Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 296 of our trek, and yesterday we hiked on the 16th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of Help. Today we will explore the importance of balance in all areas of our life as we hike the Trail of Cultivation.

There is a total of 18 trails on the trek, we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. These practical lessons were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. As we continue on each trail of our overall trek, I trust that you will also find this information valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. There is a lot of activity in and around The Big House this week. Sunday afternoon I invested several hours varnishing the woodwork in the library. I have the trim on two more walls to apply the 2nd coat to, and then it is onto the floor. Hopefully, we will have the library completed by the end of this week, and then we will move onto the other front room, which we call the parlor.

Our pair of hawks have been extremely busy this week and spending more time near their nest, which is right outside of our upstairs office, so it is enjoyable watching them. We can’t tell if they have actually laid their eggs yet as we do see both of them still flying around, but there is usually one of them near or on the nest. The female is noticeably larger than the male of this particular pair. If this is the same pair of hawks as in previous years, this is either their 5th or 6th year using the same nest.

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 295 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 15th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of Rest. Today we will explore a trail that all of us occasionally require which is the Trail of Help.

There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. These practical lessons were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. As we continue on each trail of our overall trek, I trust that you will also find this information valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We drove up to Marietta on Saturday and arrived late Saturday evening. The daffodils are in full bloom and are beautiful. I have included a couple of pictures in today’s journal. It was cloudy and a bit rainy when we arrived, so I will try to get some additional pictures when it is sunny out this week. We do have a full week with work projects and renovation work ahead of us, so we will need to stay focused to meet our expectations. It does require coordination with Paula and me having a clear understanding of our individual strengths, so we can best serve our clients. We do not have to beg each other for help. We understand that help is available at all times. This allows us to maximize our effectiveness as we work closely with our clients assisting them with their businesses.

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 294 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 14th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of The Process of Discipleship.  Today we will explore a very important aspect of our overall trek, and that is the Trail of Rest.

There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. These practical lessons were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. As we continue on each trail of our overall trek, I trust that you will also find this information valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. After several weeks of warmer than normal weather, it looks like this next week will be a bit cooler, especially since we will be farther north at The Big House for the next couple of weeks. As I mentioned, when we left from there the last time, the furnace has to be replaced due to a crack in the heat exchanger. Fortunately, the new furnace will be installed early this next week, so we should not be very many days without the furnace. All of the bedrooms do have gas inserts in them, and the kitchen/eating area has a separate large floor furnace. So, the house will not be without sources of heat. These situations are part of life, things wear out and break down, and we need to be prepared for these contingencies. In the same way, to make sure that our body, mind, and soul do not wear out prematurely, we need to exercise, eat properly, continue learning, and invest time in meditation and prayer. One very important area that I need to get better at is investing the proper time for sleep,...

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 293 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 13th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of Discipleship. Today we will explore a related trail which will help us to put practical content into what we explored yesterday as we hike the Trail of The Process of Discipleship.

There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. These practical lessons were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy.

As we continue on each trial of our overall trek, I trust that you will also find this information valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of the days of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. If all goes according to plan, we should be heading to The Big House on the day this episode releases. We hope to get a lot more renovation work completed while we are in Marietta this time.

Paula should be back from her visit with Aunt Pauline late Friday. It has been a great visit for her, and we are certainly glad that she made the choice to invest the time with her.

Speaking of investing time, as we head out for our hike, today we want to discover how best to invest our time in the process of becoming a disciple of Christ. As with every activity that we integrate into our lives, let’s change our mentality from spending time to investing time. When we invest time, it has a return on it, just like a monetary investment. The difference is when we invest time, it can have an eternal return that is part of living our legacy each day. Our trail for today is the Trail of The Process of Discipleship as we learn the process to become an effective disciple. This is

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 292 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 12th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of The Cross. Today we will explore a trail that we should seek after in many areas of our lives and that is Trail of Discipleship.

There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. These practical lessons were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy.  As we continue on each trail of our overall trek, I trust that you will also find this information valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. I have been able to stay focused this week on the tasks that need to be completed, so we are able to accomplish a good bit. AT&T cell coverage where Paula is in Fort Myers is nearly non-existent. Although phone calls can be made, the signal is certainly not strong enough to use as a computer hot-spot. I have been able to pick up the required daily duties that Paula provides for our client’s, so we are able to cover our duties as she is away.

Paula’s visit with her Aunt Pauline is going well, and they are finalizing the details needed for when God takes Aunt Pauline home whether it is soon or months away. Paula is her executor, and although they had all the planning and paperwork completed several years ago, it is best to recheck to make sure everyone is prepared and nothing has changed.

As we head out on our hike for today, it is necessary that we are also prepared for our daily trek. Many times we can learn from those that have traveled this path before. This is referred to as being a disciple of a master. Our trail for today is the Trail of Discipleship as we learn from the ultimate master, Jesus Christ. This is the 13th of 18 trails which makes up the trek we call…

When we think of being a...

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 291 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 11th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of Self-Denial. Today we will focus on one of the most important trails which is the Trail of The Cross.

There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. These practical lessons were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. As we continue on each trail of our overall trek, I trust that you will also find this information valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Paula had a long, but pleasant trip to Fort Myers on Tuesday to visit Aunt Pauline. Her aunt is very weak but is still living by herself. She has always been a very strong-willed person, but we are not sure how many more days on earth that God may grant to her. We are glad that our work situation and lifestyle allows for Paula to go and visit her on short notice. I was left to hold down the fort and have more work to do than hours in the day, so it was prudent that I remained in Charlotte although I would have liked to go. Paula is due back Friday night, and then we head to Marietta Ohio early on Saturday. We delayed returning to The Big House by a day so Paula could spend another day with Aunt Pauline.

As we move up the trail on our hike today, we are on the Trail of The Cross. The cross is where we gain our identity in Christ and the path to bring our image in line with God’s image. Until we learn how our lives as believers are completely integrated with Christ through the cross, we will have difficulty growing to maturity spiritually. This is the 12th of 18 trails, which makes up the trek we call…

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 290 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 10th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of Self. Today we will expand on yesterday’s trail, as we hike the Trail of Self-Denial.

There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. These practical lessons were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. As we continue on each trail of our overall trek, I trust that you will also find this information valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has been a good week for work progress so far, and we have already completed several tasks that have been in the queue for a while and are making progress on others.

In a somewhat unexpected event, Paula headed to Fort Myers, Florida early Tuesday morning to spend a couple of days with her Aunt Pauline. She is not doing well, and it may be the last time she will be able to visit her. It’s a 12-hour drive, so it makes for a long trip to take alone. But, we both agreed that it would be best if I stayed and focused on our workload. Plus, it would be difficult to make arrangements on short notice for Paula’s mom who lives with us.

As we move from the Trail of Self, it is time now to hike a parallel trail called the Trail of Self-Denial. One of the most difficult tasks that we have in our lives is to deny ourselves those things which we crave. That could be food, drink, sex, power, or anything else that we struggle to overcome. Self-denial usually will not allow lasting victory through the struggles in our life because it is based on self. We...

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 289 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 9th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of Consecration. Today our hike takes us to the Trail of Self.

There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. These practical lessons were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. As we continue on each trail of our overall trek, I trust that you will also find this information valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. We were able to take a break Sunday afternoon for a 4-mile walk as the weather was sunny and pleasant. Paula and I always enjoy our times of walking, as it spurs great conversations covering many aspects of our lives. Unless our plans change, we are heading back up to The Big House on Friday evening for a little over two weeks. We hope to get up there while the daffodils are still in bloom as we have missed seeing them in bloom the past couple of years. The daffodils come from ones that were around the property which my Granny planted, so they are special to us.

It is time to head out on our hike for today on the Trail of Self. This is a difficult trail because although we like to think of ourselves as being selfless, the contrary is true. Most of the thoughts that we have and the decisions that we make are centered on how we are going to benefit. Very few people, if any, are purely selfless in the decisions that they make. On our hike today, let us learn how to change our thinking about self when it comes to...