Leaders everywhere share a common challenge: help people reach their full potential. In some cases, high potential. But such achievements rarely happen on their own.

My son Scott entered his senior year of high school football with low expectations. he missed the entire junior season with a broken elbow - a critical injury for a quarterback. The head coach remained uncommitted as to who would earn the starting role, and the anxiety took its toll on Scott's confidence. Then someone showed up for him.

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Every Monday I meet with an amazing fourth-grader. This week we began work on a model car; to see the tiny parts required me to don my reading glasses. “I know these make me look old,” I told him.

“That’s okay Mr. Dave,” he said. “You’re still cool. (pause) To me.”

So I celebrate that an old guy like me appears cool to at least one person.

As a country, America celebrates. Especially at the start of a new year, everyone can find reasons to feel positive — regardless of whether your favorite professional football team plays in big games or your political party parades into office. Consider the officially-declared possibilities for joy throughout January: National Hot Tea Month. National Soup Month. National Mentoring Month.
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Everyone has a personal favorite tea flavor and can of soup, so let’s look closer at mentoring. Specifically, who needs a mentor and why should churches and attendees care?

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I volunteered to work at a basketball camp. Held in Gary, Indiana, just over a hundred four-year olds to fourteen-year olds enjoyed three days of skill building, scrimmages, and chicken sandwiches for lunch. They learned to dribble, pass, and shoot better, while the volunteers learned other valuable lessons. 

Or maybe that happened for just this volunteer.

For example, I learned that a 50+ year old can miss a jumpshot, strain a muscle, and make kids laugh—all in the same moment. That led to a new appreciation for the phrase “Do as I say, not as I do” and new skepticism about “Mind over matter.” No, my body simply cannot move in the same ways my brain remembers that it once could. These revelations carry little value.
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More importantly, I left camp with three important questions—one about leadership, one about kids, and the other about outreach. Questions that at first seem to have easy answers, but caused me to pause and think deeper. Good questions, the kind that help you grow, work that way.

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To give an appropriate answer is a joy; how good is a word at the right time! — Proverbs 15:23 

Estimates indicate the average adult vocabulary includes over 40,000 words. From this vast reservoir, we make thousands of combinations to articulate and share thoughts all day every day. Too frequently, though, I’m careless or random — messages flow from me like water spraying from a fractured pipe. Yet, with so many words at my disposal, surely I can do better. In fact, I am determined to do exactly that.

Why do I care so much?

Because even the simplest messages can make really big differences. And while some might seem unimportant and easy, others will remain with us for a very long time. Words can serve as wonderful gifts; they cost nothing but are potentially priceless. Especially for someone close.

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(Note: This month, David Staal turns his column over to his 23-year-old son, Scott.)

Several years ago, our family tried something new for Thanksgiving that has evolved into an authentic tradition. As November rolled around each year, we constantly heard the importance of developing a spirit of gratitude and wanted that to be true for us. Yet, there was a definite disconnect between our good intentions and our implementation.

Said another way: we didn’t do anything. The result was an unsettled feeling, so the four of us decided to take action in order to truly live out our thankful spirits. To walk the walk. Practice what we preach.

Said another way: to finally do something.

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