An Amazing Accomplishment!

My beautiful bride, sensational son and noble nephew were with me when I graduated on June 14 with the doctorate degree. That experience was a miracle!

I am not the scholarly type, but I had to become one during the last three years. My sixth grade teacher and my high school counselor told me to not even try to go to college because I was too stupid and would never make it.

This experience is not about a title or a degree. It is about overcoming many monumental obstacles. When it seemed impossible to keep going, my project mentor and my wife encouraged me with a radical revolution of empowering encouragement.

My beautiful bride had a dream a few months ago and saw me walking across the platform to receive my degree. I hung onto that dream like a cat hanging onto a limb stretched out over a cliff. My mentor told me that I needed to see myself walking across the line.

Several miracles happened for me to cross that line. It was the most difficult and demanding experience in my life. For me, it was like climbing Mount Everest without an oxygen mask and like learning Chinese in Hong Kong without an interpreter.

You may be facing an impossible situation. If I can do it, YOU CAN DO IT! Cry out to the Lord with your whole heart! He will give you faith that He will strengthen you to break through! He will give you people, resources, wisdom and all you need to make it!

Trust God from the bottom of your heart and don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go. He's the one who will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God. Run from evil. Your body with glow with health. Your very bones will vibrate with life. (Proverb 3:5-8, The Message)

An Awesome Approval!

I just received an awesome approval for my research project. I am in a doctoral degree program in L.A. even though I live in Boise, ID. This experience is so far out of the box for me that many times I have had a complete meltdown. I completed my Masters degree 30 (yes, that is t-h-i-r-t-y) years ago! So I am experiencing growth!

Now that I am a candidate for the doctorate degree in which I am specializing in leadership and creative conflict management, I must complete Chapter Three by September 1st. I will do it. By February 1st next year I must have the complete rough draft completed. This is a huge commitment!

There are many lessons that I am learning that apply to all of us:

1. As we launch into uncharted waters, we all have anxiety about the unknown.

2. Overcoming fear is rewarded with increased confidence and courage.

3. We become stronger mentally, emotionally and socially as we stretch beyond our comfort zones.

4. Growth occurs when we move beyond where we are to where we want to be.

5. We need to encourage each other to break through our barriers.

6. We are created to not live for love, but from love.

7. We all grow together as members one of another in our community!

All of us are needed to be all we can be!