Category Archives: Leadership

The Saturday Assortment

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The Saturday Assortment

The Saturday Assortment is a collection of unrelated and random things that I find interesting, challenging, motivating and sometimes quite out of the ordinary. It’s an assortment of things that caught my attention this week on the web. I bet you will find them equally engaging. There are no affiliate links–if you click-through and buy a book that is referenced, I don’t earn a dime. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: the video or advertisements below this post are not from me but are built into the WordPress site. These ads are shown on mobile devices.

Doing Something Everyday Is Hard: What does everyday mean to you? It doesn’t mean, “If you have time” or “When you get around to it.” Everyday means every single day with fail or excuse. via Time Management Ninja

What’s the secret to longevity in leadership?   A challenge not to “flame out” as a leader. Here’s the truth: Only a few people in each generation become long-term leaders in their field of expertise. What is your story? Here are four ways to peak as a leader.

“My encouragement to you would simply be this. Be patient. The Lord has given you a gift for the building up of the body of Christ. He did not give it to you so that you would sit on it your entire life. Just be patient. When He’s ready, He’ll open the door.” ~The Village Church ❘  Titus, Part One

How to Guard Sabbath for Your Children: Because time is our most limited resource, how we allocate it reveals much about our hearts. A “Family Equipping” article at its best!

The Saturday Assortment

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The Saturday Assortment

The Saturday Assortment is a collection of unrelated and random things that I find interesting, challenging, motivating and sometimes quite out of the ordinary. It’s an assortment of things that caught my attention throughout the week. I bet you will find them equally engaging.  Enjoy!

The Power of Focus Most People Miss: “About a decade ago, a colleague said something to me that I haven’t been able to get our of my head. ‘What you focus on expands.‘”

Enough Time is a short story taken from the book, More or Less: Choosing a Lifestyle of Excessive Generosity by Jeff Shinabarger, founder of Plywood People. In More or Less, Jeff Shinabarger calls readers to create their own social experiments to answer the question, “What is enough?” Through more than 50 stories, readers will be challenged to change their worldview, change their habits and live a life of less, so others can have more.

Two books for families to read: 

Princes Poison Cup

The Prince’s Poison Cup Dr. R. C. Sproul continues his series of books designed to present deep biblical truths to children on their own level. In this work, he focuses in on the atonement to show that Jesus had to endure the curse of sin in order to redeem His people.

The Priest With Dirty Clothes

In this new edition of his classic story, The Priest with Dirty Clothes, Dr. R.C. Sproul continues his project of illustrating theological concepts for children. In this book, he teaches the concept of imputation, which lies at the heart of the important biblical doctrine of justification.

 

God Happenings

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God Happenings

Talking about God with your children and noticing his handiwork in the smallest details, such as a blade of grass or the melody of a bird’s song should be as natural as walking together or kissing them on the cheek as they head off to school. Be encouraged and motivated to share with your children how God helped you get through the grind of your work day. Share the “wins” of your day and honor all of that to the glory of God.  Thank God for those wins. Every good thing and even the troubling ones can be used to show your children more of God’s grace. Let your children hear from you about the many ways you experienced the “God Happenings” in the small and big details of your day and they will soon begin to notice their own “God Happenings” where ever they are.

“Don’t walk around with your head down, trying to ‘just get through’ your day so that you can get up tomorrow and do it all over again”. *  God wants everyday to be a delight as you live in His presence and discover His blessings. Model to your children the true kind of delight and joy that only comes from knowing Jesus and the way to know Jesus is to know what God says about Jesus and to know what God says about Jesus is to read His Book…the Bible.

I appreciate this simple acrostic as a guide for my personal bible reading and it’s proven helpful for my family too. We use the word:  P-R-A-I-S-E

Here is a simple summary Adapted from The Journey by Randy Pope, Perimeter Church.

PRAY: Begin with talking to God. No need for eloquent words. Just tell God what is on your mind and ask him to help you see  “God Happenings” through the reading of his Word.

READ: Chose a passage of scripture. Perhaps a chapter from Psalms, Proverbs, or begin reading the book of John. You may want to read from a devotional book  with your children.

ASK QUESTIONS: What does this mean? What should I do? How do I see  “God Happenings” in the verses read? What did God do? How should I respond?

INTERPRET: If you don’t know the answers to your questions, then use an online resource to find the answer or ask someone more knowledgeable about the Bible to help you. Write down the question to remember to investigate later and share the conclusions with your family.

SUMMARIZE: Wrap up the bible reading with a brief summary of what was read. This is the best time to recount the “God Happenings” discovered and responses to the some of the questions asked. You may want to make a few notes to remember the comments family members say.

ENGAGE with GOD: You begin with prayer and you end with prayer. Talk to God and thank him for showing you more of himself. It is a beautiful thing when families pray together. It’s a beautiful thing to experience the “God Happenings” with each other.

I hope this acrostic is helpful for you. Be watchful and expectantly looking for those “God Happenings”!  I would love to know what you find!

**  Jesus Calling: 365 Devotions For Kids by Sarah Young; page 236; Enjoy Life! 

The Saturday Assortment

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The Saturday Assortment

The Saturday Assortment is a collection of unrelated and random things that I find interesting, encouraging, motivating and sometimes quite out of the ordinary. It’s an assortment of things that caught my attention throughout the week. I bet you will find them equally engaging.  Enjoy!

The Cost of Neutral — “Not adding value is the same thing as taking it away.”  I read a post by Seth Godin everyday and this one nailed it for me. “If you come to my brainstorming meeting and say nothing, it would have been better if you hadn’t come at all.” 

13 Web Apps You Need to Start 2013 Off Right — Choosing the best tools to help us start the year off right, here are 13 web apps you need to get familiar with so that you can make the most of the year ahead. Evernote is quickly becoming my all time favorite!

A Lesser Communion — A shared meal around the dinner table has always been a priority as we raised our family and now even more so as empty nesters. “Yes, much depends on dinner because dinner deepens our dependence on each other. It binds us together for the long haul. And we need each other for the years ahead.” via The Village Church

Light a Candle Against Violence — Just weeks after Newtown, the top box office movies in America are two grotesquely violent films. That’s a problem.  Eric Metaxas, author of: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy…challenges us to make our voices heard. (BTW…Bonhoeffer is a good read!) via Eric Metaxas

The Five Greatest Predictors of Student Success —  When a student experiences these five realities they are most likely to graduate and excel in life. This quote is fascinating… “The reason emotional intelligence has become such a large factor in student success is that kids today struggle more with mental health issues than they did forty years ago.” via Tim Elmore

 

Five Minute Friday: Dive

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Linking up with everyone for Five Minute Friday, where a remarkably encouraging and loving  community gathers to write for five minutes. This week’s prompt is: DIVE.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and our families ventured to a water park complete with large inner tubes to float down the lazy river. Super size slides and water tunnels did not intimate the adults sliding down right after their children. The large swimming area with a few cascading waterfalls and smooth rock side finish gave the effect of a mountain pool. There were a few life guards but  with so many children and adults splashing and making happy noises, they did not see a child struggling  in the deep end of the pool, very close to the water fall. She was frantically trying to get to the side of the pool and the look on her face was that of fear and terror  She went under and kicked herself back up for air and struggled more. I shouted to the life guards to HELP but my voice could not penetrate through the noise.

The only voice  that was penetrating through the noise was that of my own voice…in my head that said, DIVE!

And I did. I swam to her and she saw me coming. When I was close enough she began grabbing for me for her safety. She was struggling and I feared we would both go under the water.

STOP FIGHTING ME! I shouted. TRUST ME! She stopped flailing her arms long enough for me to quickly turn her around and slide my left arm under hers and kicked and pulled through the water with my right arm…we made it to the ladder on the other side of the pool. I was breathless. Relieved. She was rescued.

Sometimes helping friends in need is risky. It may cost you something of great value. It may require you to DIVE into their mess and unknown struggles to rescue them from serious consequences. DIVE in and call out for God the rescuer to help you both find peace and safety.

Sometimes we struggle against others helping us. We fight against what is good and right. Sometimes we don’t trust our helper because we are drowning in fear, pain, worry and hopelessness.

Stop struggling against God. You’re gasping for air and Jesus says, “TRUST ME! I am the great RESCUER! I will DIVE in for you. I have already been to the depths for you. Stop struggling against ME…I love you with an everlasting love. I will rescue you!”

 

Five Minute Friday

FOUR Ways to Make Your Personal Worship Habit Forming

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Kickstart Personal Woship

Photography by Donna Harris :: Remember the Year

Kickstarting a personal worship plan typically happens at the start of every new year. And I do this quite well the first month of the year. The rub is the remaining eleven months!  Here are FOUR things I do to keep me in the habit of daily personal worship. Surely I can manage four things!

Personal worship is the daily time you spend devoting your attention exclusively to the glory of Christ and receiving the satisfaction he gives. That is why it is sometimes called “Devotions”.  ~Randy Pope

1.  Decide on a time: There is no right or wrong time but whatever time you decide on, do schedule it on your calendar and set a reminder alarm if necessary. You will be more consistent if you view your time with God as an appointment to be kept on your daily schedule. I’ve become a “morning person” after years of practice and have found that morning devotions {personal worship} strengthens me prior to the stress of the day. Try to find a morning time if you can. You’ll probably need a minimum of 20 minutes. I found this article about how to become a “morning person” by  Michael Hyatt very helpful. Check it out.

2.  Decide on a plan: It is important to have a plan for daily reading of the Bible. And there are hundreds of options to choose from so take time to discover what works for you and stick with it for the year. For me, reading the Bible in a year has always been a challenge, therefore, my new plan is to not to continue with my old plan which was the, “Reading the Bible in a Year for Three Years” plan.  Check out YouVersion for a reading plan that fits your style. I’ve been using “Eat this Book”…I do hunger for more!  You may find that you need a daily reminder, if so sign up for email prompts from Bible Gateway. This year I chose “Table Talk Devotions“  for the purpose of reading “on the fly” while waiting for an appointment or waiting for the crossing arms at the railroad track to raise. It’s refreshing to receive an email that compels me to step away from the harried pace. With a smart phone or tablet, you can access any of these plans with ease and flexibility to fit your rhythm of life.

3.  Use a translation you can understand:  My vote is to use the English Standard Version.  “nuff said.”

4.  You Do What You Want To Do:   “You do what you want to do”…words of wisdom that my husband shared with our children over the years and continues to say today. I do what I want to do…I have time to work out, to play, to eat, to watch TV, to be on the internet, to write this post…I do what I want to do. Is God Lord over what I do? Have I committed to spending time with the One who gave His life for me? Where would I be without His grace, forgiveness and freedom from addictions? (I hate to think of the options.)  To borrow from Nike…Just Do It! Make the commitment to spend time in God’s Book for 21 days. If you miss a day just start over. You will be more than encouraged after 21 days of personal worship!

Keep Looking For The Mission He Has For You

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Remember This

“Who will I serve?” Do you ask yourself this question? Do you think you’ll get an answer today, or do you think that answer is somewhere far off in your future? You do not have to wait until someone hands you a secret mission envelope or until you are hired for a job. You can start serving today, right where you are. The people you serve may be ones you know–your brother or sister, your mom or dad, or your teacher or pastor–or they may be strangers. Be on the alert! Whether you are rich or poor, tall or short, older or younger–God has work he has created just for you to do. He may put opportunities right in your path, or you may have to look more closely or walk a bit out of your way to find his clues. Just don’t forget to keep looking for the mission he has for you.

Beth Guckenberger, Tales of the Not Forgotten (p. 175)

You’ll want to read this book detailing the real-life stories of children and families across the globe. My heart was captured by the vivid and passionate imagery  and compelled to ask more questions…”Do I sit back or go ahead?” All great adventures have moments of conflict and suspense. God is indeed The Storyweaver! He is writing my story now and I can’t wait to live the next chapter!

(Also, the Kid’s Mission Resource, is also valuable to use in Children’s Ministry, especially during a focus on becoming missional.)

Tales of the Not Forgotten

There is a link to Amazon, but not an affiliate link. If you click through and buy, I don’t earn a dime.

Disclaimer: the video or advertisements below this post are not from me but are built into the WordPress site. These ads are shown on mobile devices.

Opportunity: Go For It!

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A missed opportunity or an opportunity to go for it.

When you think back to the last ten years of your family life, career or personal business how much of what you haven’t achieved is due to missed opportunities and how much is the result of doing tasks poorly?  Do you like to play it safe and avoid all the risks that you can?

Be willing to step out of your comfort zone. You have the opportunity right now to trust God to give you strength and courage to do something out of the ordinary. Life is an adventure full of opportunities. You have the choice to go for it or cower in self-doubt and insecurity.

You have an opportunity to do something great for the Glory of God. Your work matters to God. When you perform poorly, you are not honoring Him because all that He does is good and excellent. When you are filled with more of Jesus and overflowing with more of His grace, you will have confidence to go for it…to perform with excellence for His glory.

So jump at the opportunity! Go for it!  Meet a new neighbor, volunteer at a homeless shelter, speak out against injustice, defend the weak, get out of debt, finish a degree, pray for your enemies…

Quit waiting for someone to give you permission or to say you are qualified or until you like yourself better. God has already confirmed all of that! He has chosen you. He will give you the strength and courage to go for it.