“Secret Plans are the Best!”

Having a clear view or vision of the objective is a success key when starting a project.  If you don’t know where you are going, how do you know when you get there?

If you want a cool place to hang out in the back yard with your adult friends, obviously the objective is a tree house built for adults.  It should include a fridge, HD TV, theater seats and an Adrian Peterson Fathead.  This would be so cool. [sorry, got a little distracted]

Ok.  We have a vision.  Let’s start building.  No wait.  I think I’ve forgotten something.  Let me check with my resident teen wiseman.   

Oh discerning and insightful teen, how do you get your projects done?

“I don’t have a plan but I am going to get it done.”

So you are saying I don’t need a plan to build my tree-borne mancave.  It will just happen?  Is this the way you get your school assignments done?

“No, I mean… I don’t have a plan that I can tell you.”

Oh, I get it.  Shhhh…. it’s a secret.  Secret plans are always the best.  Especially those that are so secret that they don’t actually exist.  Kind of like the plan to get your summer reading done prior to your last first day of school. [busted]

I guess my tree-borne mancave will have to wait until I can figure out how to crack the code on these secret plans.

Thankfully, we have an eternal life plan that is very clear and not a secret at all:

1 Timothy 2:3-6  “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

-What is your plan?-

“One of the Greatest Minds”

My wife and I are truly blessed to be in such close proximity to “one of the greatest minds of the 21st Century”.  What an honor.

Budgeting is a great planning tool.  Having a monthly family financial budget means having a plan for where your money is going to go in the next month.   

Having a home improvement project budget means knowing how much you can spend before you cut the first board or, in my case, it gives my wife an estimate before she applies the man-pi factor (3.14 x his estimate).  

Having a time budget means fencing blocks of time for yourself to accomplish all your tasks for a day.  This application of budgeting was especially useful during a recent “planning session” with our oldest son.  

He thought it would be a very good idea to set a daily budget of time so he could get his work done and, more importantly, get us off his back.  We were very proud when he set up his time budget all on his own and it was very reasonable.  30 minutes for a meal, 4 hours for school work, 30 minutes to stretch, 20 minutes to get ready in the morning, …… and so on.  It actually showed that he was going to be up and out of bed by 8:30.  Not bad considering this is one of our “sleepy teens”.

As my wife was reviewing his time budget with him, it was apparent that he was also proud of himself for putting it together.  It really was a nice plan.  When she complimented him on his time budgeting abilities he returned a confident response: “Well, when you’re dealing with one of the greatest minds of the 21st Century, you have to keep organized”.

Oh, yes.  He actually said it.  Modest is this one.  I really wish he would break out of his shell.

Proverbs 26:12 “Do you see a person wise in their own eyes?  There is more hope for a fool than for them.”

- What is your plan? -

“What to Call a “Dog”?”

I mentioned in my first blog that I felt like I had enough content to fill years and years of blog space. After 12 blog posts, I still feel the same way, but I’ve also discovered another interesting factoid.  I am really good with blog titles.

I am not bragging.  Several people have complimented my titles.   

“I love your titles.”

“Your titles are so creative.”

“Your titles always make me laugh.”

“I can’t wait for your next blog because your titles are genius.”

Ok.  Maybe I stretched the truth on these compliments just a little.  I don’t get many accolades on my writing.  Wait a minute.  They are not actually complimenting my writing, just the titles.

Now that I think about it, maybe what they are really saying is:

“Your content is really, really bad.”

“Please write something that compels me to read further than the title.”

“Take a creative writing class.  Please.”

Sounds like a cry for mercy.  Well, at least I have the keen ability to give a “Dog” of a post a cool name.  I can live with that.

James 4:6  “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

- What is your plan -

“Behavior Modification”

An interesting thing has happened since I started to blog 6 weeks ago.  Our supper conversations have changed.  Let me explain.

We eat together around the supper table as often as we can.  Normally, it is only Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday evenings since our youngest teenager is a gymnast and practices the other days; CHALK UP!  [sorry about the yell]  Our supper conversations are usually entertaining as we dig into our teenagers’ lives.  We would discuss especially intriguing behaviors from our ever-wise duo.

These entertaining exchanges sometimes yield great material for a blog.  They’ve caught on.  I’m busted.  It wasn’t really that hard for them to catch on to my method since my wife would say “that would make great blog” material.  

The result was an immediate change in behavior.  Now, we both use the threat of the blog to  invoke behavior modification.  The threat of public embarrassment is a very efficient tool in behavior management for teens.  It is truly amazing.  

“Do you really want to sleep past your alarm and get the bulldozer treatment?  That would be a funny blog post.” - result: teenager is out of bed before the second snooze.

“You seem to be avoiding your writing.  Your dad might write about that in his blog.” - result: teenager completes his paper on time.

I wrote about incentives and unintended outcomes in a previous blog.  This was another great example.  I had no idea that my writing could be an effective discipline tool.  Just another club in the golf bag of parenting.

Proverbs 22:6  “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

- What is your plan? -

“I Know”

My all time favorite response from my teenagers is “I Know”.  It’s multi-purpose and conveys a complete thought.  It indicates wisdom as the synonyms for “know” are grasp, understand, and comprehend.  Merriam-Webster tells us it literally means “to have knowledge”.  We all know that teenagers have all the knowledge they need.  This is why “I Know” is not only my favorite response, it is also the most frequent.

“You have Spanish homework due tomorrow.”

“I Know.”

“If you know, why don’t you do it now.”

“I Know!”

“The Spanish homework is not going to complete itself.”

“I Know!!”

“If you know, why am I having to tell you?”

(BIG EYE ROLL)

[another favorite]

Sounds like a complete grasp of the situation to me.

“We have to be out the door by 12:15 tomorrow.  You have an appointment.”  

“I Know.”

“You said “I Know” the last time and you were 20 minutes late.”

“I Know!”

“If you know, then what is your plan to make sure you are on time?”

“ahh”

“You need a plan to get up on time.”

“I know.”

[He was only 12 minutes late this time]

“Your appointment was moved from today to next week.”

“I know.”

“How could you possible have known?  I just received the email.”

“ahh”

[gotcha]

He clearly has a complete comprehension of all knowledge.

We have an abundance of “knowing” in our house.  Anybody need a little?

Proverbs 2:10 “For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.”

- What is your plan? -