Taking a cue from Punxsutawney Phil today.
Skittish about standing out in a crowd? Remember the groundhog. He isn’t afraid. It’s a new day. Wake up. Make your entrance. Watch life get interesting.
The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is His faithfulness;
His mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:22-23 NLT
Good Morning by Mandisa.
Fruit Loops or Cheerios?
No matter how bad things get or how recklessly people twist the Truth, the Gospel holds like an anchor in the storm.
Do you know the story of this phrase? Read parallel accounts in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Do you know why it happened? While the entire Bible answers that, Paul’s brutal and beautiful letter to the Romans gives an in-depth summary. Start with the first eight chapters.
Do you know what happens next? Check out chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians.
Spoiler alert: God wins.
There’s much more, but these are good places to begin.
What does this story mean to you today?
What Bible verses help you own it?
Sunday by Tree63 sets this phrase to music, presented here in a quirky video by Darryl Swart and Brent Lathrop. Love me some Nashville.
It’s that time again for a field trip on the blog. Our itinerary takes us to Pinke Post for a special story from my friend Katie.
I roomed with Katie, Leah Beyer, and Nancy Grossi at the BlogHer conference earlier this month. Katie, a discus thrower in college, vowed to be my tall, blonde bodyguard should the need arise in New York. Thankfully, I didn’t have to take her up on that offer, and we went shopping instead.
Katie has blogged at Pinke Post for five years. She is the mother to three beautiful children and the wife to her prince charming. In her professional life, she works in agriculture for state government.
Today she breaks her silence about her time as a food stamps mom.
It’s an inspiring story from a beautiful woman with great determination, incredible work ethic, and the blessings of family and faith—the stuff of real hope and change.
Plus she can rock a Tahari dress like nobody’s business. Please give it up for Katie Pinke and her true story Food Stamps Mom Breaks Her Silence.
She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks. Proverbs 31:17 NIV
Don’t Give Up, snappy new tune from Kevin Rudolf.
Click, read, and meet my friend Katie Pinke.
Jesus didn’t have a bicycle. If He had, I wonder if He would have used it to teach us how to follow God and help others do the same.
You can’t ride a bicycle for someone else. You may steady them as they start and run alongside until they pedal. But you can’t push them all the way.
Once they get going, you may ride behind them to watch for cars, in front of them to cross streets, beside them to buffer against traffic.
You might catch your breath when they nearly collide with trees or learn to use the hand breaks or jump off before a complete stop.
They’ll have spills and accidents.
They’ll have boo-boos and band-aids.
You’ll encourage them to get up and try again.
Sometimes you’ll fall, too. You’ll remember, and they’ll see, you’re imperfect like they are. You’ll get up again. So will they.
In an unexpected moment, you’ll notice they’re tracking with you. They don’t need your help as much. You’ll stop by the water and enjoy the view together.
You don’t easily forget how to ride a bike once you learn. You carry it through life and it carries you.
Pass it on.
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another —and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:23-25 NIV
I’m With You by the sweet voices of Nichole Nordeman and Amy Grant.
Who helps you follow God? Who are you helping?
The day before the Tony’s, I watched an interview with actress Judith Light. Remember Judith from Who’s the Boss?
She shared how she started her career with preconceived notions about the types of roles she would and would not accept. When her expectations were unmet and she wasn’t offered the roles she desired, she began to look at what was being offered to her. What doors were open.
A soap opera. A sitcom. Eventually Broadway.
She stopped fighting the current and sailed on it instead.
A day after the interview, Judith was awarded a 2012 Tony for her performance as Silda in Other Desert Cities.
You and I may never win a Tony, an Oscar, a Pulitzer, or a Fortune 500 ranking. But we all sail this current. We all run this race.
There is much to be gained along the way.
But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. Acts 20:24 NLT
Only Love by Wynonna Judd. Out of all the flags I’ve flown, one flies high and stands alone.
What’s being offered to you? What doors are open?
I’m falling in love with a book and a writer.
Last night, I read in said book about a Japanese novelist who awoke at 4 a.m. every morning for seven months to write his most important work. He would write for five hours, then jog. Requires discipline and strength, he said. Writing and running, that is.
So at 4:27 a.m. today, unplanned, I awoke. Beckoned by the power of suggestion. I can explain it no other way.
I lag behind the author from Japan. Twenty-seven minutes and umpteen books to be exact. He’s accomplished. I’m but a lowly blogger. Unsure. Beginning.
The blackness of the morning yields itself to the task. A complement to the blank white of the screen, the darkness hangs in the air, and all is quiet.
Requires concentration, I read in the book. Uninterrupted stretches of lonely pounding out, writing and jogging. Words to page, feet to pavement.
Two and a half hours, a thousand words later, the sun is up and I’m going back to bed. No jogging for me. It’s Saturday after all.
Will I do this again? Wake up in the third watch and write? I can’t say. Strength can come at any hour.
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13 ESV