Weighted Words

Life Lessons

The first time someone tells you they took notes on your talk, is a humbling and sobering moment.  You realize you’re not just talking anymore. I’ve always been a story-teller, but now my stories carry a weight and a purpose, and can change people’s lives. They always have on a smaller scale. Words are seeds. Seeds we plant in our own mind and our own lives, as well as in the lives of those we encounter.  A few weeks ago my church played a music video for “Shake It Out” by Florence + The Machine that they remade.  You should go watch it, but for those of you with limited time I’ll attempt…

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Worth Fighting For

grace, Life Lessons

We ran into a Purple Heart Vietnam veteran in Vancouver, when my husband thanked him for his service, he turned and looked him intently in the eye and said, “you were worth fighting for.” Makes me tear up again just typing it. Though vastly underappreciated, what an incredible generation of warriors. And what an honor to be told we are worth their sacrifice, even at the times we don’t deserve or appreciate it. Kind of reminds me of Someone Else I know who tells me I’m worth fighting for even when I don’t deserve it….. #sundayfoodforthought

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A Pressure-Cooked Reminder

marriage, relationships

It’s funny, in the last few weeks there have been so many things going on in our life – MAJOR life changes: my husband quit his job and now works from home, I started a professional speaking career outside my current job, my editor got back to me with all the changes I need to approve in my book, we bought a house….. It’s been overwhelming. I’ve been overwhelmed. Stressed to the max- I can feel it in my body (and so can my chiropractor!) Naturally with all that going on, tension has run high in our home. My husband and I have been bickering and even arguing a lot, which is rare…

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Color-Blinded

faith, Life Lessons, Spiritual Growth

This is the most uncomfortable topic I’ve written about. Here’s the thing, I grew up in a small farm town in Kentucky, of the 1300 kids in my school, there were like 3 black kids, and I was friends with them. I wasn’t naïve enough to ignore that there were some people in my town and in my school who were outwardly racist – white people who hated the black families for nothing other than the color of their skin. But it didn’t make sense to me. I moved to the “big city” of Cincinnati two months after graduating high school and my black friend ratio went way up. It’s not like I…

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Amazing Amazing Grace

grace, marriage, relationships

“The thing I find most amazing about amazing grace is the chance to give it out; Maybe that’s what love is all about.”  – I’m Not Who I Was, Brandon Heath This past week, I ran across the poetry and memoirs I wrote during the whirlwind five month romance that lasted from the day we met, to the day I married, my ex-husband. It was ironic, and a little heartbreaking to read. What I wrote most about was all the good things I saw in him and how bright our predestined future together was.  I wrote about seeing him through God’s eyes, the way He had created him, and all the things he…

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Eye See You

Life Lessons, Metaphors, Success & Motivation

It’s been said that our eyes are the windows to our souls. I believe that. I saw a picture tonight, of a girl I don’t know, and this thought went through my head: There are some people, who even though they are smiling in every picture, and even if their smile is perfect, you can still see sadness in their eyes. Have you seen this before? Has this ever been you? My next thought was: These are the people I want to meet. I want them to know they don’t need to wear a smiling mask. I want them to know they are not alone. And I want to give them a picture…

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#56

faith, Life Lessons, Spiritual Growth

Skydiving is was on my bucket list. It’s number 56, in fact. I kind of had it penciled in for this Summer, and then my best friend turned 40 and decided that’s what he wanted to do to celebrate. BINGO! Weeks leading up to the event I was pure bottled excitement and eager anticipation. My husband had a scheduling conflict arise so that he was not able to join us, and I remember having a strange little flutter of uneasiness. Am I going to be able to do this without him? Won’t I need him there?  Then I reminded myself, I lived a pretty routine life for 25 years before I met him,…

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Voices at the Bottom

Life Lessons

When we go through dark seasons in our lives, there is a little voice that comes and whispers in our ears, “You are the only person going through this. You are alone. No one else will understand.” And so we withdraw from the world, and keep our problems to ourselves. The more people I meet who open up and share their stories with me, the more I realize there is ALWAYS someone else going through, or that has gone through, EXACTLY what you’re going through. You are never alone. That is a cleverly designed lie to drive you into shame, isolation and depression. Do not listen to that voice.

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Your Fickle Heart

marriage, relationships

If you spend your whole dating career making decisions based on “following your heart”, what are you going to do after you get married and you and your spouse go into a [temporary] funk (because it’s going to happen), and your “heart” tells you your in love with someone else? Are you still going to follow your heart then?  Does your heart supersede your vows?  Then why bother even making them? No. You’ve got to figure out how to base your decisions outside of something as fickle as your heart. And trust me, you want to figure this out before you get married.

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The New Guy

Life Lessons, Success & Motivation

They recently moved my desk at my office. I’m only there for a few hours every couple weeks, so it’s not a huge deal, I’ve been moved several times. I’ve been put in the middle of administrative assistants, and customer service, and for a long time I sat with the marketing department. This time, they moved me right in the middle of the sales floor, so I sit right behind a [brand] new guy, who has just gone out on his own. I hear him making cold calls and it’s….well, rough, and it’s awkward, and I know he’s struggling…. I have to fill in the other side of the conversation in my mind,…

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