Tuesday
This morning Adrea and I started off with a discussion about multiplying your talents. We started off by talking about the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25:14-30.
We talked about how important it is not only to multiply your talents but to share them with others as well. Use your talents to talk with other people, help other people, and really utilize those skills and talents that you’ve been given in life to benefit everyone around you.
Then Adrea shared a personal story about when we moved into our old neighborhood she didn’t want anybody to know that she played piano, mainly because she was worried that she would get a church calling that would require her to play the piano and wasn’t confident in her ability to play.
Finally, a friend told our bishop that Adrea played the piano, and of course shortly after she received a calling playing the piano, and of course she absolutely loved every moment of it. She really loved doing it but the other benefit was that many people told her how well she played.
She never would have been given the opportunity to serve others and improve her talents had somebody not spoken up for her. We should always share our talents whenever given the opportunity.
Afterwards we played a game with the family. Or immediate family plays the game in the car when we go on long trips. Everyone is dealt a few cards, and one person starts with the words “Once Upon a Time” and then incorporates their cards into a story that they make up as they go.
Then on to the next person as everyone continues the story making up their part with their cards. We all had a great time as everyone from a 5 year old to others in their 50′s turned the story into a wild fairy tale!
Doug then shared with us the importance of utilizing the D.O.S., which stands for Dangers, Opportunities, and Strengths. Any time we are faced with an important decision we should always evaluate what dangers we may encounter, what opportunities we will face, and what strengths we have to help us through.
It’s an important process Doug learned from Dan Sullivan and has implemented it religiously in everything he does.
After lunch everyone split up and went their separate ways. A lot of people went to Lahiana to go shopping or sightseeing. Our family, Scott, Adrea and our kids, went whale watching.
This time of year, the humpback whales are in Maui giving birth and breeding and they’re all over the place. We saw a bunch of whales. We saw them breaching out of the water. We saw them all over.
As we were coming back from whale watching we were lucky enough to encounter a large pod of dolphins that came right next to the boat and were jumping out of the water right next to us. We were literally five feet away from a hundred dolphins.
Our kids really had a great time and it was an experience they will never forget.
Afterwards, we came back for a great dinner and were taught by Justin and Ashley on the importance of family meals from The Intentional Family.
First thing first when it comes to family dinner don’t be too lax but don’t be too rigid. Family dinner is one of the best and important times that you can spend with your children, just sitting back, relaxing, and talking.
But if you make it too lax, then it doesn’t become a ritual, but if it’s too rigid, then the kids will not like it and have a bad experience. Other important lessons we learned were that everyone should help in some form or another like some people should help set the table, some people help cook, always open with a prayer, take care to not introduce conflict into dinners, make sure that when you have dinner it’s a great experience.
Clean up is part of the ritual as well. Other things to consider is who’s planning the meal or the menu, are the meals predictable? If it’s at a certain time every day, then it becomes predictable and everybody and it becomes a ritual more easily.
Doug then talked about the concepts of the Future-Based Self vs. the Past-Based Self a series of Goal Cultivator lessons also taught by Dan Sullivan.
To finish the night up Dan and Mailee shared some experiences or what we call “I Remember When’s.” Dan shared experiences regarding his phobia of feet.
The short version goes that one night he was having a dream about his feet and they were cold and he would keep rubbing them but he couldn’t feel them and they felt so cold in his hands and then he woke up realizing that he was hold feet but they were not his they were his brothers whose feet he always hated and thought they were the worst feet of all.
Mailee shared experiences from when she was growing up and how her mother made the wackiest and frankly not very tasty school lunches, they were so bad that nobody ever wanted to trade with them because of their strange lunches.
What a great experience to be able to do this with the whole family in Hawaii sharing all these experiences, learning and being educated from some of the greatest teachers around.
Hang Loose!
Scott and Adrea
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, titled “Going Out, and Going Away” in which we led a discussion on the importance of creating family rituals in going out for little treats or dinner on a somewhat regular basis to create traditions or rituals that members of the family all look forward to, and is a time to come together and bond/ strengthen our relationships with each other.
by William George Jordan.
