Swing for the Fence

I presented a professional workshop entitled, “Swing for the Fence: Executing Effective, Creative Methods of Helping Youth Tell Their Story”. The aim was to challenge people to take both attitude and approach seriously, to avoid complacency, and to rise to the occasion of serving others with the best they had to offer. Professionally, the information was a not only a conference fit, but also applicable to the counseling field. Among the variables of serving others, time has a way of capping enthusiasm and giving way to a fair or poor attitude. It’s easy to stop giving the best and become satisfied with a good base hit.

Perhaps the same could be said in marriage. As I consider the attitude of serving and helping one another along with the complacency routinely witnessed in my office, I think the workshop’s purposes apply.

At Five Stones, we see couples who have lost their enthusiasm, creativity, and humility when it comes to serving or helping one another. They often sport sour, disagreeable attitudes and spout off sentences that match rolled eyes and long sighs. It’s as if they thought that all the helping and serving within their relationship would eventually go away or diminish. Sometimes (and sadly), they simply appear tired or burnt out with being a spouse. They normalize…