{"id":617,"date":"2018-04-15T10:54:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-15T15:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/the-power-of-pre-preparation\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:13:26","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:13:26","slug":"the-power-of-pre-preparation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=617","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Preparation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We\u2019ve just completed another NCFCA Speech and Debate Tournament in Dallas. I say \u201cWe\u201d because I dig my heels in along with the other parents and community judges who volunteer to judge the debate and speech rounds. I\u2019m always amazed at these young people who are \u201cpreparing\u201d for life by being involved in a program that provides such a firm foundation for their future. They\u2019ll take these skills with them into whatever vocation or occupation they pursue in the future. The stage presence, the ability to think-on-their-feet, the mental steadfastness, etc. are just some of the benefits. In some of the debate rounds, it didn\u2019t take long to determine what the outcome of the debate was going to be because it was evident who the most prepared debaters were \u2013 they were the ones who had great vocal articulation, confidence, knew their subject matter well and you knew they had studied and PREPARED for this event.<\/p>\n

Both Payton and Alexia have done so well this year! They have both already qualified for Regionals, so Alexia didn\u2019t compete this weekend, but Mr. Aggressive Payton is working on more speaker points so he competed again and did so well — ranked in six different categories. I know, one day, we’ll look back on the preparation they’ve gone through in their speech and debate tournaments. Without a doubt, they are being prepared for that perfect plan God has for them. These times are preparing the soil for the future harvest!<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s something to be said for PRE (before): Why do we look for the vegetables before we till the soil and prepare it for the seed? It\u2019s the soil, and not the seed, that determines the quality of the harvest!<\/p>\n

It would have made no sense for the young shepherd boy, David, to be able to kill a giant with a sling shot. A lion and a bear didn\u2019t look like a Goliath, but they were the perfect instruments of preparation. Seriously, everything is preparation. Every mistake we make is preparation. Every lesson we learn is preparation. Every step of our faith journey is preparation. God uses it all.
\nOne of Payton\u2019s speeches in the category of Original Oratory was \u201cLearning from Adversity\u201d. In it he talked about in his young years when his mother insisted that he practice his piano and those were the years when he\u2019d rather play outside than practice his piano, but his mother would say, \u201cTrust me. One day you\u2019ll be so glad I made you practice.\u201d And Payton said, \u201cYes, today I am so glad as I teach others to play the piano, and I would never be here today were it not for the times of practice and preparation. <\/p>\n

I know God prepared me for the season I am in. Who knew I would be living so on purpose with what I do today\u2026.even with these blog posts? Oh, God did \u2013 when I was in typing lessons in my high school class; when I became a technical writer for companies that I worked for; when I needed a forum to shout to the mountain tops that \u201cGOD IS FAITHFUL\u201d in the midst of my greatest trials.<\/p>\n

The school teacher prepares lessons that will prepare her students for good grades that will help promote them to their next grade and prepare them for life. Most certainly, THE Teacher (our Heavenly Father) knows best about what He is PREPARING for us. When we start seeing our pain as preparation; whatever we\u2019re going through is preparation; whatever is hurting us \u2013 is preparation. God is preparing us for what He has prepared for us. It is not failure \u2013 it is preparation. Indeed, there is POWER in preparation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve just completed another NCFCA Speech and Debate Tournament in Dallas. I say \u201cWe\u201d because I dig my heels in along with the other parents and community judges who volunteer to judge the debate and speech rounds. I\u2019m always amazed at these young people who are \u201cpreparing\u201d for life by being involved in a program…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3162,102,3103,3163,3164,3165,3166,3167,3168,3169,3170,3171,1932,3172,1889,3173],"class_list":["post-617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-community-judge","tag-david","tag-giant","tag-goliah","tag-lion-and-bear","tag-power-in-preparation","tag-pre","tag-preparation","tag-prepared","tag-preparig","tag-regionals","tag-seed","tag-shepherd","tag-soil","tag-speech-and-debate","tag-vegetables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8044,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions\/8044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}