A tentative plan has been invaluable to me throughout my life and continues to enhance my day. A plan has allowed me to live in the moment and change course when necessary. In order of priority, I write down what I need to accomplish and the deadline. The plan can be altered at any moment. When running a company, my goal was to be flexible and adapt to the highest priority. Living in the moment allowed me to be proactive. Minimizing the necessary tasks for the day, leaving time for problem-solving. Issues could then be addressed immediately, without risking…
We make decisions constantly throughout our day. How do we navigate those decisions? Have we set ourselves up to succeed in our daily decision-making? I spent some time teaching myself to prioritize being thankful, prayerful, and living with a perspective of love and compassion. All of these things help prepare me to make better decisions. Being thankful allows me to approach decision-making with a positive perspective. Love opens the door for compassion and brings depth to my understanding. Prayer centers me and guides my decision-making process. One of the reasons I made a decision to learn how…
It’s not too late to change. Maybe others can’t change us, but we can make changes within ourselves if we so desire. First, we need to realize there’s something about ourselves that we would like to change. If I don’t know what I need to change in my life, I ask Jesus through prayer to show me what I need to do differently. Then I listen. If I’m being honest with myself and listening, I see various replays of different circumstances in my life and how I reacted to each of them. Once I see…
How do we encourage ourselves to see people as people, withholding judgment, encouraging acceptance, and inclusion? I’ll never forget the day my daughter came home and was accused of plagiarism in front of the entire class by a teacher. She asked the teacher what part of her work was not cited properly or paraphrased. When the teacher showed her, she said, “I am so sorry, but I did not plagiarize. I forgot to change the font when I transferred the information from my computer notes to the paper. Those are my words.” The teacher was unable to find any…
What is the right way? There are so many paths to choose from and so many ways that we can choose to communicate or act. One of the things that helped me move beyond my typical biased views is leading with compassion. When I approach a situation with a mindset of love, kindness, and understanding, my mind is open to seeing other perspectives. Rather than assuming I know all the facts, I start with an understanding that I only know my perspective, and even then, my viewpoint can be biased. Jesus knows the full story accurately and sees the total…
In life, there are plenty of moments that bring out the negative, but the real test is whether one can move past discouragement and use it as fuel to ignite kindness and compassion. Ignoring the nasty addressing frustrations with love and understanding. Turning a seemingly negative event into a lesson in building trust. Most of us have moments of frustration, but I don’t let those moments take over my life. I learn from my mistakes, but I don’t linger in discouragement. Think about a time when you have been around someone who lives their life frustrated and stressed…
I am hopeful I won’t allow myself to be boxed in by something so permanent as the word never. When I hear myself use the word, I find myself immediately regretting what I’ve said. I know that all things are possible, and most, if not all, of my “nevers” have been proven wrong. Not only does it backfire on me, but it has also often led to some of my most memorable and cherished experiences. I never wanted to go to college. Yet I have earned a PhD. I never wanted to leave Ohio. Yet I’ve lived…
Spring allows us a beautiful opportunity to push the reset button and start anew. For the past few years, I have been doing the bare minimum outside, while I tended to things that were more urgent and a higher priority inside our home. This past weekend, the yard received a thorough and much-needed reset. Although my body continues to feel the joys of the manual labor, my mind has renewed energy from a weekend of fresh air, task completion, and beautification. The same is true with the inside of our house. Every season provides an opportunity for renewal and…
As I walked into Cooper City Church, I immediately looked at the person who invited me and smiled. Using nonverbal communication, her eyes lit up, telling me, “I told you so.” I flew in for the weekend to spend time with her and Jesus. The weekend did not disappoint, but the highlight was the undeniable feeling of the Holy Spirit as you entered this church. It felt like the Holy Spirit opened the door and greeted us. As we moved closer, it drew us in and ignited inner peace. Every person who engaged with us, I counted five, carried a…
Benjamin Hall was purposeful in his determination to live. “My God, you were gone,” said his surgeon, Dr. Grygorovskyy. “You shouldn’t be here. It is a miracle that you are.” A missile attack nearly killed Hall as he was covering the war in Ukraine for Fox News in 2022. One year after the near-fatal attack, he was back on the job, and 614 days from the attack, he was back in Kyiv on assignment (Hall, 2025). In his book Resolute, “Hall reflects on the key factors that allowed him to survive the deadly missile attack, endure multiple…