Saturday morning fitness

Great workout! Good time, pushing the limit of the first half, walked most of the second half with family. What a way to start the day!

Brick By Brick

This evening's workout:  focused on the core with dumbbells. #BrickByBrick

Father’s Initiative: Bringing Stability To Children’s Lives

This week's focus is on the power of fatherhood. Share your comments, along with putting words into action.

Father’s Initiative: Bringing Stability To Children’s Lives

  This is the season to especially honor fathers. People, as part of the Father’s Day weekend, prepare delicious meals; purchase nice gifts; and make special visits for their fathers.

  An initiative fathers should take in light of the holiday is: bringing stability to their children’s lives.

  Fathers are the seeds of progress for their future generations.

  Fathers are the bows that embed firmness and flexibility to point their arrows—their children—in the proper direction they should go.

  Without a bow, an arrow is lifeless. God Almighty is the Steady Hand who holds the bow and arrow in place for a perfect bull’s eye shot.

  A child’s stability, security, acceptance and guidance come from his father. This does not mean mothers may not carry the same traits. There are a host of mothers who have raised children to become productive citizens.

  What must take place is fathers taking responsibility for the children they help bring into this world.

  There are some amazing statistics that warrant a serious and immediate change in society.

  The U.S. Census Bureau reports 24 million children in America—one out of every three—live in biological father-absent homes. Nine in ten American parents agree this is a “crisis.”

  Consequently, there is a "father factor" in nearly all of the social issues facing America today. But the hope lies in the fact that children with involved fathers do better across every measure of child well-being than their peers in father-absent homes.

  In a study examining father involvement with 134 children of adolescent mothers over the first 10 years of life, researchers found that father-child contact was associated with better socio-emotional and academic functioning. The results indicated that children with more involved fathers experienced fewer behavioral problems and scored higher on reading achievement. This study showed the significance of the role of fathers in the lives of at-risk children, even in case of nonresident fathers.

  Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor. In 2011, 12 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 44 percent of children in mother-only families.

  Data from three waves of the Fragile Families Study was used to examine the prevalence and effects of mothers’ relationship changes between birth and age 3 on their children’s well being. Children born to single mothers show higher levels of aggressive behavior than children born to married mothers. Living in a single-mother household is equivalent to experiencing 5.25 partnership transitions.

  Infant mortality rates are 1.8 times higher for infants of unmarried mothers than for married mothers.

  Even after controlling for income, youths in father-absent households still had significantly higher odds of incarceration than those in mother-father families. Youths who never had a father in the household experienced the highest odds.

  A study of 109 juvenile offenders indicated that family structure significantly predicts delinquency.

  Being raised by a single mother raises the risk of teen pregnancy, marrying with less than a high school degree, and forming a marriage where both partners have less than a high school degree.

  A study using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study revealed that in many cases the absence of a biological father contributes to increased risk of child maltreatment. The results suggest that Child Protective Services agencies have some justification in viewing the presence of a social father as increasing children’s risk of abuse and neglect. It is believed that in families with a non-biological (social) father figure, there is a higher risk of abuse and neglect to children, despite the social father living in the household or only dating the mother.

  Even after controlling for community context, there is significantly more drug use among children who do not live with their mother and father.

  The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth found that obese children are more likely to live in father-absent homes than are non-obese children.

  Father involvement in schools is associated with the higher likelihood of a student getting mostly A's. This was true for fathers in biological parent families, for stepfathers, and for fathers heading single-parent families.

   The statistics are not a tell-all for every single child and parent in America and around the globe. The data does show the desperate need for father to step up and fill the huge gap that fatherlessness brings to communities.

  There is no excuse for a father not fulfilling his daddy duty: providing children the resources to live positive and productive lives.

   Millions of males have been given the keys to fatherhood. Now is the time to use the key to unlock the potential in the lives of their children as well as other children they come into contact with.

  Take the initiative to put the bow into action, pointing arrows in the direction of divine purpose and good success.

Top 10 Ways People Go Broke

Top 10 Ways People Go Broke
Self-Made Millionaire Shares Common Mistakes to Avoid

 

You don’t have to come from a wealthy family, have the next billion-dollar idea or work 18-hour days to become rich, says self-made millionaire Mike Finley.

 

“You don’t have to be extraordinary in any of the headline-grabbing ways; what you need is the self-awareness to avoid wasting money on short-term, retail-priced happiness,” says Finley, author of “Financial Happine$$,” (www.thecrazymaninthepinkwig.com), which discusses his journey to financial literacy and the principles and practices that allowed him to retire from the Army a wealthy man.

 

“Money used wisely can give you the financial security associated with the good life.”

Finley lists 10 of the most common money traps that lead to consumers going broke:

 

•  Make the appearance of wealth one of your top priorities by acquiring more stuff. The material trappings of a faux lifestyle, as seen in magazines and advertisements, are not good investments either financially or in long-term happiness. 

•  Work a job you hate, and spend your free time buying happiness. Instead, find fulfilling work Monday through Friday so you’re not compensating for your misery with expensive habits during the weekend.

•  Live paycheck to paycheck and don’t worry about saving money. Live for today, that’s all that matters. Have you already achieved all of your dreams by this moment? If not, embrace hope and plan for tomorrow. (Appreciating your life today doesn’t require unnecessary expenditures.)

•  Stop your education when someone hands you a diploma; never read a book on personal finance. Just about any expert will tell you that the most reliable way out of poverty is education. Diplomas shouldn’t be the end of learning; they should be a milestone in a lifetime of acquiring wisdom.

•  Play the lottery as often as possible. While you’re at it, hit the casino! Magical thinking, especially when it comes to money, is a dangerous way to seek  financial security.

•  Run up your credit cards and make the minimum payments whenever possible. Paying interest on stuff you really don’t need is a tragic waste of money.

•  When you come into some free money, spend it. You deserve it. By that logic, you’re saying that a future version of you doesn’t deserve the money, which can be multiplied with wise investments.

•  Buy the biggest wedding and the biggest ring so everyone can see just how fabulous you really are. Nothing says “Let’s start our future together” like blowing your entire savings on one evening.

•  Treat those “amazing” celebrities and “successful” athletes as role models. Try to be just like them whenever possible. As far as we know, there’s only one you the universe has ever known. Don’t dilute your unique individuality by chasing an image.

•  Blame others for your problems in life. Repeat after me: I am a victim. The victim mentality is an attempt to rationalize poor habits and bad decision-making.

 

“If you’re feeling uncomfortable with your financial situation, don’t just sit there in a malaise of ‘If only I had more money,’ ” Finley says. “Instead, use it as motivation for a better life; that’s why the discomfort is there.”