To Serve well

Serving with Excellence for a Life of Excellence

Bold

A Life of Excellence: Lessons from the Farm

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

Our theme this week started with BOLD FAITH… so much so that you’d “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 that comes from hard work and a few other key practices.

I had the opportunity to grow up around a farm (not directly, but 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 are literally jumping up while the ground gets pulled up and out!  YIKES!  It was obviously a clear memory, so it must have been fun? Not so much! What I know was fun was summer “pool” time in the cow feeding trough! Hey, you gotta do what you can to have fun in Jasper, Missouri!

The lessons on the farm are too many to count, but here are a few that I feel you’ll really be inspired by. I certainly was!  (Thanks to the good words from jeremiekubicek.com)

  • 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, children and grand children to excel, etc. without great fertilization! Are there any key areas you are lacking in “pouring into?”
  • Lesson 3: ELIMINATE THE WEEDS! – I love this one, but truly don’t like to even weed my own flower beds… (Or rock beds if you happen to be my neighbor – LOL). 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! Thursday we talk about LOCAL FARMING! Don’t you just love a good farmer’s market?

(Photo Credit: Pinterest)

GO BOLD IN YOUR FAITH

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(Photo Creds: Pinterest:  Life Church TV Mission statement excerpt)

Happy Sunday everyone! As we launch into the week I wanted to share this little Mission Statement excerpt which is probably the coolest I’ve ever seen.

Technically It may be part of this church’s vision statement, but they have a list of them and this one captures my heart. I thought you’d love it as well.
In the theme of graduation, Spring time and launching into new seasons of life, what better way to GO BIG than to truly have BOLD FAITH. I am working on my ability to “BET THE FARM” but I’m going to truly focus on it this week.

Questions I’m asking myself:  What areas of my life am I not being FULLY FAITHFUL? Where do I need to be more BOLD and am not due to fear, finances, time or whatever barrier I can drum up? Just why am I not willing to “Bet the Farm?”  (I think those will keep me busy for a bit…YIKES)

Have an amazing week and know that I am praying for each and every one of you to be BOLD IN YOUR FAITH.

Changing the world

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Sometimes I wonder who “coins” a phrase a formal quote. After all, we all say things daily that likely are the words of someone whose thoughts we liked and added to our repertoire so to speak. Anyway, this particular quote is so strong and I have always loved it and shared it as often as it makes sense to do so.

As I considered what thoughts would I want to share with my neighbor and the other lovely folks I know who are graduating, this is what came to mind first. Regardless of if you are 18, 22 or a 49-year-old (congrats Deb!), these words hold much wisdom and inspiration.

So, here’s the question:

  • What part of the world do you feel needs changed?
  • Are you moved by social justice issues?
  • Are you moved by technology?
  • Freedom?

Now, take take that down a level and identify the issue that really stirs your soul…

  • Social Justice Issues?
  • Children going to school hungry?
  • Technology?
  • How will our children (or us) deal with face to face relationships with so much concentration on the use of technology?
  • Freedom?
  • Global issues in Israel/Palestine? Syria?
  • In our generation, does it make sense that we really have people that do not have a home or that have a wall separating them from their neighbors?

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How do we go about changing the world?

  • First make a decision that you aren’t just going to sit back and allow whatever it is that pulls your heart strings to happen on your watch.
  • Rally a small group (that can be one or ten…) and share your vision.
  • Put together a few steps you can take to start to take action!
  • Get going!

The only other key that I feel is important is that you can’t be concerned about your age.  There are so many great stories from young children (Gracie Schram… Right in our own community has done just that) to our wisest elders who made a decision to change the world and then did. Age isn’t a factor! Jump in EVEN IF you feel unprepared! Our world was built on the backs of those that did just that and NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!

BE BOLD!

(Photo credit: We Heart It)

Plan on finishing!

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I so love this. Caleb was 85 years old when he made this statement. Today, to meet an 85 year old who has that type of robust strength is rare. Even in the biblical time period according to references this was true. What was the difference?

Surely, we all have our ancestors to thank for some of our genetic make up. In this case however, there are two key things that I feel need pointed out…

  1. Boldness: “I am just as vigorous.” – He made a choice not to back down in anyway.
  2. Faith: “Perhaps the Lord will be with me…” (Verse 12) – He decided to claim the promises and take the land.

I want to be like Caleb and FINISH STRONG INSIDE AND OUT. We all need to do this in order to live the life God intended for us all!  Where do you need to be bold this week? We have all been given the promises, we just need to decide to GO AFTER THEM STRONG.

Now… GET OUTSIDE and build the strength necessary to do just that!

(Photo credit: We Heart It)

Adventure calls

blog_786682_2885967_1460298022Pure Beauty. I daydream, if you want to call it that, of taking a long road-trip adventure (In my mind that is what this gal is doing!) where you just go out and try to hear what God says about so many things.

What I have figured out along the way, and why this quote stood out to me, is that God seems to mold us during the “everyday adventures” if we are willing to listen and if necessary look back and own it.

I have a bold prayer today that both myself and all of my friends and family will be open to God’s plan for us through the big and small adventures that make up the days of our lives! Love you all! Listen deeply!

(Photo credit: We Heart It)

Simple Thoughts Sunday – January’s End

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It should come as no surprise that God gave us big goals to achieve.  When our minds wonder with the “what ifs” and the dreams of using our talents to best serve him he is in that moment trying to shake us out of our comfort zone…planting seeds through ideas and hopes.

Philippians 3:13-14 is a passage that can be misunderstood. “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing:  Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.” This verse I don’t think is really about the “past” but most likely about how doing the same things (aka being comfortable) will not take us to the next level.  In order to do that we have to be willing to step out and into those dreams and develop plans to get us there. As we gear up to start the month of February, (short and sweet: Finish strong Peyton Manning and of course the Oscars, love ’em or leave ’em it’s an opportunity to see the best of the best in screen acting being honored, which I think is always fun.) let’s all pray about where in our lives we are maybe too comfortable. Here are some ideas to get you thinking…

Am I too comfortable in my role as mom? Dad? How can I step up my game? Am I being the spiritual leader I know I can and should be?

Am I too comfortable in my generosity? Am I maybe giving some here and there and helping where I can, but not really sacrificing to help others?

Am I too comfortable in my career? Am I spending time to always deliver excellence? Am I reading and staying on top of what’s new and relevant in order to be at the top of my game?

Have an amazing week. Bold prayers for you all!  I’ll try to stay focused on the topic of important conversations! Stay tuned!

(Photo Creds:  We Heart It)

Bold visions for our families

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Bold visions and a life of excellence starts at home! Whatever home is to you!

Whoever we surround ourself with plays a large role in our lives.  We need bold visions for our families. Families are at the core of our purpose and what drives our actions most of the time.

Some of the best portrayals of families comes from some of the most famous television programs. It’s no wonder that we are drawn to these shows as they help us identify with our families and our world as we know it. When I was a child, Leave it to Beaver was on it’s way out, and we had some fun with Good Times, Roseanne and Murphy Brown. Now we get to enjoy Modern Family, which I have to say is fantastic. In all of these, no matter what the family looked like, they had fun together, encouraged each other, argued and experienced challenges and life itself together. The root of all of these was and is the LOVE that builds the bond that family represents.

My encouragement today is to be intentional about your family. It is so important to really build a strong family!  What three things can you do today in order to be bold in setting priorities for your family? We must be courageous to tackle both the fun and the tough issues that can ease their way into our households. Here are my top three:

  1. Budgets – Teach my boys a bit more about real life finances
  2. Politics – My boys are 19 now. I should have talked about this a lot more at the dinner table or on the way to games. They are voting age and have a huge role in our country’s success. I need to be intentional about upping the game on deeper discussions.
  3. Fun – We have plenty of fun, but honestly we need to crank up the music more on a daily basis!  Somehow between elementary school and now we have had far too few dance parties – HA!

(Thank you to the East Family for this fun photo!)

Bold visions for our country

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What great timing for this topic! With Martin Luther King Jr.’s national holiday being this week, it couldn’t have been better planned. So glad for those moments when the universe aligns.

To me, there is not a greater message than the one Dr. King brought on unity. I believe in people, and that together we can achieve everything we need to in our lifetime. Today, we stand in a world that is facing many challenges, and unfortunately at the root of much of this is a lack of unity.

Most of those reading this fortunately live in neighborhoods and communities that are mostly unified, with safe and progressive schools, churches and places of business. My greatest concern is that we get distracted from what is really going on in our country. We hide behind busy schedules and soccer games, the latest big sport contest (since the Chiefs are out, I’m cheering for the Broncos!), etc. Let’s not forget that last year we faced multiple hate crimes (I hate even typing those words) in America, and some within driving distance. One of my colleagues grew up in Ferguson, Missouri and her neighborhood was a victim of the fighting. It could easily happen in every neighborhood.

I’m sure many of you, like me, have friends of all races and religions. If you talk to them long enough, you know that even today, they face regular accounts of prejudice behaviors. It’s ugly and makes me sick to think about. As you know UNITY goes far past the issues of race and religious freedoms, and our current candidates for president are showcasing that well, as they clearly are not unified on most topics. As Dr. King’s words indicate below, our silence on these larger issues that impact our country will be felt eventually.  Let’s not be silent.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

This blog is really about our country. We need bold visions and bold actions in order to secure it for the generations that follow. I encourage you to really take the time to understand the issues and in November to vote for a candidate that can unify our country. We cannot be silent. I personally know I need to do more. How about you?

Bold prayers

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Favorite author- favorite life mantra! I have learned so much from reading Mark Batterson (Circle Maker, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Wild Goose Chase, If, Trip Around the Sun, All In, Draw the Circle, The Grave Robber, Soul Print, Praying Circles Around the Lives of your Children, Primal).

He’s a midwest boy, basketball player, turned church planter in Washington D.C. His stories are easy to read, and inspiring. A perfect combination of compelling anecdotes and real life strategies.

This week we will be focused on bold visions, specifically bold visions for our country (since it is an election year, and a big one at that!) and bold visions for our families. What better way to kick off the week than to hit our knees (literally or physically) and push out some prayers into the universe that just might advance us to the next level in peace and personal satisfaction and create positive anticipation for what life has to offer.

I’ll be praying for all of you this week. Be bold.

(Photo Creds:  We Heart It)

Considering our assignment

blog_752840_2829812_1452094414I love this idea of “considering” our assignment. I also love this idea of ‘we are young!’ What are we here for? To make it more practical, let’s focus on this year only. I don’t know about you, but I want to thrive in the key areas of my life. I did a little “mind map” exercise to launch the year, and my key categories were:

– Family
– Career
– Financial
– Health/Wellness
– Spiritual
– Travel
– Community

Thriving in our “assignment” takes a bit of considering. I took the next step to document a couple of key points under each of them. Considering is hard for some of these. Family seems easy, but then not so much. With the years going by and my friends starting to lose their parents, I’m confronted with how to make the most of the years. Meaningful is the key word. With my boys in college, planning family time isn’t really easy either. (The next weekend we will all be together is Thanksgiving next year…)

For my career it’s a bit easier, but when you are 47, you want to go “deeper” in your knowledge and contribution and that gets a bit tricky, aka more time to consider.

Finances are pretty straightforward, as is health and wellness (for God’s sake stopping eating pasta and pie and get to the gym and quit hitting snooze!).

Travel… Now that’s fun!

Community – What aligns with my believes? Worthy of my time? Global, local?

Okay, time for you to consider… Bold Goal… Bold visions my friends… If this year was to be your best yet, what would it look like?

(Photo credits: We Heart It – comments added are mine)