To Serve well

Serving with Excellence for a Life of Excellence

Gratitude

A Day of Honor – Veteran’s Day 2018

Today is always one of my favorite days of the year. I don’t think anything captures the heart of America like Veteran’s Day.

The men and women who have served, their families, and the communities that circle around to honor them, all give me pause and the inevitable lump in your throat response. One of the most powerful scriptures says that “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)

Today, we honor your great sacrifice, your willingness to immerse yourself and your families in what truly is the greatest display of love.

Our country has been built on the backs of men and women who have served with honor. There is no doubt in my mind that this required pushing through fear and all manner of stress as they faced the unknown. That level of commitment and honor for America is why we are all in a free democracy today, in what I believe is and always will be the greatest country in the world. My heart is overflowing with gratitude. I hope that we will all let this day live on day after day as we strive to serve well with love for our country.

10 down, 2 to go… Let’s dive into THANKFULNESS

November is fantastic! The home stretch is in view and we should be sure to take account of the year and especially those people, lessons, and experiences that we need to show gratitude for. Some thoughts to kick start your mind…

Anything new in 2018?

Friendships, career changes, schools, homes, vehicles, trips, and yes, new arrivals! (I have some friends that have new babies or grandbabies — and oh my, that is the best thing to be thankful for!) 

Any lesson that has stuck with you?

How you handle transition? What you need to be the best version of yourself (sleep anyone)? How do you learn the best? What is your greatest teacher?

Anything painful that is stretching you?

Yep, I think we have to be thankful for those things too… annoying I know!

Anything that has brought you true joy?

Pets? Friends? Experiences? A simple conversation? A lunch date with your favorite friend? 

This list could honestly go on and on. I sit here and begin to reflect on ALL that has filled the last 10 months, and I am literally AMAZED by the blessings and gifts this year has brought. I will be honest and say it has been pretty hard as well, but even the tough parts are deep with meaning, serving as a part of my journey that I respect and appreciate.

I hope you will take some time to begin a month long process of identifying what those things are to you. I feel you will truly be blessed by what one year can bring. I am prayerful that you will find yourself with a big grin and a heart full of the magic of this life, knowing you are fully loved and fully in the process of achieving your purpose.

Let’s be GENEROUS with our love and praise

It’s so natural and easy to be generous with our love – at least with some people in our lives. This picture draws to mind a grandfather and granddaughter, which reminds me of those in our close circle who we are able to embrace so much easier (most of the time, that is…). That’s a good thing!

Today, however, I’m thinking about how to be generous with love with all people. It’s absolutely essential that we all learn or grow this character quality of generously giving love, praise and gratitude. It makes our world the best place, when we all come to the table with this approach and attitude. Here are a couple of things that I am contemplating:

  • Too often, we jump into a conversation – let’s use the business world as an example – and start right into the topic at hand. We establish meeting agendas and construct our days with a focus on getting the work done. That’s America in action.

    What if we all held ourselves accountable with setting up every conversation, every meeting agenda, every day with the focus on people first? What if we genuinely took time to express genuine praise, or to share a fun story to highlight someone’s wins? What if? Wouldn’t it be nicer? Wouldn’t the energy increase? Wouldn’t the culture and momentum of the team build?

  • I’m also giving thought to the fact that there is so much power in the written word. Let’s not forget that while our schedules heat up with back to school, sports and a renewed focus on wrapping up the year strong, that we need to stop and generously offer words of encouragement. A tiny post it note of thanks will often be found on someone’s work space wall, home desk or tucked in a wallet for months and years to follow. People need and want to be recognized. That’s all people, regardless of status, title or age. If our schedules somehow get in the way of putting pen to (actual) paper, then I would submit that generously sending text messages or emails are also powerful. Those, like the post-it note, can be screenshot, and will serve as an ongoing reminder to people of their impact.

This is so important and I hope today that you will join me in being generous with your love and praise.

Immense, deep, fierce, profound… Beyond measure

Beyond compare

Beyond dispute

Beyond doubt

BEYOND MEASURE

Beyond number

Beyond one’s depth

Beyond Price

Immense, deeply, fiercely, profoundly.

(Thanks to Coopers dictionary for these incredible terms…perfect for today’s message)

What areas of your life have you been blessed beyond measure? This is the perfect day and week to dive into this idea.

Sunrises, sunsets, pets, a healthy and able body, the ability to help others, intelligence, teachers, counselors, friends, family… All of those are surely on the list.

What about the not so obvious? Hard times, loss, trouble, stress… To me, those belong in this category, too. Without the mire, I wouldn’t be where I am – I wouldn’t be so blessed. I wouldn’t be able to serve well, and to use my story to encourage others. The best place we can be today is in the pure gratitude of the adventure we are on.

The road that are straight, the roads that fork with no obvious direction, the unpaved roads, even the road that flatten your tires… They all come together to form a life that is blessed beyond our understanding – beyond measure.

Have a crazy great week. Many prayers and positive energy to you, your family and friends.

Never underestimate the importance of reassurance

Sharing is caring… Always a truth I fully support. I read something similar to this phrase recently and I had an internal  “standing ovation,” which inspired me to share!

To me, this may be the most important reminder we all get this week, or heck, even this month. Taking the time to reassure one another is so important to a healthy community. The best leaders get this. Parents do this often when children are younger, but need to remember that at all ages we need this. Friends and colleagues… that’s where we see this most in our daily lives. Who can you reassure today? Be creative.

  • The UPS man/woman who delivers your Amazon packages could use a thank you for a job well done.
  • The front desk team member who welcomed you and had you complete that “annoying” paperwork. (I assure you, they didn’t want to ask you to fill it out again either…)
  • The grocery store clerk that is starting hour 8 of a 10-hour shift?

I hope that you have strong wrap to the week! Thank you for taking a moment or two to read these heartfelt insights.

The best gift idea

I found one of the best ideas I have heard in a while in Tyler Perry’s new book, “Higher is Waiting.” It’s a gem, and the type of read that is quick with some game changing takeaways.

This was one of those game changers — I hope you agree. In fact, I liked it so much that I told my boys, sister, brother and parents that this is exactly what I want and nothing else. (I did ask for it to be gift-wrapped since there’s such a thrill in opening presents!)

I’m as guilty as almost everyone else in that the days seem to suck me in and spending thoughtful time writing out my thoughts to a loved one is not something I do well. Sure, I send text messages, birthday cards and Facebook posts, but sitting down and giving thought only to that person who means so much… not my strong suit. In fact, I get a pretty low score on this… or maybe no score at all. So, I’m stealing this idea from Mr. Perry this Christmas and plan to write a few myself.

Have the best weekend yet this year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Photo Creds: Canva)

I captured this comment and wish I’d created it. It’s true, I am thankful for all of it. I hope that your day is spent with love regardless of “it all.” The days aren’t always easy, but love carries us all through and at the end of the year we can reflect on how we grew along the way!

Make this weekend count. Give lots of hug… extend amazing generosity and LOVE BIG anyway you can! I’m truly grateful for each of you and praying great favor over your lives as I write this.

Simple Thoughts Sunday: The Lord WILL give you the desires of your heart

Happy Birthday Sam, Tucker and Joe.

My beautiful young men are 21 today. They are my greatest blessing. I truly believe the scripture on this photo collage. If you don’t know my story, I was told I likely would not have children. In fact, I was given an 11% chance, and that was with the help of modern medicine. With a magical touch of God’s hand, we were blessed with three boys that I know will impact our world.

Whatever your desires are today… for love, healing, joy, peace, fun… my prayer is that you will feel God right in the middle.

Have the best year ever boys, and know that you indeed have filled the desires of my heart.

By the way… it’s time for new pictures! 🙂

Simple Thoughts Sunday – Happy Father’s Day 2017

Happy Father’s Day! Strong fathers are a key to a healthy society, and I join America today is honoring those that show up, train, inspire and spur on our future generations. I hope that this week you will take a moment to thank all of the men in your lives for helping make our world a better place. Honor is a key to serving well and frankly one of the BEST PARTS! GO BIG IN YOURS!

What stories do you want to tell and create?

(Photo Creds: We Heart It. I’d love to give further credit for the photo, but the app doesn’t give details… folks, I know this is a professional photo and I give full credit.)

I am a total sucker for award shows, especially the speeches. Speaking from the heart… those are the ones I love. If you joined me watching the Oscars on Sunday evening there were many. The humble and selfless speeches were plentiful and endearing. My favorite was Viola Davis’ speech for the best supporting actress win for her role in Fences. I have not seen it, but will.

Viola’s words captured the audience as we hung on to her words. She commanded the audience to listen and gave the “academy” a great window into why they selected her for this award.

What stood out to me, was this tag line. It was the crux of her speech, sharing that she wished to tell the stories of the past – of the dreamers who died too soon, people who fell in love and lost, so to speak. What a worthy question for us all.

What kind of stories do you want to tell?

With our ONE LIFE, we  have this opportunity to tell and live out really cool stories. To reach into the past as Viola shared, or to CREATE A NARRATIVE ALL OUR OWN – Steve Jobs… Oprah… just a few potential examples.

I love to learn from the past and to be completely overwhelmed by the minds and lives of those in history. I equally love to watch the modern day world take on building on our world’s greatness. I think I want to take my place on the CREATING part. To come up with a new story. One that carves a new path and changes lives for the better.

Did you have a favorite part of the Oscars? (Let’s for sure talk about that ending… wow… live TV is terrific.)