Jon Stolpe
Jon Stolpe
February 2012 Top Posts and Commenters
I blinked and February was gone. Thankfully, I captured some of my thoughts and experiences here. As always, I wanted to thank all of you for your daily readership and contribution to The Stretched Blog. The new platform (jonstolpe.com) is growing! I like to take the opportunity with the first post of the month to look back and to celebrate what’s been happening here. So here are the top ten posts from February 2012:
1. Stretching To A New Focus – Guest Post by Leah Adams
2. Ten Reasons To Attend FamilyLife Weekend To Remember
3. Say What You Need To Say (Jan. 2012)
5. Ice Breaker – Groundhog Day
6. Stolpe Superbowl Scavenger Hunt
7. Ice Breaker – Verse Of The Day
9. The Kid Stretched Me – Guest Post by Tom Tarver
10. Quality – Time
Here are the top three commenters:
1. Tom Tarver (35)
2. Joe Lalonde (29)
3. Larry Carter (21)
Overall traffic increased on the blog despite the fact that I cut down my average posts per week from six to five. This is a good sign that new readers are joining the community and conversation. We had several brand new commenters and one or two new subscribers. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to the blog (on the right hand side of the main page), adding the blog to your RSS reader, and becoming of the Jon Stolpe Stretched Facebook fan page. These are all great ways to make sure you stay connected with what’s going on in and around the Stretched Community.
Finally, I’d like to highlight a few blogs that I’ve recently been enjoying. Stop on over to these great blogs and see what’s happening:
How was your month? What was your top post? What was your favorite post here? What other blogs can you share with The Stretched Community?
| Stretching To A New Focus – Guest Post by Leah Adams |
W2R Take Home 2: Make Prayer A Priority In Our Marriage
Happy Leap Day!
To my friend Stretch Mark, Happy 12th Birthday!
Yesterday, I shared one of my big take homes from my Weekend To Remember (W2R) marriage conference experience. I shared that I want to be an agent of encouragement in my marriage and in my family.
Today, I’ll share my second big take home for the W2R conference. I want to make prayer a bigger priority in my marriage. Leanne and I pray to together most nights at bedtime. Although, this sometimes is missed when one or both of us is “too” tired. If I’m honest, I often wait for Leanne to initiate our prayer time. I could probably come up with all kinds of excuses for this, but I’ll save you (and me) the agony.
The W2R conference was a great reminder that I need to step up and lead in this way in our marriage. One of the speakers, Bob Maddox, shared that he and his wife pray together twice a day. If he’s on the road, he calls her at least twice a day to make sure this prayer time happens. Bob takes responsibility for this. When he shared this, I was definitely challenged. And so we are praying together twice a day. I pray with Leanne before I leave for the office in the morning, and we pray together at bedtime. So far, it’s been three days in a row!
How could praying together twice a day make a difference in our family?
First, making prayer a priority puts our perspective and focus in the right place. God has to come first in our lives. Second, praying together gives us an opportunity to connect and to lift each other up. There’s no question that we are in a busy stage of our parenting lives as we run our kids from activity to activity. We need this time to slow down and to be together. Third, praying together sets the tone for our family. I’ve heard it said, the couple that prays together stays together. We want our family to be cemented together. And we want our family to put God first. When we pray, our kids will know it. They’ll see us putting God first. This will have an impact on their lives. Finally, prayer changes lives.
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. James 5:16
What’s your prayer life look like? If you’re married, do you pray together? What reasons could you add for praying together with your spouse?
W2R Take Home 1: I Want To Be An Encourager
Yesterday, we (Leanne and I) shared about our Weekend to Remember (W2R) experience at the FamilyLife marriage conference in Hershey, PA. Conferences like this are great, but it can be easy to come away with a mountain top high that quickly fades as real life happens.
When I woke up early yesterday morning for an earlier than normal start, it was easy to become instantly tired and to feel worn out before the week had even started. When I had a migraine headache yesterday at work, it was easy to quickly become frustrated and to feel like I was back to real life. (I’ve been struggling with migraines over the past few weeks.) When I came home from Isaac’s basketball game where we suffered a tough loss in the final four of the playoffs, it was easy to get down knowing that our hoops season was now over.
But throughout the day, I kept reminding myself of the great weekend I had just experienced. I left the conference with a few take homes.
The first major take home for me was put into action last night when Isaac suffered defeat in his basketball game. I want to be an agent of encouragement for my wife and kids. I was pretty down after his game due to the outcome and due to a comment from one of his teammates. I had the chance to express my pride and love for Isaac. Isaac plays the basketball game with a positive attitude. He doesn’t complain. He has fun. He does his best. His game continues to show improvement. I love to watch how he transforms throughout the season into a basketball loving machine.
As we talked about the discouraging remark by his teammate, we had the chance to discuss the power of encouragement. We all have the opportunity to lift people up through our comments. I want our family to live this way to each other, to our classmates, to our teammates, and to others. As a dad, I believe it starts with me as I lead our family. I want to be an agent of encouragement!
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. I Thessalonians 5:11
How has encouragement transformed your life? Are you an agent of encouragement or of discouragement? What is one thing you can do today to encourage someone?
Ten Reasons To Attend FamilyLife Weekend To Remember
This weekend, Leanne and I spent the weekend at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey, PA. We enjoyed Cocoa Massages at the Hershey Spa. We enjoyed chocolate butter and chocolate mocha creme brulee at the Hershey Grill. We enjoyed a quick ride at Chocolate World. And we enjoyed plenty of Hershey’s Kisses and candy bars. But we weren’t there for the chocolate.
We were in Hershey, PA to attend the FamilyLife Weekend To Remember event which ran from Friday night through Sunday morning. Before you get too nervous, Leanne and I aren’t having any major marriage problems. But we’re always looking for opportunities to improve our marriage relationship. This year’s event was focused on creating oneness in our marriage, and the sessions are taught from a Biblical perspective.
As we were driving home yesterday, we thought it would be fun to share reasons for attending an event like this. Perhaps, you’ll consider attending with us next year! So here’s our top 10 (in no particular order) reasons to attend the FamilyLife Weekend To Remember:
1. One Big Date: This is a great opportunity to spend time together for the entire weekend (without the kids).
2. Cocoa Scented Everything: From the shampoo, conditioner, and hand lotion to the baked goods and chocolate steamers, you could smell chocolate everywhere. You could even smell chocolate in the air when you walked outside the lodge thanks to the nearby Hershey factories.
3. Speakers: Trent and Andrea Griffith and Bob Maddox did an excellent job transparently relating stories from their own marriages and life experiences to help illustrate the main points of the teaching. All three of the presenters were down to earth and approachable. We actually ran into Bob on Saturday night, and he was so easy to talk with.
4. Great Resources: Besides the speakers, there are tons of books and other resources available to help your marriage and your parenting. We picked up a handful of books that we’re looking forward to exploring together.
5. Foundational Teaching: We’ve heard many (if not most) of these things before, but it was great to be encouraged through the speakers.
6. Date Night: Although this was one big date for us (see number one), it was wonderful to have an evening designated as our night out.
7. We’re Not Alone: There were over 1500 others in attendance at this event. It was a blessing to see that there were so many couples who have decided to make their marriage a priority. On Sunday, there was an opportunity for people to share how they were changed by the conference and how they were going to apply what they had learned. We both resonated with many of the things shared.
8. Inspiring: We both left with renewed ideas and enthusiasm for our roles as spouses and parents. We were encouraged to list 2 or 3 action steps to take with us as we returned to the real world. We’ll be sharing those in the coming days through our blogs.
9. Dynamic Breakouts: On Sunday, we attended breakout sessions for men and for women. When we met together after these sessions, we both commented that these times were highlights for us. These breakouts provided specific teaching directed towards husbands and dads and wives and moms.
10. Renewing Our Vows: At the conclusion of the weekend, we had the privilege of renewing our marriage vows. These vows mean so much more now that we’ve experienced life together for over 15 years.
Have you ever been to a marriage conference? Which one? What were the highlights or biggest take-aways for you? How did it change your marriage?
Ice Breaker – Quality Names
Today, we conclude Quality Week on The Stretched Blog with an ice breaker question about quality. As usual, I’ll ask a question and give my answer. Then, it’s your turn.
Question: When you think of quality, what name or company comes to mind? And why?
My answer: For some reason, I think of two car companies. First, I think of Toyota. They have been known for the quality processes that they have in place to make sure their cars are produced at a high quality. Since getting married over 15 years ago, my wife and I have had three Toyota cars. They have been great! Second, I think of Ford – at least Ford when they first started. If memory serves me correctly, Henry Ford had a strong desire to make sure his cars were produced with quality and affordability.
See how simple that was? Now, it’s your turn. I look forward to hearing what you have to share.
Quality – Time
Today is Day Four of Quality Week on The Stretched Blog. Check out the previous three days to catch up on some of my thoughts on quality. I’m approaching the word quality from a different angle today. We usually associate the word quality with a product or service… ‘they provide quality service‘… or… ‘that product is a quality product.‘ But what if we look at quality as an indication of our time? What does quality time look like?
Quality time means being present. In order for me to provide quality time to my wife and kids, my mind has to be with them at the same time my body is next to them. It’s easy for my mind to wander to work, to the big game, to my next blog post, to anything. If I’m serious about quality time, I need to focus on my wife and kids when I’m with them.
Quality time means making the time. In our house, it feels like we are so busy going from one activity to the next. We go to work, school, sports, scouts, piano, small groups, church, school activities, puppy club, etc. All these things are great, but they can crowd out time to spend in relationship together. With all of our activities, our family definitely has to be intentional with our time together (and we don’t always get it right). Try turning off the TV and play a game instead. Go for a ride in the car together. Take a walk. Each of these things can provide quality time for you and your family.
Quality time means saying no. Sometimes, we have to say no to activities that are demanding our attention. I was struck by Isaac’s decision this weekend to miss out on an event that he normally would have jumped at the chance to attend. He decided that he needed a break – that it was okay if he didn’t make it this time. I applaud him for deciding to hang out with his parents.
Quality time means being creative. This past weekend, I had the honor of taking Hannah out for a date. We ended up going to the gym to work out which honestly didn’t give us any quality time together; however, we followed up the gym with her first trip to Kiwi Yogurt, a local frozen yogurt place. We picked out our treats and we headed to the car where we enjoyed our frozen desserts and some great conversation about heading to high school next year. Think outside the box when it comes to creating quality times for you and your family.
Quality time is important. I don’t want to get to the end of my life and realize that I rushed through it just to get to the next thing.
What does quality time look like for you? How do you make quality time in your life?
Quality – Starts With Me
Quality Week on The Stretched Blog continues with this 3rd post. Go check out the past two days of discussion if you need to catch up. You can catch up my clicking here or here.
As a dad and as a leader, I care about passing down and exemplifying quality to me kids and to me team. I want them to respond with quality.
Unfortunately, I don’t always get it right at work or at home and neither do my kids or the members of my team.
I think it’s important to understand the benefits of doing things with quality and to recognize the downside of allowing our performance to be less than stellar.
You may know that our family currently has two dogs. Iso is our forever doe. He’s a lovable eight year old black lab who loves to lay around and sleep. Irwin is our 17 week old seeing eye puppy. He keeps us on our toes with his puppy teeth and puppy energy. Hannah, our daughter, is responsible for taking care of Irwin which leaves our son, Isaac, to handle Iso. (Are you confused with all the “I” names?) Part of caring for Iso involves taking him outside and cleaning up the dog poop. It’s not a glamorous job, but you can understand that it’s essential.
When Isaac takes Iso out, he’s supposed to clean up after the dog right away. Obviously, there are major benefits to performing this task with quality. The yard is clear of “landmines” and Isaac doesn’t have to mess with it later.
But what happens when his “job” performance lacks quality? We end up with dog poop in the yard. Someone steps in it and gets it in their shoes. Then they track it in the house which leads to lots of extra cleanup and wasted time. It also means that we have to be on Isaac more to make sure he’s doing his jobs correctly. This isn’t fun for Isaac or for mom and dad. Inevitably, Isaac has to spend more time cleaning up the yard, because he didn’t do it right the first time.
Suddenly, the lesson in quality starts to make more sense. When it comes to quality, we want to do it right because we do it right – not because we do it twice.
As I ponder quality today, it may seem like I’m picking on my son. This isn’t my intent. These thoughts are a reminder to me that I must act with quality first – especially if I expect my team and my kids to make quality a priority.
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17
How have you been positively or negatively impacted by your attention or lack of attention to quality? If you are a leader, how do you demonstrate the importance of quality to your team?
Quality Response Matters
This week The Stretched Blog is focusing on quality. Yesterday, I shared about Mr. Bobo, a man who clearly had an influence on me when it comes to quality. Through the comments, it’s been interesting to hear how others have had a quality influence on The Stretched Community. Today, I take the discussion of quality to another place. I hope you’ll read along and add to the comments.
When I think of the word quality, I often think about times when I have been impacted by poor quality. Poor quality is easy to remember. It happens when our expectations aren’t met. It happens when we are inconvenienced or when we’re treated poorly.
I remember a time when I picked up a brand new car several years ago. I love the smell of a new car, and I was looking forward to driving the new car off the lot and getting used to the new vehicle. You can imagine my disappointment when just a half mile down the road the transmission seized and the car stopped. Obviously, the transmission product quality was overlooked when this vehicle was shipped from the factory.
I also recall a time when my family was turned away at a hotel despite our reservations and despite the fact that we had confirmed our reservations earlier that day. The hotel had obviously overbooked for the evening, and we were victims of the poor service quality.
In both of these cases, quality was a big issue. As service or product providers, we fail when we permit our products to be released without appropriately checking for quality. Customers deserve our best. Having said this, I realize that mistakes and errors happen. When this happens, we must ask, “How do we respond to flaws in quality?”
Our failure becomes catastrophic when we ignore the product or service faults. Customers change loyalties. They can become outspoken against our product or service especially when we fail to take corrective action to improve our quality.
On the flip side, when we respond quickly and decisively to our lapses in quality, we demonstrate to our customers that we care and that we truly want the best for them. It shows them that we’re committed to getting it right.
Looking back to my new car experience, the car dealership had an embarrassing situation on their hands. Despite the fact that they did not manufacture the car, they had the uncomfortable position of taking responsibility for the situation. I honestly don’t remember all the details of how the situation was resolved; however, I do remember being satisfied with the actions taken by the car dealership. The dealership acted quickly and appropriately to make sure my total experience was a quality experience.
As for the hotel situation, the hotel staff found a room for us, but our kids had to sleep on the floor. As we made our way to our room, we heard other hotel patrons complaining about the poor service they were receiving. You can guess that our family won’t be going back to that hotel again.
Quality matters.
How we respond to lapses in quality matters also.
Share about a time when you experienced quality either initially or in response to less than stellar quality. How does quality drive your future consumer decisions? How do you make sure quality is part of your product delivery?
Quality – Lessons from Mr. Bobo
I’ve been thinking a lot about the word quality lately. In my department, we are focusing on the quality of our product. We want to produce the best product possible. We want to be proud of our work. This week The Stretched Blog will focus on quality. To start the week off, I share how quality was instilled in me at the beginning of my working life.
When I was in high school, I had a clear interest in math and science. I’ve always loved solving problems and figuring things out. Little did I realize how important quality is to the math and science fields.
My dad was one of the pastors at the church where I grew up in New Jersey. Sometimes it was tough being a PK (Pastor’s Kid), but most of the time I didn’t mind it that much. My dad was a celebrity of sorts as he knew many leaders, personalities, and business people in and around our town. He knew people from our church who were involved in all kinds of different career fields.
I’d like to think it was because I worked hard, but I’m guessing my dad had something to do with the calls I received to work at various jobs around the community. I cut grass. I shoveled snow. I raked leaves. I painted housed. I washed dishes. I hung curtains. I did all sorts of things. But one job I will always remember is the four years I worked as a land surveyor for Henry Bobo. Apparently, Mr. Bobo had heard about my interest in math and science, and he needed a helper in the field to help him survey properties around the area.
Mr. Bobo was an older gentleman who lived with his wife, Grace, in the center of Mt. Holly, NJ. He kept his surveying business going despite the physical demands of the trade that could be tough for a man his age.
When I started working for Mr. Bobo, I would ride my bike two and a half miles to his house where we would load up his equipment in his red and white van as we prepared for a day in the field measuring distances, taking elevations readings, cutting through brush along property lines, and marking out property corner stones and markers. Working for Mr. Bobo, I learned a lot about the importance of precise setup and accurate measurement and note taking. I remember how frustrated he would become when I didn’t hold the plumb-bob correctly or the rod just right.
When I started working for Mr. Bobo early in high school, I was the gopher and the “rod man.” I was responsible for holding the reflector rod or the plumb bob while Mr. Bobo used the transit and took the field notes. As time went on, I began to learn how to set up and operate the transit. Suddenly, I was looking through the transit and taking notes. Mr. Bobo was very direct in explaining how the numbers should be written in the log book. I’ve always had neat handwriting, but I would always hear it from Mr. Bobo if my numbers weren’t written correctly. This used to drive me crazy.
Towards the end of my time working with Mr. Bobo, he had me doing the drafting up in his office. Here I would take the field notes and draw out the site plan and topographical map of the places we had previously surveyed. It was through this activity that I understood why it was so important to hold the rod steady, to set up the transit properly, and why it was so important to write the field notes so clearly. If the measurements and numbers weren’t written correctly, the plans wouldn’t come out right. There would be “gaps” in the drawings.
Mr. Bobo’s demand for quality was essential to his final product. His lessons in doing things the right way has been important in my career and in my daily activities. I’m thankful for Mr. Bobo and his insistence on doing things right.
Who has had an impact on you when it comes to quality?
Ice Breaker – Ice Breaker Questions
Yep, you just read the title correctly!
I said “Ice Breaker” twice.
If you do a Google search for “Ice Breaker Questions”, Jon Stolpe Stretched comes up fourth. That’s pretty impressive! Today, officially marks the 20th ice breaker question to appear on the Jon Stolpe Stretched Blog since the first question was asked back on October 7, 2011. We’ve discovered some pretty crazy, amazing, interesting, and funny things about each other. And you should have learned quite a bit about me. We’ve learned about tattoos, Christmas movies, close encounters with famous people, and hair.
Today’s ice breaker question is pretty simple. It will help me as I develop more content for our traditional Friday posts, and it will help us achieve the main mission of these ice breaker questions – to break the ice – to help us get to know each other a little better.
If you could chime in, it would be appreciated!
Question: What is your favorite type of ice breaker question (for example, something about your past, something about the future, something about your favorite things,…)? What is your favorite Jon Stolpe Stretched Ice Breaker Question so far (you may need to visit the archives to find your favorite)? What ice breaker question would you like to see answered here?
Unlike the “traditional” ice breaker posts, I’m leaving the answers all to you. So what do you think? I can’t wait to hear your feedback.