When the yelling gets directed at you....

Hey blog fans,

Lets talk about lessons learned for a minute.

Lesson #1. Dont ever be the odd one out in Military training. Fly in the middle, do your job, and dont stick out untill you know youre role and can lead effectively.

Lesson #2. Always lock your locker

Lesson #3. Pay attention to details. Maintain positive control of yourself and your situation at all times. Look out for those around you. Act like an officer.

Lesson #4. If one fails, the whole fails.

So I, and my roommate, happened to brake lessons 1 and 3 today, and brought lesson 4 out and into the open. We are doing the Damage Control training today and we had to split our company into two sticks for a morning and an afternoon group. My squad and one other are in the afternoon group so after some spring cleaning and chow, we thought it would be a decent idea to take a little cat nap on top of the racks.

No Good.

Senior Chief came on deck and as Dipinto and I came bleary eyed to attention outside our door, Senior got that look in his eye. He asked us why we thought it would be OK, JUST BECAUSE HE WAS AWAY, TO SLEEP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY.... WE CLEARLY DIDNT HAVE ENOUGH TO DO, DID WE!?!?!?!

Well he decided to strip every rack on deck and make us remake them all, to specs, in half an hour. We also all had to change from PT sweats to Khaki's and then be on line. Then he found out that DiPinto was our squad leader and gave us a passionate and warrented speech about selfishness and leadership.

It was selfish to think that my sleep was more important than my shipmates finishing their computer work or shining their shoes. It was poor leadership and a bad example to think that we were so squared away that we had nothing else to do.

And worst of all, what if the skipper had come on deck and we were that slow to get online, hell would have been in King Hall in Newport, RI.

Leadership is doing the right thing when no one is looking. Christianity is living a life for a God who is always looking. Not that we have to prove anything to God (because we cant) or that we have to be a certain way (because change comes from the Lord), but we have to know that we are under the Law of Grace always.

How many sins do I hide and think its OK? Ultimately, Im not squared away, I dont have it figured out. And my soul is laid bare for the Lord to see at all times. Oh! that I could live a life cognizant of my sin and thankful for Grace! What if we had lives that preached, not perfection, but Grace all the time!? Because that is the truth, whether we are hiding in our rooms sleeping, or on our knees before the Lord. The truth of the cross is constant and unchanging.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17

Be thankful always... Our deeds can preach the Gospel and we should be aware of that. We have cause to only be thankful all the time, We have been forgiven!!!! It is sin that preaches a different Gospel, and the Lord has defeated sin.

We need to be praying, continually.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 1 Corinth 9:24

Praise God!