Visit with us at YouTube…
Recently Ramona Wink of KFXB-TV invited me to be her guest on her weekly program Connect. What a delight to share what God will do when we bring our needs and fears to Him.
Click HERE to view the Connect video at YouTube.
Thanks so much, Ramona and all the staff at KFXB-TV, for welcoming me so warmly!
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Have you put yourself out there only to end up feeling like a failure? Afraid to try again?
You might be encouraged by…
Holes or Heights: Where will your fears take you?
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Traveling to Indiana & Iowa in October
In October I will be speaking in both the Indianapolis, IN and the Des Moines, IA areas. Share this post with women you know in these areas–they’re in for some wonderful fall events!
Saturday, October 8th, 2011 - Greencastle, IN Christian Church FALL FASHION SWAP from 2-5 pm
- Music, hors d’oeuvres, desserts, fashion and fun! Also enjoy Mari’s message: “Cute Shoes…But Can You Walk in Them?” No admission fee/bring item(s) to swap!
Be Still
My friend, Krista Burdine, wrote a 5-minute friday post on her blog this morning. Krista’s post sparked something in me so I decided to write one, too.
Still.
I often think of being still as something I come away from life and do to rest, restore, refresh. It’s the picture painted in “He leads me beside quiet waters.” (Psalm 23:2)
But I’ve realized that I need to be still when I’m in conversation with others. I’m energized by people. I get excited to share ideas and find common ground and learn together about life and God and walking through this world the best way I know how.
Sometimes that energy amps up way too high and I get to talking too fast. I get so excited to be talking with a real, live person. I’ve been working from home so there’s not as much “people-time” as I’d like. When I get caught up in the excitement, it’s easy to say things without thinking first. It’s like they just come out, and later I regret that I didn’t say things the way I’d liked to have.
So this morning I was thinking about being still during a conversation. Is there a way to engage in a great heart-to-heart and somehow remain still in that deepest part of me so that what flows from me is good and helpful, but still real?
Worry-free hospitality
What would you pay to have someone come and clean your house?
What if they did more than just clean? What if they made your house everything you’ve always dreamed it would be so that when you invite friends over, there aren’t any distractions—no clutter, no dust–not a single thing to make you bite back an apology.
Recently some one made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I, too, wanted a place to make my friends feel right at home, so she set in motion the most splendid endeavor. She picked out a lovely color scheme and redid the whole interior, handling every aspect of the remodel down to the tiniest detail.
Beautiful antiques now fill every room. A honey-colored hardwood floor greets everyone who steps through the door.
It’s absolutely beautiful. She placed an oak table over by the window where the morning sun shines in. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to sit and sip coffee there with my sister the other day when the temperature dipped well below zero.
Did I mention that this woman of impeccable taste also arranged to keep the place spotless? She maintains everything so I don’t have to lift a finger. Anytime, I can open the door and everything looks beautiful.
Did I mention that she also hired a staff to cook for me? No more rushing around trying to get the muffins into the oven before company arrives. In fact, Karen makes sure that I don’t just have muffins—I also have homemade cinnamon rolls, brownies and even caramel apple bread-pudding. The only drawback is that it’s tough to make a decision when faced with so many choices.
You must be thinking, Wow, Mari’s speaking venture has really started to pay well. How else can she afford to have someone redecorate, hire a cleaning crew and even pay a staff to cook for her? Can you imagine what that must cost? Well, if you really want to know—it could easily cost you less than ten dollars. Uh-huh, you read that right, worry-free hospitality for less than ten dollars.
We all want to enjoy time with a friend, a sister or a special group in a place that’s warm and inviting. We want to share a memorable treat, something we don’t enjoy everyday. But face it, when do we have time to make that happen? Oftentimes practicing hospitality requires more time and energy than we can muster, so we avoid it. And we beat ourselves up over it.
Fortunately there are people who devote countless hours to creating places where you can escape the busy-ness of life and invite your friends and family over to enjoy time that’s good for the soul. That’s what Karen Vondracek has created in her beautiful place–Káva House & Café–in Swisher, Iowa.
At the end of my last speaking trip through northern Iowa, I stopped here with my sister and enjoyed a relaxing morning visiting over a hot mochas. We split a generous-sized serving of breakfast omelet casserole and each found something to take home, too. I walked out the Káva House & Café door with a container of raspberry-peach bread pudding—and the satisfaction of sharing the morning with my sister in a perfectly delightful place.
Keep this in mind when you’re tempted to ask why would I want to pay extra for a cup of coffee, when I can swing through the drive-thru or brew a perfectly good one at home? In these tucked away coffee houses, you not only get a cup of coffee but someone has poured her heart into giving you a clean, beautiful place to gather with friends and to enjoy a delectable spread of treats together. She’s spent plenty of sleepless nights figuring out how to make this possible and has invested countless hours attending to every detail—so you don’t have to.
All for under 10 dollars. That’s a real bargain if you ask me.
Signed up for LIVING FRAGRANCE?
Just a note to let you know my Winter 2011 LIVING FRAGRANCE newsletter will soon brave chilly winter weather to slip fresh-cut flowers into email inboxes around the world! Will there be flowers in yours?
LIVING FRAGRANCE brings you a fresh devotion, beautiful floral art and my current speaking schedule once each season of the year. I send out a few bonus issues here and there, but promise not to flood your inbox with frequent email. Readers of the Winter 2011 issue have an opportunity to win a full-color set of my latest floral greeting cards, so don’t miss out!
To subscribe, click on this link: LIVING FRAGRANCE SIGN-UP FORM
when I see pink
Today I’m wearing pink. I’ve invited my friends to wear pink and I invite you to wear pink.
Just in case you think that’s a silly thing–a fad–and it doesn’t really matter. Hear me out. Pink may mean a lot to someone you pass in the grocery store aisle or post office. A person effected by cancer who sees you walking along the street, in your workplace or sitting in your class.
In October eleven years ago I was undergoing one of the most intensive periods of breast cancer treatment I would face. I was diagnosed in September, just in time to start seeing pink everywhere. At first, I dealt with the fear of what facing cancer would mean in my life. My mom had died during her fight against breast cancer. It was a heart-breaking process, seeing cancer and chemo drain the life from her. Would I face the same thing?
When October ’99 hit, so did the pink ribbons, the magazine articles and the t-shirts. Pink ribbons seemed to be everywhere as I sorted through my fears. I couldn’t even make a simple trip to the grocery store without being reminded ” that I have cancer” as I picked out my yoplait yogurt for the week, each with a shiny pink lid complete with a pink ribbon printed on top. All in the name of “awareness.”
I’m aware, I’m aware already. Please, must I be reminded everywhere I turn?
One afternoon as I sat at the end of the exam table in my surgeon’s office, I might as well have been sitting on the edge of a cliff. I felt so far removed from life as usual. Still, to keep from staring out at the unknown, I pulled a magazine from the clear holder on the wall and thumbed through it.
answered prayers
I just came through a time of intense sleep deprivation. It was an answer to prayer.
Sure, some people pray for peace, for refreshment, for all things to go well. I prayed for a heart tender toward new moms and moms of young children. That’s not the life I’ve been living and I’ll be speaking soon about seeking and hearing God through the busyness of life. So I’ve prayed that I can share with a sensitivity toward women who are right in the middle of God-ordained way-beyond-busy seasons of life. That I can offer wisdom that helps them to draw near to God when really what they crave is a little time to take a shower and get a good night’s sleep.
Yes, I prayed a dangerous prayer as I asked God for a heart tender toward women who are living a life different than mine. And, sure enough, God was faithful–He answered. We serve an infinitely creative and wonderful God. A God who is full of surprises.Our lives today are living proof.
A week or so ago, really who knows how long–it’s all been a blur as I stumble from feeding to feeding to boiling baby bottles and nipples and lugging load after load of laundry to the washer. I’m sure my neighbors wonder what Kyle and I have been doing up with the kitchen light on at 3 am every night. And why I’ve been seen cradling my coffee maker, begging it to brew faster when I’m not cradling–a kitten.
It started when I took our cat to the vet for a routine visit and overheard the ladies working the reception area discussing some little orphaned kittens that had been dropped off earlier. The local pound had informed them that if they took them they would just have to put them down since they were just too young for their workers to care for.
One of our cats is getting along in years so Kyle and I had been considering when to introduce a new kitten to our home.
Suddenly I found myself sashaying toward the counter and nonchalantly asked about these little orphans. The next thing I know I’m in the back room of the vet’s office staring into their fluffy little faces saying, “I’ll see what Kyle says. We may be by later to see if we’re interested in ONE of them. Operative word here: one.
Hours later we had two tiny kittens settled in our home. After a few days, one appeared near death in the wee hours of the morning. I pulled an all-nighter following the vet’s instructions and discovered that it’s not as easy to stay up all night as it was back in my college days.
Yes, this was an acquisition that made absolutely no sense. It came with delirium and dark circles. It turned our lives completely up side down.
I had to laugh at an article that popped up on my email home page a few days ago: Read more…
