To Serve well

Serving with Excellence for a Life of Excellence

Lift Others Up

The power to CHOOSE

(Photo Creds: We Heart It)

Today’s post is a simple reminder: We have the power to CHOOSE.

Choose a chaotic or calm approach? How do I really want my home and life to feel? To look?

Choose to MAKE this a terrific summer, or choose for your days to be the same?

Choose to CREATE a plan to MAKE A DIFFERENCE, or not?

Choose to TAKE ACTION on your dreams and plans… To save for that great trip, or keep stripping away funds via Starbucks runs and too much frivolous spending…

Choose to LOOK UP & SMILE MORE, ENJOY the BEAUTY or walk around with your head down looking at your latest text, Insta post or Facebook feed?

It’s just a reminder that you get to CHOOSE. I love that… I need to CHOOSE better some moments and some days.

Rewind: Lessons from the Farm

(Photo Credit: Pinterest)

(This is a partial throw back post to one from May 2016. Enjoy, friends!)

If you have any experience in farming, you know that while this image looks AMAZING, it didn’t get that way without a ton of hard work and investment.

Our theme this time last year started with the idea of “bold faith,” so much so that you would “bet the farm,” so to speak. That got me thinking about a life of excellence and how farmers really are pretty much the best of the best in demonstrating the value of hard work – among other things.

I had the opportunity to grow up around a farm thanks to my grandparents, and I can tell you two things:

  1. It is HARD WORK. PERIOD.
  2. Riding on the back of a truck while they are baling hay is not for the faint of heart. Snakes literally jump up while the ground gets pulled up and out! That part wasn’t a ton of fun, but I do recall summer “pool time” in the cow feeding trough! Hey, you gotta do what you can to have fun in Jasper, Mo.!

The lessons on the farm are too many to count, but here are a few that I feel really inspired by (with the help of Jeremie Kubicek. Maybe they’ll help you, too.

  • Lesson 1: BUILD A STRONG FOUNDATION – Healthy crops come from healthy topsoil. This is true in business and life. YOU MUST HAVE A CLEAR DIRECTION and GROWTH PLAN. If you don’t have one, today’s the day!
  • Lesson 2: POUR INTO THE FIELD – Farmers fertilize their fields and invest in the best products to ensure a healthy outcome. In life, we must “pour” into our children, our calling (work), our friends, etc. We can’t expect friendships to develop, careers to grow and children and grandchildren to excel without fertilization! Are there any key areas you need to “pour into” in your life?
  • Lesson 3: ELIMINATE THE WEEDS! – I love this one. For farmers, weeds choke the life out of the crops and damage the potential harvest. WOW – isn’t this one so true for all of us? We must weed out the negative thoughts, habits and sometimes even people from our lives that are holding us back! What do you need to “weed out” today?

Make it a great one!

Simple thoughts Sunday: Spiritual nutrition

(Photo Creds: We Heart it)

I love this topic and idea of “spiritual nutrition.”

We seem to have a world flooded with information on physical nutrition, health, etc. You could argue that if your spiritual life isn’t in great shape, you will be overwhelmed with the pushes and pulls of life, thus negating your good work in eating right and exercising!

A good friend of mine and I were talking about how we go about getting “fed” spiritually. As a mom of “aspiring” adult young men, this is a very important topic for me. Heck, it’s important to me for the folks I am friends with and mentor. I so badly want them to know AND practice staying close to God in daily prayer and scripture reading. Of course, this could be through devotionals and could easily be via videos, etc., on their phones, but I want it to be the core part of their lives, a deal breaker in relationships and an overall “must have.” I learned the hard way that the only way to really “hear” from God and know his direction for my life is to stay close to his word.  Once I understood this, it was like I knew where he wanted me and how to fulfill my purpose. I’m not sure I really “got” this until much later in life, so to help others grasp this earlier would be a game changer.

I would love to hear from you all today on just how you do get “spiritually fed.” Also, how do you embark on a conversation about this with those you care deeply about? It’s a personal question. One that many people I feel don’t know how to answer. If you have any insights, great ideas, effective ways to approach the subject, please let us all know. Here’s to an AMAZING FIRST WEEK OF MAY!

MANY BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!

The home stretch!

(Photo creds: Pinterest)

The back half of April launches many of us into the “HOME STRETCH” of this season…

For students, it’s the end of school. If you are graduating, an even BIGGER amount of excitement approaches (and perhaps some anxiety)…

For those who love the annual Run for The Roses, the Kentucky Derby is the first weekend in May…

For those who have trained for a big race, on foot, bike or water, the FINISH LINE is always a refreshing site to see…

No matter if you are encountering a HOME STRETCH right now or not, chances are you have the opportunity to celebrate someone else’s or CHEER THEM ON! If you are in the middle of one, here are three small ideas on how to FINISH STRONG….

  1. REMEMBER WHERE YOU STARTED | If you are in high school, you may just be cruising through the normal rhythms of life, but many others chose to MAKE THEMSELVES BETTER by achieving THE NEXT LEVEL. The home stretch can be painful, and create the anxiety of the unknown, but IF YOU CAN KEEP YOUR FOCUS ON YOUR ORIGINAL GOAL, you will OVERCOME that pain and FINISH WITH PRIDE!
  2. THINK EPIC! | As in, ” THIS IS EPIC! I AM EPIC.” Whether a big or small acccomplishment it takes all of those STEPS TO GET US TO WHERE WE ARE MEANT TO SHINE. The tiniest of steps is a MOVE FORWARD. Keep in perspective that this is one more part of your journey and MAKE IT GREAT.
  3. THE STRETCH IS WHERE WE GROW! | The late nights, the frustrations, the PUSH is where we ALL GROW THE MOST! Think of the good ol’ caterpillar-into-a-butterfly story. It’s true… It’s worth it and will BE BEAUTIFUL when that LINE IS CROSSED!

THE WORLD IS CHEERING YOU ON!

Simple thoughts Sunday: Stay the course

(Photo Creds: We Heart It…quote from Brian Houston, Hillsong, Live Love Lead book)

I am often asked how I navigate life… You know, make life-changing decisions, dodge bullets, celebrate the good AND the bad.

I think it’s my age, as I recall being a decade (or three) younger trying to figure out this puzzle.  My answer today is always based on the insight in the quote on the photo. I have only been able to be successful in anything from raising my boys to growing in my career to caring deeply and giving generously to our community through the gift of God’s word.

To be honest, even though I’ve had a strong faith since I was I girl, I was well into my 30s before I was able to get past the first few chapters of the New Testament.

As far as the Old Testament, I quickly lost interest after the creation story. It just seemed too overwhelming and perhaps a bit boring and even unrelatable. Wow was I naive! The word of God is not only NOT BORING, but it is funny at times, and pours out advice for a life well-lived. It seems like every day, at least one of the scriptures in my reading (I follow the one-year Bible reading plan), I am confronted with something that seems to be timely to what I am going through. It is incredible how the world aligns and speaks so clearly through His word.

I always wanted that “proverbial billboard” to show up on my way to work and shout out my next round of advice… a vision… a message that validated where I thought I was supposed to go or not go. The amazing reality is it was right in my nightstand… waiting to be opened.

I encourage each of you if you don’t regularly read the Bible, to give it another chance. I had to get the new living translation (NLT) version because I needed the commentary at the bottom to understand much of the Old Testament, but it is probably my favorite now. I don’t know about you, but I could use God’s direction pretty much in every area of my life. It is amazing what you will find when you simply open the pages.

Have an amazing week! Two weeks until Easter… Hope is rising.

The Language of Rain

(Photo Creds: We Heart It)

Rain. Rain can be…

Generous

Giving

Replenishing…

And at the same time….

Painful

Desperate

Overwhelming….

I wonder if the language of rain helps us understand how we can wrap our heads around serving better. The picture painted in Ann Voskamp’s the Broken Way, is on point: “The abundant life doesn’t have a bucket list, as much as it has an empty bucket – the giveness of pouring out.” I for sure feel like my “bucket” is full when I am pouring out versus being poured upon.

Our lives certainly experience all matter of “rain,” both the refreshing kind and the drenching kind. Today, let’s focus on the filling/refreshing of others who are being flooded with life right now. I think it’s interesting that if you decide that you are going to be more aware of those in need, that you start to see need around every corner it seems. Honestly, I dare you to actually do this, because it shifts and shapes your own perspective. Your fellow co-worker, an extended family member struggling and sharing on Facebook, perhaps someone much closer. We need rain and we need each other to fill those buckets with encouragement and service.

Let’s go out today with the goal to REFRESH.

Cultivate… something that brings joy

(Photo Creds: We Heart It)

I love the idea of community gardens. If you aren’t familiar, community gardens are managed by a collective group of people, generally to meet a need in a community. That might be an area that doesn’t have access (financially or otherwise) to fresh produce, but also teaching. No matter the reason, it is a positive initiative that brings great value to our communities… and improves health and happiness.

Our church is doing a sermon series right now on the idea of “cultivate.” This has me thinking about areas in my life where cultivation is needed.

Cultivate has a double meaning, one being to prepare and use land for crops or gardening. We do this by tilling, plowing, fertilizing, mulching, watering, weeding, etc. It is HARD work as anyone who has run a garden knows. The second meaning, according to Google, is to “acquire or develop” a quality, sentiment or skill.

The two definitions are connected, as it is my thought that anything that is developed requires a level of passion and good ole’ fashion work.

I wrote down the word “joy” in my program on Sunday. I’m not sure if that was an example given, or if I felt that was the immediate area I could use some FOCUS on. JOY is so important. I am usually an evangelist for SPREADING JOY in our world, and feel like we all need to consciously keep that top of mind.  The momentum that comes from a “joy campaign” can be incredible.

While you may have an area of your life that you want to “cultivate,” I am hopeful some of you will join me in generating some JOY in our homes, neighborhoods and workplaces! What can you do today to ELEVATE AND CULTIVATE JOY?