The Starbucks Church
Rick Bezett shared this on Twitter this morning and I couldn’t stop laughing when I watched. The video is actually a parable asking what if Starbucks marketed like the Church? It’s actually a pretty deep topic if you think about it. The funniest part of the video, some dude yells out “Javalooooya” and when the couple tells the barista that they are new, he points them out to everyone. ha. Good stuff…
The video actually makes a very good point if you think about it.
Following SXSWi Conference
I have to admit that I am a little disappointed to not be in Austin this weekend for the South by Southwest Interactive Conference. I had planned on heading out there but given the fact that I am running behind schedule on just about every project I have going on right now I figured it was in my best interest to just stay behind this week and get caught up. As a lot of you may already be aware, my wife and I had a tragedy recently and needless to say I didn’t get a lot of work done all last week. My partners and I also attended the Rackspace Conference in Atlanta earlier this week, so not only has my productivity and focus been down but I have also been out of the office a lot. Staying home from SXSWi this year was the right thing to do… Okay, I have justified it.
What’s the big deal about SXSWi you might ask? Well, that’s simple. In terms of conferences / conventions, this is the big one for the interactive industry. In fact, many of the trends and products that will shape our industry this next year will be unveiled at SXSWi in Austin. Fret not though, I have some friends that are attending the conference this year and have been tweeting and blogging up a storm about what they are seeing. Here’s a few if you are interested in following along…
- Bryan Jones / @bryanjones
- Wade Austin / @k_wade_a
- Daniel Spillers / @almostdaniel
- Justin Wright / @mrjawright
So, what to do this weekend??
So, besides getting caught up on my backlog of client projects what am I doing this weekend? Well, turns out it’s not that bad of a weekend after all. My church, The Church Alive, is hosting their annual Unlimited Realm conference this year. Nick Brewer and I have been managing our live video stream and social media presence for the conference and it’s been a big honor to use our talents to further the kingdom. Tonight we led a young man to Christ in a chat room that had been dealing w/ drug addiction. We also prayed w/ several others on matters related to their health and healing. This sort of ministry opportunity doesn’t present itself very often but when it does, I like to roll up my sleeves and get involved however I can. If you are interested in tuning into the conference this weekend, you can do so by clicking here…
Just an Update, and Thanks.
This past week turned out to be one of the toughest weeks of our life. Not only did we go in for a routine ultrasound and find that our baby’s heart had stopped beating but we also had to endure a D&C procedure two days later so that Donna’s body could start the healing and recovery process. For the past week we have just shut our doors and fell off the radar, that’s pretty much how we handled things the first time too. We just spend a lot of time w/ one another watching movies, talking, and being lazy.
For the most part Donna and I are both doing well, we still think about it, I caught myself glancing at baby strollers the other day in Target while I was waiting on a prescription to be filled and yesterday while we were in Wal-Mart I caught Donna looking at children’s clothing, Yesterday afternoon we both decided it was time to get out of the house and enjoy some fresh air. She and I both are huge fans of Hibachi style food so we decided to drive to Little Rock for some KOBE. We had an awesome dinner, even managed to laugh a little bit. I think it was somewhere on the drive home that I realized we were going to be just fine (and believed it this time).
Donna and I appreciate your thoughts and comments on Facebook and Tweets more than you can imagine, sorry if we didn’t respond in person but there was simply too many of you, please accept my apologies. See, the entire week we were hermits by choice, just wanting to be left alone to sort things out. Occasionally we would pull up those tweets, comments, and emails and read them, sometimes aloud to one another. Your words of comfort have helped us get through this whole thing. In addition to that some of you sent flowers and food, completely out of the blue, one particular floral arrangement almost brought me to tears, it was from my #RefreshCA friends. Needless to say, our living room looks like a florist and I have gained 20 pounds by now. You have no idea how much this all has meant to us and I could literally sit here all day and try to express our gratitude and how much you guys mean to us in words but still come up short so I will just say this, we love you guys and will never forget your thoughtfulness.
If you are a client, I apologize if I am running a few days behind on your projects right now, I promise I will get caught up this weekend. If you need me for anything, just holler, my phone is no longer going straight to voicemail. I even shaved off that Grizzly Adams looking beard thing that I had going on last night before we went to dinner, I know that Donna had to appreciate that. I’m not saying I am back to 100% just yet, but it won’t be long…
No Heartbeat on Ultrasound.
I am still in a state of shock, so this is going to be short and to the point. We went in today for a routine ultrasound, hoping to see a good strong heartbeat and a healthy, developing baby and that simply was not the case. For those of you that are close to us you know that this is our second miscarriage. We were so hopeful this time was going to be perfect but that wasn’t in the cards, but for right now Donna is doing as well as expected. The doctors have scheduled surgery for Wednesday morning here at Conway Regional…
Donna and I both have a lot of faith, and we are holding onto that. For the next few days we are just going to cling closely to one another and work our way through this. We do request your prayers right now and understanding if we drop from the radar for a few days.
Breaking News: We are having a Baby!
After 4+ years of fertility treatments, medical procedures, injections, and one miscarriage, Donna and I are finally ready to announce to the world that we are pregnant. We are somewhere between 8-10 weeks pregnant according to the nurse who gave us our labs the other day, and yesterday we had our first appointment w/ our OBGYN, Dr. Andrew Cole.
During our appointment yesterday Dr. Cole told us that based on everything he was seeing everything looked perfect to him and he didn’t see any cause for alarm. Our HCG levels were about 45,000 the other day, and are much higher than that now. We even got to see everything starting to develop on the ultrasound, pictures are attached below. Since our first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage at around the 5-6 week period, Donna and I both decided to wait until we knew that this time around was going to be a viable pregnancy before we shared the news with anyone. I am actually writing this blog post in advance of us telling our church friends tonight at The Church Alive because she wanted to tell everyone in person that had been praying for us before they saw it on Facebook & Twitter, my wife knows me well.
Last week we shared the news w/ Donna’s parents and then told my parents this past weekend while we were in town for my cousins engagement party. Words cannot describe how ecstatic I am right now, and honestly there are moments when it has even sank in yet that we are having a baby. It’s hard to describe, but during our first pregnancy, I was nervous about every little thing that Donna did, I was very protective and didn’t want her driving or even getting out of the house to run errands, but this time around I have had a peace about everything that I know can only come from this being God’s will. I didn’t even say a word yesterday when she came home with a new pair of high heel shoes (you would just have to know my wife).
As I mentioned earlier, we have been trying to have a baby for 4+ years now. Just getting to this point there have been moments that I have had to sit and hold her while she cried, as well as moments where she has had to grab me and tell me to chill out because everything is going to be okay. Any of you that have dealt with infertility issues know exactly where I am coming from, if the feeling of hopelessness doesn’t drive you crazy first it will definitely bring you closer together. We are both so excited to be at this point.
If you have ever, or are currently facing issues w/ infertility, I want to provide some words of encouragement as well as give you something to think about based on our journey. A few months back while we were still trying fertility treatments Donna kept having complications and I could tell that she was absolutely miserable, and as her husband I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to sit back and watch her go through all of this anymore so we stopped our visits to the fertility clinic altogether and just turned it over to God.
We started looking into adoption, which is also a great thing to investigate by the way, but once we got our mind off of getting pregnant, we finally got pregnant. Of course, that pregnancy wasn’t meant to be but we saw it as encouragement from God to keep our heads up and to keep trying. By God allowing us to get pregnant that first time I think both of us found ourselves at ease over our situation and didn’t see it as hopeless anymore. We continued to pray each morning together, that’s how we start our day, that God would give us a baby. Fast forward to the present and I just saw my precious baby yesterday on the ultrasound.
So my advice to anyone going through a similar situation is this, relax. Put things in God’s hands, he is the best OBGYN / Endocrinologist in the business because he is also the inventor.
Instead of a Christmas Letter, Some Random Thoughts…
In lieu of our usual long-winded Christmas letter detailing all of the exciting things we did this year, I have decided to share some things that have been on my mind lately. This may come as a surprise, but occasionally I do have my serious moments where I am not blowing things up in the backyard.
The Things We Take for Granted…
A few days ago I was talking with some friends in Texas who informed me of a little girl who had put on her Christmas wish list that all she wanted for Christmas was a bed. Not a Dora the Explorer doll, or a purple 3 Musketeers Barbie Doll (don’t ask me how I know about these) but just a bed to sleep in, something we all take for granted. This has marinated in my head the past 2 days and it has just about driven me crazy. The things we take for granted can sometimes be viewed as luxuries by others. Also, why is it that the only time of year we even go out in search of situations like this is during Christmas? I think that a lot of times it’s our own selfish desire to end the year on a good note by giving to those less fortunate than ourselves than it is anything else. I am not pointing fingers at anyone but myself, and certainly not knocking any of the charities doing great work this time of year for those in need, I applaud what you are doing. The point that I think we should all ponder is this; what if we all were on the lookout for situations like this little girl all year long, and when possible help them out, regardless of the season?
Cherish Every Moment w/ the Ones You Love…
For the past few weeks I have been praying diligently for a friend that has spent every day for as long as I can remember at his wife’s side in a hospital while she battles for her life. Meanwhile, I complain when my wife asks me to hang my clothes up in the closet. What in the world would I do if I was in a situation like my friend is in? I know exactly what I would do, I would hang on to every second we have together and cherish it like it was our last. I love my wife dearly and love the fact that she and I are together just about every hour of the day. Even though I would never admit it to her, I can’t even stand for her to be gone to the grocery store without me, we have that much fun together just hanging out. I once had an anxiety attack in the parking lot of UAMS while she was just having a medical procedure, I can’t imagine what my friend is going through, but I do know that he has tremendous faith and it’s that faith that will see him through.
I have also been praying for 4 friends that lost their jobs this past year and haven’t been able to find jobs. Sometimes I take for granted that I am doing what I love to do for a living, and that I am one of the co-founders of a successful web company that despite a strong economic downturn this past year, we were able to prosper. I also have two of the best business partners a guy could ask for, as well as some of the best clients imaginable. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be unemployed, especially this time of year. I am extremely thankful for all of the blessings God has bestowed upon our business.
This past year our families have been brought even closer together by a series of traumatic events. One of my aunts had a stroke, another one had a terrible fall. This past year we also dealt with the passing of Donna’s grandfather and have watched Alzheimer’s take its toll on her grandmother. While all of these events were each devasting in their own way, we have all become very mindful that things could always be worse, and if it wasn’t for God’s ultimate mercy, they would have certainly been worse.
Looking to God During the Hard Times…
The most traumatic event for my wife and I this year happened back in October. As I am sure a lot of you already know, Donna and I have been trying for 4 years now to have children. We have spent thousands on fertility treatments, inseminations, etc., and finally after some adverse side affects from one of our last fertility treatments I told Donna that I didn’t want to proceed any further down that road because I loved her too much and didn’t want to see her go through the side affects any longer. About a month or two after we stopped the treatments and told God that we knew He wanted us to have children so we were going to leave all doors open for Him to give us our baby, and that included adoption, we started filling out paperwork, requesting information, etc. I bet I hauled in 200lbs of adoption literature from the mailbox that month. Well, wouldn’t you know it, we got pregnant on our own.
We were approximately 5 weeks pregnant and were in Oklahoma City attending church with our Brother and Sister in Law when Donna started having terrible abdominal pains. I immediately rushed her to the hospital and was even considering a med-flight to UAMS when we got the news that we had miscarried. We spent the next 2 weeks clinging to each other trying to make sense of the emotional roller coaster we had just been on. It would have been very easy for us to become discouraged, and I have to admit there were moments I questioned God as to why this happened, but in the end, God showed my wife and I both what we needed to see. It’s not that He was telling us we couldn’t have children, He was just telling us that we didn’t need anything other than Him to get pregnant. No fertility or doctors, just Him. He also showed us that this miscarriage happened for a reason, we don’t know the reason, it could be any number of things, but it did happen for a reason and that we will get pregnant again in His timing. The lesson I learned from all of this was to just turn things over to Him and let Him take care of it, something that I will never forget. Now, I can’t say for sure when my wife and I will be pregnant again, but stay tuned to my Twitter and Facebook and you will be the first to know (well, outside of the immediate family I guess).
I certainly hope that this blog post wasn’t too big of a downer, certainly not the happy Christmas letter that a lot of you have come to expect from us in past years, these were just a few things that we wanted to share…
If we don’t see you over the Holidays,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Cotton & Donna
Contrasting Churches in Tyler, Texas
Okay, my wife and I have some very dear friends who are planting a church in Tyler, Texas. Their daughter was born on our wedding day so we have always had a natural connection to them, not to mention that Garth and I are very close and Melisa and Donna have been friends for years. With that being said, when we heard that they were going to be leaving us (they were both on staff at The Church Alive) we were pretty upset.
I guess the Holy Spirit had already prepared my heart for the news before hand because I had mentioned to Donna a few days prior to receiving the news that something like this could eventually happen. Well, once they met with us and shared their heart it only confirmed to me that this was God’s call for them to go and do this, but of course I still didn’t like it.
One thing I have learned from watching Garth and Melisa’s journey is that planting a church has it’s ups and downs, these two have been through a whole lot getting this church off the ground and still have a long road ahead of them. Spending time w/ them this weekend I witnessed firsthand their determination and it inspired me, of course I would never tell them that. I still keep some alarming statistics about Texas handy to blurt out at any given time just in hopes they will move back but I have accepted the fact that it’s all in vain. I have devoted some research to this too, everything from Texas’ high ranking in repeat teen pregnancy, human trafficking, and methamphetamine production, they can’t be budged. So, I am officially throwing in the towel…
Donna and I have already sewn into their ministry in the past by every means possible, prayer, finances, infrastructure, website and hosting, and even our talents (Donna sang this past week, I played Cowbell) and we will continue to do so as we are able. It takes a special heart and endurance to do this whole church planting thing, and I can’t think of two more people better equipped to answer God’s call than Garth and Melisa.
If you live in the Tyler, Texas area, or know someone who does, please send them to the Summit Church website, and encourage them to connect with Garth and Melisa. They also have a presence on Facebook and Twitter so be sure to connect with them there too, but most of all, please keep my friends in your prayers!
A Funny Story from the Weekend…
The next part of this story is yet even further proof that I can’t stay in your home for a few days without a funny a memorable story happening. And what makes this story so funny is how straight-laced and ministry focused our friends are, this sort of thing doesn’t phase me, but the look of shock and surprise on their faces was priceless, and it came at a good time when we could all have used a good laugh…
This past weekend while we were visiting them in Tyler, Garth got an iPhone. He and I were sitting around installing apps for managing his Facebook and Twitter, etc., and I was showing him one cool feature on Twitterfon that allows you to search recent tweets for those that are nearby (2.5 miles, 5 miles, etc.).
Well, in doing so I ran across a couple of tweets by folks who were professed Nudists. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not knocking the lifestyle, to each their own. But obviously we are no nudists, nor do we know any (I guess we don’t, lol). Jokingly I told Garth that he should open up his vision for the Summit Church a little bit and try to include the large nudist population in the Tyler area. Of course he just shrugged this off just like he has my countless “alarming statistics about Texas”.
While we were having lunch after their service Sunday morning I got on Twitter to show some of our friends the Tweets by local nudists to some of our friends down there. Well, long story short, some of these tweets were about a nudist church located in Tyler… Someone had beat us to the punch… haha.
I did a little investigating on Google and sure enough, there was a nudist church website out there for a Calvary Nudist Baptist Church! (see the screenshot to the right, I am obviously not going to link to this website, although it didn’t have any offensive images other than their pastor being shirtless on the home page).
We got a huge laugh out of this the entire weekend, and I snickered for miles on our way home as I called some of our friends in Conway to let them know about this nudist church, there’s just something funny about naked people in a church, I am sorry, that’s just funny.
I also posted this twitpic of the website on Twitter and quite a few of my tweeps got a kick out of it as well. Well, along about Hot Springs on our way back home I switched w/ my wife and let her drive. I took advantage of the 3g service area and did a little research on this nudist church and found that it’s more than likely not a real church. I have to admit that I was a little dissapointed but not shocked, the whole idea is a littel far-fetched.
The local media there in Tyler had numerous phone calls about this church and this is a recap of their report:
Oh well. You have to give whoever set this website up a thumbs up on giving us all a good laugh. The website is hosted on a subdomain of a company called “Nearly Free Speech” if that also gives some sort of a clue as to the websites origin…
Be a Lighthouse in Your Neighborhood
This afternoon my wife and I were just hanging out at the house. I was in my office flipping between football games and I think she was watching a movie or something in the living room when the doorbell rang. When we got to the door there was a black guy standing there, in his late 20’s / mid 30’s, he obviously had been in the rain for a little while because his clothes were wet. He was wearing a clean shirt and a tie, his pants were pressed, etc., looking better than I do most days! He wasn’t standing right in the doorway either, he was about 4 steps away from the door almost standing out in the rain.
He introduced himself as Roy to us and told us that he was working for a company, Freedom Sales, that took young people that come from rough pasts or disadvantaged homes and helped them to have a second chance in life. He went on to tell us he was from Chicago, and that he used to be into drugs and that as of 4 years ago he had given his life to Christ. It was at that point that we shook hands or I gave him a high-five, I can’t remember. He went on to tell us that he was selling magazine subscriptions and also was being graded by the people that he met going door to door based on his appearance and his communication, he had a clipboard that he had us fill out.
He was extremely cordial the whole time. We stood there talking for a few minutes before it dawned on me that he was somewhat timid and hadn’t really gotten very close to the doorway of the house. I invited him inside, I am sure that this company probably trains them to not be all in your face when they are doing door to door sales, and that’s a good practice, but I immediately liked this dude, besides if it went south quick, I could take him. It was at this time that I noticed a white SUV drive by the house really slow and a guy that I haven’t seen before gawking at us, so naturally I sort of gawked back but didn’t think anything about it.
As Roy sat there at the table and Donna was filling out her order for the magazine we got from him, both of us have a soft spot for people in Roy’s situation because we can both sympathize. Well, as we were sitting in our formal dining room as he and I were talking and I noticed the white SUV drive by again really slowly. I got to thinking that they might be with him so I asked if his supervisor was in a white SUV because he had mentioned that he was going to meeting up with his supervisor soon to go to another neighborhood.
He said that no, that wasn’t his supervisor, but that it was one of my neighbors. Apparently someone I haven’t met yet because I had never seen that SUV before. Roy went on to tell me that he had called on that guy the night before but that instead of just telling him he wasn’t interested in buying his products or listening to his sales pitch, he instead went back into his house and got a shotgun! He also called him the “N” word and told him to get lost. Putting two and two together I figured out what was going on, this redneck was stalking Roy.
As Donna had finished up her order form she headed back into the kitchen and asked him if he was hungry, he told her that he had been working but was fixing to take a break for dinner and thanked her anyway. Donna insisted on fixing him a Turkey sandwich, so he left here with a turkey sandwich. He might not know it but I kept my eye on him as he headed down the street.
Roy also doesn’t know that his courage today was a blessing to us. As he left I strongly considered locating the driveway with the White SUV and letting them know what I thought, but I decided I would just let it alone. I did however tell Roy that if he ran into this moron again to be sure to take off running back to our place and I would take care of the situation really quick! The fact that that sort of thing goes on is mindboggling to me, and to know that there is possibly someone in my own neighborhood w/ racial bias like this is troubling. I figured if Roy was okay just to let it go and pray for the guy, then I would be too…
The reason I say Roy was a blessing to us was because what a lot of people don’t understand is that when a person is trying to get their life back together, it doesn’t take a lot to discourage them, and make them just give up. Knowing the fact that he was basically ran off the day before from this rednecks house with a shotgun, and clearly shaken up by the whole ordeal, he managed to have enough courage to get out again today and go door to door in the exact same neighborhood, and in the rain! Not only that, but he knew this moron redneck was more or less stalking him the next day and he still went on with his head held high.
I can remember when the builders finally finished our house and we got moved in, we had all of our friends and family over for a huge house blessing party and cookout. During that party our pastor spoke a prayer that “our house would be a lighthouse for our neighborhood that shows the way to those who are lost” and that has stuck with me all this time.
Well, hopefully today we were able to be a lighthouse for Roy, at the cost of a Turkey sandwich and a few minutes of our time. Not a bad exchange if you think about it. Knowing the neighbors I have on both sides of me, I can say that we aren’t alone either… Be a lighthouse in your neighborhood!!!
School Teachers
Someone forwarded me this email, I usually trash emails like this without reading them because I simply don’t have the time but for some reason this one caught my eye. I thought it was worthy of reposting:
After being interviewed by the administration, the prospective teacher said:
Let me see if I’ve got this right. ‘You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.
‘You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self esteem and personal pride.. You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job.
‘You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure that they all pass the final exams. You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English, Spanish or any other language, by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card. ‘
‘You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletin board, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps.
‘You want me to do all this and then you tell me. . . I CAN’T PRAY?
Allocating Personal Time / Priorities
Part of my ritual everyday is reading a daily devotional that is waiting on me in my inbox each morning from Streaming Faith. Some mornings I read these and then move right onto YouVersion for my daily scriptures and then start the process of responding to emails, but this mornings devotional got me to thinking about all of the things that I do through the course of the day and it kind of hit home.
Two days ago was my dad’s birthday, and as I walked in my office that morning my intentions were to call him first thing to wish him a happy birthday, but before I could pick up the phone it rang and it was a client who was urgently needing me to walk them through a process. Well, needless to say I was on the phone for a lot longer than I had planned helping them get lined out, and granted, this was important. This particular client has been a client for a long time and as a result has sent a lot of business my way through the years. Well, before I had even gotten off the phone with this client I noticed an urgent email roll into my inbox from another client so I immediately went from the first phone call right into another phone conversation with the second client, I usually call this “putting out fires”. Well, once I had the second issue resolved I realized that I hadn’t eaten any breakfast and my stomach was letting me know about it so I walked into the kitchen to fix me something to eat, and it was then that my phone rang and it was my dad (we speak on the phone everyday, sometimes 2 or 3 times). It was deflating for me because I wanted to call him first since it was his birthday, and I know that at the end of the day it really didn’t matter to him as long as we got to speak to one another.
I wished him a happy birthday and then we went right into talking about the usual stuff (what I am working on and how things are going on the farm), but it continued to bother me a little bit that I didn’t have the opportunity to call him first thing that morning. Well, now that I have laid the groundwork, you can see why this mornings devotional struck a cord w/ me…
Establishing Priorities
Bishop E. Earl Jenkins"Teach us to use wisely all the time we have." Psalm 90:12 CEV
Growing up, Dr. Tony Campolo says he spent many Saturdays at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia visiting Ed Bailey, the guy who ran it. Campolo writes: "His encyclopedic mind fascinated me. He knew something about everything…I was friends with Ed until he died. After a serious stroke I went to visit him…I told him all the places I’d been to speak and how I’d come right from the airport to see him.
He heard me out, then said, ‘You go all over the world to people who 10 years from now won’t remember your name. But you haven’t time for those who really care about you.’" Campolo continues, "That…hit me hard and changed my life. I decided not to let all my time be used by people for whom I make little difference, while I neglect those for whom I’m irreplaceable.
"One day a friend of mine got a call from The White House asking him to consult with the President. He said no, because it was a day he’d promised to spend with his granddaughter. The nation survived…the President didn’t miss him, and his granddaughter had precious time with her Pop-Pop."
Somebody said that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing! David put it like this: "Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom" (Ps 90:12 NLT).
Time is an equal-opportunity employer. We all get 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, 86,400 seconds daily, and we must account for how we use them. So ask yourself how you would spend the next 24 hours if you knew that you’d stand before God tomorrow – then get busy!
I am not going to say that I plan on drastically changing the way I prioritize my day, but I will say that I am going to pay closer attention to the things in life that are more important. One thing that I have always admired about my partner Greg is that he makes a conscious effort to spend time with both of his sons just about everyday. It might not be anything other than going to Karate or a ballgame with them, but he manages to be there for them. We haven’t ever spoken about it or anything like that but I have noticed it over the years and never really gave it a lot of thought until today at how well he has managed this arena. There are other folks that I work with that are just as diligent about prioritizing their time with the ones they care about but he came to mind first.
