When I was in elementary school, my dad revealed a foolish thing he had done when he was my age. But he immediately followed his admission with this statement: “Do as I say, not as I do.” Dad soon realized, however, that his children followed his behavior more than his words.
In fact, before we entered high school, Dad told us an even more important statement: “Your actions speak so loudly that I can’t hear what you say.” Stated another way, if you don’t practice what you preach, people will ignore what you say. This is true for parents—and everyone else.
Years later, I met with a group of executives to explore how to apply God’s Word to their business and personal lives. I suddenly remembered Dad’s advice as we discussed the importance of teaching God’s Word to our children so it would guide and bless their lives. At that point, I remembered that if I wanted my children to listen to me, not only did I have to learn God’s Word and apply it to my life, but I also had to model the type of behavior that demonstrated what I preached.
After our meetings concluded, I continued reading and studying God’s Word. During my study time, I identified ten life-changing skills that will put an individual in the best possible position to live a happy, successful, and significant life. I then developed a simple format to share these skills with others so they could learn how to apply them to their lives.
Using this simple format, I first met with two family members every Wednesday night for three months, exploring the ten life-changing skills. Then over the course of two years, I met individually with an attorney and a businessman. I also met individually with a college student, an MBA graduate, and a law student.
After these sessions, all the participants suggested I write a book so more people could learn and benefit from these skills. As a result of their encouragement, I agreed.
But before I even typed my first outline, I pored over the twenty large three-ring notebooks that contained thirty-six years’ worth of material I’d gathered from God’s Word, authors, speakers, ministers, teachers, mentors, and Christian organizations. I had gleaned so much from so many sources. After decades of synthesizing all this material, I realized it would be difficult to write this book in the typical nonfiction fashion.
Consequently, I decided to write the narrative element of the book using a fictional format. The story focuses on a father who shares the ten life-changing skills with his adult son. Although this narrative is fictional, the book is based on God’s Word which is true. Also, the anecdotes and examples are likewise true, and they are straight from my own life experiences and those of our family.
My hope is that the fictional format is a welcoming, relatable way for you to engage with the book. Please put yourself in the son’s shoes as he takes this life-changing journey.