Rebuilding Your foundation of Faith

They say that the most important part of building a house, is it’s foundation.  The walls just don’t have the same strength without something to stand upon.  You and I have been building on the basics of education from elementary school to post graduate degrees.

In his new book, “Rebuilding Your Foundation of Faith,” Pastor Dean A. Brown takes us back to the basics of faith in God.  He helps us become reacquainted with what it means to believe and trust God to the point of acting on what we believe.

I found the book to be provocative and very encouraging!  Smith Wiggelsworth once said, “Great faith is seeing things from Heaven’s point of view.” Dean Brown helps us to see the heavenly view of walking by faith and not by sight.  “A person of faith is one who is in agreement with God and His word.  That agreement governs what you think, what you believe, what you say, and what you do.”

Leadership is the ability to influence others by inspiring them to soar far above what their natural minds can dream.  By rebuilding our foundation of faith, you and I will be able to tap into the unseen force of God’s purpose and presence in our lives. It  means, influencing our generation with the power of God and obtaining strategies to achieve the fulfillment of God’s promises.

“Your faith plus God’s faithfulness, equals fulfillment.”  It was Thomas Kempis who once said, “The loftier the building, the deeper must the foundation be laid.” Your spiritual foundation must be a solid, word based foundation.

I want to encourage you to keep building your financial foundation, emotional foundation, your domestic foundation, and your self development foundation. But your greatest foundation is your faith foundation. Rebuilding it will forever ensure a lifetime of unparalleled Journey’s with your Heavenly Father guiding your steps for His glory.

From a fresh writer with a passion to help people grow, Dean Brown always says, “Faith makes all things possible, it doesn’t make all things easy.”

Rebuilding your foundation of Faith will help you get here in 2019. Pick up a copy of Dean Brown’s new book, and, Keep standing on the Rock!

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Leaders are Readers

Reading helps us to explore the world. I can remember as a child going into the library at Webster Elementary School in St. Paul, Minnesota and leaving with books to read. I never checked them out, but I had them. Upon my return, the Librarian would always ask, “Billy Joe, why don’t you check the books out?” Always in a hurry, the thought of checking the books out would somehow keep this engaged young reader from his weekly exploration of the world.

I love poetry, biographies, Dr. Seuss, and the compilation of Dickinson and Thoreau, books that engage the intellect and stimulate stronger analytical thinking skills. Today, I still read two to three books a month and I always write in them.

There are some interesting studies and statistics among American readers. One third of High School graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives; 42% of college graduates never read another book after college; 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year; 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last 5 years. Studies have shown, 72% of American adults read a book in the past year for fun, while the percentage of Millennials, ages 18 to 29, was higher at 80%.

Reading can improve the memory. If your looking for a way to improve your memory and concentration and to relieve stress, reading can help you. “The brain stimulating activities from reading have shown to slow down cognitive decline in old age with people who participated in more mentally stimulating activities over their lifespans.”

The 8 benefits of reading: 1. Mental stimulation, 2. Stress reduction, 3. Knowledge, 4. Vocabulary Expansion, 5. Memory improvement, 6. Stronger Analytical thinking skills, 7. Improved focus and concentration, 8. Better writing skills.

With these thoughts in mind, taking a reading break can be as important as stopping to snack on your daily energy carb. A student asked me the question, “What do you personally get from reading?” With an enormous amount of thoughts running through my head, I came up with the following answer: “I read because it allows me the opportunity to examine, explore, exercise my thoughts, to stay in the now, to expand my vocabulary, to find myself in someone else’s words, to place myself in the other person’s place, to simply have some enjoyment.”

I believe that not all personal growth is organic. My experience has taught me that to grow, we must prospect in intellectual mines that others have cultivated and learn there. Finding lessons and inspiration in the success of others, is part of the real circle of life. We cannot not be afraid to LEAP into the destiny of our future, because fear is living without hope attached to it.

Someone once said, “The man who knows how to read and doesn’t, has no advantage over the man who doesn’t know how to read.”

Even as an average student, reading helped me to maintain an above average mindset. It was through books that I found the inspiration to climb the intellectual ladder of powerful thought, that helped to shape my future.

Zig Ziglar’s “See You At The Top” was one of my first motivational reads as a ninth grader. My Upward Bound teacher, Alfreda Garibaldi, helped me to realize that books and reading could help give me the confidence to boldly go, where many men had gone before; into the expanded world of reading.

As a leader, encouraging others to read has been a focal point of my personal development as a leader. Benjamin Franklin’s provocative quote on learning simply states’ “Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.” And just like the leaders before us, we must continue the quest for strong intellectual thought and learning. Let me close with a favorite quote from Dr. Seuss, “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you will go.”

Remember this, your going to great places, so keep standing on the Rock! And enjoy your next read!