Ken Davis with us at the SCORRE Conference in Georgia.
Wendy and I attended the SCORRE Conference last week with Ken Davis, Michael Hyatt and about 80 of the neatest people we’ve ever met. It was awesome – it comes with our highest recommendation. While the conference is intended for solidifying speaking skills, for us it was much more. It helped us solidify some of our core convictions.
1. What in the world is our platform, anyway?
Ken Davis has become a good friend of the Jeubs. I had Ken speak at our Training Minds Camp, and I have begun working for Ken Davis Productions on event and product promotions. Ken and his team have been very encouraging to the both of us on how we shape and execute our Jeub Family message. We haven’t always hit the mark, but we have been blessed with several assets. When we really sit back and think about what we could talk about, we have a lot going on:
- We have 16 children
- We lead a ministry for speakers and debaters
- We educate our children at home
- We write books on healthy living
- We like to cook and write cookbooks
- We advocate for financial stewardship
- We enjoy self-employment and are entrepreneurs
- We hunt with our teenagers
This list could go on. Interesting stuff, sure, but you know what? We could never really nail down a platform. The list above may be our interests, but it isn’t necessarily our platform. Michael Hyatt, who is coming out with a book this month with that very name Platform, challenged us to figure this out. The SCORRE method demanded it. So we have narrowed it down…
2. Our Platform Is Love
Now that’s what we’re talking about! Love is the Greatest Commandment, and we light up when we talk with other parents about how important this is – or at least how important it should be. We’re not making this up from last week alone; we’ve been preaching love for years! Check out the titles of our books:
- Love in the House (2007)
- Love in the Kitchen Vol. 1 (2008)
- Love in the Kitchen Vol. 2 (2010)
- Love in a Diet (2009)
- Love Another Child (2011)
To be honest, we feel ourselves get off track – sort of lose our way – when we think other things should take center stage. They really shouldn’t. Love is it.
For example: our large family. I know many of our readers are large family folks, and by all means, we are all thumbs up and commend you for your parenting! But you probably already agree: large families without love is nothing to be admired. We’re wrong to think perhaps the size of our family is what makes us special. Not so. It’s love. An awesome family life is possible with two kids just as it is with twenty. Which leads to our conviction…
3. We Need to Speak About Love
Everything we talk about should be about love. We have to be almost annoying about it. When it comes to the central purpose of living, few are talking about love. As already mentioned, love is the Greatest Commandment, yet outside of your typical pop song, hardly anyone is talking about it. How peculiar that love is sung by immoral, drugged out rock stars, yet we challenge you to find a church Statement of Faith that ventures into the topic. We’re afraid it’s a sign of the times.
Forgive us. Once in a while we get off track. We’re passionate about a lot of things, but the one thing that we can tag as a true conviction is love. Re-read the list of interests at the top of this blog post. We really don’t care if you don’t do any of those things. We can still be friends.
But if you blow off love, we’re going to take issue with you. A life without love is misery. You will raise angry, bitter kids. Your marriage will be hell. Your neighbors will be distant. You will exit this life as a huge, deflated disappointment.
So we revamped our About Us page. Would you mind reading it? We would very much appreciate your feedback. We don’t have a comment section on the actual About Us page, but come back to this article and let us know what you think. This is a work in progress, and you are a most valued reader. Thank you!
About Chris Jeub