My life changed significantly when I began intentionally seeking purposeful light.  It started with fully understanding the meaning of love.    Redefining love to look beyond the love of family, friends, and romantic love to an all-encompassing love for others.  Loving my neighbors more than myself.  I needed to put action to the definition.      Being thankful is where I started.  Training myself to be grateful for everything I encountered throughout my day.  No matter the outward appearance, I silently found something to be thankful for every moment.  The first few days, I had to concentrate on being grateful.  Midweek, it…

I am a glass-half-full person, but even in the toughest times, what helps me maintain that perspective is believing I’m going to have a great day.  I don’t just say it or think it; I believe it without reservation. I have had people give me supported arguments as to why “If you believe it, you can achieve it” is not a valid statement.  I understand that there are times we believe we can do something and we fall short. However, I am a firm believer that if I don’t have faith in all that is…

I have been getting better at keeping my emotions in check.   As I work on managing all of life‘s crazy turns, I find staying focused to be extremely helpful.  Trying to minimize the number of surprises and becoming more aware of the trigger points that are around me are two very helpful things. I am intentional about recognizing situations that escalate the noise in my environment.  As the warning signals become visible, I move to prayer.  I focus myself on things that will deflect the situation.  That might include changing the conversation, moving locations, or possibly ignoring the invitation…