Straight Rows

The other day on my way home from work I noticed a farmer out in the field plowing. It reminded me of the years I lived in Illinois and would drive through farm land at this time of the year and you would see perfectly straight rows. On many of the fields they would be so large that you couldn’t see where the field started and where it ended. So how do they keep the rows straight?

To keep the rows straight the farmer sets up markers on the edge of the field and points the front of the tractor at that mark and just makes sure that they don’t drift off of that mark. The farmer keeps going forward, never looking back or taking their eyes off of that point out in front of them. They have a target and if they take their eyes off that target they start to drift and the rows will not be straight. It is important that the rows are straight so that as the crop grows other equipment that is used in the field will not run over the plant and cause damage.

In life we need to set our eyes on the target and keep our focus or we drift. Our past is behind us and it has shaped us, but unless we look forward we cause problems that may not appear right away but later in our growth process we can get run over because we drifted from our target. Phil 3:13-14

Hit Your Target

This past week I was sitting watching TV with one of the interns that is living with us. A commercial came on and he commented on how he thought that it was really innovative. As I told him I really didn’t like it and found it almost offensive. Considering there is about 30 years age difference between us it really shows who the target was for that particular advertisement.

What clothes we wear is an area that we hit a target every time we dress. Would you go out and build a snowman in a Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts? Would you show up at the office in a mini-skirt and a halter-top? Now these might be the extremes, but what about the more subtle clothes we wear? When I am sitting around home I really enjoy being comfortable, I put on warm-up pants and a sweatshirt. When I am meeting with customers or even in my everyday business attire I am in a suit with a jacket or a skirt. I do dress down on casual Friday and wear a more casual look, usually jeans and a jacket, but not tennis shoes. I dress for success at the office because that is the target I am aiming for.

So what other areas should we target? What about the food we eat, what target are we aiming at? Or the people we associate with? What about the stuff we watch on the tv or the internet sites we visit, what target are we aiming at?

That commercial will never get me to purchase from that company, but it might get someone else interested. What are you aiming for?