The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director. Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year. God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...
Our offices were closed today but I would have been home taking care of Larry anyway. He's coming along very well...but will still be home tomorrow. His therapist gets here at 8:30 am to work with him in the morning. As my post last night stated, he slept in here last night but hasn't made up his mind about where he will sleep tonight. It wasn't very comfortable for him to sleep in here and he actually got better rest in the recliner so I may be alone again tonight but for now he's laying here next to me watching one of his favorite shows while I blog before crashing.
Today our offices were closed and I did just a little bit of church stuff at home but lots of home stuff. Sorting, organizing, cleaning type stuff...plus working out. Jordan teamed up with me for dinner. We made some BBQ chicken and Ore Ida baked fast food fries (they are wonderful, by the way and baked - extremely low cal. I think they taste just like Burger King fries.)
I was working on writing a song with Dustin tonight. I got the whole first verse lyric done and then he starts smirking and I said, "what?" and he said, "this is the chord progression for a song Stephen and I wrote..." and he starts singing it. Dad gum it! I was peeved. I didn't think I specifically had to tell him, "don't give me the same progression as another one of your songs..." I think he was doing it for some kind of joke, but I didn't take it funny. Folded up my lyrics and walked out to get a cup of tea. And that was that.
This morning as I had devotions I was reading in Come Away and it had some profound stuff about dealing with stress. Listen to some of these admonitions, that are "words from God"...
"How can I give you healing for your body when there is anxiety in your mind? So long as there is disease in your thoughts there will be disease in your body. " "More athsma is caused by repressed fury than by pollen or cat fur." "Do not condemn others for jeopardizing their health by harmful habits and wasting their energies on vain pursuits while you undermine your health by unworthy emotions
Wow, that is GREAT STUFF.
Today I was talking to Dawn and I told her that I want to meditate more - as in Christian meditation...I feel this is largely uncharted territory for Christians. We "meditate" on God's Word by thinking of a scripture a bit or whatever, but what is wrong with us literally laying down, relaxing our bodies completely and dwelling on God - thinking about Him, thinking about a sentence or two from his Word, and calming ourselves in His presence, with no CD player, no DVD, no sound - just silence and our thoughts fixed upon Him and His Word? Why not memorize Matthew 11:28, go find a quiet place and dwell on it? I am convinced it would calm our hearts tremendously. Today Dawn told me I needed to look at Matthew 11:28-30 in the Message.
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." Matthew 11:28-30 MSG Mmm...good stuff. Walk with me and work with me... unforced rhythms of grace...love the phrasing here. I think I'm ready to get silent and think on this a while. Cathy was saying on Sunday that there's something really wrong when people cannot be with themselves...when they are uncomfortable with solitude or always have to have noise. That is so true. Speaking of time alone, my Africa trip is just a month away. Isn't that unbelievable? Today I got one of my messages done. That feels like a huge child just birthed...now just three more to push out. :-) It's going to be a 28 hour travel time on the way there and 33 hours on the way home. That will be time alone in route and while it would bother some people it doesn't bother me. I will enjoy having the time to process my thoughts. I don't mind being with myself because I've learned to like myself! Spending time with me is one of my favorite things to do. I'm going to end the blog today with ... Five things I love about me... 1) I really love to laugh and when telling people something funny I will often laugh before I get out the punch line and have to calm down before I can get the words out. 2) My legs 3) My ability to connect with people. 4) I'm a giver. 5) I don't hesitate to be affectionate. that's all for tonight. Time to go snuggle with Superman before he possibly leaves the bed... G'night...
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