Welcome back to the Excel Stomore podcast. I'm so thankful that you've joined. Today's episode is sponsored by Spirit Building Publishers. This group of Christians is committed to providing fresh, relevant, and practical Bible study material for today's Christian families and churches.

Their workbooks and devotionals are rooted in scripture, easy to teach, and written for the real

world we live in. Whether you're studying with teens or leading a class or just growing on your own,

the Spirit Building website provides you with a wide variety of options.

You can visit them at spiritbuilding.com and discover materials that can help you and your church

excel still more.

Good morning. Welcome back to the podcast.

I have to tell you, even now year eight or whatever it is, this is

still one of my favorite things to do in spiritual work every week is just sit down and share

things with you that are having a direct effect on my life and how I'm trying to live it and build it.

Things that I believe are important for my family who listens to these episodes and the church

where I'm working and just passing them on to you. And I know week after week, weekend and

week out, some of the things just don't connect while other things may be dead center of what

you need in your life right now. So thank you for just tuning in week after week and supporting this

journey. So in some ways today, we are revisiting last week's episode, not in any specific, but more in a generic case.

We looked at the Roman emperor from the second century, Marcus Aurelius, who wrote down some things on his own, not intending for others to see.

And yet those reflections have become

powerful tools to help people achieve their best for literally nearly 2,000 years.

Summing up his five points, which we will not revisit with much detail today, he said,

number one, you have to master what you can control.

Your mind, your choices, your decision for your discipline.

Life is not all about you, but you interact with the life all around you, and that's the person you need to work on first.

...