What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?
Sometimes I get pages where I do things I want to do and will not listen to anyone else -which usually has a bad outcome.
I can improve my life by recognizing when I get in that phase of not wanting to listen to anyone and doing what I wanna do. I need to remember and ask God for his guidance.
Throughout my day, I should pause and check my spirit. “God, what do You want me to do? What would please You? Then do that.
Galatians 5:24-25 tells us, “ those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
The lighthouse is a symbol of strength, hope, and awareness.
When we shine light, and offer hope and direction in dark stormy times we become a lighthouse for others. We can inspire those around us through our actions and presence
By leading example we can show kindness, model honestly, and show our faith.
Sometimes it’s not about opening your pocketbook and giving money. We can listen, encourage, and pray for others. Or even gently sharing some biblical truth or personal insight.
Be aware though that you need to stay anchored and root yourself in prayer and scripture to remain steady. As to not overwhelm yourself.
We can become a beacon of light in helping others find hope and direction.
Share a story about someone who had a positive impact on your life.
I have had many people make positive impacts in my life. But over the years I’ve learned something.
People tend to adopt the habits, attitudes, and behaviors of those they spend the most time with. It’s a mix of social influence and mirror neurons at work. If you hang out with driven, positive people, you’re likely to pick up their optimism. Surround yourself with negativity or apathy, and that will drag you down too. Choose the people you hang out with wisely, and they can shape you more than you might think.
People can have a positive impact us, but maybe we can make a positive impact on someone else.
Seeing with God’s eyes is perceiving the world through a lens of divine wisdom, compassion, and understanding. It’s looking beyond the surface appearances, biases, or our limited human perspectives to get to a deeper truth about existence, people, and creation.
Seeing through God’s eyes implies aligning our perspective with God’s attributes which are love, mercy, justice, and holiness. It’s about seeing others as God sees them. Seeing them as inherently valuable -created in His image (Genesis 1:27) and that they are worthy of compassion, regardless of any flaws or circumstances.
For example, Jesus’s interactions with the marginalized. Like the Samaritan woman in John 4, reflects this divine perspective.
To see with God’s eyes is practicing empathy, forgiveness, and humility in daily life. It could mean looking past someone’s actions to understand their struggles or recognizing beauty in the mundane.
Seeing with our faith in God means perceiving the world through a lens of trust in God’s divine wisdom.
Being guided by belief in God’s presence, love, and purpose. It’s about letting faith shape how we interpret life’s events, relationships, and challenges. Aligning our perspective with God’s truths which is revealed through scripture, prayer, and spiritual practice.
This involves:
Trusting In God’s Plan: Believing as Romans 8:28 suggests that,
“All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
Even when the circumstances are unclear we must believe the promise of God in this scripture.
Heart Centered Vision: Following 2 Corinthians 5:7,
“We walk by faith not by sight.”
We prioritize, spiritual insight over worldly appearances.
Compassionate Lens: seeing others as God‘s creation, reflecting Jesus‘s command to love others as ourselves as in Matthew 22:39,
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Our neighbors are not just people who live by us they are everyone.
Guidance Through Prayer: seeing the Holy Spirit’s discernment to view situations with clarity and hope.
Practically this means:
Approaching trials with hope, and trusting in God sovereignty.
Forgiving others, seeing them through God’s grace.
Studying scripture, like Psalms, and the “gospels,” which are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to internalize God’s perspective.
Cultivating gratitude, recognizing God, hand in all things.
Faith driven site, transforms, fear into trust, judgment into mercy, and despair into hope. It’s less about changing what we see and more about how we see it through the assurance of God’s love and promises.
Being a mother is difficult and a challenging responsibility that is defiantly under appreciated. It takes patience and commitment.
Every mother learns the importance of wearing many hats within the home.
Being a mother involves a blend of emotional, practical, and spiritual qualities often shaped by love, sacrifice, and resilience.
Love and nurturing provides unconditional love of fostering a child’s sense of security and worth through affection, listening, and support.
Patient and adaptability, raising children requires patience for their growth and mistakes but also flexibility to handle unexpected challenges from temper tantrums to teenage rebellion.
Responsibility and sacrifice, mother need to prioritize their children’s needs -physical (food, shelter, safety), emotional (guidance, encouragement), and educational before their own.
Teaching and role modeling, they ned to instill good values, manners, and life skills, modeling integrity and resilience to shape character.
Emotional strength, mothers navigate worry, guilt, and societal pressures while staying grounded, often leaning on personal convictions, others or the church body for support.
They need practical skills like time management, budgeting, and problem-solving which are keys to balancing family needs and self-care.
Motherhood also includes praying for their children, teaching faith, and trusting God for their future.
It’s less about perfection and more about a consistent effort, learning through challenges, and growing alongside their children. Every mother’s journey is unique, and shaped by circumstances, culture, and personal beliefs.
Motherhood includes cleaning, cooking, laundry, chauffeuring, nursing, and anything else that comes along.
A mother’s job isn’t easy it’s hard work. But it is worth it.
God always provides a solution or path forward when a difficult situation in our lives seems impossible to overcome. We only have to trust in God’s ability to intervene and create a way where there seems to be one.
God has the power and the ability to work in ways that we as humans cannot understand (Philippians 2:13-14). He promises to meet our needs. It should be a reminder of the hope and resilience that encourages us to surrender to His plan rather than our own.
He works on our behalf even when we can’t see it. We see all the times God made a way where there seemed to be no way:
Parting the Red Sea -Exodus 14:13-31
The fall of Jericho’s Walls -Joshua 6:1-20
David and Goliath -Samuel 17
Elijah and the widow of Zarephath -1 Kings 17:8-16
Daniel in the Lion’s Den -Daniel 6:16-23
Jesus feeding the 5000 -Matthew 14:15-21
The Resurrection of Jesus -Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20.
Maybe you can think of a few ways God made a way in your life that you thought there was no way.
When disagreeing with anyone it’s important to be respectful.
I can’t control another person or their actions.
Media tends to spin everything and put things out of context for their beliefs and values. Anymore we need to be careful of what we see or hear on the news. Because it may not be the real story.
More than likely the public figure isn’t who we think they are.
I choose to put every situation I don’t agree with in God’s hands. That’s where battles are won anyway. And only God knows the truth in the situation.
Have you ever been around a complainer? The car ahead of you is crawling at a snails pace. You have a person in your life that constantly interrupts you.
Americans in general find an alarming number of things to complain about. I’ve heard the rate of complaints among Americans range from 70 to 84 percent. Yet one of us likes hanging out with complainers. Complaints can be like viruses, it’s important to stay away from them, but that’s not necessarily easy.
We are born with brains that have a negative bias. We tend to focus on things that are not right, rather than attending to the things that are right around us.
When that tendency turns into a habit, and the world quickly becomes an unpleasant or dangerous place.
There are a few strategies we can try when we hear ourselves complaining:
Step back. Looking at the bigger picture. Asking ourselves whether it will matter in five minutes, five months, or five years.
Look within. Taking our complaint seriously. Ask “what is the real issue” does the small thing irritating you represent a theme or larger issue in our lives that needs to be addressed.
Take five minutes to write down your complaint and you may find out what’s pushing your buttons.
3. Make a game out of your complaints. Wear a bracelet or rubber band on your wrist. Every time you hear yourself complaining switch it to the other wrist. The goal is to go 30 days with the bracelet or rubber band on the same wrist.
4.Choose the right outlet. Consider the best way to privately share your issues: in person, in an email, during a phone call. Never complain on social media.
5. Air valid concerns. Your complaint may addresses a genuine need that can lead to a solution. The key is to share your complaint in a kind way that is seen as helpful and not critical.
6. Find the positives. When you have a complaint, start and end with a positive. Because when we complain all the time people shut us down and completely miss your message.
Someone might say, “I love when you go to the store. Next time when you go get groceries, please let me know before you leave and I’ll send you my list. Instead of complaining about the things that were bought because you didn’t like the stuff. It’s more helpful when you work together. It’s important to avoid the word but, because it wipes away the positives.
7. Practice gratitude. Remind yourself every day about one thing you were grateful for, no matter how small. If negativity has become a habit it’s important to write positives down so you can have something to go to when you need a positive response.
Changing your perspective takes time. It takes practice to learn a tolerance to other’s annoying habits. We all have them.
With some effort we can all learn to pay attention to what we’re always complaining about. We can choose to be uplifting instead of dragging people and ourselves down with complaints.
You might discover that less complaining that it adds happiness not just for a a day, but your entire life.
A career plan if you want to be happy should be based on your natural talents. What can I do effortlessly that others find challenging? What do others consistently praise you for?
Because I was home raining children I took on some part time jobs that I didn’t really care for. But that eventually turned into volunteer work, helping others.
In whatever we do we should do it as if God is our boss. Do your work for the glory of God. Even if it isn’t a job you like doing.
God’s salvation is a powerful force, with the message of Jesus being seen as an instrument through which this power is made available two people for their redemption.
Romans 1:16 states that the gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes in Him.
“For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Messiah, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes.”
Salvation is a divine act. This emphasizes that salvation is not something we as human achieve on our own, but rather a gift from God, made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The gospel is not just a message, but a force that can transform our lives and bring about salvation. This is the power of the gospel.
Salvation is for everyone. The gospel is for everyone who hears and believes.
The New Testament provides the framework for understanding God‘s plan for salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
The last live performance I saw was at the Bees Stadium in Utah it was a Kenny Chesney and Megan Moroney concert last year. Unfortunately, I had nosebleed seats, and couldn’t get any good pictures. But unless you’re not a country music fan, here is a photo.
From Pity to Praise 