michaelrobb My Core Values

Core Value 9: Sleep often

Each of My Core Values has a subtitle that describes a litmus test by which I can determine success or failure in that area of life. For this one, it is:

wake up naturally.

This core value is the one that I waffle on the most. Some days I am certain that it is admirable to pursue, others I’m not as certain. But it still stands here, because more often than not, I think it is admirable. Sleep is a natural gift that gives back to its user. So many people underestimate the value and effect that sleep has on them; I don’t want to be among that number.

I notice that as I sleep more, I am more aware. I tend to be less grumpy, less unsocial, more productive due to being well rested. Sometimes, I fear that I “spoil” myself by giving too much gratification to my body when I sleep – that’s where the waffling comes in. Today though, I am convinced that sleep is a good and healthy part of a peaceful, satisfying life. As such it deserves the place it has in my Core Values list.

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Post for Dec 28-31, 2016

I’m officially back in Chattanooga as I’m writing. The beach was wonderful; North Georgia was wonderful. It’s good to be here to end the year.

Here were those days:

The morning of December 28, I was feeling much better. I took time to write on the blog, sleep in, read and pray. Really, it was an ideal morning as my sickness came to an end. I’m equally proud of Wed, Dec 28, because I spent some of the day reconnecting with tasks to be done back home and brainstorming for Music Ministry with Hayley. After, as dinner was closing in, I played card games with my family, ate good food and stayed up with Samantha celebrating her last night before leaving – we played pinochle.

The morning of December 29, I slept in and felt totally well. With Samantha and Daniel gone, Hayley and I stuck around to say goodbye to our French family and then snuck off to go for a fun bike ride. Afterwards, we tried to stand up paddle board – Hayley actually succeeded in standing while paddling. It was really fun. Then, we cleaned up and as dinner neared we decided that we would leave at dinner of the following day. With it our last night, we stayed up and played games and sang songs with family. All-in-all, it was perfect.

The morning of December 30, we slept in for the last time on vacation and then went over for breakfast. After breakfast, we went back to our house, I massaged Hayley, we took turns showering and then we packed so that we could focus on enjoying our last day. For us, enjoying the last day meant getting another board game in and finishing journaling. Finally, it came time to sit down and have last conversations and then to stand and say goodbyes. The entire evening was spent driving.

The morning of December 31, we finally arrived at Hayley’s parents’ house and greeted her dad and our cat before turning to sleep. When my morning started, I found Hayley up sharing stories with her parents and a visiting family friend. As the group split, I went to organize our car and pull the things needed for the day in and repack the things left at her parents’ place during Florida trip. Then, we spent a few last minutes with her parents and we said goodbyes and hit the road to make it home. We arrived this afternoon, let the cat in, set up his things, checked the mail, pulled everything in, went for a nice dinner and are finally finished unpacking. Tonight, Hayley will probably share her goals with me and we’ll talk about Sunday expectations before getting back into the swing of things.

To the guys who are so good to quietly read, thank you for your friendship. It is a rare and common and sweet thing when one takes an interest in another. May the Lord bless us on account of our friendship and may His name be spoken at each of our gatherings and glorified in each of our lives. Christ be with us.

michaelrobb My Core Values

Core Value 8: Positive relationships with friends

Each of My Core Values has a subtitle that describes a litmus test by which I can determine success or failure in that area of life. For this one, it is:

Mutual love, service, edification, and growth.

I am totally convinced that the way to succeed in this core value is to be faithful to my relational schematic. Edification and growth will come as we spend time together encouraging one another and pursuing our mutual growth. Additionally, praying for my friends will keep my heart soft to them and love and service natural.

michaelrobb My Core Values

Core Value 7: Give my children a legacy

Each of My Core Values has a subtitle that describes a litmus test by which I can determine success or failure in that area of life. For this one, it is:

Spiritually, Financially – Leave an impact that is evident.

I don’t have children yet, but I am hoping and expecting that one day I will. It’s not especially significant to me that they would have my DNA or be a result of my sexual reproduction. It’s also not totally necessary that they would be formally adopted by me. Rather, I think my children will be identified by the fathering that I give and that they receive for a period of time greater than two years. It is within that context that this core value fits.

This core value is like the fifth in that it can only occur if the fifth does as well, but it goes beyond because it speaks to impact. Furthermore, Legacy is strictly defined as an “amount of money or property left to someone in a will” and loosely understood as anything handed down by a predecessor. So, this core value is about intentionally growing and then giving spiritual and financial gifts to my children. Spiritual gifts are harder to see, but I think they are the more important of the two. For now, since I do not have children, the way in which I can and should live out this core value is by garnering capital (especially spiritual capital) with the aim of giving a legacy in mind.

As children enter the picture, that capital will need to be structured in a way so that the legacy is give-able, impactful and useful. But for now, I pray like Jabez of 1 Chronicles 4 who “called upon the God of Israel, saying, ‘Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!'”

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Post for Dec 22-25, 2016

I woke up this morning on a beach in Florida. My family is celebrating Christmas/New Year’s here. My grandmother (and her husband of 12+ years) live here. So, all of the living children and their children have descended in order to reconnect and celebrate the holiday. The first thing I wanted to do though this morning was update you on the past few days while I still remember them.

Thursday, Dec 22, I started the day at Hayley’s parents house. We woke up late, enjoyed a quiet breakfast and then went to Vickie’s for a visit around noon. Don let us in and we chatted with him for a bit before going back to Vickie. When we did, we found how very thin she is. Not eating has truly taken a toll on her body and she is very physically weak. We brought our cat Gandalf with us and she really seemed to connect with him and come alive as we played with him. Truly, she is a wonderful friend and I miss her often.
The nurse came and we left the room while she was there. Hayley and I found a Sudoku puzzle untouched and solved it, which set us on a sudoku frenzy where we downloaded apps and played several games competing with one another for speed and accuracy. Finally the nurse let and we went back to Vickie’s room again. We caught up on her life and shared about ours and exchanged gifts. Vickie’s sister, Linda, also arrived and visited with us -as did Andrea. Eventually conversation waned and we said our goodbyes and departed.

On the way back, we stopped and bought some last minute Christmas gifts for my family. Once we finally arrived, we packed up and left for Peama and Grandaddy’s (since we would miss their Christmas Day celebrations). Katie and Jason and their two boys came with us -we actually rode in their car- and we caught up, enjoyed a really nice meal, exchanged gifts and played with toys before departing for the evening.

Friday, Dec 23, we started the day just like the one before, but after sleeping in and a quiet breakfast we packed to go to North Carolina where Nana lives on the same land as her son, Randy, and his family. We travelled to North Carolina and there celebrated Christmas with Nana and Gran. We also helped to set up the house for the remainder of the family’s impending visit on Christmas Eve. However, we were set to leave before they arrived – around 11:45 AM on Christmas Eve.

Saturday, Dec 24, Hayley and I woke up in North Carolina and did leave around 11:45. That put us back in Tennessee by 2:00 with 3 hours to unpack, clean, repack and prepare for Christmas Eve services at the church. Blessedly, we succeeded and even got an oil change. The service went well and we left shortly after for Georgia where we picked up a last minute addition to our trip from the storage unit and returned for sleep at Hayley’s parents’ house. We saw them and traded stories of the day and packed vehicles full of presents and then went to bed.

Sunday, Dec 25, we were very glad to have packed the presents the previous night since we drove them over to Katie and Jason’s for breakfast, Christmas story reading, and gift exchanging. Alex and Jen showed up and it was good to realize that next year, two new nieces will be with us as both Katie and Jen are pregnant. The morning went well and was socially and emotionally rewarding. And Hayley and I departed for Florida around 11:30. 8 hours of driving later, we arrived just in time for gift exchange with my family. We all helped to pack each other’s stockings and it went really well. After gift exchange, we played card games and turned in for the night.

I woke up this morning on a beach in Florida. My family is celebrating Christmas/New Year’s here.

michaelrobb Accountability, My Core Values

Core Value 6: Serve my extended family practically

Each of My Core Values has a subtitle that describes a litmus test by which I can determine success or failure in that area of life. For this one, it is:

Be vocationally and skillfully equipped to do so, while cultivating a compassionate heart towards my family.

The first aspect of this core value is fairly self explanatory, despite it’s difficulty. I found a great resource for mapping skill sets on peak prosperity’s website as the writers were outlining resilience (in lieu of a world currency collapse they have predicted). I find this list more suitable to me than similar listings found on college websites, because the skills of survival in the world suggested by peak prosperity are more akin to the ones needed to serve family in need than the skills of the world of academia/big business in my opinion. Consequently, I plan to order the skills and then develop them one by one (and hopefully sustain/catalog them) so as to be equipped to serve.

The second is even more important though. Skills can be learned and researched in the moment to a significant degree, but the will to serve must pre-exist. So, I hope to continue attending family events, affirming family ties, and thinking warmly of the people that make up my extended family.

michaelrobb My Core Values

Core Value 5: Father Children

Each of My Core Values has a subtitle that describes a litmus test by which I can determine success or failure in that area of life. For this one, it is:

Spiritually and Financially.

I think I live in a society that wrongly venerates children. But, I think that society is right to recognize unique the value and significance of children.
Children need leadership (like some adults) and are usually unable to lead themselves (like some adults). Therefore, there is a call from each generation as it comes into the world to be treated with protective care and guided unto right living/thinking. That’s the role I want to fill for people that are younger than me.

The two arenas/capacities in which I especially want to provide this paternal care and guidance to some of the next generation’s people are the spiritual and financial aspects of life because of their significance. In order to achieve this goal, I must be literate in both fields as well as have an understanding of pedagogy as well as true compassion that allow me to father children effectively.

michaelrobb My Core Values

Core Value 4: Be sought for wisdom/earn the respect of people

Each of My Core Values has a subtitle that describes a litmus test by which I can determine success or failure in that area of life. For this one, it is:

Fear the Lord and study so that people trust my expertise and motivation; think, act, and reason in an orthodox way.

This Core Value is almost set in three stages. First, it is to get wisdom. Second, it is to earn respect. Third, it is to be available. Because it is in stages, it also is a longterm core value. While all of my core values are meant to take a lifetime to satisfy and are meant to be longterm enough so that there is always more available to do, while allowing for success at  various levels/degrees of ‘the path’… this one is different because I could succeed in one or two stages, but fail in the remaining and thereby fail overall. If I am available and have respect, but no true wisdom, I fail. If I have wisdom and respect, but do not make myself available, I fail. If I am available and have wisdom, but no respect, I fail.

Thankfully, “The Lord gives wisdom” (Proverbs 2) and he does so “generously to all [who ask] without reproach” (James 1). It seems that wisdom is truly available as long as I would desire it. So, I pray that I would desire it because it is “much better to get wisdom than gold.” (Proverbs 16)

Respect. “The words of a wise man’s mouth earn him favor.” (Ecclesiastes 10) Honor is in Wisdom’s left hand and “the wise will inherit honor” (Proverbs 3). “Humility come before honor” (Proverbs 18) and “he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor” Proverbs 29). In fact, “whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find love, righteousness, and honor” (Proverbs 21) and “the reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches, honor, and life” (Proverbs 22). Conclusively, respect will come as I humbly accrue and exercise wisdom with humility within a particular setting.

Being available however must be a conscience choice and is a commitment reflected in how I chose to make a schedule. Additionally, it is an aspect of humility and honoring others.