Author: corymcglone

I'm a Christian, Father, Husband, Geek. That likes to call it as I see it. I'm not here to be an expert on anything, but I want to be a inspiration to someone.

New Year Same Goal

Every year, many of us do the same things: we make New Year’s resolutions. I’ll lose weight, I’ll go to the gym, I’ll have a dry January, I’ll do this, I’ll do that. By mid-February, you haven’t seen the gym in days or weeks, you haven’t lost any weight, and well, that first Friday back to work was a long week, and you just needed something to help you relax, or you were celebrating a birthday, a promotion, a proposal… We all end up breaking promises we make to ourselves at some point; some make it longer than others, but at some point, we lose focus.

For me, this year is about focus. I was looking back through some old notes from 2019, where I started the year strong, I was fixing my focus on the bible and on God. I made it to February 6th, then had a note on the 12th, but that was it. So many times, we have the best intentions, and then we will say something like, “Life happened.” Yes, life happens, but what we have to determine is what we are going to do and adjust as life happens. When you think you have things figured out and a plan, remember the old saying: “If you want to make God laugh, make a plan.” 

Think back over how many times you had things figured out, then there is a death in the family, a car that breaks down, a water line that busts, a lay-off at work, someone gets sick, or something else that just messed up your plans. What happened? Did God take care of it? Was the result better than the one you were looking for? Sometimes, it is extremely hard to see what is ahead when we are directly in the storm, but if we have a solid foundation and a steady focus, we are more likely to hear and see what direction God wants us to go.

Goldendoodle laying on a porch

One of the things that has been constantly in my mind since probably last October comes to mind every time I’m walking my dog. Does God feel like I do walking my dog while walking with me? That might not make any sense at all, but let me expand on that a little bit. Our “mini” Goldendoodle seems to always walk like a bloodhound, nose to the ground, sniffing everywhere, stopping and cutting in different directions. I have no clue what he is smelling; it could be where another dog has walked, a rabbit was, who knows. - Stay with me.- He goes to do his business, and a car comes by, or another dog 4 streets over barks, or the wind moves in a different way, and nope, that spot isn’t good anymore. We have to go half a block up and then back to the same spot that is now good again. Other times, on our walks, he will just bark for no real reason or bark at another dog that is minding its own business. So, where am I going with this? 

Are we spending our days walking with God but not staying on the path that He wants to take us on? Are we so distracted by the things around us that we forget what we are here to do? How often have you felt God gently pull you back onto the path or calmly tell you to come on and do what you need to? How often have you felt God drag you back to the path and correct you? How often do we find ourselves yelling for no reason, picking fights we won’t win, yelling because someone else somewhere did it too?

If you are constantly distracted, take some time to slow down and fix your focus. The longer you are pulling away and doing your own thing, the more of the good things God has you will miss. At the end of the day, when God wants you to do something, you won’t have a choice. 

18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

Luke 1:18-20

Take time, as you start this year, to adjust your focus and your ears, eyes, and heart to what God has next for you. It might not make sense at first, but the more you lean into it, the more you seek him for clarity on it, the more you seek guidance from others, the more in focus your life will be.

by corymcglone

Target Focused Dads and Husbands – Groupings and Consistency

At least they are on the paper…

After knowing where your shots are landing, only then you can work on your consistency, your groupings. Groupings are what many of us are simply going for when we go to the range. Are you getting a jagged hole, a clover, are they all in the A zone, did they all hit the plate? What kind of grouping are you going for? If you are just trying to hit the paper, then maybe you aren’t ready to be focused on grouping your shots and improving your consistency. Once you are focused on the idea of “aim small miss small” and you are focused on taking your time and repeating the same actions over and over, then you are building a discipline and habit. The tighter the group, the more consistent you are, the more focused you are, the easier it will be to move on to the next steps of being on the right target and being centered on that target.

What are you aiming for?

As we go through our lives, we develop habits whether we want to or not. Some of these are good habits, some are not so good. These grouped actions, shape our lives, our friendships, our relationships, our marriages, and our families. If you are not consistent, your relationships are going to suffer. If your word, your work, and your actions are all over the place, it will be hard for people to trust you. The people affected are your co-workers, your spouse, your kids, your family, nothing is going to affect just you. Sometimes it might be your actions that affect someone else in a way that you did not expect. If you look at the story of David bringing the ark back in to the city that I referenced in the last post,(2 Samuel 6:1-7, 12-15 and Exodus 25:10-15) David’s actions and desire to move the ark back was good, but he was not doing it the way it should be done. Yes, they were able to start moving it, yes, they got it closer to the city faster with the cart, but God didn’t want it moved that way. God had given specific instructions on how the Ark should be built, moved, who should move it, ages before David ever needed to move it back.

As we take the time to figure out where our shots are landing and how consistent our shots are, we can move that consistency on to the proper target, to the proper place on the target.

Shifting our focus, shifting our priorities, allows us to get into proper alignment. Once we have started to shift our groupings, shift focus, and start to make improvements we will make our lives and the lives of those we love better, eventually. It’s not going to be easy, there are going to be things that continue to fight for our attention, life is going to happen, things aren’t going to go right every day. The true test of our consistency comes from these chances to prove our faith and our training. When issues arise, our training or lack of training will be evident. When we have been consistent in growing in our faith, in growing our relationship with God, and with our family and our support groups, we will be able to go through tough times and come out on the other side. I’m not going to say that you will come out unaffected, but you very well could come out of the fire not smelling like smoke. The more consistent you become, and as you start to move to a better place, you start to focus on the target, you will have to be prepared for attacks from the enemy. These attacks may not be extremely obvious, it could be just that you get to a point where you have more and more on your plate and small things that need pieces of your time. Keeping your priorities in line, and keeping up your consistency, is the only way to win these battles.

Pray in the fire.

“…be earnest and disciplined in your prayers.”

1 Peter 4:7b

So with that, I challenge you to work on your habits over the next few weeks. Work to be more consistent in your prayer life, in your time spent with God, and be intentional in the time you spend with your family. Be intentional watching for those things or those people that pull you away from being consistent, and move them out of your way.

Next post we will talk about being on target, not just on paper and grouped, but what it means to really be grouped near the center of the target.

by corymcglone

Target focused dads and husbands

Photo by Mikhail Nilov: https://www.pexels.com/photo/businessman-man-person-people-6620423/

Something that has been on my mind for a while is a series of thoughts for us dads and husbands to help us shift/readjust/refocus our lives better on what God wants us to do. We are called to lead our families. Some of us had really good role models, others may have had role models who showed us what not to do, and in other cases, we saw what not to do but didn’t know any better and thought that was the usual way of doing things. Hopefully, if you are reading this and are/were in that last category, you know that God brought you to this page for a reason.

As dads and husbands, we need to be leaders and examples within our families and to those around us. Older husbands and dads need to take the time to mentor new husbands and new dads. As a young dad, I had no clue what I was doing. Luckily, I had seen other dads in my life support their wives and daughters, preparing me to be a “girl dad.” That’s the point of me taking time now to sit and write out these thoughts that I feel God has put into my heart and mind. I want to be that support for another dad out there that isn’t sure what to do, or that husband that isn’t sure what step is next.

Over the next few posts I plan to expand on the following 4 concepts:

Be On paper – Use God’s word to know that you are going the right way. If you aren’t even hitting the paper, you have no idea what direction you are going. Also looking at this a something that we as men hate to do, read directions. God has already laid out so many plans, templates, frameworks, for our lives. We are just typically too stubborn to check the directions.

Get Grouped – Once you are hitting paper, you have to be consistent. Develop a habit of staying in the word, get into groups with other dads and husbands, start into reading plans on the YouVersion Bible app. Work on improving you direction and consistency

Photo by RDNE Stock project: https://www.pexels.com/photo/nature-dirty-wall-vintage-6668983/

Be On target – You’ve gotten on paper, you’ve put together some good groupings, now it’s time to make sure that you are actually hitting the main target. Some of us may be happy enough just putting consistent shots on a steel plate and hearing that satisfying ting. But how far out is that target? What happens when hitting that target becomes too easy and we get bored? Do we get too relaxed and start missing?

Photo by : https://www.pexels.com/photo/bullseye-center-illustration-round-416832/

Get Centered – Hitting the Bullseye. Let’s face it, no matter how long you have been shooting guns, archery, throwing darts, there is a satisfaction that comes from placing that perfect shot or throw dead-center, when you put a few grouped right together, you can feel invincible. But don’t get too proud, because that next shot might be a out of true arrow, a lighter load, a bent vane, and that perfect score just got a miss or a 2. Staying centered, but being able to recover when you make a mistake is going to be the critical when going though life.

Everything I hope to get out during this, is about recovering from that bad shot. Having a group of other people, other dads, other husbands around you, that can help you get back on target, or maybe get on target for the very first time, is critical. We all need a person or persons in our life that is going to help us make corrections, especially when they are correcting things that we can’t even see that we are doing.

That’s it for this post. Be sure to check back in soon for the next part of this series.

—Cory

by corymcglone