{"id":4488,"date":"2012-01-19T14:18:02","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T14:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=4488"},"modified":"2012-01-19T14:30:20","modified_gmt":"2012-01-19T14:30:20","slug":"be-careful-what-you-wish-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=4488","title":{"rendered":"Be Careful What You Wish For!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I shared yesterday about a chance, (actually a God planned), \u00a0encounter with some people in the Sky Room on my way home from New Orleans. \u00a0In the conversation the older of the two gentlemen ask me a question that has resurfaced continuously since it was asked, \u00a0“What do you want in your future?”<\/strong><\/span> \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>I couldn’t stop thinking about that question. \u00a0The more I mulled it over in my mind the more I realized what an important question it was. \u00a0I decided to pray about it, consider it, and come up with a list of what I really want in my future! \u00a0I even shocked myself! \u00a0I would pose the same question to you, \u00a0“What do you really want in your life?” \u00a0Here is what I came up with in order of importance;<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. \u00a0I want to find myself closer and closer to my Lord Jesus Christ every day.<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0I want to develop a deeper relationship with Him that makes me more of what He wants me to be. \u00a0I want my closeness to Him to spill over into the world around me. \u00a0I pray that people I meet and get to know, \u00a0want to get to know Him because of what they see He has done in my life. \u00a0I want Him to get all the glory.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. \u00a0I want to see others the way God sees them. \u00a0<\/span>I want to feel the compassion, and love my Heavenly Father feels for others. \u00a0I want any judgement I may feel to fade away and be replaced with the same love, and gentleness He has offered me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. \u00a0I would like to wake up more mornings next to Sherelene!<\/span> \u00a0I travel way too much, and I miss my bride. \u00a0I want to not only spend more time with her, but I want to be a better husband. \u00a0I want to consider her feelings, needs, and wishes more carefully, and work harder at being the kind of man she needs in her life. \u00a0I want her to know how very much I appreciate all her sacrifices and hard work, love and devotion. \u00a0She deserves the very best husband I can be, and more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. \u00a0I want to spend more time with my children, grandchildren and brother Homer.<\/span> \u00a0I love my family, and this life keeps me too busy and too separated from all of them. \u00a0I love the time I do get to spend with them, I want more of that in my life. \u00a0The Christmas season reminded me again of just how much joy they bring into my life, how very proud I am of each of them!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. \u00a0I love being with my friends, and sharing our love for photography and our faith.<\/span> \u00a0I want to have more time spent in their company. When I’m feeling tired, stressed, or over loaded, \u00a0all I have to do is close my eyes and go back to New England, or Shaker Village, Savannah, or Arches\/Canyonlands and remember all the great times with my brother Homer, \u00a0Jim Begley, Chuck Summers, Richard Small, Snake Barrett, Chuck Barnes, Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski, Jim & Sue Haverstock, Raymnond Jabola, Ricky Skaggs, Tim Isaacson, Susan S., Lynn R., \u00a0Larry W., the Obers, and I better stop now before someone gets their feelings hurt. \u00a0I truly love the folks that share and learn with us at the workshops, I am so looking forward to the ones to come and more time with my buddies, brothers, and sisters!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. \u00a0I want to have more success at taking care of myself.<\/span> \u00a0I need to exercise more, eat better, and get enough rest. \u00a0I’m totally at fault for not doing a better job at that, I need to put a better plan into action! \u00a0God has miraculously kept me on this side of the grass with little help from me!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7. I want to be the kind of employee at Nikon, that when it is time to leave, they will genuinely be sorry to see me go<\/span>. \u00a0I appreciate my job and the people I work with, I want to make them glad they hired me ten years ago! \u00a0I know we do important work and I appreciate getting to be a part of this team.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

8. \u00a0I want to do more Kelby Training Classes.<\/span> \u00a0Nikon has asked me to not teach anymore, until after I retire. \u00a0They see it as a conflict with Nikon School and other classes Nikon offers. I have really enjoyed doing them and look forward, in the not to distant future, to resuming. \u00a0I still have one unreleased class that will be coming up this year, after that I hope to continue adding to that list of classes well into the future!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9. \u00a0I want to become a better teacher.<\/span> \u00a0I love photography and I really enjoy sharing that love, and my experience, with other photographers, I want to work hard to get better and better at it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

10. \u00a0I \u00a0don’t ever want to loose my enthusiasm and love for the craft and art of photography.<\/span> \u00a0It is a wonderful thing to get to this age and still be so excited about photography. \u00a0I hope I stay this motivated until the moment I go home to be with Him!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* Bonus one: \u00a011. \u00a0I want to get better and better as a photographer.<\/span> \u00a0Not better than any other individual, just increase my skill, vision, and joy!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So there are my top ten + 1! \u00a0I know the more I think about the more things will be added. \u00a0Give it a try, start thinking about what really matters the most to you and make your own list!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Be blessed,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the pilgrim<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I shared yesterday about a chance, (actually a God planned), \u00a0encounter with some people in the Sky Room on my way home from New Orleans. \u00a0In the conversation the older of the two gentlemen ask me a question that has resurfaced continuously since it was asked, \u00a0“What do you want in your future?” \u00a0\u00a0I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4488"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4495,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4488\/revisions\/4495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}