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Love
Celebrating our 56th anniversary and Mothers Day this past weekend has had me thinking a lot about love. I Corinthians 13:13 says that the greatest thing is love. God is love and love is greater than anything else in the world today. The message of this story is that when we are prosperous, we underrate…
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A Rich Life
We all want to lead happy, successful lives. But for parents, there comes a time when your priorities shift, and your most important goals start to involve setting your children up for success and happiness in their own lives. Of course, parental priorities aren’t the only factor. There are plenty of stories about people who…
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God’s Ways
What if… everything’s gonna be all right? Because God’s gonna work it out for you. Keep your head up! EVERY battle has an expiration date. EVERY storm eventually stops. EVERY journey has the other side. It doesn’t end like this. Your future is bright! Know that He loves you and He is working all things…
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Joy
You may remember that my word for the year is JOY!! When you think about it, most of what we do in our lives is with the aim of trying to increase joy and happiness somewhere down the line. But for many of us, our efforts of finding happiness are maybe a little misguided. A…
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Who is in Control?
What kind of things stress you out and cause you to worry and be anxious? Do you get angry with people who say and do stupid things that cause hurt and resentment? What about traffic jams, bad weather, unexpected illness, other people’s bad attitudes? What is the real reason you are stressed? Could it be…
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A Page in the Grand Book
This is one of my favorite stories and I first heard it from Kenny years ago. For those of uswho try to pass judgment on life with only one day’s evidence, the message is profound. Ihope that it will remind you, as it did me, that patience is the greater courage.Once there was an old…
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You Are Unique!
YOU ARE UNIQUE!Each and every one of us is born with unique traits and characteristics that help us shineand find our true calling. Learning to love ourselves for who/what we are is a bigchallenge. There are so many people who believe they aren’t enough. They hate thatthey’re different from the everyday crowd, and try so…
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Only Lessons
I am regularly astonished at God’s ability to turn ugly mistakes into something beautiful inthe end. God has more than enough mercy for every mistake we’ll ever make. A part ofteaching is giving others a safe place they can make mistakes and not be rejected. Seeingpeople’s failures isn’t a gift, anyone can do that. Seeing…
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Fighting Loneliness
One of COVID-19’s harshest ironies: Just when we need each other more, we’re beingforced apart. We are urged to stay home and maintain social distancing to combat thespread of the virus, but this points out the need for solutions to address increasing socialisolation and loneliness. While social distancing is important for preventing the spread ofthe…
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Trust God
God means for us to be where we are. God has led or allowed us to be in a situation andGod is sovereign. God is love. He didn’t put us in this situation because he stopped lovingus, but because he loves us. We aren’t there by accident. We are facing issues in our livesby God’s…
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Sacrifices For Us
We are social creatures. We depend on one another. We cannot achieve our goalswithout the help of others. Yet, others have their own agendas, goals, and interests. So,how can we work together without compromising? To succeed, we need to learn that wehave to let go of one thing to gain another. We have to understand…
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Silence
It is in the silence we quiet the nonstop noise bantering in our heads that continually seeksan audience with us in our minds. There is nothing like the calmness of the silence to gaininsight into the answers we need for living! One of the best lessons we can learn in life isto master how to…
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Use the CALM acronym
One of the best indicators of spiritual growth is that we remain calm in the face of crisis, adversity and danger. Panic is more contagious than calm. The more “news” we absorb right now, the more we’re inclined to panic. All we need is 10 minutes a day to get informed and that’s enough. I…
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Be An Encourager
I hope you are all doing well with your sta-cation! But, often we feel down and slumping in our life. At these times we need inspiration to free us from the bondage of worries and give our life a direction. Good inspirational stories are a great way to uplift us and fill us with hope…
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Encouragement
We all need encouragement right about now!We find ourselves in a sober moment and are not sure what to do next. Fear is rising in these uncertain times. Remember, it is not God’s will that we face every day with dread and trepidation. He made us for more than a life of breath-stealing angst and…
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See The Magic
This simple short story helps us to remember that we are God’s treasure in clay. Too often we act as though people are nothing more than clay balls. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”— 2 Corinthians 4:7 A man…
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Make Everyday Count
Have you ever noticed how some people come into our life and we know right away that they were meant to be there—to serve some sort of purpose, teach us a lesson, or help us figure out who we are or who we want to become? We never know who these people may be—a roommate,…
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Difficulties
Each of us faces difficulties from time to time. It’s a natural part of the cycle of life. Many of us become so focused on the problems we face that we lose our joy—it gets buried under layers of worry and fear. But the moment you realize you have nothing to lose is the moment…
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The Soul Train
My very good friend, Milt Smith, always puts a smile on my face and in my heart! His response to my last note on “What is the best way to be there for someone when they are hurting or experiencing challenging times?” is right on target, filled with powerful testimony and critical seeds meant to…
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The Value of Love
Personal values are those things we believe are the most important in our lives. Values exist, whether we recognize them or not. The only way to experience true joy and happiness is to live and behave according to our true values. Otherwise, we experience internal conflict and stress. This is why it’s necessary to make…
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Give Happiness
If you want to do one good thing in the world, the best thing you can do is give other people joy. Joy is not dependent upon outward circumstances. It is something we can have under all conditions—whether we are sad or happy. There is a Chinese saying that goes: “If you want happiness for…
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2020: Year of Joy
God not only shaped us uniquely, He planned every day of our life to support His shaping process. This means that nothing in our life is insignificant. God uses everything to shape us for our unique role. He wastes nothing. He gives us talents, abilities, interests, gifts, personality, and life experiences to be used for…
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Our Perspective
Remember the Principle of Separate Realities. The way I see things is not really how things are; it’s just my own perspective. The value of anyone or anything exists solely in our perspective. If that’s true, there is no logical reason to take personally what others say or do! That guy didn’t cut me off…
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The Pearl Necklace
Have you ever felt down and depressed and decided to eat a yummy dessert or candy bar to feel better? Or go shopping for a new outfit? Or go drinking with your friends? Or spend time on the internet, watching TV or a movie? How long does it make you feel better? Usually not very…
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Courageous Empathy
What is the best way to be there for someone when they are hurting or experiencing challenging times? How can we comfort them and ease their pain and suffering? This is a story that will touch your heart and hopefully help you understand why sometimes, when we jump to the wrong conclusions, it can affect…
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Be A Good Neighbor
Shar and I just went to see the film It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, starring Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers, the popular PBS show host and creator. “Hi neighbor.” You can’t say those words without knowing they’re from Fred Rogers. Much of his wisdom applies to us in many stages of adulthood. Here…
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Words of Encouragement
Gary Chapman, in his book Love as a Way of Life, uses a vivid metaphor describing words as either ‘bullets or seeds.’ If we use our words as ‘bullets’ with feelings of superiority and condemnation, we will not be able to restore a relationship to love. However, if we use our words as ‘seeds’ with…
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Life is a Continuous Learning Experience
Life is a continuous learning experience. Throughout our lives, we keep rising and falling, picking up important lessons along the way. Furthermore, there are many life lessons that we simply cannot learn until we face certain situations in our life. Most people would say that there are some lessons that come too late, catching us…
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Gratitude
Some of the most memorable lessons in life come from stories. We are meaning-seeking creatures. Stories teach, whether the storyteller intends them to or not. A Native American proverb says, “Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my…
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Leaving a Legacy
Albert Einstein reminded us, “You have to learn the rules of the game, and then you have to play better than anyone else.” Living an abundant and joyful life is an ongoing labor of love. We need to think long term. We need to innovate and improve. We need to stay on the lookout for…
