Dear Blog, It’s Not You, It’s Me

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blogging, book, Christmas, fiction, first novel, inspiration, life, motivation, NaNoWriMo, personal, Seasonal, writing a novel

Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Don’t worry, this isn’t a breakup letter.

Either with you, my esteemed reader, or with you, my valued but under prioritized blog.

Rather, this is my attempt at picking up my poor neglected blog and blowing some life back into it.

But really, at the risk of being cliche, it’s not any fault of my blog that I haven’t posted in so long. It’s me. No, seriously.

And it isn’t even that I haven’t had any motivation to write lately or been stuck in a massive case of writer’s block to rival all writer’s blocks. It’s more to do with the kind of writing I’ve been doing.

Because I’ve actually been writing. A lot.

~~~

Don’t Get Stuck in the “Aspiring” Mindset

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aspiring, goals, Identity, inspiration, life, memorial day, mindset, personal, planning, writer, writing

I used to say that I was an aspiring writer. Now I just say I’m a writer.

What changed?

Well, I realized that I’m not just aspiring at writing anymore. I am writing.

Aspire: verb (intr) (usually followed by to or after) to yearn (for) or have a powerful or ambitious plan, desire, or hope (Dictionary.com).

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with aspiring to be something. Aspirations are cool; they’re necessary. If we didn’t have any dreams or aspirations, we wouldn’t get very far in life. However, I do have a problem with getting stuck in the “aspiring” mindset. And I think it’s way too easy to get stuck there if we keep labeling ourselves as someone who is aspiring to be something even once we’ve left the planning stage.

To aspire means to hope and dream of something that you desire to happen in the future. If you’re aspiring to do something, you have yet to step out and take the first step of doing it. But for some reason we often still label ourselves as “aspiring” even after taking that first step.

Quote of the Week | Peace in the Storm

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advice, God, inspiration, life, peace, personal, Quote of the Week, quotes, storms of life

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

“Peace. It does not mean to be in a place
where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work.
It means to be in the midst of those things
and still be calm in your heart.”
~ Unknown

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Peace in the storm. That sounds sort of contradictory, doesn’t it? But think about it. Do storms and peace have to be mutually exclusive?

One Simple Way to Potentially Transform Someone’s Day

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Christmas, holiday, inspiration, positive, relationships, smile, transform

Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Pexels.com

Merry Christmas! How’s your gift shopping going? I finished all of my immediate family Christmas shopping several weeks ago and I’m so proud of myself. I think that’s pretty good for a master procrastinator like me.

Moving on . . . would you like to know a simple way to help make someone’s day so much brighter and more positive? It’s simpler than you think and often overlooked.

If you don’t already know, I’ve been working as a library aide with my county library for the past year and a half. My job primarily involves covering the customer service desk, so I’ve seen quite a few unique and interesting people come through the library.

Are You Missing Out On An Adventure? — Come Awake

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adventure, Christian Living, God, great things, inspiration, ministry

Check out this great post from Come Awake (link below).

Even though our lives as Jesus followers can seem overwhelmingly mundane and ordinary at times, God designed us all to do great things for him! That doesn’t mean that every day will be a red letter day for God’s kingdom, but we also can’t lose sight of the big dreams and goals He has put in our hears. While you’re living your life, don’t get discouraged in the everyday things. Keep going, and as William Carey, missionary to India, said, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”

The other morning my husband and I were walking out to our cars to drive to work. The air was fresh and the sky was a little overcast. My husband looked over at me and said, “Today feels like a good day for an adventure.” And it did. Being the responsible adults that we are, […]

via Are You Missing Out On An Adventure? — Come Awake

Quote of the Week | To Love and Be Loved

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courage, God's love, inspiration, Love, strength

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. ~ Lao Tzu

What would life be like without people to love and to love us back? I’m extremely blessed in that I have never gone a moment in my life without knowing that someone loves me. It’s experiencing a constant and unconditional love like this that fuels my response of loving them back in the same way.

My Theme for the New Year

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dialogue, God, inspiration, interactive, new year, prayer, resolution, theme, word

 

 

For the past few years, I’ve been asking God for a special word or theme that He wants me to focus on during the new year. Last year, it was “loving others with an unconditional love and compassion”; the year before that it was “abiding in Christ.”

How to Stop Feeling Alone in a Room Full of People

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alone, God, inspiration, introvert, Love

Check out this amazing post by Brandon Adams about how to stop feeling alone. Honestly, this is one of the biggest things I’ve struggled with all my life, and the only thing that has truly been the answer to that problem is what Brandon talks about in his post. So I hope you are encouraged like I was.

Brandon J. Adams

We all can feel alone even when surrounded by our greatest fans.

You probably know how this goes. Moments come where we feel something unshareable, something that seems to set us apart from the gathering. It might be a pain, or it might be a joy. Whatever it is, we know the others aren’t feeling it. It’s stuck inside us.

It’s the worst feeling.

Finding someone like-minded to us is cause for celebration, along the lines of finding a vein of gold on your property. But they seem few and far between. Our struggles pull us toward isolation.

This is often our God-shaped hole. There are parts of us that are just too deep for any human to reach. Those needs belong on the broad shoulders of God.

However…God Himself did not intend for humans to live alone. In a stunning act of humility, He designed us to need each other as well. (It’s also one of His tools of sanctification…

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Asking, Seeking, Knocking: Why Don’t We See Answers?

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answers, ask, asking seeking knocking, door, inspiration, knock, matthew 7:7, opened, scripture, seek

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

~Matthew 7:7-11

Matthew 7:7 may be one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, and yet, ironically, one of the least to be actually understood and carried out in a believer’s life.

Why do I say that? Well, in my limited experience, I’ve heard that verse quoted and seen it engraved on plaques and statues, hung in churches and homes, and adorning jewelry and pictures to no end. But very rarely have I heard a Christian talk about the concepts of that verse as being real and true in their life, about how God has been rewarding their diligent practice of asking, seeking, and knocking.

14 Things About Life I Wish I Could Tell My 14-year-old Self

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advice, future, Identity, inspiration, teenager, younger self

By Arkady on Unsplash

I think out of all the awkward teenage years, fourteen is one of the most awkward. It’s just the worst. It’s right in the transition stage between childhood and adulthood; you’re still feeling like a kid in many ways, but your mind and body (not to mention your family, friends, and culture) tell you you’re not one anymore. So you shift hesitantly into “adulting mode,” but the minute you do, you start skidding out of control and bumping into anything and everything with the klutzy grace only a teenager can manage.

Yeah. You need some serious help. You probably have parents waiting to impart a wealth of wisdom and advice, but sometimes there are things about life that just can’t or won’t be learned from parents. Sometimes a true grasp of these things will only come through many years of trial and error in the classroom of life.

At any rate, don’t you wish 14-year-old you could have reached into the future and had a nice chat with your mature, responsible grown-up self? You’d probably have a better chance than anyone else of actually jolting some sense of seriousness into yourself.