What about 3 days?

For all my children’s ministry friends. Or for your children’s ministry friends. If you know someone, share this with them.

 

If you’ve been in ministry for even just 5 years, that adds up to 1,825 days. How many of those days have been spent on going through curriculum? Volunteer training? VBS planning? Scouring the endcaps of craft stores and department stores for clearance candy and pipe cleaners? We’ve all been there.

Here’s another question. How many of those days have been spent on investing in YOU as the leader? As the one who is championing the discipleship of kids and families in your church community?

Because in the scope of 1,825 days (or however many days are under your belt), 3 days is WORTH it.

Focus on the Important Stuff

Truth. Right?

But what if you have too many “Important Stuffs”?

I am working on eating a plant-based diet. It takes focus. Maybe it shouldn’t take so much focus, but it is taking my focus!

And I am back in the children’s ministry game! Yay! I will be launching a new website shortly showcasing my best-selling product line — The Party Plans! So much excitement has surrounded these products, so much excitement surrounding getting them revamped and re-released.

AND I am attempting to get myself back to writing daily.

Purple Paint

The walls in my office are painted purple

And why shouldn’t they be? I love that color. I love it on the inside of me.

I wish I didn’t love it so much. I wish I wasn’t so predictable.

But … I do … and I am.

We will move from our house this year (we are cleaning the attic and basement as we speak — err … write). I wonder if I’ll ever have another completely purple room. Perhaps. Perhaps not.

But I’ve had one for well over a decade. And I’ve loved it.

A Spot For Everyone, and Everyone in Their Spot

There is a spot for every type of personality. Every single one.  There’s a spot for you. (Do you love Big Bang Theory? You know, Sheldon has a spot.) Whether you feel like you have a “spot” or a purpose … you do.

Do you, at times, feel like you are sitting in someone else’s chair? Perhaps you don’t think you are entitled to sit in the cool chair you have been given. But you are. Why not you? That chair can be for you!

 

One way to make your life easier is to stop trying to fit into someone else’s chair. And don’t make someone fit a seat that you choose for them instead of allowing them to sit in the seat they were made to sit in. If you aren’t sure of your spot, start by believing there is a spot that is just for you. Because there is. Believe it!

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Weekly posts to help, encourage, train, and challenge you in your ministry to children

 

Attack Your Weakness

Recently, I came across an article by a personal trainer about attacking your weakness. He was talking about focusing on an area of your body that is your weakest area. If your belly is your biggest problem, focus on ab exercises; if your legs are scrawny, do squats until you are blue in the face; you get the idea.

Then I found a second article that talked about focusing on your eating before focusing on exercise because most people are so weak and lacking self-control regarding their diet that until that is strengthened, the rest is moot. Two different guys: same theme.

I think the motto “attack your weakness” could apply to just about anything. Even to running a children’s ministry.

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Weekly posts to help, encourage, train, and challenge you in your ministry to children

 

Do It Well

If you are going to … do it well. Do it great! You know the verse:  

Col 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,

If you are going to do … anything … do it great! Work at it with all your heart. Do nothing half-hearted.

That includes ministering to children. Or teaching children – as a school teacher or a home school mom. If you are going to do it, do it well. Do it very well.

3 Things About Me

… and I want to know 3 things about you, too.

 

1. I am the mother of three (two girls and one boy) and the very happy grandmother of five (one girl and four boys), oh and the mother-in-law of three (one girl and two boys). There is not an accurate adjective for how much I love it. Some of our best times were with our kiddos as they were growing up. We had a blast. Now we get to relive much of that with our five little gems. There is nothing better than walking into a room and hearing “GRAMMIE!!! or NANA!!” My daughter’s boys call me Grammie and my son’s daughter calls me Nana. I feel like a split personality. But it makes me happy, so who cares?

Look Up First

I have four grandchildren, with a fifth on the way. Lucky me, right? I know. Super blessed.

Hunter is my oldest daughter’s second boy. He is rounding the bend towards 2 years old. He is goofy, dirty, and messy. We call him “Pig Pen” jokingly. (Well, sort of jokingly.) Dirt finds him in a big way. I know you may have had one like that, or know one. Hunter is one.

He is as cute as they come and stinkin’ funny.

One thing he does that is different from almost every kid I’ve ever known is: When he goes outside, he looks up first. It is pretty strange. He’s past the stage where you are afraid of him toppling over, but when that head flies up, it seems uncertain.

 

He looks up because he likes birds.

And butterflies.

And planes and helicopters.

And anything else the sky might hold.

 

Most kids start running when their feet hit the pavement or grass. Not him. His head goes up before anything else.

We went for a walk the other day: me, Hunter (21 months) and Xander (3 years old).  I was holding securely to Hunter’s chubby little hand. We walked along okay for a while, but then his head tilted back and he stopped dead in his tracks and the adult absolutely must pay attention.

God’s Promises are Certain

How many times do we fear? or wonder? or question? or feel alone in any given area of our life? Seriously. How many? Too many to count, right?

Think for a moment about every area of your life: your family, your finances, your health, your career, your ministry, your writing, your anything. There are times when we feel like we cannot handle it on our own. Perhaps you are in one of those times right now in one area or two. In those times it is so necessary to stop and breathe and remember that God’s promises are certain.

It is not easy to make yourself focus on the promise when everything looks bleak or hard or complicated. But that in no way makes the promise less certain.

I have had the delight to spend four days in Breckenridge, Colorado. If you can get yourself there, do so!

We had the most amazing weather the entire trip, except for a sudden shower on Sunday afternoon. I went out to the balcony and sat, chatting with one of my daughters on the phone, listening to the rain, staring at the mountain view, and smelling the amazing aroma wafting across the tree tops.