e2: effective elders e2: effective elders

Real Rest

Where do you feel most “at rest” ... that place where your heart rate slows, you breathe deeply, and every anxious thought just melts away? …

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A Good Word - Rest

In my younger years, I remember hearing the initials RSVP and later came to understand that they were an important part of an invitation. Is etiquette a fast-fading part of our culture? Few people respond with an RSVP anymore when invited to a significant event. For whatever reason, little thought is given to formally respond with a ‘yes’ or a ‘thank you, but no’ to an invitation.

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Rest and Renewal

How often have you heard these words spoken by a friend, “I’m so tired,” or “I don’t have enough time to rest”? How often have you thought or spoken those very words about your own life? A more important question is, “How often do I make time to truly rest?”

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Patience & Self-Control

It has always annoyed me when people use the phrase, “The patience of Job.” To me, Job persevered! Patience means the ability to wait nicely, and Job’s situation was far from nice. …Speaking candidly, I am not a patient person.

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Patience: God was 1st

Last summer my kids and I finished a project that we had been working on for a very long time! Approximately five years ago, I learned that my grandpa’s 1951 John Deere MT tractor was still in the family. … for 30 years it sat unused and exposed to the elements. When I learned of it from my Uncle Don, I immediately asked him if I could restore it. What a wonderful opportunity…

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Developing and Cultivating Patience

Brothers and sisters … warn … encourage … take tender care … Be patient with everyone. ~Paul

Whether waiting in stalled traffic, a long checkout line…

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Soul Care - Patience

My office moved to a new location the other day – packing up one space and then unpacking, trying to get the phones and copy machine …

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Patience: Hurry Up and Wait

I am gifted with impatience. Patience is not my natural state. As a kid playing baseball, I never could wait for the right pitch. On every team I possessed both the homerun record and the strikeout record simultaneously! As a young man in Army basic training, from day one, we lived the military maxim: “Hurry up and wait!” I vividly remember Drill Sergeant Greathouse …

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Developing the Virtue of Patience

The word patience is defined as "The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset." It is waiting with grace. Would you characterize yourself as a patient person? Or are you like me – it depends on the situation? Sitting in traffic…

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Patience in Waiting

Some of my earliest memories are the drives to my grandparents’ house, who lived an hour away. It always seemed like it took forever to get there and I’m confident I asked the popular question a million times throughout the years, “Are we there yet?”

Waiting…

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A Good Word - Patience

Soon after I was immersed in my senior year of undergrad, I heard a challenging sermon on patience. On the day I prayed for patience in my morning devotions, I had not one, but two flat tires! And I stopped praying for patience. What is patience with God? In a single word, it is waiting. From the opening pages of Scripture…

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Priority of Legacy

As we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day on Monday I have been thinking about its origin and our observance of it. … As I was thinking about this change in the way Memorial Day is celebrated, I was reminded of Nehemiah 8:14-17 when the Israelites realized something of greater importance had been forgotten. …

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Practical Priority

Life is full of prioritizing! We all make many everyday decisions that require us to identify what is of greater importance. … At e2 we frequently get calls from elder teams or church staff asking for help to sort through priorities. We love those calls! …

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Priority - Finding Identity in the Middle

After 26 years of “exchanging life” for the goal of making money and climbing a ladder to nowhere, I am stuck in the middle, between where I was and where I hope to be. …

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An Elder’s Priority

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, priority can be defined as “superiority in rank, position, or privilege.” I am amused how often we use – or misuse – the word. …

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Soul Care - Priority

In thinking about priorities, I am reminded of a motto used by Chicago Bears great Gale Sayers: “The Lord is first, my friends are second, and I am third.” The world is a noisy place and …

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Priority: Which Race?

Can you believe the month of May is already here?! I think you can all relate to my excitement because May means summer and I love summer. In Indianapolis, May is known for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, also known as the Indianapolis 500. My question to you: what is your priority? What race are you training for?

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A Good Word - Priority

Having lived in Indianapolis for more than three decades, I have come to appreciate “the Month of May.” From May 1st through Memorial Day, we eat, breath, sleep the Indianapolis 500, “the greatest spectacle in racing!” … At e2, the good word for the month of May is priority and we want to make another race a priority in our lives.

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