Category: Basic Training

On a lighter note for this series on the foundations for my God Buddy concept, I continue with my love of music. Read on though to understand its importance to your GB friendship.   First, a shout-out to the Doobie Brothers and an apology for my misuse of their lyrics throughout this post. My Love of Music I began to love music as a young kid. I still really like to Listen to the Music and “feel it growing, day by day” even as an adult. Music “is a way to make {me} smile” and helps most people “dance our blues away”. I just like to “listen to the music, all the time”!  As a teenager in the 1970s, I always had the stereo playing in my bedroom or an 8-track tape going in my car. My favorite music was from the classic rock bands of the 70s and 80s like

I thought being part of the men’s group at our church would be easy. Man, was I in for a big surprise!  As I continue this series on the foundations for God Buddies, I’ve been thrown some real “curveballs” (a baseball analogy) in my passion to help men become better men  In retrospect though, many have helped me handle some very interesting and unexpected conversations. “So, I have this friend who…” Do you ever get suspicious when someone starts a conversation with the statement that he “has this friend who…”?  According to Urban Dictionary, an “I have this friend” story is a story where someone asks for advice about a problem that’s really about them, but they’re too embarrassed to say so. It’s similar to “I know this guy” stories where one person thinks up something funny, cool, gross, weird, or sexy, but essentially untrue, and tries to pass it

In this current series about the foundations for my God Buddy concept, one of the surprises of my journey was realizing I had spiritual gifts and abilities I did not expect. At first, I wondered where those came from and why they appeared when they did.  But then, I learned that God gives us all these gifts, we just need to recognize and use them.   Let me first explain the difference between spiritual gifts and natural abilities.  Spiritual Gift or Natural Talent? According to this article titled How to Identify and Effectively Use Your Spiritual Gifts, a spiritual gift is a God-given ability, distributed to individual Christians by the Holy Spirit that allows him/or her to work through their lives to help the church execute its mission on earth. The article describes natural talents as the physical abilities to do special things such as musical ability, carpentry, mechanical aptitude, and