10 Best Tips for Blessing Others During Holiday Gatherings
Sometimes younger folks ask me for advice on how to survive the holiday season with immediate family and relatives when everyone doesn’t always get along. Although I’m no expert, I’ve learned some tips over my forty years that I love to pass on. 1. Accept others as they are—exactly as they are—without expecting anyone to […]
Another Great Coaching Question
Ask this: Where are you stuck? This question invites people to think about where they want to move forward in any area but somehow cannot. Identifying those places is the first step in figuring out next steps.
Exceedingly So
I love how my great friend and mentor has recently prayed that God would make her “exceedingly fruitful.” I love her stories of how God has answered that prayer almost immediately. I think about that beautiful word exceedingly. I notice how in Psalm 68:3, we’re told that the people don’t just rejoice in God, but […]
A Few Healthy Choices
I think about the ease of making healthy choices when our environment supports such choices. But with holiday travel and new environments, our healthy plans tend to fall apart. We eat too much. We sit too much. We sleep too little. What about all our plans for hydration, vegetables, daily walking, and wonderful sleep? And […]
Infinitely Lovely
When Christian evangelist George Müller spoke to ministers on his 90th birthday, he said this : “I was converted in November, 1825, but I only came into the full surrender of the heart four years later, in July, 1829. The love of money was gone, the love of place was gone, the love of position […]
New Question: What’s Your Good News?
I love starting class by asking each person to say his or her name and answer the question: “What’s one piece of good news?” We sometimes clap and cheer after whatever it is people announce. I love this “Name Game” because it changes the atmosphere in the classroom; it makes us somehow more creative and receptive to new […]
His Highest Willingness
This morning I read E. Stanley Jones’ thoughts about prayer. He challenges our ideas that we somehow must overcome God’s reluctance or somehow convince God to move on our behalf. I wonder if we imagine God’s disposition as bored, unwilling, distant, annoyed, or even angry with us. Stanley insists that instead, we must “lay hold [of] […]
The Work of Rest
Today I leisurely read the Bible, baked an Almond Kringle, painted little fingernails, ate grilled cheese sandwiches, and will most likely watch an episode of Gilmore Girls. And I’ll take another lantern walk to see the moon late tonight. Certain activities punctuate this Sunday’s rest. Laundry hums in the wash cycle; dishes steam in the […]
Full of The Holy Spirit and Wisdom: For Hospitality
I find great delight in Act 6:1-5. Ministry was spreading! Prayer and the preaching of God’s word was happening! But people needed food in this ministry. So seven people were chosen because they were “known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom” to take up the food duties. I wasn’t expecting that sentence. I […]
When Things Fall
It’s so bright out here as the sun arrives unobstructed. All the bright autumn leaves–those gold, burgundy, orange, and chocolate leaves–descended with last night’s wind. It’s stark. It’s empty. But I’ve been here before: God brings the empty and the bare so light shines best, unobstructed. I know His warm light in my soul, my […]