Core Four

Fourteen years ago, while spending a semester in Kenya, I came up with four principles that I thought made sense to live my life by. I told myself that in order for me to be all I wanted to be, I had to first take care of myself spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally. To me, at age twenty-one, that meant seeking God, reading books, staying in shape, and finding a woman whom I could trust to be my life-partner. Naturally, I veered from these principles in various capacities and even adopted new mantras like "do what is right, not what is convenient" and "be strong, consistent and decisive." I was so young and inconsistent.

All of these are great sayings and each has helped me to get to where I am today despite not always heeding their implied messages, but now, at almost thirty-five years old, with real grown man problems on my plate -- health, wife, child, mortgage, bills, aging parents -- I am going in a new direction and trying a new saying. Hopefully the simplicity of it will stick.

"Be accountable and responsible to God, myself, my family and my people."

It does not stray too much from the original but it is more succinct. It helps me to remember why I am here and what I must do everyday. If BFM is supposed to be a forum by which educate, encourage and empower each other, this has to be our core four. We cannot succeed with prioritizing these principles, in this order. Time is running out and as we approach the mid-point of life and hopefully have another fifty to sixty years left on earth, shouldn't we get it together and simplify our ambitions? Yes, we have money to make and all of the above require that we allocate money for them -- including God (church) -- but let's not wake up every morning and say "let's get this cream." Instead let's try "Lord, please help me to be the man I am supposed to be. For you, for myself, for my family and for my people. Amen."

To be continued.....

BFM