Lessons from the School of Hard Knocks: 5 Insights for Ministry As we approach the end of the year, I find myself reflecting on the lessons I’ve learned throughout my 30+ years in ministry. This week, as I coached 11 pastors and church leaders, I was reminded of some truths I’ve picked up along the …
One of the things I did this February was take on a 31-day goal. What the goal was isn’t really important….what was important was I met myself in those 31-days. I don’t often set such short-term goals but this goal was part of a bigger goal and I thought, “if I can accomplish this, I …
Recently I have been working on getting more done in less time. I noticed I was spinning my wheels on social media or Amazon more than I like and I thought, how do I fix this? The problem wasn’t the social media or Amazon. The problem was my tasks were taking twice as long because …
I keep waiting for it to get easier. Certainly, some of these things should be easier by now, right? None of what was “hard” was out of the ordinary. For example, I got back to exercising this week. Certainly, it wouldn’t be hard to get back to this? It’s an hour or so, of walking …
I am a materialist. And by materialist, I mean I have tons of stuff. I first became aware of how much I had when I moved twice in two years. As I packed and unpacked I thought, how much is too much? It took a while, but I started to downsize. I started with mugs. How …
It’s Easter time. Spring. New life. Being a gardener, I love this time of year. The veggie garden is planted. The lavender is filled with bees. The days are longer. Yet, how easy it is to speed right past the change of seasons because life is so overwhelming and busy? But don’t. Make the simple …
I come from a family where most of us cannot get out of bed in the morning. We get this from my Dad whose ideal day was lying in bed and reading books. But, I married into a family who loves the morning! As a baby, my son would get up at 4 AM. My …
As I continue my staycation, I am really living into the phrase: “outer order creates inner calm.” I first head this from author Gretchen Rubin on her podcast. And as someone who doesn’t make her bed and is comfortable with open drawers and piles of clothing on the bedroom chair, I scoffed. Really? Maybe that …
This year I am taking a staycation. A time where I can hang out, figure out and line things up. But where to begin? I like structure and like to get things done so….here is my idea: I love these large post-its so I made a chart and listed on smaller post-its what things I …
I love the New Year. In fact, I love it so much that I celebrate a fresh start four times a year by rebooting my life every three months. I came across this idea in the book, The Twelve Week Year by Brian Moran. Last year I tried it out for 3 months – I …