How do you climb the biggest mountain in the world...

The best way to describe the task that is on my mind constantly is to relate it to climbing the biggest mountain in the entire world. Now I think it's safe to say that most men don't look at being a Man as the most important task in their lives but the essence of being the Man of the house has so much tied to it that I believe it's the most important task that a father and a husband takes on in his entire life. Being a man encompasses so many different tasks that it's almost overwhelming when you really sit down and think about it. It you are like me you've never really thought about what it means to be a Mighty Warrior which is essentially the role of the man of the house. As the head of the household, the man of the house, it's your JOB to take care of your family through protecting them, providing a home for them, providing food for them, being the leader of the house by setting standards for living and speaking words of wisdom and love over them. These are all things that good men already do for their families if they are committed to their role as the head of the house and if you do these things then you will have a pretty happy family. But what I'm talking about here is not just having a "good" family life or a good standard of living; what I'm talking about is living a Godly life and striving for God's BEST in every aspect of your life. This is such an abstract thought for most people and it is for me too because I never really thought about it before just recently. I have been doing a lot of thinking and reading over the past year about living a God centered life and enjoying the best of God's blessings in my life and it's brought me to this point in time where I finally GET IT. But as soon as I GOT IT I realized that I have barely scratched the surface and I have an ENORMOUS mountain to climb because I am nowhere near close to being the best Man that I could be and that scares me quite frankly.
At this point in my life, at age 27 I am closer to God than I have ever been in my whole life. My life is going great and my relationship with my Lord is stronger than ever. My family is comprised of some of the most loving people on the planet and they have all come to have a relationship with God and have accepted Jesus as their personal savior. I have seen miracles happen in my mom's life by beating breast cancer twice, my brother has been saved from death numerous times along with my brother in law getting past something that could have killed him and I myself have battled with addictions and through the grace of God I have come through the fire without being burned. Miraculous things have been happening in my life and it has strengthened my faith beyond belief and I trust God with my life and with the lives of everyone in my family because He is always faithful and just. My wife and I have a great relationship and we have made a beautiful, smart, handsome little baby boy who is perfect in every way and he is healthy. Life is going great and I could sit back and seriously be happy and content with the way things are right now and live a great life and have a good relationship with God and my family but this is where things really get tough to swallow. I am not content at all with where I am at in life. I am not content at all with my relationship with my wife or my son and I'm certainly not content with my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I want more than just this, I want to be more and I want to have more. Now this isn't a selfish plea to be rich in the natural sense it's a plea and a CRY on my knees to God to give me the ability to be more than I am, to go farther and deeper than I am right now. I don't want to be average, that's the LAST thing I want to be is an average Christian and an average father/husband. Average is failure to me and at this point I am failing because I have been content with being who I am. Most people would kill to be me right now. Yea I lost my job and I don't have much money at the moment and I don't know what the future holds in that respect but that means NOTHING to me; what I'm concerned about is my relationship with my Lord and Savior and being Kingdom Focused in everything I do. I want to be better than I am right now across the board. I want to be the Man of my household and speak love and wisdom into my son's life and provide a model for my whole family on living a Christ centered life and what it means to be sold out for God. I want to be a GREAT and MIGHTY warrior for God, helping change the world and bringing people to the throne of Almighty God where they can be saved and forgiven of their sins and transformed into a new person through the love of Jesus Christ. I want to focus on my relationship with God and building my character to become the Prophet that God created me to be for my family and for everyone I know and will know in the future. The biggest obstacle in my path right now is my own stupid self, the idiot that I wake up and look at every morning in the mirror; because he's lazy and wants nothing more than to be comfortable. I have to discipline my body and die to myself everyday, looking to God for the strength to fight the battle that is before me and to focus my mind on things that are above and not the things that are average and normal. It's such a daunting task that seems impossible and it really is. To be the kind of man that I am talking about is Impossible in the natural but I am not looking to do natural, average things. I'm looking to do the Hard Things that I don't want to do Because they are hard and they involve me making sacrifices in my life that I don't want to make. Sacrifice is a nasty word because it goes against our natural way of thinking and our selfish human nature. If you can get past the selfishness of your flesh and your mind and reach the point where you want nothing more than to bless others with your time, talents and treasure that's where you will find true happiness. This is the kind of Man that I want to be! I want to be a GIVING MAN, generous with everything God has blessed me with. I have seen it before in other people and I have felt it myself when I have given something of value to someone else; the transfer of LOVE between two people is describable.
So to answer the question I posed in the title of this blog,"How do you climb the biggest mountain in the world?" It all starts 1 step at a time just like anything else but the biggest obstacle, other than the enemy of your soul prowling around you like a roaring lion waiting to pounce on you at the sign of any weakness, is having the self-discipline to stay focused and keep working no matter what happens. The word discipline means to bring to a state of order and obedience by training and control. This is where most people fall short because they don't have the will power to do the Hard Things that they naturally don't want to do. Reading is hard for some people, getting up and going to church on Sunday morning is hard for some people and giving up things that you like doing like playing golf or watching football to serve up at the church or help someone else out is hard for everyone in one way or another. Forcing your body and your mind to do things that they naturally don't want to do and rewiring your brain through repetition and a new way of thinking is what it takes to achieve what I'm talking about here. It's what makes people Great, the determination to follow their dreams no matter what happens and the self discipline to keep working harder and harder everyday, striving to be better today than you were yesterday. That's how fortunes are made and companies become great in the natural; but take that same enthusiasm and self discipline and put it into a Follower of Jesus who is Kingdom Focused with the God of the Universe as his Father it's unimaginable what kind of Awesome Things can be accomplished and what kind of a Man or Woman you will be if you will devote your life to this way of thinking. This is what's on my mind all day long and to be honest I'm failing miserably as it stands right now but I am on the rise and I am not going to let anything hold me down. I am reading more of God's word than I ever have before and equipping myself with the whole armor of God everyday preparing for BATTLE as a mighty warrior in the spiritual war that is going on around me. I have gotten plugged into an amazing church filled with people who are on the same path I'm striving toward and most are where I want to be. So I have many role models in my life and it gives me the sense that what I am trying to do is possible if I will just get focused and take the time to do the things I need to do instead of all of the other things that come up and try to take my attention away everyday. With God on my side whom shall I fear, nothing can stop me if I really want this and it's the only thing in this world that will last forever. I hope and pray that I can stay the course not only for my sake and my wife's sake but for the sake of my beautiful son. This is the kind of man that I want to be his father and this is the kind of man I am going to be. SO how do you climb the biggest mountain in the world? One step at a time, going all the way to the TOP and I can't be stopped.