Are We Truly Thankful.....

There are a few things in my life that I have to check to see where my heart is.  Like I talk about in our seminars, if our heart is not right with God in our personal life it will come out as we serve.  It takes a lot of energy to keep our masks on and when a situation arises that our adrenalin gets going, we will often respond poorly in either dealing with the situation or with those around us.  Often times it comes out in frustration, defensiveness, and anger. 

One thing that I check is checking to see if my life is a reflection of the Fruit of the Spirit.  Since this is direct evidence to my relationship with God, am I exhibiting love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control to those around me and in the various situations that I find myself in.  If not, what am I allowing to control my life instead of my relationship with Christ?
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I am on the road doing seminars, trainings, assessments, etc. a lot throughout the year.  I often miss the training that happens at my church each month.  Sometimes it would really easy when I am in town to disregard the training and be home for a weekend.  But it comes back to being thankful.  I should be thankful for the opportunity that I have to be able to get training.  And don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for the opportunity to train alongside the men and women that I get to serve with. 

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I was recently doing a seminar at a church and it continues to amaze me that there are people that will avoid going to training.  A few years ago, I worked with a church that that had built their security team from the pulpit.  What I mean is that they announced that they were forming a team and anyone that had a concealed carry permit was asked to join.  If this doesn’t throw red flags up for you then we need to talk.  If you have read things that I have written, been to one of our seminars, or watched a training DVD at some point you would have heard my feelings about most of the concealed carry people in our churches.  Most of them are just certificate holders.  They have just enough training to get their certificate and nothing more.  These are the people that think they will rise to the occasion when in fact they will sink to the level of their training when the adrenalin gets flowing.  I better step off my soap box and get back to the church I was talking about.

This church realized the error of what they did and wanted me to come in and to back the program up and build it correctly with their appointed security leader.  What we found happening for each training was that out of the 20+ people they had serving for security, only 8-10 would show for training.  The others communicated that they did not need any training.  They had their gun and they were good to go.  I won’t get in to details here as to what I suggested to the security leader as to what needed to happen, but not having training is something that should be a red flag for any church out there.  Think of the liability that you are putting the church in by not attending the training when it is offered.  Or rarely having training at all. 

By not attending or being thankful for the training opportunities that come your way, you are essentially saying that you have arrived.  That you know all that you need to know to fill the role that you are filling.  How very arrogant and unthankful that position is.  And yet this attitude is prevalent in our churches all over this country.  I could give you examples, to include my own church, of people that have this mentality when it comes to training. 

So, I am thankful that I have the opportunity to be in town this month in order to attend training.  I am thankful that I have the opportunity to do defensive tactics training 3 days a week.  I am thankful that I can go shooting each week when I am in town and do some tactical shooting with my team every other month.  I am thankful that I can read.  Ok, stop laughing.  I have learned from some of the guys that I get to travel with, the importance of reading.  Not only do I need to train my body, but I need to train my mind.  I am thankful that I live in a country where I can “pick up my mana” each day in order to train my heart.  I am thankful that I get to meet and teach people around the country on how to help prevent violence in their churches and still be a place for the hurting and broken to come and feel safe.  I am thankful that as I do a seminar and get to talk with people or read the feedback given, that I can learn from those same people.

At our seminar’s we start off with a video about mindset.  Thankfulness is a mindset.  If you are a security leader that is putting the training together be thankful for whoever shows up.  If you are a volunteer that has the opportunity to go to some training, be thankful for that opportunity and be thankful for the person that has taken the time and effort to make the training happen.  I always go into a situation where it would be easy to say that I already know this or that but instead to ask myself what I can glean from the training.  I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for some key people in my life that are exceptional in their fields.  I am thankful that there has been one man that has taught me how to communicate well in situations.  I am thankful that there are two guys that took me from the prideful mindset that “I’ve got this” when it comes to my gun and shooting to the skilled and competent shooter that I am today.  I am thankful to the man that I travel with that is a true master of defensive tactics. 
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I am thankful, are you?