Tag Archives: inspiration

Proud of my CHS class of ’02!

15 Oct

This blog focuses on inspiration, hope, and seeking God’s will, so what I’m about to share is definitely appropriate…

A high school friend, Nichole, and her husband, Aaron, tragically lost their baby girl last week after she was born prematurely.  I’ve never met her husband, but from what I’ve seen on Facebook and their website, they have a strong desire to help others and spread the love of Jesus.  This amazing couple spent 9 months in Africa in 2009 doing missionary work.  During this experience they decided to pursue international adoption.  Aaron and Nichole are currently in the process of bringing home a baby boy from Ethiopia, but are still raising the necessary funds.

After the news of the loss of their precious baby, Figi (short for Fighter Girl), another high school classmate, Heathyr, decided to put together a fundraiser via Facebook in honor of Figi (pronounced fee-jee) to raise money to bring her brother home sooner.  Donations and cards were collected by her personally and through the mail.  Over sixty people (CHS alumni and strangers) gave money for a total of over $1,800 so far!  (The original goal was $1,000.)  Heathyr is going to travel to attend the memorial service tomorrow and give Aaron and Nichole the collected funds and personal notes.

I can’t imagine the grief that Aaron and Nichole must feel right now after losing their daughter after they just met her.  Hopefully, they will be able to hold their little boy in their arms soon!  If you are interested in donating, please visit their Village to Village Intl. page.

Thanks, Heathyr, for all the effort that you put into making this gift for the Marshall family a reality.  I am moved by your generous heart and the generous hearts of all that donated.  It is so inspiring to see God’s work in action!

Please pray for Aaron and Nichole Marshall during this difficult time.  To see pictures of precious Figi Grace, you can view their website.

 

 

Photo courtesy of Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot via freedigitalphotos.net

Tags: , , , ,

October’s Dreamer in the Spotlight

6 Oct

This month’s post is probably going to be a little different from any other one that I will ever write for this series.  The person that I have chosen has no idea that I have a blog and that I would ever choose to write about her.  I can’t use her real name because of privacy rights, so I will refer to her as Fran.

I met Fran earlier this week at the community mental health agency where I work.  Fran shared with me how she is desperately wanting to move out of the apartment complex where she currently resides due to people threatening her life.  Fran said that she reported a neighbor who was beating his  three-year-old son.  She is not getting much help from the landlords, either, and is afraid she may be evicted.  I am not sure of any other incidents that may have occurred leading up to this point, but Fran was clearly in distress about her circumstances.  In addition to this major stress in her life, Fran is dealing with custody and child support issues regarding her daughter.  She is currently unemployed and has suffered a traumatic brain injury in the past.  Needless to say, this woman has been through a lot.  It definitely made me thankful for all the wonderful people in my life, the roof over my head, and my job.

While talking with her, Fran brought up her trust in God.  She mentioned that despite all of the negative things she has experienced in the past several years, she has “such peace.”  She stated that she knows that God is having her go through these things for a purpose and that this is just the beginning.  Fran wants to be able to help people through similar situations.  She recently has already taken the step to talk in front of state politicians  about holding judges accountable for their actions.  Fran told me that she once had to spend 15 days in jail because a judge overlooked that she had paid her child support on time.

I don’t know the decisions, reasons, circumstances, etc., regarding what has happened in Fran’s life.  I don’t know if things have happened due to poor choices that she has made or not.  I do know, though, that this woman is hurting, but despite her pain she continues to rely on God and have faith in His plan for her life.  I let her know that her trust was inspiring and that God would reward her faithfulness.

While driving home from work that day, I wondered if she had anyone to pray for her.  Fran could use some support and love right now.  I’d like to ask you to pause for a moment and join me in the following prayer:

Lord,

Please be with Fran during this difficult time and continue to wrap her in your peace.  Send your angels to protect and lead her.  We ask that you bring someone into her life who can offer support and guidance.  Give her the strength and wisdom she needs to follow your will.  We ask this in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post and offering a prayer for Fran.  She is already helping others by sharing her unwavering faith in God’s plan.

 

 

Photo courtesy of luigi diamanti via freedigitalphotos.net

Tags: , , , , , ,

September’s Dreamer in the Spotlight

19 Sep

As those of you who have read my blog already know, I am a “strategic” coupon user.  There are a variety of websites out there to help with finding weekly deals, etc.  One of these websites, started by Kelly Hancock, is Faithful Provisions.  When I read about her story and faith in God’s plan, I knew that this would be a great dream to share with others.  Kelly did a wonderful job of writing about her journey in her own blog, so please click on the links below to check out her personal story!

About Kelly Hancock

Kelly’s Video Story

 

Thanks, Kelly, for inspiring all of us to save money, listen to God’s voice and to pursue our own dreams!  Congratulations on your recently released book, Saving Savvy!

 

(A side note: an update on Adam’s musical journey is coming soon!!)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Just a Glorified Personal Assistant?

5 Sep

In my continuous pursuit to be a better mother and wife, I am often attracted to books that address these topics.  Last weekend, I finished reading When a Woman Inspires Her Husband by Cindi McMenamin.  There was even an entire chapter dedicated solely to a wife encouraging her husband to dream, so I think it is definitely appropriate to write about what I gleaned from this book in my blog!

When a Woman Inspires Her Husband was mainly based on the fact that men need to feel respected in a relationship and want to feel successful in what they do.   Many of the things that I read, were not necessarily new to me, but it was a great reminder of how much sacrifice is required to have a truly healthy marriage.  I’ll be honest, though, that there was a point when I was reading this book that I started to get a little upset.  I felt McMenamin wrote this book for women in the 1950’s.  It was like she practically assumed that the wives reading this book would only have responsibilities within the home and that the husband was the sole income-earner.  I’m not a stay-at-home mom.  I am the one in our family with the stable income.   I don’t have time to cook every night.  My house would not pass a white glove test pretty much any day of the week.  After reading the chapters about “Easing his Burdens”, “Making His Home a Sanctuary”, and “Giving Him Breathing Room”, I practically felt like McMenamin was describing the job of a personal assistant.

When I was thinking about this during my commute to work one morning, I thought of the verse, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).  And then I realized that sacrificing my selfish wants and dying to myself every day is laying my life down for my husband.  Interestingly enough, McMenamin actually refers to this same verse towards the end of her book.  Do I have a lot on my plate? Yes.  Is my number one priority the well-being of my husband and family? Yes.  Do I have a lot to learn still about being a good wife? Yes.  McMenamin used a great quote from the book 6 Secrets to a Lasting Love by Dr. Gary and Barbara Rosberg: “The more encouragement and affirmation he receives from his wife, the easier it will be for him to discern God’s voice.”  Consider me humbled.  And if that isn’t enough, check out this take on the well-known passage in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 that McMenamin refers to from The Message:

“Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

The biggest thing that I took away from this book was that I need to let Adam lead.  Often times, I am the planner and the organizer, so I automatically tend to make decisions or have an idea already in my mind.  So combine my female multitasking ability with a personality-type that trusts my own judgment to logically evaluate the best option, and you can see why this would be a challenge at times.  This was a wake-up call to me, though, that I need to step back and let my husband be the one to evaluate and make final decisions (still with my input of course, wink!).

At least there is one area where I feel like I do a good job, and that is encouraging Adam’s dream of having a successful career in music.  McMenamin talks about wives being a cheerleader for their husbands, and I can say without a doubt, I am my husband’s biggest fan!  Let’s be real – I started a blog on this topic, people!  Despite the current financial instability and lack of a clear path, I trust that God has a purpose for my husband’s musical gifts.  I hope that my unwavering belief has been, and will continue to be, inspiring to Adam.  I think that’s a main reason why God put me in his life.  And I’m thankful that I have a husband who tries to see how his musical aspirations fit into his family life and not how his family can fit around his music!

I will continue to work on having a servant’s heart, but I know my vocation of being a wife is more than just being a glorified personal assistant!

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Cheering for the Underdog Part II

29 Aug

To expand on my previous post,  I think there are two additional keys (besides hard work and determination) to achieving our dreams and pursuing the path God has for us: right motivation and another person’s belief in our God-given abilities.  This is how we pursue being the “best-version-of-ourselves,” to quote author Matthew Kelly.  And this is how we will find true joy in this life.

First of all, we need to be motivated by good things; not money, fame, materialism, etc.  I’d like to share some lines from Rick Warren’s Daily Hope devotional blog on August 11, titled “Make the Most of Your Talents.”  In this post, he writes:

Are you using what He’s given you for the benefit of others to make the world a better place? Or are you just using those talents to benefit yourself?

When God gives you a talent, he expects you to use it. It’s like a muscle. If you use it, it will grow. If you don’t, you’ll lose it. If you have a talent but are afraid to use it, or if you get lazy and don’t use it to benefit others, you’re going to lose it. Like the parable of the ten talents in Luke 19, if you don’t use what God has given you, he will take it away and give it to someone else who will.

But if you use your talents wisely, God will give you more. If you use your time wisely, God will give you more time. If you use your energy wisely, God will give you more energy. If you use your influence wisely, God will increase your influence. God will bless your level of faithfulness.

God has a purpose for each of us, but we  need to trust Him and be open to using our gifts however He calls us.  When we try to do things on our own terms on our own time-frame, we will find ourselves on the wrong track.  We may have things that the world defines as success, but we will still feel lost.  With God, we can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.  He gave us our talents and He wants us to use them.  Believing that God wants us to follow our dreams, is what keeps my hope in Adam’s musical career alive!  God would not give Adam all of these musical gifts and the passion that he has just to squander it.  (Of course, how things will work out is a mystery, but we know there is a plan!)

I mentioned above that there is another key factor in achieving our goals and dreams: support of another person.  Since I talked about Rudy in my last post, I’ll stick with that here.  Most people in Rudy’s life, including his family members, thought that his dream of being a football player for Notre Dame was not a realistic goal.  Rudy had one best friend, Pete, who encouraged him, though.  Pete’s tragic death prompted him to go for his dream, despite the many obstacles in his way.  It could be that without the support of his best friend, he never would have had the courage to do what others thought could not be done.  Now, everyone loves the amazing story of Rudy Ruettiger and how he accomplished the seemingly impossible.

Adam and I were talking about underdog stories yesterday, and he pointed out that a lot of people only root for the underdog when they start to see success.  People want to hop on board after a lot of the hard work has already proven to pay off.  It seems that we are so quick to dismiss dreams, because they aren’t practical or “realistic,” and it’s hard to believe what cannot yet be seen.  But once a dream comes to fruition, we want to share it and be associated with it.  How much better would the world be, if we encouraged each other to pursue our skills and talents even when things look impossible?!  Let’s be dream “ENcouragers,” not “DIScouragers!”

Have a great week!

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Cheering for the Underdog

18 Aug

Golden Dome

Last weekend, we watched my husband’s favorite movie, Rudy, with our 2-year-old daughter.  It is the consummate underdog story and Adam usually likes to kick off football season this way.  This time, he was excited to expand our daughter’s knowledge of Notre Dame football!  He has already been showing her a Notre Dame board book that labels the Golden Dome, Shamrock, Grotto, etc.  Seriously!  And she can name them all!  For about the past year, every time Adam would take her down the stairs to our basement, he’d lift her up and have her hit the “Play Like a Champion Today” sign that we have hanging at the bottom of the stairwell.  Of course, imagine my husband’s delight when our daughter recognized the “Play Like a Champion Today” sign in the movie and immediately ran off the couch to go hit our own sign!  He’s also been having her “practice” field goals with a big inflatable football.  I think she is ready for football season to begin!  Go Irish!

Anyway, this movie got me thinking about how others’ perseverance, determination, and hard work in the face of adversity and doubt is so inspirational!  Who doesn’t love a good motivational story where the unlikely champion/hero/dreamer achieves his or her goal?  It gives all of us hope to continue with our own pursuits, despite what others think and the obstacles that may come along.  Something I didn’t know until recently was that record setting, three-time Super Bowl winning quarterback, Tom Brady, was a 6th round draft pick!  Now he’s debated as one of the best NFL quarterbacks!  Of course, there are lots of great underdog sports movies, such as Hoosiers, Remember the Titans and The Blind Side, but there are also several other great non-sports related stories, like Temple Grandin, Patch Adams, and Erin Brockovich.  I think that we all love hearing about real life, everyday people using their talents and skills to do extraordinary things!

I know that Adam often feels like an underdog.  He’s heard so many times to “wait to have children until you make it.”  Adam loves our family and wouldn’t change a thing, but it is definitely more difficult to devote all the time that he would like to his music career right now.  He stays at home often during the week while I work to care for our daughters.  We don’t have extra money to put into his music, so he makes his own CD’s to sell every weekend and relies on good friends to help with recording, etc., for free.  He feels like higher-ups in the industry count him out as soon as they see him because he does not have the typical male country artist look.  Adam doesn’t quite know what genre/category his sound fits into…

Adam is going to continue to dedicate as much time as possible to his goals and continue to pray for God’s guidance.  He is pursuing a publishing deal and is collaborating more with other songwriters.  Yes, it will take a lot of work, but any progress he makes will definitely be due to God’s grace.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hope Wins

19 Jul

So I’m finally able to get to the computer after a couple days of wanting to get on here and blog about a few different things that came together in my head about having faith and pursuing our dreams.  Things can get frustrating sometimes and it can be easy to feel discouraged.  It is a continuous battle to try to remain positive and hopeful about the future.  One song that popped in my head when thinking about this was “The Impossible” by Joe Nichols.  Here is the chorus:

Unsinkable ships sink.
Unbreakable walls break.
Sometimes the things you think would never happen,
Happen just like that.
Unbendable steel bends.
If the fury of the wind is unstoppable,
I’ve learned to never underestimate,
The impossible.

This song is just a great reminder that even when we can’t see what will happen and we don’t know what steps to take next, we should not give up hope.  “With God, all things are possible.” (Matthew 19: 26)

I mentioned in my first blog post in the middle of May that Adam had recently had some revelations about the direction of his music career.  That same weekend, my dad was driving to visit my grandparents in Northern Indiana and while listening to Adam’s recent songs, he saw the sign “Hope Wins” outside a church.  He decided to turn around a take a picture of it to send to a friend who was going through a situation and had expressed that she was losing hope.  Little did my dad know that this would turn out to actually be a significant message for Adam.  About the same time that this picture was taken was when Adam was being questioned about what his vision is for his music.  Adam had been very discouraged before this and a light bulb went off in Adam and his passion and motivation was reborn!

The picture that my dad took on his phone 🙂

I’ve come across some inspirational quotes, recently, that I also thought would be motivating and appropriate to share.

“Take care of yourself and continue to persevere.  Do not allow doubt to creep across your goals.”  -Gary Caplan

“Each of us has been given a destiny and a light to shine.” -Marie Jones

“I believe 100% when your heart and  your mind are in the right place and there is no pretense, great things will come.  It’s that simple.” -Jimmy Wayne

“God does not discipline us to subdue us, but to condition us for a life of usefulness and blessedness.” -Billy Graham

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3: 5-6)

“Be patient.  God knows what He’s doing.  God knows what is best for you.  He can see the end result.  You can’t.  All those problems, heartaches, difficulties and delays–all the things that make you ask “why”–one day will all be clear in the light of God’s love.” -Rick Warren

“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.” -Robert Louis Stevenson

I’d like to wrap up with a prayer from a book that I just started reading on my Amazon Kindle called, I Do… Every Day: Words of Wisdom for Newlyweds and Not So Newlyweds by Cynthia Bond Hopson and Roger Hopson.

Lord, with you we know that anything and all things are possible.  We claim and believe that you have plans for us–plans to nurture us and give us a future.  Direct our paths to the right people, places, and things to help make our dreams come true.  Help us be patient, prepared, and purposeful.  Amen.

God has plans for each one of us.  How wonderful this world would be if we all would strive to seek His will and pursue our gifts!  Anybody have any dreams of their own that they are following?

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Newer Entries →