Hearts in Service

I've been thinking about age a lot lately and the whole idea of aging with grace and beauty. I was out walking the other day and was admiring all the beautiful colors on the leaves. They are gradually turning color this year, but are just gorgeous in their brilliant red, gold, orange and shades of brown. As they turn color they are starting to fall and they line the path where I walk with a blanket of colors. And it's a spectacular sight.  But as the season goes on and more leaves let go of the branch and drop to the ground, there are always a stubborn few who refuse to let go. They stick tightly to the branch and wither and die and some actually remain there all winter long, only to drop in the spring. This reminds me of aging and raises the question of how do we age with grace and beauty and know when to let go of activities, ministries, and things we've always done? How do we know when the time has come to set aside from what we've always loved doing on order to allo

I went into the weekend feeling very weary and left with a full heart. As I headed to the mountains early Friday morning I was really not sure how I was going to manage speaking four times and leading a retreat, but God was faithful and it was a great weekend.  On Mondays, I try and look back and see where I saw God at work in my life and to give Him thanks for that. 💓I'm thankful for safety while I drove the 12 hour round trip alone. I don't mind driving and generally, I listen to music, podcasts, pray or just think in the silence while I drive. 💓 I'm thankful for the time I got to spend with my sister. 💓 God used the messages in a wonderful way to minister to the women there. He also used the worship time, the breakout sessions and the discussion time to bring encouragement and healing to some. 💓 I'm thankful that I was able to get out and hike for a little bit on both Friday after I arrived and Saturday afternoon. 💓 I was very thankful for good sleep both nights

I haven't had much to write lately. That is mostly because the past two weeks have felt as though I have been through a multitude of Herculean tasks. As I look back I can't believe at how much I was able to get done. But then again, I did a lot of praying and asking the Lord to give me the strength to do it. So I really shouldn't be surprised. I prepared and led two retreats this past weekend - one for women in our district and one for my district leadership team. They both went so well. I got home Sunday night and then hit the ground running on Monday. I went to a doctor's appointment with Nathan, made dinner for my in-laws, returned the rental car and spent the afternoon with my mother-in-law and father-in-law. What was gnawing at me was the fact that I'm speaking at an event this weekend and speaking four times. However, life kept getting in the way. I cannot believe I did it, but I managed to get all four completed and even found time at my retreats last weekend

Today's post is going to be a smorgasbord of recent life. There is a lot going on and I've been busy with a multiple things. This week has been so crazy that other than Monday I haven't even been able to get out and walk. I did manage to decorate for fall last weekend. I've been preparing for two retreats this weekend. One is a district-wide retreat for the women from different churches. That goes from this evening until tomorrow afternoon. The other is a retreat for my leadership team that starts tomorrow evening through Sunday afternoon. I've been busy working on both of these events. Next weekend I am the main speaker for a woman's retreat in the Catskill Mountains. I am speaking four times and have been attempting to work on those talks in between preparing for this weekend's event.  I've had multiple meets for both our district, church, and other ministries I'm involved in. I've had doctor's appointments for my son that I've needed t

This past year I've been focusing on staying connected - connected to the Lord, connected to others and connected to the purpose God has for me. Despite my normal tendency to get distracted and hop down bunny trails, I've worked really hard at staying focused on what I set out to do.  One of the things on my list of specific ways to go about doing this was to take a personal retreat to study, pray and write on a monthly or at least every other month basis. That hasn't happened as much, but I was able to carve out some time for that this weekend. I had a speaking engagement at a church yesterday morning so went a day early and spent the night in a hotel for this very purpose. I find there is something about being out of my normal environment that helps me to zero in on hearing from the Lord. When I'm home I can find a million things to do that keeps me distracted. I arrived around 3:30 p.m., checked in, and then found a local hiking trail. Walking in nature is one way I

"Words are seeds that do more than blow around. They land in our hearts and not the ground. Be careful what you plant and careful what you say. You might have to eat what you planted one day." ~Unknown I had a conversation with a friend yesterday about words and the sheer volume of talking that happens nowadays. People use words all the time and yet, so few of those words carry any sort of deep meaning at all.  We are in an election year here in the United States. It's also the day after the presidential debate in which both candidates used a plethora of words, most of which had absolutely no meaning. In an election year the sheer amount of words people use is exhausting. There are blogs, social media posts, videos and many other means of communication and yet, most of that communication is gut-reactions to events and details in all sectors of life.  Life is short and I want to choose the words I use carefully. I would like the words I speak and write to have some depth,