5 D's THAT WILL DESTROY YOU AND YOUR TEAM I didn’t want to write this but felt I needed to write this. Turn on the news. Look around. Read your social media feed. The country is increasingly divided. Teams are crumbling. Marriages are ending. More and more young people are taking their own life. Too many have lost hope and are giving up. Why is this happening and what can we do about it? The answer came to me a few months back while I was walking before a corporate speaking engagement in Chicago. I wrote it down knowing that it needed to be shared. It’s happening because evil exists and it uses the 5 D's to attack us and our marriages, families, teams and country. 1. Divide - The enemy tries to divide us from God and from each other. The word "anxious" literally means divided. Right now evil is doing a great job of dividing this country. 2. Discourage - The enemy knows it can't beat you on its own. So it tries to discourage you so you beat yourself and give up. We don’t give up because it’s hard. We give up because we get discouraged. 3. Distract - You know the saying, "If the devil won't make you bad he’ll make you busy." He'll get you to focus on all the things that don’t matter so you don’t invest in what does matter. He tries to distract you from your core purpose and mission. 4. Distort - The enemy takes what is pure and beautiful and distorts it. Evil takes truth and distorts it with lies. Your negative thoughts are lies and fear is a liar. Your negative thoughts don’t come from you. After all who would ever choose a negative thought? 5. Doubt - The enemy plants seeds of doubt in your mind that you aren't enough and aren't loved. It creates doubt about your future and purpose. Ultimately the enemy wants you to doubt God and believe that God can’t be trusted. The enemy knows if he can get you to doubt God he can get you to believe his lies. The enemy uses these 5 D's to accomplish the 6th D and that's to Destroy. In the case of a marriage it's Divorce. I know this sound harsh but look around and you see this truth playing out everywhere. But the good news is that love wins. The 5 D's represent the Devil’s playbook. This is the only game plan the enemy uses. And if you know the game plan you can counter it with a more powerful plan. You can: 1. Love and unite instead of divide. 2. Encourage yourself and others when you feel discouraged. 3. Focus on what matters most instead of letting distractions get in the way. 4. Speak truth to the lies. Know that you have greatness inside of you and you are here to do great things. No matter what happened in your past you are capable of creating a great future right now. 5. Trust in God’s plan for your life. Know that you are loved and know that your future is full of hope. These will lead you to the 7th D and that’s your Destiny. 7 is the number of completion and in the end we know Good wins! It’s much easier to write fictional stories and create movies about good vs evil than it is to write about good and evil in real life. But the reason why Star Wars, Harry Potter, Superman, Black Panther, Wonder Woman, etc. are about the battle of good and evil is because it’s the major narrative of our existence and one that exists deep within our soul. It resonates with us because this is the battle we all face. My hope is that what I wrote here will help you win the battle and create your Destiny. I believe in you and I believe the best is yet to come! - Jon
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