Bill Farrel - The 10 Best Decisions a Man Can Make: The Adventure of Living in Gods Plan

The 10 Best
Decisions a
Man Can
Make

Bill Farrel

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Verses marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920. www.alivecommunications.com.

Cover design by Left Coast Design, Portland, Oregon
Cover photo Ross Woodhall /cultura / Corbis

THE 10 BEST DECISIONS A MAN CAN MAKE
Copyright 2010 by Bill Farrel
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Farrel, Bill, 1959
The 10 best decisions a man can make / Bill Farrel.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-7369-2766-6 (pbk.)

1. Christian menReligious life. 2. Decision makingReligious aspectsChristianity. I. Title. II. Title: Ten best decisions a man can make.

BV4528.2.F43 2010
248.8'42dc22 2010002230

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 / VP-SK / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to my three sons:
Brock, Zach, and Caleb.
It has been awesome to be your dad. Watching
you make decisions better than I did at your age
is one of the sweetest experiences of my life.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my
children are walking in the truth.

3 JOHN 14

Contents

The writing of this book has been a 30-year journey that started with a conversation with my father. Dad, you had no idea you would create the hunger in me that you did to pursue the process of decision-making, but I am thankful for your example. You always did what you loved in your career, which gave me confidence I could do the same.

My brother helped fuel the fire. Jim, the way you focused on prayerful decisions when you entered college inspired me to believe that we could live excellent lives. Your example has proved invaluable to me.

I am confident I would have made smaller decisions had I not married the woman of my dreams. Pam, you are the most courageous woman I have ever met, and I am forever grateful that you challenged me to live a bigger life while you cheered me on with relentless encouragement. You have proven to be a super incredible helpmate.

I would also like to say thank you to Bob Hawkins and the entire staff at Harvest House Publishers. Thanks for taking a chance on a young, idealistic couple and giving us an opportunity to tell our story. You did us a big favor when you assigned Rod Morris to be our editor. Rod, thanks for using your talents to make the message clearer and easier to read. Your command of the language, breadth of knowledge, and excellence in editing has been a huge gift. For your sake, I hope Kansas State makes the Final Four soon.

Finally, I want to say thank you to my Savior, Jesus Christ. You found me when I was 16 in the padded seat of a movie theatre and have taken me on a thrill ride ever since. It is humbly exhilarating to be in this remarkably unequal partnership.

W e make our choices and our choices make us.

I remember when my journey into trying to figure out how to make good decisions began. It was the summer between my senior year in high school and my freshman year in college. I was looking ahead to my university education, and I wanted to pursue a degree that would set me up for success. So I went to my dad for advice because he loved his career.

My dad worked in the aerospace industry designing rocket engines. His job was to design the process for igniting, accelerating, and shutting down engines that would propel astronauts, scientists, and satellites into space. I admired his optimism and dedication to his career, even though the program had many critics.

One of the early pioneers of rocket technology was Robert Goddard. On March 16, 1926, he drove to his aunt Effies farm to test fire his spindly, 10-foot tall liquid fuel rocket named Nell. The rocket leaped into the air, climbed to a height of 41 feet, then slammed into a frozen cabbage patch. The flight lasted just 2.5 seconds, but it was 2.5 seconds longer than any liquid-fueled rocket had flown before. He was thrilled and recognized the breakthrough for what it was.

Goddard kept his research and testing under wraps for the next three years, but rockets are hard to hide. In 1929 one of his launches led to the arrival of the police, which led to the presence of the press. The headline in the local press the next day read, MOON ROCKET MISSES TARGET BY 238,799 MILES. Despite the criticism, Goddard pressed on, and history bears the mark of his vision.

My dad had this same optimism. He could often be heard to say, I cant believe they pay me to do this job. I concluded that if anyone knew how to choose a career, it would be my dad.

Dad, can I ask you a question?

Sure, Bill, what is it?

How do you figure out what you should do for a career? How does a young man my age decide on a college degree?

I was anticipating that I would have the most profound conversation of my life with my dad. Instead, he said, Well, Bill, I am not good at talking about things like this, but I will support whatever you choose.

I was still confident that my dad knew how I could choose a career I would love. He just didnt know how to communicate the process that would lead me there. I didnt realize it at the time, but my desire to learn how good decisions are made began that day. I wanted to be able to communicate with others what I saw my dad model for me.

Since that day, I have been intently watching men make decisions. Some of these decisions have led to growing businesses, strong families, and solid lives. Other decisions have been self-destructive. The majority of the decisions, however, have been attempts to stay ahead of the challenges of life. Sometimes these decisions work out well and sometimes they fall short. It is often a mystery why some decisions work out while others fail to deliver the anticipated results.

I set out to discover how I could make deliberate, forward thinking, productive decisions in my life. What I have learned, I will share with you in the chapters that follow. As you read, I trust you will grow in your understanding of how to benefit from healthy decision-making.

Its Your Turn

In the space below or on a separate sheet of paper, describe when your journey into decision-making began. What conversations, situations, or challenges did you face that helped create a need to know how to make better decisions?

Chapter 1
Decide to Be Decisive

Learn as if you were to live forever; liveas if you were to die tomorrow.

JOHN WOODEN

I have never met a man who said he wants to make poor decisions.