• Leadership Lessons,  Spiritual Growth,  What I'm Reading

    Leader Blog Share

    This week I want to share some helpful blog posts for you as a leader. As you serve and lead teams, you must invest in your own growth and in your leadership skills to lead well. 1 This first post is from Ron Edmonson. It’s a great assessment of how you lead or whether you frustrate your teams. 7 Ways to Frustrate Your Team as a Leader 2 This second post is by Charles Stone. We all want to connect well with our team and others we lead in the church. Here’s some great tips to consider as you serve. How to Be a Likable Leader 3 This last post…

  • Blessings,  Pandemic,  Spiritual Growth

    The Beauty of His Creation

    If you know me well, or if you follow me (or my daughters) on social media, it doesn’t take long to discover our love for animals. Mine doesn’t include rehabilitating or adopting multitudes of homeless animals like my daughters do, but, none the less, I do love all animals (except for snakes…and that’s biblical, just read Genesis 3). When I was a kid, I would try to pet any animal I could get close to. This led to multiple scratches and bites, including snapping turtle and squirrel! I thought I’d be a vet, but figured out that wouldn’t work since I can’t handle the blood, and the pain of these…

  • Lessons,  Spiritual Growth,  Test,  What I'm Reading

    Obedience=Rest

    One thing I love about God’s living and active Word (Hebrews 4:12), is the new-ness I experience as I read passages I’ve read so often. and yet, God reveals something deeper that I’ve missed before. This happened, AGAIN, as I was studying Hebrews this time…an amazing book in the Bible that ties the Old Testament to the New Testament like no other! The writer of this book warns against not believing God, not following Him in obedience. Hebrews 3:15-19 says: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it all who came out of Egypt under Moses?…

  • Blessings,  General,  Leadership Lessons,  Lessons,  Spiritual Growth

    No Rest for the Weary?

    Ever feel this way? Ever say this in pride? I have and I am wrong. Now, one thing our Yorkie, #MoDawg, (as he’s listed on my social media!) is good at since puppyhood…is rest! He truly needs no help with this. And I could add quite a few more pictures to this post! In fact, every time I talk to him, he yawns just to prove he’s really tired! But humans tend to struggle much more in the area of rest. My pastor shared recently on this topic from his own experience with busyness, even for good things, which led to major health issues. God got his attention and is…

  • Blessings,  Lessons,  Spiritual Growth,  Test,  Trial,  What I'm Reading

    Lessons from a Goat…and Other Things

    So last week I blogged on the current Bible study I am doing by Jennifer Rothschild, Psalm 23 . You can read it here. Today, something that happened on Valentine’s Day has prompted me to write again on what I learned this week through that study and through my daughter. My kids are often “fodder” for this blog and today is no different. So, we deliver Valentines to our grands late in the day on February 14. Just wanting to bless these grands with more sugar and lots of hugs, we were not expecting to be greeted with a crisis with Fred, the goat. (I know we are studying sheep…

  • General,  Spiritual Growth,  Test,  What I'm Reading

    Who’s Driving?

    Have you ever ridden a tandem bike? I have many years ago and I remember there is an unsettling feeling of letting go of the control of the ride completely to another person. Not always an easy thing to do, right? If you have ever taught someone to drive a car, you know that same feeling. This is illustration Jennifer Rothschild shares in her study I am in the middle of right now. I’ve read and studied Psalm 23 many times but this new perspective she shares is from her own personal place of struggle and growth, and it is powerful! Just in case you do not know, Jennifer is…

  • Beach Lessons,  General,  Lessons

    Finally, Retreat Time! 8 Tips for Retreating Often

    Yes, don’t you wish you were saying “retreat time” right now and heading out for a weekend at your favorite place…alone or with a few people? Me too! I’m so grateful for those week long stays at my favorite place, the Gulf Coast beach. Last year my husband and I began a new tradition: a month at the beach! Sometimes I have to schedule it around speaking engagements, or as I will do this year, fly from Perdido Key (via Pensacola) to the East coast, Miami! But that extended time of rest and reflection is something I truly look forward to. When I was in full time vocational ministry, that…