Welcome to my blog. I hope you find something the will inspire and encourage you!
Have you discovered internet porn – and is it sucking the guts out of your life? Do the blokes at your work bring porn to the office or the job site? Are you plagued by guilt and shame about things that happened in the past? Do you just want to love a woman and be loved by a woman? Fellas, we can clean out the past and become the real-deal! Don’t miss this one!
Controlling your temper is better than being a hero who captures a city. (Proverbs 16:32)
Good anger and bad anger Jesus the Champion of champions got angry, not for himself but because his Father’s place of prayer and worship was being misused as a shopping centre. He threw around the tables one day and drove everybody out of there.
When you’re angry, you’re a pain in the neck to work with. It affects your friends. You’re not nice to be with. In our busy day-to-day lives we don’t get too much ‘me time’ to just let off steam without being challenged. So, when we’re alone in the car and we think nobody knows us, do we let it out in a little road rage? Or do we get on the phone under a false name when no-one is around and abuse someone? Fellas, these are not happy ways to let out our anger, and they can come back to bite us, big-time.
Knowing who to trust I remember my mother and grandmother singing around the house: ‘Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.’ I never forgot it, but I also never stopped long enough to really take in what they were singing. When they went out of my life, I still remembered the song, but I never got anyone to show me what to do with this thing that had an impression on me. I let the world develop my understanding of trust and, wow, how wrong that was. Because I hadn’t been taught to trust with all my heart, I was left to determine trust in my head. I didn’t see the logic in trusting in the Big Fella. I couldn’t see, touch and hear him so how could I possibly put all my trust in him? I wasn’t even sure he was for real for a lot of my early life.
Life starts with trust We do things every day that require trust. Think of how you have to trust that your brakes work in your car when you apply the pedal. You trust in the pilot when you buckle up for your plane flight. A visually impaired person has to trust their guide dog or their walking cane.
You don’t have to stay messed-up We may have had a bad start, but the champion within us can emerge if we have a red-hot crack at the promises of the Creator of the universe.
Half the story I don’t think men have got the full story about God, and the relationship of God and Jesus, so we’re making a decision on only half the facts. You don’t have to do it my way, but I want to give you the opportunity to have a look at this before you make your own choice. Fellas, remember that when we hear something new and unfamiliar often there will be ridicule and rejection within us before acceptance. We’ve been conditioned and taught not to trust. We think someone’s trying to take advantage of us. But don’t let other people decide for you. Make up your own mind.
Stop listening to the wrong people Being a typical Aussie bloke, at the beginning I would keep my talks with the Bloke Upstairs very private – just between him and me. I felt like I would be seen as ‘wussy’ to actually be talking publicly about God, especially as a truckie.
Be an aggressive listener When I talk about an ‘aggressive listener’, I don’t mean someone who’s angry! It’s a bloke who’s ready to work hard to make sure he really hears what the other person is saying. He keeps eye and heart contact, and has a single focus.
Not listening kills relationships Too often a bloke thinks he knows what’s going on in his woman’s head. He tries to read her mind.
Listen and cruise! When I started my business, I loved the novelty of my truck. I could sit on 100kph with an 8 tonne load. Away I’d go, trying to get one extra load each day and going so hard I was pumping. And then my old truckie mates told me to get smart and drive to a plan. You get most of the lights and you use less fuel when you’re driving smart.
Stop being bitter and angry and mad at others. Don’t yell at one another or curse each other or ever be rude. Instead, be kind and merciful, and forgive others, just as God forgave you because of Christ. (Ephesians 4:31-32)
Getting free of the past So, how do we right those wrongs from the past? Jesus died to set you free of all that crap to give you a clean and new heart, to be able to love and be loved. Does our society say that happens? No. Do I know it happens? Yes, because I’ve seen it.
Getting rid of the gunk Sometimes you might think things are pretty tough and bad. You can stay there forever. Lots of blokes do. I’m saying straight out: it’s not an excuse. Face up to the facts. The Work Manual has this to say: ‘If you have sinned, you should tell each other what you have done. Then you can pray for one another and be healed. The prayer of an innocent person is powerful, and it can help a lot’ (James 5:16).
Basic biology We are what we eat, so we’d best eat healthy. It’s the same with thoughts. If we fill our heads with bitter thoughts, they will affect what comes out of us. Unforgiveness eventually has to get to us and eat us out. Just like when we throw a ball against the wall, it will come back at us. It’s gonna happen.
Ian Watto Watson on HISTORYMAKERS TV
Forgive and forget? Too often today we hear, ‘I can never forgive that so-andso. He’s out of my mind for the rest of my life.’ Mate, that’s definitely not the healthiest course of action, and it doesn’t work anyway. You won’t forget the pain that was deep and long, even if you think you have. Somewhere, someday it will raise its ugly head and bite big-time.
Wayne and Watto on HISTORY MAKERS
Training for dreams Like many fathers, I always wanted my boys to have the university degree I never had. I knew this motto from the Work Manual: ‘Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it’ (Proverbs 22:6 NKJV). It’s a good motto, isn’t it?
