thing . No , no , no , no , no . When you're running , you're running .

And so my thinking is maybe , if we're looking at our doing a self-evaluation of where we can find more time , how do I find more time ? Maybe you should do an evaluation of your screen time , because a lot of people spent a lot of time on their phone when they could be . Listen in the podcast while they're running .

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Did you do the last 10 minutes that you can't get back , Cause that's the one thing we can't get back . I mean , that's the one even playing field between billionaires and people that have $5 in the bank . They have time . They have a limited amount of time and you can't get time back .

Or maybe I've never started and now's the time to start . I'm gonna say , you know , New Year's resolution , I'm gonna do this , I'm gonna start playing guitar , or I'm gonna start exercising , or I'm gonna do this or whatever it is . Write it down .

We don't wait six months , we don't wait a year . We meet once a month and we readjust our goals every month based on where we're at and what we've been doing . And you have to have that . So I mean you can have one for personal , you have one for business , you can have one for whatever it may be .

And you know , one of the thoughts that came to my head earlier was one of the people you know 40 years in the world . Is Moses right ? You know ? I mean I loved it . I know there's probably not a documentation . What day , I mean what month , did he start that ? You know , Was it the first of the year ?

And then every first of the year he had to reset the goals for me for 40 years .

So if you have anything going on , I've got a nice little co-host here that's been doing that for 45 years of his life , so he is very good at that . I do it from a business standpoint with all my clients and everything . But this man here , he has a big heart and he does a lot of stuff .

you through things . And other than that , I'm looking forward to a good year .

Yeah , make it a great day . We'll talk to you next week , thank you .