Happy Birthday, Jennifer!

Yesterday was not only Super Bowl Sunday, but it was also Jennifer’s birthday!  We had a fun gathering of the full family on Saturday, watching a University of Mary-Hardin Baylor basketball game in Belton, Texas.  Katy and Evan met us from Dallas, and Cody met us from College Station.  We brought Tanner and my parents and had a fun time watching basketball and celebrating together.

Yesterday after church, we met my brother, Blake and his wife, Kristen for a special birthday lunch.

Previously, I’ve posted a few times about Jennifer’s leadership qualities. For example, in 2017, I noted how Jennifer is “A Leader After God’s Own Heart.” In 2014, I shared “4 Leadership Jewels (C.A.R.E.) from My Wife, Jennifer.”

As I considered various books that exemplify her leadership, I thought of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, among others but ultimately landed on Tony Dungy’s The Mentor Leader.  Plus, a Dungy book for Super Bowl Sunday just made sense…

Jim Caldwell, Dungy’s successor as Head Coach of the Indianapolis Colts, pointed out that Jim Collins’ definition of a Level 5 Leader in his book Good to Great sums up Tony’s leadership DNA perfectly.  According to Collins, “Level 5 Leaders”:

  • Embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will.
  • Display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated.
  • Attribute success to factors other than themselves.
  • Display a workmanlike diligence—more plow horse than show horse.
  • Attribute success to factors other than themselves.
  • Set up their successors for even greater success.

Caldwell explained that Tony’s leadership style allowed him a sense of autonomy, development, growth, understanding, and ownership that ultimately led to him succeeding Dungy.

Click here for a summary of The Mentor Leader by Tony Dungy

Inward Discipline #2: Prayer

Richard Foster says that prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life. Of all the Spiritual Disciplines, prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father.

Real prayer is life creating and life changing. “Prayer—secret, fervent, believing prayer—lies at the root of all personal godliness,” writes William Carey.

To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us.

In prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God’s thoughts after Him: to desire the things He desires, to love the things He loves, to will the things He wills. Progressively, we are taught to see things from His point of view.

Click here to learn more from Foster and others on Prayer