As part of my “Welcome to 2016” post in January, I mentioned that I wanted to re-evaluate my relationships. So this week, I spent time thinking about some very important relationships in my life, my friendships. I began my reflection by asking myself several questions; who are my friends, what makes each of my friends valuable to me, what is it that I appreciate about these friends, and what would life be like without them? I have not always had friends. As a child, I moved very frequently. When you are consistently the new kid in town, it is hard to READ MORE
Category: Personal Growth
Children Make a Difference
Parenting takes a great deal of love, grace, effort, prayer, and perseverance. It is a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, priceless investment into the next generation. I am the mother of four amazing people, three girls and one boy. They are a fun, lively, talented, creative, brilliant, loving, and giving bunch. I couldn’t imagine my life without them, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything! As parents, we often concentrate on how our influence affects the children God has entrusted to us. How often do we consider the impact they make in our lives? I am not READ MORE
Thankfulness
Recently, a dear friend was telling me about some obstacles she and her family are facing. Very frustrated and feeling overwhelmed, she asked me for some advice on how to deal with her circumstances. I shared several strategies with her, such as prayer and patience, and then I brought up the T-word – Thankfulness. Sure, we express thankfulness for things like presents, open doors, and tax refunds. We are thankful to be alive and for our loved ones, but how often are we thankful for life’s tough situations. As humans, we often react to painful experiences by isolating ourselves, shutting READ MORE
One week into the New Year
I thought I would give you an update on my last post. Don’t worry, I will not be giving goal updates every week, just periodically. I am excited to report that I have made progress in three of my New Year’s goals. I made strides in two of my goals this week by writing this blog post. Today is Thursday, and it just happens to be the day I have declared as my blog posting day – deadline fear facing and more consistent writing, check, check! So, you can look forward to reading something from me every Thursday. It may, READ MORE
Welcome to 2016
Welcome to 2016! I have been taking a few days to reflect on 2015 and considering the things I want to see happen in the coming year. So, I thought I would share some of my list with you. These items are NOT resolutions; they are goals I want to work toward and hope to see accomplished. For me, resolutions are easier to break than goals. 1) I would like to become a more consistent writer. For you the reader, this means I am going to try to publish a blog post weekly, preferably on the same day of the READ MORE