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Mark Eastman

It’s That Time of the Year Again

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Time to Protect Your Biggest Investment

As I was looking at the calendar, I noticed we’re already well into March and rapidly approaching spring. This got me to thinking about home maintenance and I realized…

It’s time to get out the Home Maintenance Plan.

Your home is a sizable investment and regular home maintenance will help extend the life of your home and that investment.

It’s easy for the busy activities of everyday life to consume us and allow home maintenance to get overlooked. This is why I prepared a Home Maintenance Plan and Check List. It’s available for free at our Solution Building website. Just follow the links, fill out the form, and get your own.

Home maintenance – Prevents breakdowns, saves money, and keeps your home in the best possible condition. This regularly scheduled review can expose conditions that might not otherwise be found. This reduces mental, physical, and financial stress and strain.

Seasons happen every year and are a natural part of life. Each of these seasons presents different weather conditions and temperatures which affect your home in varying ways.

We often use calendars to schedule our lives. Combining the seasons and our calendars with a Home Maintenance Checklist breaks a big responsibility into smaller more manageable tasks.

This includes plans for monthly, quarterly, annual, and seasonal maintenance including a seasonal check list.

MONTHLY MAINTENANCE – These tasks should be done every month. You might prefer to schedule one day to do them all or spread them out over the month doing one or two items periodically throughout.

Monthly Maintenance includes things like –

  • Cleaning garbage disposals
  • Cleaning range hood filters
  • Inspecting fire extinguishers
  • Cleaning washing machines

QUARTERLY MAINTENANCE – These quarterly tasks, like the monthly ones, can be scheduled for one day each quarter or disbursed throughout the quarter at monthly, weekly, or other intervals. The important thing is to schedule them and do them.

Quarterly Maintenance includes things like –

  • Changing HVAC filters
  • Testing smoke/carbon monoxide detectors
  • Testing GFCI receptacles
  • Checking water softener salt levels

ANNUAL MAINTENANCE (By Season) – Annual tasks are more seasonal than monthly or quarterly. There is still some flexibility that can be determined by your own preference or life schedule. Some of them are not specific to the season but have been placed as they have, to spread more evenly throughout the year.

Annual Spring Maintenance includes things like –

  • Service central air conditioner
  • Uncover or reinstall window air conditioners
  • Open or uncover foundation vents
  • Turning on and uncover outdoor water faucets
  • Cleaning out basement window wells
  • Cleaning out gutters
  • Check exterior drainage
  • Check exterior of house
  • Clean and check windows and screens

Even this small portion of the complete Home Maintenance list can seem overwhelming. But like any big project, if you break it down into individual tasks, spread them out, and schedule them, it’s doable like building a wall one brick at a time.

It’s a lot better to routinely do maintenance than wait until something falls apart. This is one way home maintenance can help you preserve and protect that big investment of your home. Get your free Home Maintenance Plan and Check List here.

Living a Good Life is Not as Hard as We Make it

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Learning to Live Life from the Bible

Over the past couple of weeks, we been looking forward to Easter through a series of messages about Peter’s relationship with Jesus.

The first week was about Peter’s introduction to Jesus (John 1:35-42) by his brother Andrew. This simple act of introduction changed not only Peter’s life but the lives of those he met, as well as people throughout history and even still today.

Being introduced to Jesus can have this same kind of impact on us today and others that are introduced to Him.

Last week was about Peter’s invitation from Jesus (Matthew 4:18-20, Luke 5:1-11). Jesus invited Peter to follow Him and fish for people rather than fish.

Jesus invites every one of us to join Him. He gives us the direction of where to go and how to do it…whatever our “it” is.

This week we learned about Peter’s instructions from Jesus. A big part of learning is instruction. We all need it, but too often think we have it all figured out. Peter was no different.

In Mark 8:31-9:1 Jesus tells His followers that He is going to suffer terrible things, ultimately going to be killed and then be raised from the dead. This is not the kind of king the people were expecting, and Peter reprimanded Jesus for saying it.

Jesus then told Peter, “Get behind me Satan. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Jesus went on to tell the crowd that if they wanted to be His followers that they needed to quit focusing on their worldly thoughts and focus first and foremost on what He was telling them.

Just like the people listening to Jesus then, we need to be open to His instruction in our lives today.

We can get His instruction today through daily reading of the Bible, being a part of a Bible-believing church, and communicating with Him regularly through prayer.

Invitation, introduction, and instruction…a good way to live life.

Trying to Build a New Business

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Why Does Everyone Tell You It’s Easy When It’s Not?

Helping people in the construction industry build their businesses has been a real struggle. They say they need a better way of doing things but won’t take the time to do anything about it. They struggle with construction proposals, change orders, payment applications, saving money, communication, etc.

I know because they tell me this all the time. Not to mention, I was there too once so to totally understand.

So why don’t they do something about it?

Because, doing something about it is not a simple thing. I know because I struggled with these same problems in my construction company. Then I decided to do something about it. But what?

I began looking for solutions but couldn’t find what I needed. This involved things like computer software, hiring a consulting firm, etc. Not that any of these things were bad, but they didn’t fix the problems.

This is when I realized that there is no magic solution. It’s going to take time and hard work.

It’s a little like building a building…there’s no computer program you can download from the internet, or it won’t magically appear from a blueprint or some written instructions. It requires time and hard work.

When building a building there’s going to be bumps along the way, it’s not like after the first one is built the second one is going to be much easier. But, with each new project it gets better. The mistakes are reduced, and the process becomes more repetitive with experience. Then at some point it becomes so routine you can do it in your sleep.

It takes time and hard work, but it’s worth it.

This brings me back to the problem at hand – helping people in the construction industry build their businesses.

I’ve been working to get other construction companies to use the business building tools and systems that they have been asking for. I’ve been working on this for years and wondering if I’m supposed to keep trying. Then I think back about the difficult journey of building my construction business and keep going.

Part of the problem, like building the first building, is there’s a big learning curve, and it takes time to learn it.

I realized the other day that this is not just a construction business problem…it’s an every kind of business problem.

And the problem is this, we’ve become an immediate gratification society. We don’t want to wait for anything, and a business is no different.

We’re being over promised on social media and the internet with advertisements telling us how we can buy this thing and lose all the weight we want by next month or make a million dollars in six months, etc., etc.

Don’t believe it…it’s a lie.

I’m not saying these things are impossible. What I am saying is that they are highly improbable. After spending a lot of money and not achieving expectations, people are left disappointed and feeling like failures.

Marketing does a great job of doing what it’s supposed to. It gets you to buy things. The problem is the marketing makes it look easier than it is.

Building a business, like building a building, is not for the faint of heart.

This is why I’m going to tell you right now, if you buy our business building toolbox it’s not going to magically make your business an overnight success. Implementing and learning to use these tools is not magic.

Like any tool, if you buy it and don’t ever get it out of the box, you’ll never learn how to use it. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you through long journey of building a successful construction business, schedule a free 30-minute construction company consultation.

It’s Important to Have a Good Guide When Fishing

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This is Especially Important When Fishing for People

When some of my family was on vacation staying in a house on a lake, they hired a guide to take them fishing. They met the guide at the dock at 4:30 in the morning and went fishing. They were back before lunch with a nice catch of fish. Needless to say, they had a fish fry.

This guide knew what time to go so that they would have the best opportunity to catch fish. The guide knew where on the lake to go to find the fish. The guide also knew what to do and how to catch the fish.

As Christians we’re called to fish for people

When fishing for people we need a guide. Someone who knows when to fish, where to fish, and how to fish.

Jesus is our guide when fishing for people.

Last week’s message was about Peter being introduced to Jesus. This week Peter is invited to follow Jesus.

In Matthew 4:18-20 Jesus is walking along the shore and sees Peter and Andrew fishing. He calls to them to follow Him and He will show them how to fish for people.

In Luke 5:1-11 Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The crowds were pressing in on Him. He stepped into a boat and asked Peter to push Him offshore a little.

“When Jesus had finished speaking, He told Peter to go out to deeper water and let down his net. Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.”  And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear!  A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.

When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m such a sinful man.” For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him. His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.

Jesus replied to Simon, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!” And as soon as they got to shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.”

Like Peter, we are invited to follow Jesus and fish for people.

Just like my family met the guide where and when he said, went with him to the right place, fished like he told them, and brought home a catch of fish. Jesus will do the same if we show up when and where He tells us, go where He tells us, and do what He tells us. We too can bring home a catch.

Now go do some fishing!

What Makes a Construction Proposal So Important?

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It’s Like Quality Construction, It Sets You Apart as a Professional

As Gene is driving to his weekly Saturday training with John, he remembers how hard it was in the beginning to convince himself to take the time to learn this system and how glad he is that he did. He thinks back over what he’s learned during the past several weeks:

Gene’s getting excited as he pulls up to the SMR Construction Company office. Today they are going to put all the pieces together, creating a finished proposal.

After John and Gene have some lunch and get caught up on the past week’s events, John asked Gene, “You know how exciting it is when you see a new home coming to completion after starting with nothing but a blueprint? That is what we’re going to do today…we’re going to see…

A proposal taken from blueprint to reality.

Let’s get started.

The final step in preparing the Proposal is to transfer the information from the Scope of Work and the Worksheet to the Proposal template.

Start out by opening a Proposal template from the Building a Better Proposal tool.

If you use a project number, insert it behind the number sign at the top of the page, below the proposal title. Next, insert the customer and project information in the open areas as it pertains to the project.

Insert your company name at the beginning of the introductory sentence.

Copy and paste the description of the work to be performed and material to be supplied from the Scope of Work in the body of the Proposal template.

Next, take the prices from the Worksheet for each individual task described on the Proposal, and place it under each task on the right side of the page. At the end of each section, put the total price for that section. This allows the customer to see a price for each section, i.e. foundation, framing, roofing, etc.

Now that the description of the work to be performed, the materials to be used, the prices for each task, and the subtotals of each section have been placed on the Proposal, it’s time for the project subtotal to be inserted at the bottom. Insert a separate price for the sales tax below the subtotal. Sales tax rates will be determined by the location where the work is to be performed.

Next insert the project total after, “For the Sum Of:” on the Proposal both in written and numerical forms, this duplication (just like on a check) helps with clarity.

Now that you have a project total you need to determine how payments will be made. There are several different factors which can determine how this will be done, i.e. the size of the project, when material will be ordered and/or paid for, the financing of the project, your personal preferences, etc. This could be done at the completion of set production tasks, scheduled times (weekly, monthly, etc.) or when the project is finished.

Determining the date in which the Proposal will expire will be up to you. If the Proposal includes some materials that fluctuate in price often then you may want the expiration date to be sooner rather than later. A standard time frame is 30 days.

The duration of time to complete the project can be determined from the Worksheet. At the bottom of the Worksheet there are four cells, with corresponding amounts for each category.

The Labor Price is the total amount of labor costfor the project. The Hours, is the total man hours needed for the project, dividing the hours by $60/hr. This hourly rate can be adjusted to whatever dollar amount you determine. The Days are the total hours divided by 7 hours of production per day. The Weeks are total working days divided by 5 days of production per week. You then have the number of working days needed to complete the project. This will then be entered into the corresponding blank space on the Proposal. It’s a good idea to add a little more time for the unplanned.

You now have completed the proposal!

At this point I recommend going back through and proofreading the scope of work for each task, checking the math to make sure that the prices on the Proposal add up correctly. Don’t be surprised if a few of the numbers on the Worksheet totals are off a cent or two from the total on the Proposal. This happens sometimes due the combinations of formulas on the spreadsheet. The most important thing is that the prices on the Proposal add up correctly.

Now sign the proposal and deliver it to the customer.”

John looks over at Gene and asks, “Well what do you think?”

Gene smiles and says, “You’re right. It does feel like seeing a house where there wasn’t one before. It’s very satisfying.”

“Know this Gene, it’s also going to be like building the first house. You’re going to have questions when you start using the proposal system. Start using it and let me know when you have questions. It will be tempting to go back to doing bids like you used to, but don’t.

Providing proposals like this communicates clearly with customers and prevents misunderstandings. It gives you a production budget and scope of work for the production crews which increases your bottom line. This is different than how most companies do proposals and will set you apart as a reliable professional.

“Next week we’ll review your experience and spend our time answering those questions.

Now go use this tool and start building better proposals.”

Previous posts in this series:

What is “business clarity” and how do you find it?

What Does it Take to Build a Successful Construction Company

It’s Time for the First Meeting

Being Aware of Bid Mistakes is the Best Way to Avoid Them

Constructing a Building is Better with a Plan, a Proposal is No Different

Do You Want to do a Good Construction Proposal?

What is a Construction Scope of Work and Why Do You Need One?

What Makes a Construction Project Most Profitable?

How Would You Feel if You Met Someone Famous?

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Maybe It’s Easier Than You Think

Meeting famous people can be exciting. We’ve all seen people fawn over some famous person. If we meet or know someone famous, we tend to drop names like we’re old friends. I know I’ve done this on occasion.

Why is this?

I think often it’s because we have a low perception of ourselves, and it makes us feel more important and valuable.

This low self-perception is a lie. We’re all just as important as anyone else.

If you’ve ever had a chance to get to know someone famous, more often than not, you find that they aren’t that different than anyone else.

After all, God made us all in His image. (Genesis 1:27) That sounds to me like we’re all pretty important!

When Jesus was just starting His ministry, John the Baptist introduced Andrew, one of his disciples, to Jesus as “the Lamb of God”. Andrew then went and found his brother Simon and invited him to come meet Jesus, whom he called the Messiah.

Jesus was someone pretty famous.

Andrew invited Simon to come meet Jesus…he didn’t just tell him about Him.

We know Simon as Peter, the Rock on which the Church was built. (John 1:35-42) Peter also became pretty famous.

So, if Jesus is famous and we know Him and He knows us, (John 10:14) doesn’t that mean that we are important and worthy?

People are interested in famous people. It’s no different with Jesus. People are curious and want to know more about Him. If people are invited into a community of authentic Christian believers…they can get to know Jesus, rather than just being told about him.

People need to be invited to meet Jesus.

This invitation can come from Christians in a church. There’s also an invitation that comes from within each of us.

Preceding or prevenient grace is a way to understand how God’s grace works in our lives even before we become saved. 

Prevenient grace is the idea that God’s grace enables people to respond to him. It goes out to everyone, enabling them to respond in faith to what Jesus has done for us.

The theory of prevenient grace was developed to reconcile the tension between God’s sovereignty and human free will. It allows believers to exercise the free will God has given us.

Prevenient grace is a form of grace that only acts on a person before they are saved. It is distinct from sanctifying grace in that way. There is a change in the type of grace a person receives once they enter a relationship with God. The process of sanctification is still similar; it is still a yielding to God’s perfect will at our own expense. In sanctifying grace, however, the Spirit helps us as we become more and more like Jesus.

Prevenient Grace is at the very beginning of that process.

The idea of prevenient grace developed in response to Calvinism by Jacob Arminius. At the time, it emphasized the Calvinist idea that God had unconditionally chosen who would believe, and he also condemned those who were not chosen.

Prevenient grace became prevalent because Arminius opposed the idea that God has already unconditionally chosen who would believe and who would be condemned. He saw predestination as an affront to God’s justice.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, further popularized it. He saw prevenient grace as the first of three stages in the believer’s life. These were gestation (prevenient grace), birth (justifying grace), and death (sanctifying grace). So, prevenient grace is how God prepares the believer to respond to Him. It is the links in the chain pulling someone closer and closer to God.

Prevenient grace is a way to reconcile how God’s grace is extended to all people, even though not everyone responds. It differs from Calvinism, which says God has already predestined and elected the people he has chosen to save.

Before a believer comes to Christ, he is dead in sin. Therefore, we need God to intervene before we respond to him. Those who believe in prevenient grace also believe that man cannot respond to God unless God acts first. Genesis 6:5 supports this because it says fallen humanity will only seek and do evil without God’s intervention.

Prevenient grace means that Jesus died for everyone, but his atonement only affects those who believe in him.

Knowing the famous Jesus starts with being aware of the pulling of this grace. The next step is understanding that there is a pulling. Third is information and instruction on what it is. Fouth is learning more about it and accepting Jesus as the only way to Heaven.

If you already know that famous person Jesus, feel free to drop His name.

Don’t just tell people about Him, invite them to meet Him and get to know Him through an authentic community of Bible-following believers!

What Makes a Construction Project Most Profitable?

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It All Comes Down to Dollars and Cents

It’s week six of learning the Building a Better Proposal system. As time consuming as learning new things is…Gene is beginning to see the benefits this proposal system will provide.

Just like building a house uses repeated actions to reduce the need to think about how to do things, this proposal system does the same thing when bidding construction projects.

As they settle in and begin the meeting, John tells Gene, “Let’s take a quick look back at what we’ve covered so far. We started by asking ourselves some foundational questions. Next, we discussed the common mistakes contractors make when doing bids. Then we went over the system and its parts. The last couple of weeks we’ve worked on gathering information and turning that info into a Scope of Work. Today, we’re going to start working on Pricing the Project

Communicating a clear description of the project is achieved with the Scope of Work. Accurate pricing is equally important to avoiding misunderstandings.

Poor communication will cause heartache, poor pricing will cost you money.

Open the Worksheet template. This blank Worksheet is where you will paste the information from the Data Base as it relates to each of the specific tasks of the project.

The Worksheet template has six different options for overhead and profit ranging from 20% overhead and 10% profit to 40% overhead and 20% profit. You can use whichever of the six options works best for you on the specific project you’re working on.

Typically, larger projects, i.e. new construction, large renovations, remodels, or large additions will use smaller percentages, while small projects will use bigger ones. You can use whichever works best for you. These percentages can be adjusted after you have finished the pricing if you want them increased or decreased. These documents can be modified with custom percentages as well.

Open the Data Base and prepare to copy the appropriate content into the correlating cells of the Worksheet of the project you are working on. Use the previously written Scope of Work to determine which of the categories specific to the project need to be copied from the Data Base and pasted on the Worksheet.

If more than one item for a specific task is needed, for example shingles, synthetic underlayment, and metal flashings, these individual items will be entered separately then added together to create one price for roofing.

You can add as many additional rows as you need, just be careful to keep the formulas intact by filling the content of the existing row to the new ones.

Determining which tasks should be inserted into the Worksheet is the next step.

Most of the tasks on the Data Base have options; determining which to use will depend on the specifics of the project. For example, how is the excavation, trenching and landscaping going to be done…with a skid loader, mini excavator or by hand?

Once it’s determined which methods, actions or materials are to be used for a specific project, copy the pertinent cells from the Data Base and paste them to the Worksheet.

After the pertinent information from the Data Base has been placed on the Worksheet it’s time to…

Enter the quantity of the work to be done.

Fill in the quantities needed to do the work for each item listed on the Worksheet. This may be in lineal feet, square feet, square yards, cubic feet, cubic yards, or numbers of pieces. Once this is completed for all the categories, you’ll have a price for each task of the Proposal!

This system offers a consistent repeatable process for preparing accurate proposals and is the difference between making money or losing money on construction projects.”

John looks at Gene and asks, “Well, what do you think?”

“Well, I thought my head was spinning before today…now I’m getting dizzy.”, Gene replied with a grin.

“I know it seems like a lot, but it really isn’t once you get started using it.” John says reassuringly. “Experiment with it this week. Call if you have any questions. Next week we’ll bring everything you’ve learned together into a proposal ready to be presented to the customer.”

Construction projects are consistently more profitable when you’re intentional with the dollars and cents.

Previous posts in this series:

What is “business clarity” and how do you find it?

What Does it Take to Build a Successful Construction Company

It’s Time for the First Meeting

Being Aware of Bid Mistakes is the Best Way to Avoid Them

Constructing a Building is Better with a Plan, a Proposal is No Different

Do You Want to do a Good Construction Proposal?

What is a Construction Scope of Work and Why Do You Need One?

We All Do Dumb and God Knows It

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Yet He Still Loves and Uses Us

People doing dumb has been a common theme as we’ve been going through the Old Testament of the Bible.

We started out the New Year’s message discussing our plan to read through the Old Testament. Reading the Old Testament can be a little scary, but it’s not as scary doing it as a group.

The first Sunday we got a word for the year. This was done by drawing a random word from a basket. My word for the year is deserve. We are all more blessed than we deserve.

This is evident as we look back at the people in the Bible that we’ve discussed.

These people were

  • Adulterers – Sarah had Abraham sleep with another women, Abraham slept with other women, Jacob slept with other women
  • Cheaters – Jacob cheated Esau out of his inheritance, Labon cheated Jacob and gave him Leah for his wife
  • Thieves – Rachel stole idols from her father
  • Murderers – Moses killed a man
  • Idolators – Aaron made the golden calf for the Israelites

This is a pretty sketchy bunch of people, yet God used all of them in His plan and as part of Jesus’ linage.

And He will use us in His plan too.

It’s hard for me to understand how these people would one minute be talking with angles or be freeing people using miracles from God and then turn right around and do stupid things.

This week’s focus was on Aaron. How is it that he could be so dumb as to build an idol after have having just been involved in freeing the Israelites from Egypt? (Exodus 32:1-6)

It’s because like us…he’s human.

Who knows exactly why he did it? But who knows why we do some of the stupid things we do?

The important thing to remember is…there is no amount of stupid we can do to stop God from loving and using us.

It all comes down to us accepting our mistakes and working to do what God wants going forward. This doesn’t mean that our dumb mistakes don’t come at a price. It just means that as long as we’re still alive…we can do better going forward if we choose to.

What is a Construction Scope of Work and Why Do You Need One?

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Clear Communication is Critical to Happy Customers

Last week John explained to Gene what project information needed to be gathered…

  • Project info (customer name, mailing address, project address if different than mailing, phone number, email address, project overview, budget, project deadline, any other relevant information)
  • Measurements and dimensions, existing and new
  • Building materials, existing and new
  • Pictures of pertinent areas and existing construction
  • Customer’s design ideas and finishes

Overlooking or forgetting something is a sure way to lose money when doing a construction project.

This week they’re going to take the information gathered and turn it into a Scope of Work. This will be the foundational form of communication between everyone involved in the process, i.e., customer, contractor, sub-contractors, employees, etc.

As they get started on this week’s meeting John asks Gene if he had an opportunity to use the Bid Sheet this past week and if so, how it worked.

“Yes.” said John. “It was a little awkward in the beginning. By the time I was finished gathering the project information I was glad I had it because there were a couple of things that it reminded me to do.”

John replied, “That’s great. Do you have any questions?” Not yet.” said Gene. With a smile John said, “You will before we’re done.

Okay. Did you bring it with you”? “I did.” said Gene, “I’ve got it on my laptop.” John told him to open it up and follow along. “Today we’re going to work on the most important part of communication between contractor and customer…the Scope of Work.

What is a Scope of Work?

A Scope of Work clearly defines and explains the work to be done. It should describe what is included in each specific task in terminology that both the customer and the contractor understand. A scope of work describes the work to be done on a project, who is responsible for completing the work, how the work must be performed (techniques used), and what materials will be used. It helps in the smooth operation of a project, minimizing situations leading to disputes. It is the first step to building a mutually beneficial relationship between a contractor and customer.

Communication with the customer needs be simple and direct while explaining clearly and thoroughly.

After having gathered the information needed for the project using the Bid Sheet, write out in a few sentences, or less, what each specific task is going to consist of. Explaining what you’re going to do in a way that a person with little or no construction knowledge can understand. Include as much detail and specifics as needed to be clear on what is or is not included in each part of the project.

Once this process has been finished for each task included in the project, you have a Scope of Work ready to be transferred to a blank Proposal template.

Here’s an example of a Scope of Work using the information from the Bid Sheet we worked on last week.”

As they’re wrapping up this week’s training John tells Gene. “Next week we’ll get into the pricing of a project.”

The real value of this Proposal System is in the pricing.

Previous posts in this series:

What is “business clarity” and how do you find it?

What Does it Take to Build a Successful Construction Company

It’s Time for the First Meeting

Being Aware of Bid Mistakes is the Best Way to Avoid Them

Constructing a Building is Better with a Plan, a Proposal is No Different

Do You Want to do a Good Construction Proposal?

The Journey to Finding Our True Calling

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Take Off Your Shoes…You’re Standing on Holy Ground

This journey called life can be difficult. We want control over our lives. We want to call the shots. Too often, this means pushing back and taking the easy road. Pushing back isn’t a very good plan, just ask Moses.

Moses pushed back and gave God excuses of why he was the wrong one to go. (Exodus 4:10-17) Through all of Moses’ excuses, he moved forward fulfilling God’s calling.

Other than Jesus, Moses is the most well-known character in the Bible. He played multiple roles throughout his life. It’s easy to glamourize Biblical characters who accomplish great things, but they were people just like us.

Let’s look at how Moses became Moses.

He was born to Jochebed and Amram, both from the tribe of Levi, when the children of Israel lived in Egypt as slaves. He was the youngest of three children, with a sister named Miriam and a brother named Aaron.

This was a time when the Pharaoh was afraid of the Israelite slaves because there were so many of them and he ordered all the boy Israelite babies to be killed. Moses’ mother,

“…saw that he was a special baby and kept him hidden for three months”

When she couldn’t hide him anymore, she made a little boat, placed him in it, and hid baby Moses in the reeds on the banks of the Nile River. He didn’t stay there long before being rescued by the Pharaoh’s daughter. Being unable to nurse him, she hired a Hebrew woman to do the job. This woman just so happened to be Moses’ mother.

After Moses was old enough, the Pharaoh’s daughter raised him in the palace surrounded by all the luxuries of Egypt. (Exodus 2:1-10)

Moses grew up in the palace but knew he was a Hebrew. When Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave the Bible says, “Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand”.

Not the greatest coverup because the next day, a Hebrew slave called him out on it.

We all deal with fear and Moses is no different. When Pharaoh found out what Moses had done, Moses ran for his life. He lived out in the desert of Midian for 40 years as a shepherd with his new family. (Exodus 2:11-22)

Fear showed up again when God appeared to Moses in a burning bush that was on fire but did not burn up. God told Moses to not come any closer and to take his shoes off because he was standing on holy ground. (Exodus 3:1-6)

This is a Scripture I struggle with because I don’t like going barefoot, especially outside, let alone up on a mountain. Once I put my boots on in the morning, I don’t take them off until I go to bed at night.

However, if I find myself standing next to a bush that’s on fire but not burning up and God tells me to take my boots off…I’m going to take them off.

Moses removing his sandals was an act of reverence and obedience to God’s call.

Whatever God’s call to us is, we need to be willing to respect and submit to that calling.

God wanted Moses to rescue the Israelites from Egypt. Moses was afraid and gave excuse after excuse, one being that he stuttered. Moses told God, “Please send someone else”. God didn’t want to send someone else and got angry with Moses. (Exodus 3:7-4:17)

God recruited his brother Aaron to assist in overcoming Moses’ fear, promising to help them both.

Moses rose to the challenge.

When trapped between the Pharaoh and the Red Sea, Moses told the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again…”, and he was right. Moses led them through the Red Sea on dry ground by the power of the God. That was just the beginning of Moses’ calling.

The job God called Moses to do was full of difficulties and challenges. Moses never hid his emotions and questions from God. They spent 40 days together on top of Mount Sinai and God gave Moses “…the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God”.

Meanwhile, the people got tired of waiting for Moses, made an idol, and started worshiping it. This made God angry, and He offered to kill them all, making Moses into a great nation instead. “But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God”.

God heard Moses and didn’t act on His emotions. 

For 40 years, Moses led the Israelites, and God kept His promise to always be with him. Even when Moses messed up, due to his anger, which disallowed him from entering the promised land. The Bible says Moses “whom the LORD knew face to face”. (Deuteronomy 34:10)

Excerpt from Who Was Moses in the Bible?

God calls us all to our specific purpose. We need to have an open and honest conversation with God when we don’t feel adequate. We need to be willing to step out in faith and trust that God has our back.

We need to honor God and be willing to take our shoes off if that’s what He wants us to do.