Book 100 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title – Your Values Aren’t Just Words…They Are Actions!

Book – Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff

Book Description: Can a simple concept shift your entire world? Bob certainty thinks so. When it comes to loving your neighbors, rather than focusing on having the "right answers" or checking the "right boxes," what if you decide to simply DO love? To shamelessly show love and grace to those around you? What would that look like? In Love Does, Bob shows you how to live a fully engaged life; how to stop putting things off until “next time” and instead find your place of imagination, whimsy, and wonder today; and that God usually chooses ordinary people to get things done When love does, life gets interesting. Light and fun, unique and profound, the lessons drawn from Bob's life and attitude in this collection of stories just might inspire you to be secretly incredible, too.

Reflection:

Bob Goff, what an unexpected revelation in my life. In true Bob fashion, I have a whimsical story to share of how he came to be one of my most trusted mentors. Remember to always be open and listening for the omens in your life as you never know what they will bring. Bob Goff was one of those omens.

One morning, about 5 months after Emilia had passed away in September, I woke up on a normal Saturday. Felicia was newly expecting with our son, Luca, and we were leisurely getting out of bed that morning and watching some TV in our bedroom. I turned on some local news show and they were interviewing this old man in his attic surrounding by a bunch of books. This dude was just full of life and was so excited to share his thoughts with the world. The energy was infectious, and I was enjoying listening to his refreshing and uplifting takes on life. I forget what this random interview was even about, but he kept mentioning some of his books in reference to his comments. I immediately went to amazon and searched for this crazy fun old guy I saw on TV named Bob Goff to see what he was all about. That is how I stumbled on Love Does.

A few days later I finished the book and loved it. It was a whimsical story about Love in Action throughout Bob’s life. This guy is truly amazing, and I loved the message of the book. LOVE DOES! It is an action, not a thought. Bob’s life is a powerful reminder to get out there in this world and live your values. Don’t just talk about it…be about it.

Here’s where this story gets fun…after I finished the book, I told Felicia about it. I said, “Remember that crazy old dude I we saw on TV a few weeks ago, I just bought and finished his book…I was pretty good”! I told her a little more about it, and didn’t think anything of it.

Fast forward a few months later and Valentine’s Day was upon us and our life was getting crazy again. Felicia was now about 28 weeks pregnant at this point and having a complicated pregnancy again. I had been doing my best to furiously push really hard to finish writing the first draft manuscript of my book about Emilia’s life and how she changed our world in time to give to her for her first birthday (March 15th). We were wrapping up a 2 month full basement remodel project in preparation for our new bundle of joy. Basically…Life was nuts. Because of all of this, Felicia and I had agreed not to get each other gifts that year for Valentine’s Day. Every holiday sucked without Emilia, and we had just too much going on to care at this point.

Felicia, being the best wife ever that she is, didn’t get the message apparently. She had secretly gotten me a gift that was one of the most thoughtful things I’ve ever received.

Since March 15th the previous year, the day our daughter was born, I had been journaling every morning to her. One of the things I did was to read a book of daily scripture reflections from Joyce Meyer called, Trusting God Day by Day and then write my thoughts to Emilia in my journal. It was 365 reflections to cover a year. Well, that year was now almost over in a month, and I hadn’t really thought about what I was going to do once the reflections ended. Would I just restart the book? Find another source of information to spur my imagination each morning? I honestly hadn’t really thought about it. I knew I was going to keep journaling as it had become a part of my life and a way to live my values each day…that much I knew for sure.

On Valentine’s Day, Felicia actually went into early labor again at 28 weeks pregnant with our son. No need to worry, everything turned out fine even though he was born early 3 days later. As we rushed out of the house on our way to the ER, Felicia threw a gift to me as my secret Valentine’s Day gift. I opened it up and it was a book. The book was called Live in Grace and Walk in Love by…BOB GOFF! It was a 365-day journey of reflections from Bob about Love in Action.

Her intention was to give me my next daily source of reflections to start my day once Trusting God Day by Day had ended on Emilia's first birthday. She had heard me randomly talk about this Bob Goff guy, knew that I needed another book to reflect on and write about in the mornings, and went online to see if he had something that would help. Turns out he did!

This was the most thoughtful gift I’ve ever received in my life. Bob and I have spent every day together for the past 10 months and it has been amazing. I truly appreciate his mentorship and his example of how to live a life of values in action.

I couldn’t think of a better way to honor Love Does than to tell a whimsical story about Love in Action, just like Bob would do. Thanks Bob for everything!

Question: How Can You Put Your Values to Action in Your Life?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Love Does

YOML Bookstore - Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff