To Serve well

Serving with Excellence for a Life of Excellence

Schedule

Simple Thoughts Sunday: Peace & Joy

(Photo Creds: Canva)

I loved this quote from from a book I read this week. I mean, who wants their problems to take over their mind and their peace?

The book continued: “While God calls us out of complacency, his peace allows us to CHOOSE contentment with our place in the world.” – Chrystal Evans Hurst

One of my life mottos has been that we must CHOOSE. Every day and often more than once a day, will we choose peace, joy, etc. in the situations and conversations we experience? We do have a CHOICE, and I happen to LOVE THAT. Imagine if we didn’t?

She said it another way…

“Know Spirit? Know peace.
No Spirit? No peace.”

I believe that has been true in my life. When I stray away from my disciplined life of reading scripture, attending regular church services, hanging out with other believers, I find myself farther away from peace. It’s funny how when we drift from what we know aligns best with our values and soul, that we almost immediately get signs that prod us back to where our focus should be. If you are familiar with scripture there is a terrific verse in Galatians 5:22-23:

“But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Essentially, God provides for us “deep, abounding joy that is not dependent on our circumstances” (Hurst) if we stay close to him. I hope that this week you will CHOOSE PEACE AND JOY.

What if … Today I ….

(Photo Creds: We Heart it)

If you are in the workplace and have anything to do with marketing, you might follow Seth Godin.

He has daily, short blogs that offer up simple ideas on pushing you to the next level in creativity. His recent post caught my attention, and my mind took it another direction. His title, “Three simple and difficult steps” offered this:

  1. Get Smarter. Hurry. (Technology and life is moving fast)
  2. Solve interesting problems.
  3. Care. More.

His thinking was that most people do one of these, but what would happen if you became the type of person and does all three? You might add leverage and value and ultimately choices to your life.

I thought it was good, but here’s where my mind went with it…

What if today we set a goal to acccomplish something that really impacted our life/world? What if today was the day that we did not operate our daily routine, but instead choose to take a new route to work, craft a personal mission statement outlining what we’d love to do right now, and set forth a plan to make it so?

One day can be so impactful, yet we often let our days become routine and settle in. I like settling in, but I LOVE feeling energized and like I’m really doing something important. That one is much better! How about you?

What can you do today to UP YOUR LEVERAGE? To get smarter, or change paths or to just be a part of a nicer and better world?  My guess is that we can ALL DO SOMETHING.

Are you giving this season what it deserves?

blog_841442_2960922_1475115145(Photo Creds: We Heart It)

I was talking with my trainer, Amy Gipson, yesterday and our conversation always goes to the season we are in. Life’s seasons, that is. Although I have found they often follow the actual seasons.

Fall is certainly one of the busiest seasons, and approaches us after one of longer days – hopefully some relaxing ones, too – and the opportunity to soak up the sun. Although we know it’s coming, fall happens upon us almost as a shock to our systems, and soon school starts, work amps up and community activities launch into full speed. In general we become deluged with activities and an instinct to drive toward hitting all of those goals that we started the year with. The fourth quarter push!

Today I wanted to talk about the idea of “embracing the season.” Ask yourself:
“Am I giving this season what it deserves?”

Amy and I both agreed that in order to really give it what it deserves, we have to be intentional with setting boundaries and playing to what our priorities are during this season. If we don’t, somehow the PTO’s priorities become ours and we end up frustrated and overwhelmed.  (The PTO is called other things throughout life: professor, boss, you get the picture.) The idea of balance is probably a myth, but what isn’t a myth is that our balance needs to be monitored, and eventually it must balance for us to stay sane and thriving. It’s truly okay for some days to be 60/40, others 80/20, as long as it measures out in the end in a way that optimizes your life in a holistic way!

As you go into your weekend, spend some time ensuring that you are truly giving this season what it deserves. It may require a few modifications in order to give you and your family peace of mind and allow you to fully embrace it. Several months ago I blogged about that idea of counting our days… According to the “timeanddate.com” app as of today, I have 6,739 days until retirement, and 13,314 days remaining in my life expectancy. That adds up to 144 seasons (calendar seasons that is), or 36 more falls, summers, springs and winters. I don’t know about you but I was thinking that number would be higher…. I am committed to making them count and giving them all what they deserve.

The time is now to EMBRACE THE SEASON.