Time to say bye-bye

It’s official and it’s up.  The new website I’ve created is up and running and ready to receive all comers.  This site has provided great practice for my writing and enabled me to develop my style and voice, but it’s time for something new. Please stop by at www.faithfulchoices.com .  This new site has been created to give choice thoughts in life, in marriage, and in parenting.  You’ll find life lessons, parenting tips, marriage tips and much more.  The tag line says:

Because courageous people want their choices to reflect their faith.

If that applies to you, stop by and subscribe and tell your friends.

Thanks for being there on this phase of the journey.  God’s blessings to you.

9 best posts from August

Image via Wikipedia

You are just the best readers ever and I’m not just saying that because you read my articles.  You’ve come back day after day even when I haven’t been producing as much lately.  I’ll tell you the reason for that at the end of this post, stick around, it’s good.

We’ve had some hot stuff the August and I don’t just mean temperature.  I experienced a hate comment or two, we danced shirtless on a hill, compared God to a pit bull, and tried to dress a lily.  If you’ve missed anything, here’s your chance to catch up.  Listed in order of reader preference are the top posts for this past month.

1.  Last day of summer break: things to do

2.  Stay home?  What do you think I am, dumb or something?

3.  Where does it mention cannibalism in the Bible?

4.  Dance shirtless on a hill

5.  Warning on pointless arguments, someone always gets stabbed

6.  How does God fit a pair of jeans on a lily? (part one)

7.  What do Andre the Giant, pit bulls and bees have in common?

8.  How does God fit a pair of jeans on a lily? (part two)

9.  5 steps to better bonding with your kids

If you feel these articles will help any of your friends please pass them along.

So, what have I been working at this past week?  Developing a new blog.  It’s called www.faithfulchoices.com .  I’d love it if you clicked over and checked it out.  Some things are still in development, but you’ll see the core of the experience.  As you click on stories you like, you’ll go to another page with easier view.  I’m hoping to get some videos loaded there along with some freebie stuff for those who want to join the email list, which is the easiest way to know a new post has arrived.  Come on over and take a glance.  I’m letting you know first because you’ve supported these writings already.

Thanks for your commitment.

Connecting with people: lessons from the photoshoot

Image via Wikipedia

I joined my friend Jessica Beebe from Remembrancer Photography for a photo shoot today.  We’re getting some photos ready for a new blog I’m developing.  (I’ll keep you in the loop as launch day arrives.)

I posed and pretended to be America’s Next Top Model.  We laughed and strutted down the hallway of our beautiful church building.  As she shot moment after moment, I learned some things about connecting with people.

1.  Lean in :

     It physically shows your interest.  You become engaging and open to the conversation or event before you. 

2.  Lean back:

     It physically shows a lack of interest, an aloofness, even a superiority.

This caused me to wonder if the same holds true in one-on-one conversations.  Sometimes, I sit back to listen to someone because I’m more comfortable.  Do I seem aloof or uninterested?  That’s not my wish.

With my children, I occasionally stand over them and dictate the days events.  Granted, as a parent a certain amount of superiority helps move things along, but if I want them to know I’m really interested in what they say and what they think, will the simple act of leaning in convey my inner thoughts?

This will require investigation. 

Have you noticed other types of body language cues that help you connect better with others?

My choice today:

Lean in to the conversations which really matter.

 

 

When the earth shakes, change happens

Image by Xevi V via Flickr

Maybe a mountain grows,  a sea widens, or ice melts, but something happens.

The ground under my feet feels like jello.  My oh-so-quivering knees keep banging together, because I sense change in the air.  Keep your eyes open and your ears ready, because it is coming.

Something’s happening beneath the surface of this humble little blog.  More info will arrive as it’s ready, but it’s a big beautiful thing and you’re going to love it.

Do you fear going splat on the rocks of life?

by freedigitalphotos.net

Visualize this.

A fourteen year old girl goes hiking with her friends.  They explore parts of northern Arizona and discover a creek with a box canyon.  You know the type, where water gathers in various spaces to make swimming holes for adventurous teens.

Once they discover the canyon, kids begin crawling and jumping into its small 9 x 9 foot pool of water. For safety, one person does a test dive to decide its depth, easily 10 feet or more.

They begin jumping off an 8 foot cliff into the pool and shouting their enthusiasm.  Soon, this minor adrenaline moment doesn’t satisfy.  What next?

Eyes venture higher.  A twenty-foot cliff.  One by one the teens burst off the higher rock into the chilly pool below.  They invite others to join.  “Come on!” they say, “You can do it!”

Eventually the teens all venture up to higher ground.  But what about that one 14-year-old girl?

The whole time, she timidly explored her personal unknown.  She has no hiking experience.  She internally grins at her moments of bravery, no one knowing her challenge.

She wears contacts.  For this journey, she knew it would be unwise to wear them. However, insecurity required her to leave the glasses at home.  She can barely see. 

Everything dances before her in shapes and shadows.  She checks out the pool for herself, holding her breath and forcing her body down as far as possible, to find its depth.  She doesn’t touch bottom.  It’s deep.

After an hour of hearing the laughter and splashes, she slowly creeps to the low cliff, which is already higher than she’s ever jumped.  Blindly trusting friends and water, she leaps.  Yes!

It’s all she ever hoped for!  The thrill of the leap, the cool of the water, the enjoyment of her friends.  She contentedly remains at the lower cliff exalting in her moments of courage.  But then she hears the call.

“Come on!” they say, “You can do it!”

Are they crazy?  This has already been the biggest adventure of her life, why mess with that?  Why risk more?

Her friends tell her she’d feel bad if she left and never accomplished this goal.  She doubts them.

She cannot even see the cliff from which they’ve jumped.  Though it stands only a few feet from her current location, her cloudy eyes mask its location.  She hears the shouts and looks up knowing it’s much more than she’s ever done.  But she has no image to grasp.

Because of peer pressure and the clear enjoyment of  others, she decides to hike to the other side of the cliff, to move upward.  She’ll think about leaping.  Maybe.

She crosses the creek and climbs up the trail to the higher cliff site.  The air feels different.  The breeze pushes more.  She steps out to look over this daunting precipice.  Her heart thunders in her chest. She feel exposed and vulnerable.

She cannot see the pool.  To her eyes, it’s a giant, fuzzy, open space.  Her brain knows the water would catch her as it caught her friends, but her eyes don’t believe.  She shakes.

The teens encourage their fearful friend, they remind her of their success.  She remains frozen glaring into emptiness, dreaming of success but nailed to the ground with fear.  What if she’s the one who misses the pool?  What if she simply goes splat on the rocks?

When people speak of a leap of faith, they forget the reason we don’t easily leap.  They fail to remember our fear of going splat. Trusting in the unseen God of the Bible can feel like jumping off a cliff into the unknown, but He has proved Himself over and over, and like the water below, His depth is capable of catching us when we imagine our rocky doom.

What happened to that young teen?

After an hour of staring, imagining and fearing, she moved forward. Into the air blindly, she left the safety of the cliff. Less like a leap and more like a step, she found herself midair, falling.  As she flew through the air, still the fears grabbed at her heart, but the water caught her as smoothly as a catcher at home plate. She did it!

And so can you.

Whatever your leap is, whatever splat you fear, the Living Water wants to catch, comfort and refresh you.  May you know His comfort and care in the midst of your struggle.

“Guard my life, for I am faithful to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God;” Psalm 86:2

I wrote a guest post on this topic in seven short sentences, click here to read for yourself. 

My choice today:

Jump into the arms of Jesus when fear attempts to capture my heart.

Related articles:

• Go ahead, bite the shark
• What do Andre the Giant, pit bulls, and bees have in common?
• Dance shirtless on a hill

Join me at Google+: https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3Dc5UfZTidR4E%3AHLNXVyGpEHM

Don’t simplify, ever

Image by Mamboman1 via Flickr

Have you ever sat down with a friend for conversation and that friend just kept talking and talking and talking? Whenever they pause, you attempt to speak but discover your mistake, because they quickly stomp over your idea to insert their idea again and again.

Phew!

You find yourself wishing for a polite way to say, “Haven’t you heard, less is more?”

In the world of blogs, Geoff Talbot cuts to the chase better than a greyhound hunting down a rabbit on an Arizona track. He created a short and sweet blog presence called, www.sevensentences.com .

Each post limits itself to seven sentences worth of content. The topics include creativity, filmmaking, social media, holy filth, writing and poetry.

Tomorrow, he adds a certain choice chicka to his blogging collection of friends.

That’s right. I decided to simplify.

When he asked for guest bloggers, I accepted the challenge to succinctly communicate within his seven sentence boundary. The result is a guest post entitled, “Think, blink then leap“.

He’ll put it on his site tomorrow.  Here’s the link: http://sevensentences.com/2011/08/20/think-blink-then-leap.

Be sure to visit and comment profusely.  Tell your friends, neighbors and family to check out this short and tasty nugget of inspiration.  I plan on hanging out over there and responding to anyone who wants to chat.

My choice today:

Share short thoughts with long meanings.

 

 

Dance shirtless on a hill

Image via Wikipedia

For many of us,  school has begun.  Today, I prayed as I stood beside my kids and they prepared to enter the classroom.  I prayed for them and their ability to make wise choices.  I prayed for their teachers.  I prayed for the school and district leadership.  This is but the beginning, the prayers will continue all year because God directs me to do so.

I’ll offer guidance and struggle with them as they face life issues in this compact environment.  But my inabilities shout their presence within my mind.  I can’t open their eyes and enable them to pick their friends wisely.  I can’t sit in the room every day seeking understanding of how to better strengthen their minds.  I can’t whisper in their ears calming thoughts in anxious moments.

God can.

Because I believe in His strength and fortitude no matter what the circumstance, I hand off my precious people into the arms of others.  Some whom I know and some I don’t.  But God’s guidance remains within me and my husband.  His directions enable my children.  I trust Him.

In the midst of prepubescance and angst ridden second graders, my hope is this:

they will feel so confident in their faith, they will be capable of dancing shirtless on a hill. 

But, what does that mean?

I’ve provided a link to a 3 minute TED talk given by Derek Sivers.  His talk encourages and guides leaders, but I saw something else.  I saw one kid.  A boy whose passion for music and love of life burst out and became contagious to everyone around.

The kid’s gutsy and energizing wish to move inspired and brought others along for the ride.  That’s what I hope for my kids. 

Watch it here. 

May my children love the Lord and trust Him enough to stand out and dance, even if it seems like they stand alone.   The Lord wants our joy to overflow in such a way that we dance (literally or figuratively) before Him.

“Then young women will dance and be glad,
   young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
   I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow. “  Jeremiah 31:13

If we know this is true for our children, maybe we’ll be capable of living within that truth ourselves.

My choice today:

Dance shirtless on a hill.  (Okay, as a chick, I’ll wear a shirt.  But you get the imagery, right.)

Do children ever inspire you?  What have you seen or heard that makes you want to become better?

 

Last day of summer break: things to do

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1.  Sleep in one last time, check.

2. Watch a favorite T.V. show together, check.

3. Take that bike ride you talked about for the past few months, check.

4. Organize backpacks and supplies, check.

5. Return books and videos to the library (otherwise I’ll forget and build up fees), check.

6. Look in their eyes long and hard, check.

7. Talk about the summer and all we did, check.

8. Sort through at all those pictures, check.

9. Plan the clothes and food for tomorrow, check.

10.  Give solid and squishy hugs off and on all day, check……

 

No regrets, no take backs or do overs.  This summer’s a wrap.

My choice today:

Wrap up this summer with God’s blessing, and pray for the teachers and this next school year. 

Boredom busters, who needs them?

Image by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr

Do you remember the amazing things you did with boredom?  You learned to shuffle cards.  You rode a bike with no hands.  You built models or wrote stories.  What a treasured life we lived!

Now, we have so many activities designed to occupy our time or our kids time.  We can go to the public pool, the park, play sports, take classes, play video games, watch television, or surf the internet.  We pack our moments so full, there’s little space for other experiences.

We do it because it’s expected.  We fear making poor choices, and we don’t want boredom.  What’s the thrill of boredom?

On its surface, boredom causes lethargy and decay, but if guided by caring parents who see a plus within a boredom experience much more occurs.

Let’s imagine…

• a future musician minus boredom….no intrigue, no musical development, no passion.
• a future artist minus boredom…no mistaken sketches aiding future development, no creative color blending, no mixing of mediums. 
• a future computer tech minus boredom….no knowledge of deeper computer reasoning, no understanding of why people sit there in the first place, no ideas for improvement.
• a future magician minus boredom….no finger dexterity, no ability to shuffle a card deck, no show.
• a future mom minus boredom…no doll games, no babysitting, no practice, no skill.

Many great and small feats begin with a little undirected free time.  At first it flusters the mind and body, not knowing what to do.  But with a little elbow room and a touch of guidance from a mom or dad who cares, kids venture outdoors, pick up paintbrush or pen, read, write, examine, experiment or build.

Maybe that’s why God wants us to honor a sabbath.  From rest comes creativity.  His creative juices will never be topped, and He rested.

My choice today:

Allow a little boredom and keep eyes open to offer needed direction.

Who has the power?

Image via Wikipedia

In our house, whoever holds the television remote control, “has the power”, as we define it.

As we seek to make faithful choices, we need to realize who has the power.

Jesus spoke here: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”  John 15:16

My choice today:

Put down the remote.