Under the Influence

So I have drawn a new slip of paper, and will once again be writing one of these here "love letters." I hope it makes sense and is enjoyable.

What person has influenced you the most in your life? Tell of characteristics of this person.

Man this is a tough question. Like everything else, it depends on the phase of life that I am in.

What I would like to say is that my Dad has had the most influence on my life, and he has had a large influence, but growing up, it was hard because he worked so much. In that way, it is difficult to say. Dad is a big influence on me now that I am older. He is kind, and stands for what he believes is right. He is a man of God and he is honest with people. He has done what he felt he was supposed to do in his life, and to me that is huge.

In my early teens there were four guys that had a huge influence on me. These four guys helped to shape me into the man that I am really. In that very influential time of my life, these guys probably had the biggest effect on me.

The first (and these are in no particular order really) is Adam Harris. Adam was a couple of years older than me in school, but we were in the same youth group. Adam was just the guy that had the huge personality, and was just crazy really. Even early on, before I was in the high school youth group, Adam would make a point of inviting me to do things with them after the evening service. It was that acceptance that had a big influence on me, and that I have tried to carry on to include others, regardless.

After that there was Jimmy Cox. Jimmy was actually about 5 years older than me, and wasn't active in church until after he graduated. That was when he really finally met Jesus. From there, he let it take over his life. I think that Jimbo's influence on me was that he taught me, maybe indirectly, that it's ok to still be human while serving God. He was willing to take me under his wing and treat me like I was as good a friend of his as anyone else that he knew. He was just willing to invest time in me and with me, which is what I try to do now with the youth I deal with.

The next guy was Damon Stalvey. Damon was the kind of guy that I was able to regard as a brother. He was a senior when I was a freshman, and he looked out for me. Damon was the guy that picked me up every week on Wednesday night and took me to youth. That helped to make it easier on my parents who led a home Bible study on the same night each week. I remember one night in youth as we sat around talking about the topic of dating and how far is too far, and I said something that was not really bright (I was a freshman, what do you expect?), and the other guys were jumping on me about it, and it was Damon who stepped in and told them to back off. That has always stuck out in my mind. Damon is a man who stands for what he believes regardless of the consequences. That is something that I have learned from him.

Finally there was David Skinner. He was my youth minster when I was in the 8th-10th grades. Dave taught me what it meant to follow hard after God. I always wanted to be Dave when I was younger (I've gotten over that now). He was the kind of guy that made you feel immediately welcome. I remember the first time I ever met Dave. It was on the way to a Schlitterbahn trip. I was about to be in the 8th grade, and I had just gotten back from some other trip that summer and we were getting ready to go. I was sitting in the van that I would ride in, and Dave came over to the van with the sole intention of meeting me. That was just something that stayed with me, and I try to do the same.

One of, if not the, most consistent influence in my life has of course been my mom. She has been supportive of me in almost everything that I have ever wanted to do. Thanks in large part to her, I grew up going to church and having a knowledge of who Jesus is before I really knew who Jesus is. She helped me to understand what it is to be Christlike int the things that I do.

Now in this stage of my life, Roni is one of the big influences for me. She makes me stop and think before I do things, which is a good thing. She does all the tough things that come with being married to me like to hold me accountable for things and to be a sounding board for me. She constantly shows me Jesus and how to be more like him. Like Mom, she has helped me to see what it really means to be Christlike in my life.

Finally as I have gotten older and grown in my understanding of what it means to be a Christian, Jesus has had the biggest influence on my life. I see more and more with him what it means to love others, and to really be willing to pour myself out for others. That it is more important to love God and the people he created and loves, than it is to be concerned about all the "rules" that we tend to be concerned with. More and more in my life, I have found that it is better to just follow the example of Jesus, and try to live in the same way that he did. That is a huge amount of influence.

Other than that, I would say that the influences in my life currently are mainly authors and speakers who have ideas that I tend to latch onto. I don't know those guys like I know the others that I have mentioned. Rob Bell, Donald Miller, Brennan Manning, and Ted Dekker. These are some of the other, more slight influences in my life. Well I guess that is it. Peace and Love y'all.