Getting a little personal?

This morning I was attending the Savvy Saved Women Entrepreneurs Virtual Summit, and a question was raised by an attendee in the chat box, “Can you get too personal when running an online business?” The attendee meant if we, as entrepreneurs, should separate our business from our personal lives, keeping personal things OUT of our business.

For some people, that answer would be yes. For me, it would be no. My business and my brand ARE me, Beth Jones. My business is simply one piece of the whole of this life that God has given me.  God is my priority, then  my family, then my business and all else. My personal life affects my business and vice versa.

My family is both affected by and involved in my business. Often when you see a video of me, the video person behind my smart phone recording it is our youngest daughter Leah. My husband Ray is my business sounding board, my wise counsel, and the money bags  financial backer/adviser of my business. Our oldest daughter Heather and my sister Maria are my greatest encouragers.

My blog is filled with stories about my family. In fact, I recently posted this cartoon on my Facebook fan page with this comment: “My family realizes by now that EVERYTHING is potential content for my blog!”

This is so true. My obsession with recording intimate moments of my family’s lives began when my father-in-law Charles gave Ray and me a dinosaur-sized video recorder when Leah was born, so we could send him videos on VHS tapes (he lives in another state and couldn’t visit that often).

We have literally HOURS of videos of Leah as a baby laying on the pink blanket, the brightly colored blanket, the soft white blanket, cooing, sucking her thumb, sleeping, and yes, even spitting up on Heather’s shoulder, lol.

In one video, you can even see Ray’s hairy underarm as he, shirtless, reached over to stroke Leah’s cheek. In another video, Heather turned the camera on me, with her following me around the house and I was the one, having a bad hair day and now annoyed and frowning, saying, “STOP it, Heather!” She was simply giving me payback.

Despite that video, I still didn’t learn that my family protested every mundane moment of their lives being recorded for all the world to gawk at.  Fast forward many years, when I began my business about a year ago and technology was changing at the speed of light. I could now record my family on my FLIP recorder and my smart phone at the push of one button – and use it as GREAT content for my business! Or at least I think it’s great. (I hope you like it, too!) At least by now, my family has learned to tolerate the obsessive picture-taking, video recording, and blog-writing about their lives.

My open-as-a-book friend Susan Evans commented on my Facebook picture, “I told my husband that if he wanted to know what was going on in our family, to read my blog!”  Exactly.

No, I won’t separate my personal life (i.e., my faith in Christ, my family, my friends, etc.) from my business, because they are such an important part of my life. God and they truly are the inspirational material for my writing, speaking, and coaching.

That doesn’t mean that I believe people should “air dirty laundry” (i.e., such as the arguments Ray and I have sometimes, like the one yesterday over who spends the most money – we can have some doozies because we’re both hard-headed and stubborn!).  But I do believe that people should be real and authentic, sharing themselves, who they and their families really are, as a part of their business.

Letting people into your personal life, getting a glimpse of you and those around you, is what builds the Know, Like, Trust (K, L, T)  factor. It makes you more real and more approachable to your readers.

Let them see you are a flesh-and-blood person, with real problems, real pain, and real struggles. That doesn’t mean to bombard your readers and listeners with all the gory details of your husband getting hurt at work from lifting a heavy patient or your car breaking down on the highway when you’re on your family dinner night.

After all if your life is just a big mess, why should they follow or listen to you to help them?  They need to see that you have something positive, encouraging, and helpful to offer them, that will solve their problems – and it’s important that you are walking the talk in your own life.

But let your personal life be a part of your business. People relate to personal.

Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

She has had a successful salon business for 18 years, and I asked her some tips for having a successful business. Here is what she said, which I pass onto you:

• It’s only been with God’s help. She couldn’t have done it without Him.
• Put the customer first. Make them feel welcome and special.
• Word of mouth advertising is the best kind of advertising. Tina pays very little for advertising, because she gets so many referrals through word of mouth.

One client of Tina’s lives in St. Louis, MO. She occasionally will drive several hours just to get Tina to cut her hair because “Nobody cuts my hair like you do, Tina.” What an incredible testimony!

Tina’s tagline on her business card is, “Just a cut above the rest.”

What can you do in your business that is just a cut above the rest?

How can you make your customers and clients feel special and loved, not just like a dollar sign, but really valued and appreciated?

Finally and most importantly, are you running your business with God – or trying to do it without Him?

As appreciation for my readers, here are 2 free gifts for you. Just right click on the link and save to your computer. Enjoy!

Dreams

Prayer, Purpose, Passion ebook

Image Resource: Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

There is no one else on earth who has your story. You are a unique and one of a kind masterpiece. Nobody else shares your experiences, your personality, your looks, your voice, your intelligence, your gifts and talents. God created you at this particular time in history for a specific purpose that He wants you to accomplish, which no one else can do.

Your story is part of HIS story – how God the potter wants to shape and form and use you, His vessel of clay in which He has deposited His treasure (2 Corinthians 4:7). Maybe you feel like all you’ve had is a horrible life. Your life has just been a big mess. That’s okay. God uses our mess.

God can turn around your life 180, and use it for His glory, like He did the apostle Paul, who had Christians imprisoned and persecuted before God met him on the road to Damascus. Paul then became one of God’s greatest evangelists, missionaries and author of 13 books of the New Testament. Paul, who said he had been “chief of sinners,” was forgiven of all he had done when he repented and believed in Christ, and was used in an incredible way by God.

No matter what your story has been, God will forgive you. He has a great ending in mind for your story! All the days of your life have already been written in God’s book before you were even born. (Psalm 139:16)

Want to learn more about how God wants to use your story in an incredible way? Sign up for my Stepping Stones to Your Purpose online class by clicking here. Hurry, we start tomorrow!

Today I spent time catching up on washing dishes, loads of laundry, and other household chores, then rewarded myself by reclining on our green den sofa under a cozy quilt and reading a book that arrived in the mail,  Kate Powers’ book, Stop Existing, Start Living. It is excellent. It offers practical solutions to reducing stress, minimizing overwhelm, and achieving happiness. It’s about saying yes to a better life, which means sometimes saying “no” to other things.

What do you need to say “yes” to this year?

• A daily quiet time with God
• Consistent exercise and healthier eating
• Dates (alone!) with your husband
• More “fun” time with your child/children
• Coaching group with me, that starts this Tuesday, January 10 at 11 am CST
• Drinking more water and less soda, coffee or tea
• Eating Mexican or Chinese with your girlfriends for lunch
• Exhibiting more of the fruit of the Spirit in your life
• A massage, pedicure, and/or manicure

What do you need to say “no” to this year?

• Too much busyness
• Stress
• Eating/drinking too much
• Anger/unforgiveness
• Always in a hurry
• Too much time spent on Facebook or Twitter
• Avoiding Facebook or Twitter; not getting out there with your important message
• Surfing the net for hours mindlessly, without getting any real work done
• Neglecting your family because you’re working too hard on your business

You know. Write it down. Actively work on it each day. Don’t wait until tomorrow. Make the change today – no more excuses, no more blaming, no more rationalizing, no more holding back in fear, no more saying “it’s the money,” no more saying it’s his (or her) fault, no more hedging.

You can make the change you need right now.

Take the first step. Start here.

The term was first coined by author Napolean Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich. He was commissioned by the American industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1908 to interview over 500 of the most successful people of his time and form a general formula for business and life success. (Wikipedia/Hill, 2007)

This project took 29 years, and in 1928 he outlined 13 principles in his book, that his 29 years of research defined as common to every successful person. One of those principles was the Power of the MasterMind. (Wikipedia/Hill, 2007).

The book, which has sold 30 million copies to date, suggests 13 steps towards riches. Step nine is called “Power of the Mastermind” and describes basically what is known today as Mastermind Groups. The word “mastermind” is introduced for describing the synergies that can be created when several human minds unite to work towards a common specific goal, where the whole in terms of mental power represents more than the sum of its parts. The whole is viewed as an invisible, additional force called the mastermind. (Wikipedia/Hill, 2007)

I.e., a group of anointed, inspired, powerful women (or men) coming together with brilliant ideas!

Every successful person in their respective industries have at some point have been connected to or in a mastermind groups. The richest business men and women and CEO’s have made millions from the synergy and the power of masterminding. The real power of a mastermind is finding someone with a skill set that you lack and teaming up with her or him to become unstoppable!

In a MasterMind, you are surrounded by people who help you, counsel you, constructively-criticize you, encourage you, motivate you, inspire you and push you to be better than you could ever be on your own.

The Bible puts it this way: “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble…A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

I am so excited about this group and can’t wait to see what God is going to do in and through us for His glory!

Have you ever been in a mastermind group? What was your experience like? Do you believe it catapulted you toward more success? Please share your comments below.

My dad, forever the workaholic, says he is now “semi-retired” as a CPA; instead of working from 8 or 9 a.m. until 9 or 10 p.m (like he has many years of his life), he now “only works” from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. This amuses me because he is 75 years old! He just loves to work and gets a lot of fulfillment out of it.

While I was there visiting him, he showed me some fruit trees and a grape vine he had planted in the back yard, which I will share more about in a minute.

My dad Leland Jr. was raised by a small tobacco farmer, Leland S. Moore, and worked hard on the farm every day with his mother Leola, his brother William and his sister Betty, and other relatives. They also grew other crops, such as cotton, watermelon, corn, and peanuts. Daddy laughed when he told me a relative of his told my dad that he’s the only person he knows who had actually plowed with a mule when he was younger!

My grandfather Leland, who died before I was born, believed in hard work. Daddy told me the story, laughing, of his uncle Jesse, who got mad because my grandfather once made him plow a whole field and then didn’t plant anything in the field; he had just made Jesse plow it to do the work to keep him out of trouble.

This vein of hard work runs in our entire family. My dad, my brothers, my sister and I all tend toward workaholism. As I was growing up, my father – who had his CPA business in our home – always made sure that us four kids were doing some kind of work. “Idle hands are the devil’s playground.” If he came upstairs to check on us after we were home from school and we were sitting in front of the T.V. watching the Flinstones or Gilligan’s Island as we were prone to do, he would immediately put us to work: washing the car, raking leaves, doing laundry or dishes, vacuuming the floors, dusting.

On Saturday mornings – our one chance to sleep in after school all week – our dad would come into our rooms to wake us up for some inane chore that would take hours of our day, like washing our house’s wrap-around porch. At the time, my brother Greg and I (who seemed to get the bulk of the work because we were older) disliked and resented it. Now I really appreciate my father teaching me a strong work ethic! My dad knew that laziness is a poor character trait.(Everything in moderation – sometimes we do need to rest, relax and just have FUN!)

Anyway, back to the fruit trees. Growing things – and doing hard work – is just in my father’s blood. So he was upset when the fruit trees he had planted – lemon, orange, and cherry – only produced small fruit, and then birds or something ruined the fruit on them. The grape vine had not produced at all. I could see the disappointment on his face as he showed me the trees and my heart went out to him. Of course, it could be that particular soil wasn’t conducive to growing those types of trees and the birds didn’t help. The orange tree eventually produced small oranges, and my dad was proud of that and took a picture with Maria’s kids with the oranges in their hands. But God immediately began speaking to me through these unfruitful trees.

What kind of legacy do we want in our lives and to pass on to our children? A godly legacy or none at all for our children, grandchildren, and future generations? It all starts with us – our decisions, our choices, today.

Will we obey God? Will we teach our children and grandchildren to obey God’s word? Will we be a godly example for them to follow, and experience God’s blessings – prosperity, divine health, joy, peace, love, goodness, self control, patience, kindness? Or will we show them instead strife, anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, depression, discouragement, poverty, debt, struggles, unhappiness?

“Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew 7: 16-19, NLT)

We can either produce good spiritual fruit in our lives, and have it live on through our children and future generations, or we can produce bad fruit and have that live on in our families. Which do you choose?

After my father showed me the fruit trees, though, he then pointed to a huge pine tree nearby that I was looking at and he said, “I planted that tree here just before you were born.” I gasped, “You did?” Even now, remembering this, tears fill my eyes.

I looked at the enormous tree and then up at it, reaching high into the blue sky. God spoke to my heart immediately and showed me that I had a choice: I could either be like those unfruitful fruit trees, that the birds of the air had eaten its fruit from, or I could be like this enormous, tall tree growing high into the heavens, steady and strong and lasting.

It blessed me SOOO much. I, Beth, could leave a lasting legacy for my children and grandchildren by following God!

Which do you choose today?

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15: 1-27)

Did you miss today’s interview of NACWE President and CEO Diane Cunningham at Talkshoe? You can still listen to the replay. Just click here. It is the first show on the page, as well as the first episode listed under “Past Episodes.” (Episode #29)

On this interview, Diane shares her powerful personal story from her client’s suicide to Diane being in a plane crash, as well as her success tips for women entrepreneurs. Diane has discovered through her challenging, yet rewarding journey, how short and precious life is and how she is not to waste any minute of it. Tune into the show and be blessed, motivated, and encouraged.

You can also listen to the show on the Talkshoe player below.

Diane Cunningham, President & Founder of NACWE

I will be interviewing Diane tomorrow, January 4 at 2:00 p.m. Central Time (3 p.m. Eastern Time) on my Women’s Battles Radio Show at Talkshoe.

Diane will be sharing her powerful story and her tips for becoming a successful woman entrepreneur.

We’d love for you to join us in the chat room here.

Or you can call in by phone with the Talkshoe call-in details below:

Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 98698
PIN: 1 # or Your Talkshoe PIN

Since 2005, Diane has worked under the DianeCunningham.com umbrella as a coach, speaker, facilitator, and entrepreneur. She founded the National Association of Christian Women Entrepreneurs in May of 2010 to help women connect, create, and collaborate.

Under Diane’s leadership, NACWE grew from 0 to 165 members in the first year and hosted the 1st Annual Conference, the Inspired Women’s Event with 45 women in attendance.

She is a Certified Mastermind Executive Coach. Her training and background is in the mental health field. She worked for many years in a hospital Employee Assistance Program. Prior to that she spent time working with domestic violence and addictions. She has a Masters Degree in Education (Guidance and Counseling) from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington and a Bachelors Degree from the same school in Interpersonal Communications.

Diane is an author of Dear Female Entrepreneur, My Friend and co-author of Inspired Women Succeed ,just released in May 2011. www.InspiredWomenSucceed.com

She is an avid volunteer and currently serves as the Regional Advocate for the Small Business Development Center for North Texas. She is active in her church, local community events, and non-profit organizations that fit with her life mission. She was named as one of the Top 2o Leaders under the Age of 40 in her community in January 2011 and chosen as the Inspirational Women of the Month for April for Inspirational Woman Magazine.

Diane loves people, shopping, Starbucks, reading, and spending time with friends. She has run 4 marathons with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program and loves to go to zumba classes. She is passionate about God and is basking in the amazing journey that He has her on!

“My mission is to inspire women to dream big, catch on fire, and change the world.”

We’d love to see you there at Talkshoe tomorrow – and be sure to bring a friend!

***This post may contain affiliate links. Beth Jones only endorses products, services, or websites which she personally believes in and/or has used.***

I am excited about 2012 and have new plans that I hope will excite you, too. Some of those plans include my Virtual Spiritual Spa, a 6-week intensive journey that will help you become closer to God, leave the pain of 2011 and other years behind, and move forward into 2012 with your spiritual healing and into your purpose more fully.

In this 6-week intensive class, you will receive 6 virtual trainings with mp3 telecall replays, a free copy of Katie Brazelton’s book Pathway to Purpose for Women, access to a private Facebook forum for support and motivation from other women of God, bite-sized, weekly email encouragement to get you moving faster into your purpose, and more.

Learn how you can make 2012 a year of fulfillment and spiritual healing in this 6-week intensive!

To learn more about this limited-seating class, just click here.

What do you need to leave behind in 2011?

• Worry?
• Anxiety?
• Depression?
• Discouragement?
• Stress?
• Anger?
• Unforgiveness?
• Too much busyness?

What are some new things that you would like to carry into 2012?

• Joy
• Peace
• Encouragement
• Prosperity and blessing
• Wisdom
• Faith
• Love
• Hope

Have you set some time aside yet to just spend with God and ask Him to be with you and your family in the new year, and give you the wisdom, protection, and direction you need? Have you dedicated the new year to Him and His will for your life? Have you spent time praying, perhaps with fasting, about what has happened in 2011 and what God wants to be changed in your life in the coming year – and what HIS plans for you are?

“Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer,
      The Holy One of Israel:

      “ I am the LORD your God,
      Who teaches you to profit,
      Who leads you by the way you should go. ”

Isaiah 47:17-19

Image Resource: Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

You can still hear the replay of the show, which lasted about 1 hour 10 minutes (that includes the interactive time sharing at the end of the show). Just click here to listen to the replay. It is the first show listed on the page, or the first one listed under “Past Episodes.” Or you can listen on the Talkshoe player below.

I’d love to hear YOUR stories from 2011 or any prayer requests you might have for 2012. Remember, God is already there in 2012 with you. He knows what is going to happen ahead of time and it’s in the palm of His hands. He has good plans and even serendipity (unexpected pleasant surprises) in store for you in 2012! Just wait and see!

I want to invite you to my Virtual Hot Cocoa call tomorrow, Thursday, December 29 at 11:00 a.m. Central Time (12 p.m. Eastern Time) at Talkshoe. I will be sharing on The 12 Things I Learned in 2011.

I invite you to join me for this hour-long show, to share at the end of the show your own stories from 2011 – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and receive encouragement and equipping with God’s eternal words of truth and empowerment with the wonderful Holy Spirit to take you into 2012 for an incredible year!

You can join me in the chat room by clicking here. Or you can call in with the call-in details below:

Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 98698
PIN: 1 # or Your Talkshoe PIN

I’d love to see you there – and bring a friend!

Image Resource:Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

After a week of our family being sick with fever, congestion, coughing, headache, and sore throat, and having to cancel our family Christmas plans until this Friday or even next week, I am ready for something NEW!!!

But I wanted to finish telling you about my trip to the south for my sister Maria’s college graduation. I had hoped to tour The Crescent again while I was visiting my family there. Unfortunately, it was closed the day I could have toured it ~ next time!

It is so beautiful, inside and out. Many people believe The Crescent is something from Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind. It’s actually not a remnant of the Civil War, but it is a historical landmark. (Resource: http://valdostascene.com/june2009/x155362519/The-Crescent)

I feel the huge, white mansion with its tall, white pillars, spacious rooms, and large oak trees with Spanish moss symbollize the beauty and Gone With The Wind romance of the deep south, southerners, and southern charm and hospitality ~ and a time gone by that makes you long for it again (almost!).

It’s a staple of Valdosta’s scenery. It has always been my dream home!

The house was once the house of Colonel William S. West. Col. West and his family built it in 1898 along North Patterson Street. West and his family moved to Lowndes County.  He later became an attorney, served as a General Assembly representative and senator from Lowndes County, became the speaker of the state senate, and then became a Georgia senator. (Resource:  http://valdostascene.com/june2009/x155362519/The-Crescent)

His home, The Crescent, became a symbol of his success. (Resource: http://valdostascene.com/june2009/x155362519/The-Crescent)

It was the first home in Lowdnes County to have electric lights, indoor plumbing, and central heating. The enormous oak trees surrounding The Crescent were planted after the home was built (the home wasn’t built around the large oaks, as many people believe. (Resource: http://valdostascene.com/june2009/x155362519/The-Crescent)).

The oak trees themselves are breath-taking. You truly feel as if any minute Scarlett O’Hara and one of her beaus might start walking around the corner in the yard, silhouetted against the Spanish moss.

At one time it was one of several homes earmarked for demolition, but was saved by the Valdosta Garden City Club members, who learned of its potential fate of destruction and bought it in 1951 as a restoration project for Valdosta, “The Azalea City of Georgia.”  (Local garden clubs were pushing to beautifyValdosta in the late 40′s after the Civil War.) The Valdosta Garden Club federated with the Garden Club of Georgia and National Garden Clubs Inc., and members received the outstanding achievement trophy for The Crescent. (Resource: http://valdostascene.com/june2009/x155362519/The-Crescent)

Because The Crescent was not open when I went there, I wasn’t able to take pictures of the inside, which I have toured several times before.

When I came home to Missouri, I googled The Crescent and found these beautiful pictures of its furnishings inside from one travel blogger. Just click here and scroll to the bottom, clicking on whatever picture you’d like. (I don’t know the blogger, so please don’t email me to complain about it!)

You really have to just see The Crescent to appreciate its incredible beauty. Like I said, this is my dream home – I love the Victorian era!

Funny, but one of the wine-red Victorian sofas in a sitting room at The Crescent looks almost just like the one I have in our dining room at home! Great minds think alike.

What is your dream home?

What is your dream trip?

What is your dream?

What will do you to achieve it in 2012? Maybe you should start here.

I had another rough night last night, having to sleep sitting UP (from coughing so bad when I lay down), so Leah and I are about to go to the doctor now to see if he can give us something for relief. I have also been using Extra Vitamin C, multi-vitamins, echinacea, plenty of water, and hot herbal teas – and of course, prayer!

Thanks to all my friends praying for me – I love and appreciate you so much! Praying the doctor can help me and Leah today so we begin to feel better and then I can get back into the saddle again!

I promise I will continue with my blogs on my visit to the south soon!

Image: savit keawtavee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Home can be any of these, or all of these. “Home” for me as I grew up was a beautiful white, nearly-century-old home in the deep south. I lived there most of my life before I married and moved out in my late teens, and then again briefly in my early 20′s.

My father, Leland S. Moore, Jr., researched the house and he found that its earliest deed was 5-4-1915. The house and 2/3 of the property it lies on was deeded to my (now deceased) maternal grandmother Louise W. Gentry, my maternal aunt Mary, and my (now deceased) mother Margaret Holmes Moore in 1959, then later to my father.

It is still his home today. It’s where he and my mother lived together and raised four children, two boys and two girls, for the 24 years of their marriage until she died in 1981 – my oldest brother Greg, me, my younger sister Maria, and my youngest brother Herbert, known as “Bubba” to us siblings. (Yes, seriously! There are many boys/men in the south who are nicknamed “Bubba”!)

The house is also the location of my father’s CPA business, which he still runs! (He is 75 years old and says he is now thinking about retiring!) My mother worked as his receptionist and bookkeeper. While growing up, we kids were chastened by our mother coming out of the office, “Shhh! Be QUIET!  There’s a client in the office!” Clients throughout the years often heard us kids tearing through the house, yelling, laughing, and playing…it’s a wonder my father could keep any clients!

There was also the time my little brother, a toddler at the time who was supposed to be taking a nap, woke up and managed to not only climb out of his crib, but unlatched the screen at the bedroom window and started walking around on the roof….a client had an appointment, saw my brother up there and said, “Stay there, son!”, and hurried inside to tell my dad. My father ran up the stairs three at a time to retrieve my brother off the roof. Thank God he was okay and a tragedy avoided!

But other than us kids being too loud at times and my brother’s roof exploration, having a place for both business and home has worked for my dad all these years. Maybe that is where I get it from.   Looking back, I now realize that those seeds of entrepreneurship were planted in me in childhood. I remember my father working 10 hour (or longer) days while I was growing up.  He enjoyed his work ~ and still does today (although he told me he only works “part-time” now – he only works from 9 or 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. now!).

The office was “fun.” My siblings and I used to play “office” at night, while our dad would go to the store. We would “answer” the phones, type on mama’s typewriter, make Xerox copies, “order supplies,” etc. When daddy came home, we’d run out of the office. Then Mama would boil and salt the peanuts that our dad had brought home, and we’d all sit down together in the den, watching Hee Haw on t.v. (yes, really!) or the Flip Wilson show. My dad would eat bowlfuls of peanuts, and laugh at Flip Wilson.

What makes a house a home?

“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” – Maya Angelou

I have never seen another house quite like the home I grew up in. It is two stories, with a wrap-around. gray front porch (sometimes called a verranda) that surrounds the house, with a series of tall, white columns. Columns not only hold up a house structurally, but they are also design elements of classic architecture.

These Greek column designs are used on buildings all over the world. From what I can tell, the columns at my father’s house are Doric design columns.

The house is spacious inside (approximately 4,374 square feet) with tall ceilings. It has 11 rooms, not counting a back, screened-in porch, two halls, and 2 bathrooms. It has two staircases inside, a back one which may have been used for the servants.

In one of the rooms which my father uses for part of his office, there is a doorbell by a door which still rings. (My brothers, sister, and I used to love ringing it, much to our parents’ annoyance!)  Originally, the bell was made for and used to beckon the butler or the cook.

When I talked to my father on my trip to Valdosta, he told me about a conversation he’d had with someone, who shared an amusing story about the previous owners. The story goes that the small closet in that room with the bell was used at times to store (and lock up) bunches of bananas, because the owner loved bananas and didn’t want anyone eating them. Since bananas are my favorite fruit, I thought that was interesting and funny.

These are the beautiful front stairs inside the front entry hallway. My brothers Greg and Herbert, my sister Maria, and I used to slide down the bannister, even though our parents told us over and over NOT to do this, because we could fall off and get hurt – but it was so much fun!

The house is still in good shape overall, with some of its original beauty and character preserved. My father had the ceilings lowered when he and my mother Margaret moved into and renovated it in the early 1960′s, to better heat and cool it.  My dad, smiling at the memory, said my mom refused to live in it unless he renovated it.  It was in bad shape from previous careless tenants.

One of the renovations was a new roof, which back then cost only about $1,000! You can see in this picture of the back of the house how there are various levels of roofs, as well as the many, large windows.

A unique window in the house is inside the closet of my youngest brother Herbert’s old bedroom. It’s small, rectangular and quaint. Things like this are often what make old houses have such character, like the front hallway’s antique chandelier, the French doors in the living room (what used to be called the “front parlor”), and pretty doorknobs on the doors.

The house still has its original fireplaces and mantels, which are beautiful and elegant.

But they closed up the fireplaces to avoid a fire and put in gas heaters to warm the rooms, like this one below.

Even with the heaters, the house was like an ice palace in winter. My brothers, my sister and I hated getting up in the dark, out from underneath our comfortable blankets, having to face the cold to get ready for school. We would try to warm up by the heaters as long as possible, wanting to avoid taking a shower ~ the hot water often ran out quickly! Since then, my dad has had more insulation put in the house, so it stays warmer and cooler easier.

His office also has a window air conditioning unit, a MUST in sticky, humid, southern summers! During heat waves, the temperatures swell sometimes to over 100 degrees in summer in Georgia.

Below is a picture of my father’s bedroom that is now downstairs. This room used to be the family dining room, where we celebrated big Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. You can see another one of the lovely, original fireplaces and mantels.

One of the most incredible features of this house are the floors. The house still has the original, hardwood pine floors. They just don’t make beautiful floors like this anymore!

I used to sleep in an antique brass bed. It’s still in my old bedroom. I’ve never seen anything like this, either ~ very unique. The curtains and bedspread in the room are the same ones that were there when I left home in my late teens! Sometimes we want to leave things just as they are…it’s hard to let go, isn’t it? Especially of our children. (I write this with tears in my eyes.)

On the mantel of my old bedroom were some pictures of me and our oldest daughter Heather. It’s funny; when Heather showed this picture to her oldest daughter Annabelle (age 8), she immediately recognized that it was “Nana and mommy!” (me and Heather)  Check out my 80′s curly perm, lol!

Here is where my “writing career” started – this antique, round-mirrored dresser that was mine as I was growing up. I would sit in the curved part of the dresser and write in my diary or write short stories, then stuff them in one of the drawers.

My little sister Maria would sneak into the room later when I was doing chores and read my stories, which would make me mad and we would argue, because I didn’t want anyone to read them yet – they weren’t finished! (She and I are now best of friends, and she is one of my greatest encouragers and biggest “fans”!)

This “writing desk” is where it all began! Where was your original writing room or writing desk?

The house is still incredible – one of a kind – and what I’ll always know as “home” in Georgia. They don’t build solid, beautiful, southern homes like this anymore.

Outside in the back yard, my father showed me a tall, sturdy pine tree that he had planted there just before I was born. As I looked up into the sky at the magnificent tree, I was amazed. God spoke to my heart through it, which I will share with you later this week.

Where – or what – do you call your home?

***Stay tuned when I write about my dream home tomorrow.

My father Leland S. Moore, Jr., and me - December 2011

Continuing with my posts on my brief journey back to the south, I noticed again when I visited Maria that southerners have hospitality and manners down-pat. “Come on in” is a well-known southern expression that you hear when you go to someone’s house…and you are expected to stay awhile and EAT SOMETHING.

While visiting my dad Leland, he offered my sister, her kids and I some nut-clusters chocolate in his refrigerator that a client had just made for him (from scratch). He insisted that we get more than just a few pieces. Simply. Delicious. It would have been impolite to say no, I reasoned!

Politeness is one of the strongest attributes of southerners. I was raised by my strict parents to say “yes ma’am,” “no, sir,” “please,” and “thank you.” (Although eating fish with your fingers is acceptable manners, as my nephew Nicholas pointed out to me when I “wrongly” ate fried catfish with a fork -gasp!)

I was also raised to write thank you notes after birthdays and holidays, something I have tried in vain to teach our kids to do, who are terrible procrastinators – something that drives me almost crazy because I want to get things done NOW.  It’s humiliating having southern grandparents email or call weeks or months after they sent a birthday or holiday gift to our children, because no thank you card was sent to them in the mail! I assure the relatives that it’s not because I “forgot my raisin’” or that  they are ungrateful, little brats;  they simply forgot – or put it off.

Thank you notes, and written letters in general, have become a lost art. But thank you notes are part of southern tradition. If you are homeschooling, they make great language arts projects for practicing handwriting, spelling, and grammar.

A stationery box full of beautiful thank you cards, reflecting your unique elegant or quirky personality, can be a writer’s dream. For professional business owners, a handwritten thank you or other note will make you stand out in the crowd and be remembered. In fact, I received two thank you cards for my business in my post office box yesterday from new online friends, which surprised and touched me – yes, handwritten ones!

Thank you notes are a way of going the extra mile to let others know how much you appreciate them and that you CARE.

the wrap-around porch of my dad's almost-century-old home

Another southern tradition used to be sitting on your front porch with a glass of sweet tea (and I do mean, sweet!) and waving to people as they drove or walked by. Life is too busy and hectic for that now, and even southerners today are finding that they need to slow down the pace and savor life more.

But the practice of “not knowing any strangers” still abounds in the south. People speak warmly to you in public, whether they know you or not, as if they are related to you. Sometimes they ARE related to you. When we met someone at Maria’s college graduation, my dad – who has done extensive genealogy research on both sides of the family – wondered if he was a distant cousin because of his last name. Maria thought this was hilarious.

But southerners are genuinely interested in knowing who you are and where you are from – and who your family is!

When I went to downtown Valdosta while Maria was at work, I found a little floral shop filled with beautiful Christmas decorations. The owner, originally from London, chatted with me as I admired her displays and of course, she asked me what I was looking for, where I was from -  and who my family was.

Some people (especially non-southerners)  find this interest in your life disconcerting, even nosy. I believe the heart of it is a desire for intimacy with others. Isn’t it better than just being ignored? Maybe the South has a few good lessons to teach us.

I guess there are exceptions to southern hospitality and politeness. My sister Maria, my nephew Nicholas and I went to the Game Stop store one afternoon for Nicholas to exchange a video game.

The store was packed and the lines were long. Maria asked a white man standing in front of her with his son if there was one line or two, and he began ranting: “There’s two lines, but they’re not moving! There’s only two workers here, who apparently don’t want my money. What’s the problem, let’s go, people!” He began loudly clapping his hands, like he was at a football or basketball game. We would soon need a referee blowing a whistle.

As his voice became louder and the rest of the customers grew more uncomfortable (the store employees were just trying to do their job, looking down and not responding), a customer standing further back in line became the prophet of the hour. “Hey man, we are waiting in line, too. Be quiet, man! Go to Wally World if you don’t want to wait!”

The man replied that there were four registers and only two employees, and an employee told him that one was a “dummy register.”

The customer then became downright rude: “That’s just what we need in here, a dummy! This is ridiculous! What’s wrong with you people?”

Then it  became more interesting. The other customer told him to SHUT UP, and said, “I’m fixin’ to show my true color in here: NE-GRO!” (Yes, this was the actual conversation!) They began arguing until the irate man finally was waited on, purchased his son’s video, and walked out (to everyone’s relief).  So much for southern gentlemen.

My sister turned to me and said out of the side of her mouth, “I wish I had a card to give that man and tell him to call me in four years so I can help him with his problems, when I’ll be a therapist!” (She’s enrolled in the master’s program now in psychology)

We both started laughing, but later we talked and wondered together: What was really going on in that man’s life to set him off like that? Nobody likes waiting in long lines. But he was obviously agitated about something more than a video store line!

One of the highlights of the trip that I have to tell you about was on my flight home. There was an older woman sitting beside me on the plane, and when the flight attendants gave us our snacks, she began a conversation with me in that lovely southern drawl: “Are you going somewhere for the holidays? Do you live in the south?” I explained I used to, and had been visiting my sister for her college graduation.

I found out several things about her as we had our conversation: she was on her way to visit her sister in Kansas City (she and her 2 sisters were going to rent a limo and ride around the Plaza!), but she lived in Georgia now; she had been married to a military man and they’d spent some time in Germany where he’d served in the army; her husband had died 14 years years ago; and she had moved to the south when her grown children moved to the Atlantic coast. She had two children, several grandchildren, and also several great-grandchildren.

“Life is short,” she told me wisely. “We should enjoy our families each and every day. And so many things depends on our attitude. We should have a good attitude, no matter what is going on in our lives, good or bad.”

I love these God-appointments!

I had noticed a device in her hands when I first sat beside her and asked her if it was a Kindle. It was an Ipad 2. I asked if her children had bought it for her and she said no, it had been a gift to herself and she started laughing.  She said she liked playing games on it.

Intrigued, I asked what games and jokingly asked if she played Angry Birds. (I’ve never played it, but have heard people talking about it online.)

To my surprise, she said she HAD played Angry Birds sometimes. Now I started laughing. But mostly she likes playing Solitaire and other games on it. She said that her great-grandson likes playing Angry Birds on it, too.

But what she really wants, she confided in me, was a  Kindle Fire. She then began telling me the features and benefits of it – you can download ebooks on it, watch movies and T.V. shows, listen to music, play games, have the internet on it, etc.

When this great-grandmother began sharing that you could get great apps on it, I thought I would scream laughing. Technology has taken the world by storm – even for your great-grandma!

It was good to go for a visit. Tune in tomorrow for more about my trip to the south. I want to share with you about my parents’ nearly 100-year-old home which I grew up in, and about the Crescent, my dream home. (Think of Ashley’s home in Gone With The Wind.)

I’m “fixin’” to go relax now.

Oh, I did bring home a little souvenir- I picked cotton from a cotton field to show Leah. It’s as soft as the ones in a package of cotton balls. (This amused Maria.)

cotton field, Valdosta, GA

cheese grits

What makes your mouth water? I’m so thankful that God provided for me to fly to Valdosta, GA this past week for my sister Maria’s college graduation. I told Maria before I came that while I was there, one of the must-do’s was eating fried fish!

I was born and raised in the south, then moved to Missouri and have lived here for over 20 years. I consider Missouri my home now.  But I  miss southern cooking, something I never really learned how to master (due to disliking too much time in the kitchen!). This might be a good thing, considering that nearly everything is deep fried!

My father Leland and his girlfriend Sandra used to have fish fries on weekends for us kids – talk about GOOD!  I was determined to taste fried fish and cheese grits again on this trip.

On the Saturday night of Maria’s graduation, she, her kids and I went out to eat at Ray’s MillPond (original restaurant there since 1950′s)…and we had a southern feast of fried catfish, cheese grits, hushpuppies, cole slaw, french fries, pickles…and alligator! Low-fat, low-sodium, low-carb it was not – but oh, it was delicious!

The restaurant offers interesting choices like gator tail, clam clowder, sweet potato slices, deviled crab dinner, Nile perch, raw oysters, and a “swamp combo” – a combination of catfish and gator.

Maria was in her element. She could eat fried fish every single day. What a great way to celebrate her big accomplishment!   Here she is at the restaurant – isn’t she beautiful?

My sis Maria

My nephew Nicholas wanted a plateful of the alligator. As the saying goes, fried alligator tastes like chicken…only sort of rubbery. Yes, I ate it and yes, it was good! Nicholas enjoyed every bite of it.

Nicholas was astounded that where I live, people don’t eat good old southern cooking every day. I explained that while Missouri has fried fish, it just doesn’t taste the same.

And the only cheese grits I’ve ever seen since I moved here are the ones which come in packages in the grocery store, like the sugary oatmeal.

My nephew Nicholas

As we enjoyed the meal together, Nicholas poked fun at me for not eating fish the “right way,” explaining, “Aunt Beth, we don’t eat fish with a fork! You just pick it up with your fingers and dig in. This is Georgia!” LOL. We both laughed.

I loved listening to the waitress talk with her southern drawl. “Dew yew want butter or cheese with yore grits?” she asked me.

“Want some more sweet tay (tea)?” she asked my sister.

Her deep accent was music to my soul.

I have missed hearing southern drawls since moving to Missouri. I have lived in the mid-west for over 20 years, and I still have a southern accent. I still say “y’all” and “I’m fixin’ to go to the store.”

Other than the Bible, Gone With The Wind is my favorite book (and movie) of all time and Scarlett O’Hara was my heroine growing up.

My sister says you can take the girl out of the south, but you can’t take the south out of the girl.

Fried catfish, cheese grits, and hushpuppies. These truly are the finer things in life!

Look for more stories about my trip to Georgia this week.

the fried alligator I ate at Ray's Millpond restaurant on my trip to Valdosta, GA

Heather is making scarves and hats as gifts for Christmas. Between working full-time as a teacher for a pre-school, parenting her two adorable girls Annabelle and Violet,  and household chores, Heather is having a hard time getting all her knitting projects completed by next Friday…so she decided she just needed to come to our house for us to have some “focused knitting time,” lol.

Leah just finished knitting a hat and wrist warmers, and is now working on a scarf. This week I am knitting a hat and tonight I worked on a scarf. We knit using the Knifty Knitter. It’s easy, relaxing, and fun.

As I shared with you this week, I just got back from my trip to Valdosta, Georgia, for my sister Maria’s college graduation. With God’s daily grace and help, Maria attended college full-time, while being a single mom of 3 kids, working full-time as a bookkeeper, and made dean’s list each semester. I am so proud of her! She is now enrolled in the masters’ program in psychology, which will take her about two years to complete.

Whenever I hear people say, “I can’t do that!”, I think of my sister and say to them, “Oh yes, you can! Look at what my sister just did!”

Have you heard the expression, Can’t never could?  When you are tempted to think I can’t, remember the story The Little Engine that Could. The little steam engine thought as he went up the steep hill (which looked impossible to climb), “I think I can, I think I can!”  and he did it.

With God’s help, you can do it! Nothing is impossible with God.

What looks impossible to you right now? What do you feel you can’t do? What dream do you have in your heart that you wonder if it will ever come true? Remember the little engine. Remember my sister Maria. You can do it! I am here cheering you on.

*****

Need an extra dose of encouragement and motivation for the new year, with some practical, take-action-now steps? Check out my Virtual Spiritual Spa, beginning in January 2012. Click here to learn more.

The key to “balance,” or as my friend Coach Kate Powers likes to say, “harmony,” is doing what really matters.

In the story of Jesus having dinner with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus (Luke 10:42), Martha became frustrated because she was busy getting things ready for the meal and her sister Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet. In Martha’s eyes, Mary was “wasting time.” But Jesus rebuked Martha and told her that Mary had chosen the one necessary thing on her “to do” list, the part that would not be taken away from her. I.e., Mary was doing what really matters.

When we take time each day to spend time at Jesus’ feet, God will give us the wisdom, direction and strength we need each day for our lives and for our business. He will help us to balance all we have to do. Jesus understands how hectic it can be. Look at all He did in a single day ~ taught His disciples, healed the multitudes, did miracles, delivered the oppressed! He knew how important it was to set time aside with God for his business.

God is the best business consultant or coach there is! After all, it’s HIS business.

Your business is a gift to the world to help others and glorify God. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” ~ James 1:17, NIV

Find out what God wants you to do in your business for the coming year. Set aside a day to spend time with Him with your Sharpie pen and paper, your laptop, your Daytimer and/or calendar. Let God help you plan your year. Each day in 2012, come to God first. Sit at Jesus’ feet and let Him speak to your heart about your business, what His agenda is for you that day. Then you will see great success when you walk in obedience to Him!

“If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land.” Isaiah 1:19, NIV

My sister Maria at her college graduation with her kids

TA DA!

I just returned from a 5-day trip to Valdosta, Georgia, for my younger sister Maria’s college graduation. Before I left for the trip, I also just purchased a new website theme (the Genesis Lifestyle Theme) and hired wonderful website designer Linda Hernestal da Silva of Work at Home Balance to redesign my website. What do you think?

Some of you may be wondering if I am like Aretha Franklin – I Can’t Get No Satisfaction – since I just recently changed my theme!

Although I was very pleased with the outsource work someone did for me to add pages and categories to my site last time, I was NOT happy at all with the new theme I had installed. It didn’t turn out the way I had expected. I didn’t want to act like a pouty, spoiled rotten child. I tried for weeks to be content and happy about it, but it just wasn’t there!

It’s a good thing I hadn’t spent a lot of money on the theme! After seeking others’ counsel about what to do – just live with it? find another theme? – I decided to go with my gut instincts and find another Genesis theme I really liked, and hire a professional website designer for a fresh new look. That way I wouldn’t have to be aggravated with the tech aspects of it and it would be worth it all by the time she was finished! It was the right decision. Go with your gut! And take advantage of outsourcing for your business!

I don’t just like this Genesis Lifestyle theme and new design ~ I LOVE it!!! My favorite color is green, and I really LOVE the new graphic I purchased from Istock (on the left side of the header at the top of this page -the woman in the green chair with her laptop and a blue coffee cup).

Our daughter Leah tweaked the graphic for me with her graphic art program to look more like me ~ putting highlights in her hair like mine has, changing her blue eyes to green-brown hazel like mine, changing her pink shoes’ color to blue ~ and even adding some weight to her, lol, at my request (the cartoon graphic was a lot thinner than me, but I am working on losing weight. I’ve even hired a health coach to help me!). Leah did a great job with the graphic.

I love the relaxed, comfortable appearance of the woman in the chair in her jeans, with her laptop and coffee, and I want you to feel relaxed and comfortable here, too ~ like having a good, hot cup of coffee with a friend, sharing together about the great things God is doing in our lives!

Linda redesigned my header with Leah’s finished product of the Istock graphic. We removed my blog’s previous name Tablet Of My Heart from the header, to use my name for the site for branding purposes.

I also created a new tagline which I brainstormed about with several of my precious online friends (thank you, girlfriends!), Equipping Women to hear God’s voice, unlock their gifts, and pursue their passion. What do you think of the tagline? The site’s new look?

Linda did an incredible job with this redesign, going “above and beyond” the job. I am so happy and excited about it!

She also gave me great tips for reorganizing the site to improve its appearance, so you may find things a little different around here (but much easier to find!).

Linda is efficient, professional, and fun to work with ~ and very reasonably priced ~ so I highly recommend her for a website design. Be sure to check out her services for website design as well as coaching at Work at Home Balance, and tell her hi for me! Getting a new design for your website is as fun as going shopping for clothes at Kohl’s!

I have much to tell you about my Georgia trip and pictures to share with you, but meanwhile I wanted to surprise you with the new redesign. Only my family and a couple of friends knew about it…and I was about to bust to tell you!

I also have some exciting ideas for 2012, which I can’t wait to share with you soon. I’d love to hear from you about your plans for Christmas and for 2012.

Are you traveling for Christmas or staying home? Having family and friends over or going to someone else’s house? Ray, Leah and I and Heather and her family are all meeting at our daughter Eden’s house this year, which will be different (usually we have Christmas here). I still have shopping to do! :O  What about you?

What do you want 2012 to be like?

Have you written out your goals and dreams or do you choose an annual theme? Have you made your bucket list? What are some of the things that are in your heart to do?

What did you accomplish in 2011? What haven’t you accomplished yet that you would like to do?

What do you need to prune and leave behind in 2011?

What lessons did you learn?

What good things did God do for you? What prayers did He answer?

Please share your answers in the comments below. I have missed you! I was so happy to see my sister Maria and her kids and my family in Georgia ~ and to eat delicious southern fried catfish, cheese grits, and hushpuppies again! ~ but it’s good to be back!

“For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” ~ Isaiah 43: 19, NLT

Karen wants to give women HOPE. Life is too short to be stuck in your past. She also wants every woman to know God has exciting plans for them and desires to encourage women to step out and fulfill those plans.>
Karen is a globally-minded woman. She offers her services by telephone, Skype/webcam, and webinar. She also hosts her own weekly live call-in counseling radio show. Karen facilitates workshops, speaks, and writes. Karen has authored Even With My Knees Knocking I will Follow God’s Call, and will be releasing her upcoming book, UnHooked! 7 Steps to Emotional Freedom, in December 2011.
Karen and her husband, Simon, also provide marriage counseling services. You can learn more at www.walktogethermarriage.com. They are also on staff as Pastors of Counselling and Care at Prince Rupert Fellowship Baptist Church, in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Karen and Simon are the parents of two adult children, Angela and Dean. They also have two grandchildren, Kale and Paiton-Jade.
We’d love to see you there for the show – and bring a friend!

Kimberly Ehlers

• Perfectionism and your child’s health – 2 big bumps that throw our Christmas off course
• What a joyful Christmas really is and practical tips to having one
• Centering our Christmas on Christ.

Come and be encouraged!
You can join Kimberly at Blog Talk Radio Thursday by clicking this link.
Or you can into the show with the Blog Talk Radio details below:
Call in number to speak with the host:
(646) 716-4375
I can’t wait and will see you there!

Video of Women Entrepreneurs and Powerful Tools

The hardest kind of change, though, is within ourselves. The apostle Paul was reading my mail when he wrote:
“And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.I want to do what is right, but I can’t.I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.
I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
I am clearly reminded of this passage when Ray or our daughter Leah comments after I am easily irritated about something, or when I get impatient because the intersection light is being slow to turn green, or I can’t wear last year’s pants because I have gained more weight this year from lack of discipline, instead of losing weight like I wanted.
Daily fountains of grace
As Victor Frankl said, we are challenged to change ourselves.  Really, it’s impossible; we can’t do it ourselves.  Instead, daily we have to go to the foot of the Cross and cry out for grace and help and strength.
Daily we have to admit to God, “I can’t do what is right! Please help me!” Daily we have to bow before Jesus and whisper that we messed up – again, when yesterday we had such good intentions for doing was right today.
I am thankful that while I can’t change myself, God’s Spirit in me is able to transform me “from glory to glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
The one thing that never changes
I am also thankful that although seasons come and go in our lives, and although our mirrored reflection  may change throughout the years, one thing never changes – the love, mercy, and help of God.
“For I am the Lord; I change not.” – Malachi 3:16
“Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.” James 1:17, NLT
“For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” – Psalm 100:5
Image Resource: Image: phanlop88 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Want to learn more about living a passion-filled, purpose-full life? Sign up for my January 2012 Coaching Class/Book Study, Stepping Stones to Your Purpose and Passion. Just click here.

We had her birthday party at Aaron’s Family Fun Center in Belton, where the youth could bowl and the little kids could play games in the arcade. I rented two lanes for 10 kids for an hour. We don’t bowl that often as a family. This was the first time Leah got a strike, so she was excited about that.

When the time for the paid bowling was up, Leah’s friends said they wanted to bowl more. It would’ve been $42 more, but I talked to the manager, reminding him that we already had spent a lot of money there, renting the lanes and ordering 3 pizzas and two pitchers of soda. God gave me favor and the manager agreed to let them bowl 30 more minutes free.

Some of the boys who came to the party became quite competitive: Nicholas, Aaron, and David. I was beginning to wonder if it was going to turn into a bloody gladiator game. What is it about sports and male testosterone? Here to the left is Nicholas bowling. I thought it was a good picture of him in action.

Ray was bowling in the other lane. He had playfully joined the little kids and joked that little Abi (6 years old, I think) kept throwing the ball hard, getting strikes and beating him.

I didn’t have time to bowl. I was running around the bowling alley, ordering pepperoni  pizzas for all the ravenous teens and making sure they had drinks and snacks. After the party and Ray’s parents drove back to Arkansas, I collapsed in bed for two days from exhaustion. :O

Here are Heather and Kyle playing a game in the arcade…or is it really playing? They are both very competitive, too.

Heather is like me – she loves winning and hates to lose any game. :O
You can see the determination on Heather’s face in the picture, lol.

I had ordered Leah’s cake from the local bakery. Leah is an incredible artist, so she and I picked out a cake  with an artist palette on it, which was really cute and so Leah-ish! They did a good job on it (both decoration and taste!).

 





Ray’s dad took some great pics for us with his camera. Here was a gorgeous one of Heather. Ray says it looks very Aubrey Hepburn-ish. I love the stark blue background, too. This is not an edited picture.

 





Here are our three beautiful daughters, Leah, Eden and Heather.

 



Eden works at a bakery, making cupcakes each morning. She also has a side business baking cupcakes. She made some for Leah’s party – eggnog, mint, chocolate, banana. They turned out pretty. She’s having fun with her cupcake business.

 
The little kids loved the arcade. Here is Ray, putting in another dollar to get our grandson Jacob coins to play more games. Jacob ran all over the bowling alley, tried all the games, and had a blast. Eden, her fiance’ Dalton, and Heather chased after him all night.

 





Here are Leah and her friends watching the bowling.I think they like having their picture taken as much as Leah does.

 





One of the gifts Leah asked us to get her was a warm, soft bathrobe. (We also got her some snow boots, a set of Ipod earphones, a new watch, and a silver snowflake necklace with 1/4 diamond in it.) Leah’s friends teased her that she could fashionably wear her robe with her new snowboots.  I love seeing her smile and laugh like this.

 



Ray’s parents, Charles and Sue Jones, drove in from Arkansas to help celebrate Leah’s birthday. They’ve been visiting us since Thursday.  I am not well-known for my culinary abilities so when guests come, I have to actually think of decent meals to cook. :O On Sunday after church, I crashed in bed, asking Ray to please feed his parents my home-made potato soup that I had fixed for them on Thursday night.

As he was dipping some in a bowl for his dad, the bowl fell off the countertop onto the floor, and the soup splattered everywhere. Ray hurriedly cleaned it up before I woke up and saw it, screaming. :O  His dad told me about it later, laughing, when I asked if they got enough to eat for lunch. He said things hadn’t exactly gone according to plan.

Here is a picture of his parents. (Don’t worry, on Sunday I cooked for them again. They didn’t go home hungry.)

All of us had a good time at Leah’s party. I was so blessed to see her having fun with her family and friends. Here is Leah with her friend Nicole. Nicole has been a great friend to her, as well as her sisters and brother.

 








Here is Leah opening some of her gifts.

 







Here is a pic of her with her friend Kinsey. Leah had a great birthday. Thanks to everyone who helped make that possible.

Leah, I hope you had a happy birthday. We love you so much!

Be sure to cherish the moments with your kids. They fly by.
“And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.”(Mark 10:13-16 ESV)

This week families and friends across America will gather to celebrate a delicious Thanksgiving feast: turkey and ham, green bean casserole, squash, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables, and an assortment of home-made pies and other mouth-watering desserts. They will say a prayer of thankfulness, like the Plymouth colonists did, giving thanks to God for their safe voyage to America and for a good harvest.

It’s good to have an attitude of thankfulness on not just one day of the year, but every day. God gives us daily abundant blessings, but many times we take them for granted: such as things not available in Third World nations, like clean water and clean air, food, indoor plumbing, freedom of speech and press.

Be thankful for the little things
God also blesses our lives with our families, friends, good health, a job or a home business, and many other blessings. Sometimes it is the simplest things which are the greatest blessings, like your child’s laugh or talking to a friend on the phone.

An ungrateful attitude makes you an unpleasant person who nobody wants to be around. It also seems to draw more negativity in your life, maybe because that is what you are focusing on.

But a thankful attitude releases more of God’s goodness and favor in our lives. As parents, we delight in a child who shows a thankful attitude for what we give them. (Luke 17:11-19)

A Gratitude Journal
A good practice to help us cultivate an attitude of thankfulness is through a gratitude journal. Each day record things for which you’re thankful. It can be as simple as a good, hot cup of coffee, being able to go for a morning walk or run, or having a good laptop to run your business. It can also be miracles God does, like a physical healing or a sudden money miracle (which I have seen God do!). A great resource on the topic of thankfulness is Ann Voskamp’s incredible book One Thousand Gifts.

Be Thankful for Answered Prayers
You can also record answered prayer in a journal – the date when God answered it, and how He did it. What great things has God done in and through your business and family this year? Write them down and share them with others. You might even start a tradition at Thanksgiving of having family members share before they eat the big meal what they’re thankful for this year or sharing excerpts from your “answered prayers” journal. This creates a special, holy atmosphere that ushers in God’s presence. God’s glory is manifest where there’s praise. (Revelation 5:12)

God’s book about you
Did you know that God notes your thankfulness and writes down when you share about the great things He does in a Book of Remembrance?

“Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another,and the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him, For those who fear the LORD and who meditate on His name.” (Malachi 3:16, NKJV)

You’ll discover as you begin to observe and to be more aware of God’s blessings in your life, that soon you can’t write them down or praise Him fast enough. The blessings will overflow in your life, and you will experience great joy. Even in hard times, you will notice the good things from God.

Have a blessed, thankful Thanksgiving and year.

• Jesus Christ was suffered with beatings, torture, and crucifixion.
• Historians believe that Peter was one of the founders of church at Rome and was crucified in the Neronian persecution in A.D. 67, 68 – according to historians, requesting to be crucified head-first because he didn’t feel worthy to die in the same manner as his master.
• Andrew, after preaching in Scythia in Greece, in Asia Minor and Thrace, was said by historians to have been crucified at Patrae in Achaia.
• James the son of Zebedee was put to death by Herod Agrippa I, the day before Passover.
• Matthew-there is reason to believe that he stayed for fifteen years at Jerusalem, after which he went as missionary to the Persians, Parthians and Medes. There is a legend that he died a martyr in Ethiopia.
• Jude (Thaddeus) – according to tradition, Jude taught in Armenia, Syria and Persia, where he was martyred.
• Thomas was martyred in Persia or India, his death said to be from spears.
• James, son of Alpheus, according to tradition, was thrown from the temple by the scribes and Pharisees, stoned, and his brain dashed out by a fuller’s club.
• The details of three of the apostles’ deaths (John, Bartholomew, and Simon the Canaanite) are not known at all. According to tradition from early Christian historians and the Bible, eight of the disciples died as martyrs.

An eternal difference: Your life has a higher purpose than just living for you
This is not the happiness club! Yet they were life-changers and history-makers. Their lives made an eternal difference because they lived for a higher purpose than just  living for themselves.
God wants you to be happy
God wants you and me to be happy and fulfilled, just as we want our children to be happy. He didn’t create us to be miserable creatures, depressed, bewildered, angry, stressed out and upset all the time. He wants to give us the joy of our salvation, which is our strength (Psalm 51:12, Nehemiah 8:10) and to fill our mouth with laughter and our lips with shouts of joy (Job 8:21). Our happiness and joy come from our close relationship with, and serving, God and others.
Reaching for the Stars
Sometimes we are always “reaching for the stars,” chasing new shiny objects, seeking that ever-elusive “happiness” because we think happiness is “out there” somewhere, when happiness is right in front of us – in the faces of our beautiful children, in the conversation we’re having with our spouse right now, in a beautiful sunset or the colored fall leaves, in simply being alive.
>Don’t wait until later to be happy
Life is a precious gift from God. Each morning we arise, there should be a prayer of thanks in our hearts ascending to God, that He’s given us a new day to live and to glorify Him…and to be happy now, not later.
It’s right in front of you
Let’s not get so caught up in trying to find happiness through our own pleasure or entertainment, success in career, business or ministry, more money or material goods, or accomplished to-do tasks that we neglect to enjoy the moment of happiness right now before us.
“If only we’d stop trying to be happy, we’d have a pretty good time.”- Edith Wharton

My coaching group for Christian business owners is back!  It’s beginning in January 2012 – a virtual spiritual spa. This class will include one-on-one, personal time with me for prayer, “anointing” time, and life-giving fellowship.

It also will give you the stepping stones to fulfill your purpose and to pursue your passion, for God’s glory.

This coaching group is online via Talkshoe and lasts six weeks long. It is every Tuesday at 11 am Central Time. We will cover Katie Brazelton’s book, Pathway to Purpose for Women.

We start the first class on Tuesday, January 10, 2012. I invite you to join us for this virtual retreat.

Right now you can get the early bird special. After the holidays, the price goes up. To find out more, just click here.

This was an excellent, anointed show. Andrea’s teaching is for today’s busy woman in mind: “I can only do 4 things at once!”

We always need the “spiritual” in our lives (God’s presence, His word), but we also need practical help for our hectic lives.
Andrea gives you real-life tools using the acronym PACE to help you juggle your to-do list and schedule.

I encourage you to listen to the replay and/or download it to your computer to listen to later at your convenience.

Andrea spoke straight to my heart about getting your priorities straight. She also told a funny story about a Bunco game, which had me laughing so hard. You will love it!

Just click here for the replay (Episode #22, on November 10, 2012.

It’s the first episode at the top of the page and in past episodes).

******************************

Guest post by:  Jennifer Bennett

• Austen desired to find her one true love
• Parents and society had their own thoughts on how they felt Austen should live her life
• Many people within her society felt that money was the answer and in turn, would bring happiness
• Austen had dreams of writing, but yet she had those “dream killers” in her life who felt that those dreams were a waste of time
• Austen dealt with rejection
• Austen dealt with doubt
• Austen questioned what her purpose was

Who are you becoming?
As I sat on my couch watching this movie, I couldn’t help but focus in on the title, “Becoming Jane”. This movie clearly portrays Jane Austen becoming who she was created to be. As I continued watching, I kept asking myself, “Jen, who are you becoming?” As I look back on my life and the many experiences I have lived through, whether good or bad, I can’t help but see the hand of God guiding and leading me into becoming the person that He has created me to be. He has always led me onto the path that He desired me to be on. He has always had a plan for me. He is good.
So, with these thoughts, I can’t help but ask you, who are you becoming? If there were a movie written about your life and who it is that you became, what would the movie portray?
I have found that in life, we must continually ask ourselves these questions because if we don’t, before we know it life will have passed us by and we will be looking back wondering what we did with the time that was given to us.
The truth of the matter is that each and every one of us has been given a gift, a gift to share with the world. Jane Austen had the gift of writing that she went after regardless of what came her way. And you my friend, you too have a gift, a gift that the world desperately needs you to fulfill. A gift that God wants to see you live into.
Don’t listen to the dream killers
>So today, spend some time reflecting on who you are, what have you been called to and who are you becoming? And if there one piece of advice that I can give you it is this: Just like Austen, you too will encounter the “dream killers” in your life; those people who feel as though they know best and what it is that you should be doing with your life. They will criticize the steps you take and many times, the words you speak. Today let me say; do not listen to them. Remember, you are here to please one and quite honestly, if He approves of you, why worry about winning the approval of others? If He called you, He will enable you!
Remember, if you fail to live into the calling that has been placed on your life, the world will be at a loss. Don’t waste another day my friend, the world is waiting!
Believing in You!
Jen
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As a wife, mom, life coach, educator,writer and speaker, Jen can best be described as a normal everyday woman who loves Jesus and wants nothing more than to live a life of significance and purpose.  God has blessed her with multiple opportunities to inspire and equip students and women to live out their Soul Mission; becoming who God has uniquely created them to be! For over 15 years, Jen has had the opportunity to empower others to:

• go deeper into understanding God’s purpose for their life
• gain a deeper understanding of their gifts, strengths, values, and passions
• live life with a clearer picture of who they are and what direction God wants them to walk in
• have an understanding of where they “fit” in this world

Nothing excites Jen more than to see students and women living out their unique purpose, calling, and Soul Mission!  It is her joy to help them discover their individual shape and in turn, help them reach their full potential. If you (or someone you know) are ready to enhance your quality of life, move forward, and become God’s best, then contact Jen Today! She wants to help you achieve greater success! Contact Jen at: jen@mysoulmission.org
For more information about what Jennifer offers, be sure to go to:
align=”center”>www.mysoulmission.org

Krista Dunk

Just a few more days until BreakThrough – Breakthrough Conference, that is. My sweet friend Krista Dunk has put together an amazing virtual conference with anointed speakers (she is one of them!). This conference is only $12! $12 – are you kidding me? You can bet I am already signed up!

“For by You I can run against a troop, By my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” -Psalm 18:29-30

God has dreams for His people. There is a special place for you within His purposes, plans and body. He has designed you for victory. You don’t need to be hindered anymore. He has pre-established certain things that are to be yours. It’s time for Breakthrough – physically, spiritually, financially, emotionally.

So, what has He established for you? And do you want it all?

Breakthrough Conference is a virtual women’s ministry conference. Every evening, for one week, you can attend this life-changing conference via your computer (webinar) and hear breakthrough teaching and powerful testimonies from your home, church or office. Get great teaching, inspiration and revelation without any travel or babysitting costs.

Although we love lace and tea, this is not your average women’s ministry event! Through powerful main conference sessions and vital breakout sessions, women will learn must-know spiritual growth information. Your breakthrough is on its way…

To learn more info, just click here.

It will cultivate a grateful heart and keep you from feeling discouraged, unhappy, envious, or frustrated. As you reflect on God’s goodness, your heart will overflow with joy. It is like the stone memorials the patriarchs of our faith, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, built as altars to remember God and His promises, and to worship Him for His goodness and protection over them.

One of the things I am so thankful to God for is the anointed, powerful women of God He has brought across my path this year. I consider them dear friends now, even though I’ve never met any of them IRL (in real life).Eight women shared their stories in my ebook, The Hands Of a Woman: Everyday Women In Everyday Battles.

I interviewed most of these women on Talkshoe, and you can listen to them at no cost to you by clicking here. You will be blessed and inspired by their amazing stories of their greatest spiritual battles.

You can also listen to other women who share their touching, powerful stories on my Women’s Battles Talkshoe show, again as my free gift to you by clicking here.

To find out more information about my ebook, just click here.

My next Talkshoe special guest is Andrea Sharp of Sharp Women, on November 10 at 2:30 p.m. Central Time. She will be sharing on the topic, I Can Only Do Four Things at Once. I can’t wait to hear this one!

We’d love to see you in the chat room here! You can join us here or call in with the details below:

Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 98698
PIN: 1# or Your Talkshoe PIN #

Get Ready for DESTINY!

Are you ready for a tremendous move of God IN and THROUGH your life?

Women of Destiny 2012

Are you ready for a tremendous move of God IN and THROUGH your life?

The Women of Destiny Conference/Cruise 2012 is a launching place for that move! Come join us for a powerful life changing encounter with God.

The Women of Destiny Conference is going to catapult women into the fullness of who God has called them to be, it will also equip them in knowing their purpose so they can fulfill their Destiny.

The 3 days of conference on this beautiful, 5-night cruise will feature dynamic morning prayer, anointed praise and worship services followed by life changing ministry sessions presented by powerful speakers and workshop teachers.

I am so excited to tell you that I have been invited to be one of the speakers at this anointed conference! My husband Ray is planning to go with me, too. He has always wanted to go on a cruise to the Bahamas. He and I would love to meet you there!

The Women of Destiny Conference/Cruise is family oriented so husbands and children are welcome to attend. There will be a special breakout session for men and young men presented by Deeper Waters Men’s Ministry, as well as a special breakout session for teen and collegiate girls presented by our Well Watered Woman Teen Ministry.

For younger children Carnival Cruiseline has a wonderful children’s program, so moms can relax and enjoy knowing their kids are safe and having lots of fun. If you are single and/or traveling alone, we will do our best to pair you with a roommate. This cruise will certainly have something for everyone!

The Women of Destiny 2012 cruise is also a time of refreshing, rejuvenation and vacation. There will be plenty of free time to enjoy the plethora of on board activities and the magnificent and breathtaking beauty of the Bahamas. With ports of call in the beautiful and exotic Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay and Nassau, you will find an abundance of fun, activities, and excursions to take in. Your time off the ship is sure to be as amazing as your time aboard.

Click HERE to visit the Official Women of Destiny 2012 site. (Be sure to reference my name, Beth Jones, when purchasing a cruise ticket or tickets.)

Calling all leaders
Are you a pastor, co-pastor or leader of a woman’s ministry? If you or your ministry are interested in bringing a group of women to the Women of Destiny 2012 Conference/Cruise, Well Watered Woman Ministry’s staff can help you.

There is a limited number of GROUPS LEADER POSITIONS available! Well Watered Woman Ministry’s staff would love to show you how to put a group together. Leadership has its privileges. Find out what you can receive by becoming a group leader.

Contact Tony Robinson at: groups@wellwateredwomanconference.com for more information and group leader packets, being sure to reference my name Beth Jones.

See you on the ship!

When I was thinking yesterday about people’s addiction to Facebook, that song and the title of this blog post came to mind. Today when I went on YouTube to find the video, I laughed when I watched it – so 80′s.  Just replace the word “Love” in the song with “Facebook.”

“Might as well face it…you’re addicted to Facebook.”

But addiction to Facebook can be serious. It can be like a black hole that sucks you into it for hours, stealing your time and consuming your life. It can get out of control and keep you from fulfilling your purpose. One writer friend of mine is having trouble finishing her new book because she says she is spending too much time on Facebook and is becoming distracted with other things.

Another precious friend Susan Evans wrote a blog post about her addiction to Facebook that you may enjoy called Scared of Facebook.

Of course, Susan was using it to minister to other women. But at night when her husband wanted her to watch t.v. with him at night, she was on Facebook, counseling women. She said she was prioritizing helping women over spending time with her husband. Susan said God unplugged her for the summer and she had Facebook addiction withdrawals. She didn’t know what to do with all that time she’d been spending on Facebook. She missed checking on her friends and helping women.

Susan started a fresh account after a year with a promise to her husband that it wouldn’t get out of hand again. But Susan says she is scared she can’t keep that promise. She told herself when she got up in the morning and had her coffee, praying, that she would not get on Facebook before she was done praying. But she felt an irresistible urge to get on Facebook and she started praying faster so she could get on it.

Susan is so funny to me (she’s so real!), but I realize it can be a serious problem, an idol. She prayed to God to help her with this problem, and He’s helping  her to maintain a balance with it. She has more energy, is more efficient in homeschooling and with her business, and gets more done now by staying off the computer.

What about you? Can you live without Facebook?

My speaker/writer/coach friend Rochelle Valasek has a laptop that crashed and no longer works. She’s shopping for a new one now. I called her yesterday to say hi and just to check on her. I told Shelley that I thought I would cry if mine tore up. I asked her how she’s running her business without being online.  She admitted it isn’t easy and she has cried some, but has found that she can survive – and even keep her sanity – without daily doses of Facebook. She does pop in once awhile on her husband’s computer to just check in with friends. But she can live without it.

Some people choose to have a Facebook or social media fast. They deliberately unplug for a day, a few days, a week – or like Susan, a year, to get their priorities straight. They learn that, if necessary, they can live without it…at least for awhile.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg says over 250 million people worldwide use Facebook. It’s not going away. But we can learn to set limits with it and not let it become an addiction and/or idol in our lives, replacing God.

Here’s 5 clues to tell if you have a Facebook addiction:

• You lose sleep over Facebook, staying up until 3 a.m. on it and then are too tired the next morning to be useful to anyone.
• You spend more than an hour a day on it. Here’s the thing. Social networking isn’t more fulfilling than real life. If it is, it’s time to reevaluate your life.
• You become obsessed with old loves, “just friending” an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend….and soon are meeting him or her for a lunch date. Trouble!
• You ignore work in favor of Facebook.  You sneak onto Facebook when your boss or co-workers aren’t looking. It’s so much more interesting than work!
• The thought of leaving Facebook leaves you in a cold sweat. Virtual reality is your reality. Sad.

“Our Facebook, who art in heaven…”
I would add one more. Do you check Facebook before praying to God in the morning?

Facebook Don’t's – Please!
Some people use Facebook like a to-do list checklist: “Fixed blueberry pancakes for my luv this a.m.  Organized my drawers. Need to stop by drycleaners, then buy groceries. Going to party 2nite, woot!”

Others use it as a public platform for airing family or relationship problems to create drama: “My husband is SUCH a jerk sometimes!”, “Anyone want my wife for sale?”, “Some people are SOOO selfish and immature! I’m through with Bryan, 4 good!” or “It must be nice to have parents and siblings that really care about you. I’m so jealous.”

Worse are couples on Facebook who show PDA pictures or update their statuses or comment to each other as if they are alone and not on a public forum. “Baby, you are so hot!” or “My wife makes me feel like a real man! I love when she kisses my ear!” provoke a reaction from family and friends like, “Get a room!” or “Ugh! Please, TMI!” Yet how many people are going to their Facebook walls just to see what they’re saying to each other today?

There’s also the people who seem to have disappeared from their Facebook for months or even a year, then suddenly one day they are creepily commenting on your wall, “LOL!” or “Yeah, I was comparing the Evo and the Iphone, too!” Are they just stalking you and everyone? It’s unnerving.

Others with little wisdom take pics of themselves and friends drunk or high, or text drunken or stoned messages to post as their status updates – which their employers or potential employers can see – and use against them. (Yes, I’m talking about some Christians!) And some people can’t get enough of this type of activity…Facebook is popular because it leverages people’s nosiness. How else would you find out what your family members or friends are doing every day?

Other people use Facebook to stalk business competitors, to see what they’re up to this week and then copy whatever they’re doing, claiming it as their own, or improving upon it. Last week on a marketing call I attended, a woman was concerned that her products or services would be “copied” by others, and I assured her that it probably will be – and to remember that imitation is the highest form of flattery.

The other extreme is saying Facebook is the anti-christ and that you’re not using it at all because it is plain evil.

Moderation and balance are the key.
Don’t let Facebook consume your life; really live in your real world!

We use Facebook for a variety of reasons. It is a wonderful invention, but it can’t consume our lives. We need to live in our own real world, loving the people in our lives and really living.

Social media was created to enhance life, not replace it. Evaluate how much time you are spending on Facebook (or Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social media sites), as well as your purpose for using it.

Use good Facebook etiquette. Practice wisdom. Be kind. If you’re wondering if you should post something, don’t. You don’t want that one comment you made when you were angry going viral. Why do people feel compelled to say rude things on Facebook when they wouldn’t do this face to face with someone?

Create firm boundaries with your time on it; if necessary, use a kitchen timer to set limits for yourself so that you’re not neglecting yourself, your family, and your daily tasks/work. If you find you can’t control it, get counseling help with accountability. Like any other addiction, there is no shame in admitting it’s become bigger than you and you need others’ intervention. We know Facebook CEO Mark wants us addicted to it…he’s getting richer from the more it grows. But what is richer in life than real-life, flesh-and-blood family and friends?

Facebook can be your global platform
Facebook is an incredible tool which we can use today to keep in contact with family and friends, especially in other states or even across the world. It enlarges your territory to give you a greater sphere of influence for God. It is phenomenal for growing your business. My friend and coach Diane says that 90% to 95% of her business comes from Facebook.

Facebook can be a blessing in your life. I have met amazing women of God through Facebook and Twitter, and am so thankful to God for it. It can also be used as a great evangelism tool. You can now have a global platform to share God’s good news with others in the U.S. and countries across the world.

But let your magificent obsession be God, not Facebook. Be addicted to Him, who is TRUE love.

>***Want to find out more about spending time with God? Check out my 7-audio, quiet time devotional series. Just click here.
Image Resource: Image: Kittikun Atsawintarangkul / FreeDigitalPhotos.net>

“Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” – Genesis 1:3

It’s what is possibly IN the night or dark that could hurt or kill them which causes people to fear: the bogeyman, a monster, a ghost, BigFoot, Satan, or whatever creature of terror looms largely in their minds.

Fear breeds more fear. When we allow ourselves to be ruled by fear, it can take over our whole lives, stealing our peace and our joy. For example, a new mother may be terrified that her newborn baby’s cold will develop into life-threatening pneumonia, when the baby simple has a runny nose that only lasts a few days without serious effects.

Or a woman may fear that her “baby” – her business or her new product launch – may fail, that no one will come to her Facebook party, or that everyone will focus on the mistake she made in her video for that page.

Fear doesn’t come from God. He doesn’t want us afraid, because it’s the opposite of faith. Instead of a spirit of fear, He’s given us a spirit of love, power, and of sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Fear takes away our power and weakens us. Fear can steal our big dreams. It can thwart our God-given purpose. It can immobilize us and keep us stuck, from moving forward into the wonderful destiny God has for us.

Like a fear of the dark, or the scary Frankenstein or monster plastic mask that children wear on Halloween night, it is not realistic, but it has real consequences in our lives: a delayed or stopped purpose. A destiny on hold. A dream that dies within us when we die, because we were too afraid to step out in faith.

I’ll be sharing about fear and its consequences – and how you can push past fear to achieve your dreams and succeed – in my workshop on November 5. Don’t let fear keep you from the big plan God has for your life (Jeremiah 29:11). Learn in this workshop to move past those fears that are trying to keep you from your greatness. Join us for an hour of encouragement and motivation November 5, at 11 a.m. CST. Click here to find out more info and secure your spot.
Image Resource: Image: zirconicusso / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A Prayer For True Womanliness
O LORD Grant
That I may be always virginal in spirit,
surrendered to Christ in all things.
That I may know the joy of true motherhood,
giving saints to God.
That I may be a woman of love, radiant
with the Charity of Christ.
That I may be a woman of silence,
creating tranquility and peace about me.
That I may be a woman of purity, veiling
my womanliness in modesty.
That I may be a woman of understanding,
encouraging and helpful in counsel.
That I may be a woman of tears,
compassionate for a suffering world.
That I may be a woman of laughter,
bringing joy and hope to all around me.
That I may be a woman of generosity,
giving of my own without measure.
That I may be a woman of patience,
answering with gentleness and love.
That I may be a woman of tenderness,
shielding the sensitive, consoling
the sorrowful.
That I may be a woman of hospitality,
making welcome the poor, the lonely,
the weary.
That I may be a woman of prayer, seeking
my strength in God.
That I may have the heart of an apostle,
drawing all those around me to Christ.

Well, I think I have some work cut out for me this week!

Our youngest daughter Leah

She and I were talking about balance:  taking care of your family, grocery shopping, doing errands, and other daily tasks, while successfully running a business.She has been busy with taking her kids to parties, buying groceries and going on a date with her man, and wasn’t sure if she would be able to do an online workshop like she wanted to this month or next. She wondered how others “do it all.”

>Here is what I shared with her today: “Your family can’t be replaced. I have many, many regrets over lost, wasted time, being too busy at times and not savoring precious moments with my kids…now our youngest is almost grown. Workshops can wait….just remember your priorities, do the next thing God says to do, one step at a time, and don’t compare yourself with others who seem to be “doing it all”…you are beautiful, uniquely you. Also, “doing it all” is just an illusion.”

We have a limited window of time with our children while they are still at home. Empty nest comes all too soon. Truly they grow up in a blink of the eye. I don’t believe that God wants mothers to put their entire lives on hold when they have children, making their kids the center of their lives, never taking time for themselves, finding hobbies, getting more training or education, or finding out who they really are besides a mom. In those cases where the woman revolves her whole life around her children, when the kids grow up the mother is completely lost, having a major identity crisis.

I have a friend in this situation right now. She has always been a stay at home mom and homeschooled her children, and now her kids have flown the nest – and her husband moved out when they did, saying he doesn’t want to be married to her anymore. “Beth, what am I supposed to do now?” she asked me recently. “I don’t know what to do!” She needs to find out who she really is, apart from being a wife and a mother. God created her for a great purpose.

>What I am saying, though, is to not let time pass without cherishing your time with your kids. Make sure you spend time each day with them and let them know how much you love them. Take time out for your marriage, before your kids grow up and you’re facing a stranger across the kitchen table with nothing in common and nothing to talk about.

>Don’t let your business take over your life, like some hideous, out of control monster like The Blob. Don’t let your family feel like they are second place -or last – next to your business. God brought these precious ones into your life to love.

Maintain harmony between your family, your home, your friends, your business, and other areas of your life.

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. – Psalm 90:12, ESV

After 17 years of marriage I still dislike cooking, although I do cook out of necessity…but I am definitely NOT The Pioneer Woman (although my husband wears boots and loves cowboy hats).

Southern Fried Chicken
When we got married, I had some big shoes to fill as Ray is from south Louisiana and Texas, and his mother and both his grandmothers were fantastic southern cooks. To this day I still can’t make good fried chicken. I’ve tried many great recipes.

So instead whenever we have a “hankering” for it, I buy it at the local deli, which has delicious fried chicken (8 pieces of a variety of chicken for $5.99, plus a bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy). I also use our crockpot a lot for our meals; you can make healthy, easy, inexpensive meals with a crockpot. I love it!

Martha Stewart, Paula Deen, or Rachel Ray, I will probably never be, although I am a better cook than when Ray and I were first married. I always make our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with a big turkey and surprisingly tasty dishes. I’m also pretty good at baking.

My husband is a good cook
But Ray is a wonderful cook – it must be the Cajun in him. He likes spicy foods. His grilled Cajun chicken is mouthwatering and he is famous for it among family and friends. He’s also able to go into the kitchen, throw some ingredients together, and it comes out delicious. (Well, everything except his goulash, a concoction he has made in the past. I’m not sure what all is in it, but it’s awful! Other than that, though, he is a great chef.)

Yesterday Ray cooked dinner and then cleaned up the kitchen afterward: it was like a spicy nacho dish, poured over tortilla chips, and had baked chicken and rotel tomatoes. I’d had a long day and I really appreciated it. Since he works long 24-hour shifts as a paramedic, where he hardly gets any sleep on his “down” time, he rarely cooks or cleans when he comes home. That’s understandable and I don’t consider it his job. So I doubly appreciated him doing this since he had worked the night before until 7 a.m.

He’s good for other things, too, lol.
Another thing Ray does that I appreciate is to be my sounding board and adviser for business. He patiently listens to me almost each day as I discuss aspects of my business with him. Really, I am floored at how tolerant he is of me yakking away at him, listening to me go on and on!

You’re the CEO, but your husband may have some great ideas.
I am the “CEO” of my  business, so I make final decisions for it, but I know that I don’t have all the answers that I need. I don’t always do everything Ray suggests, but many times he has sound, practical advice and great ideas for me that are useful and which I try.

It’s important that if you are  a wife with your own business at home that you ask your husband for his input and advice. He probably  has creative, wise  ideas that you haven’t even thought of before. If you are stuck somewhere, he may be able to see the problem with clarity and give you a logical solution that can propel you forward faster.

At the least, he can pray for and encourage you, and you will feel better talking to someone about it. I have found that Ray often has insightful ideas that I can immediately implement and see effective results from them.

As a woman, you are emotionally engaged in your business
Sometimes we as women can’t see the forest from the trees in our business, because we’re too close up to it and emotionally invested in it. (This is also where a mastermind group and coaching/mentoring comes into play…brain power multiplied and other eyes seeing what you can not.)

God has given the husband His wisdom to lead and guide his family. He may not always use that wisdom.    But you may be pleasantly surprised to find how much he can help you with your business and other aspects of your life if you talk to him, such as homeschooling, behavior issues with the kids, finances, etc.

“Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.” – Ecclesiastes 4:9, NLT

The “S” word: Submission
Likewise, you as the wife were created by God to be the helpmeet for your husband. This doesn’t mean being a doormat and submitting to anything and everything the man demands. I have seen far too many times how pastors in the pulpit and how men use the word “submission” like a whip over women’s heads, and it really makes me bristle to see the concept misused.

What about the man’s submission?
It’s funny, you hear a LOT of sermons about the woman needing to submit to the man, but how often do you hear one about the man needing to submit to Christ?

Submission is required of both men and women. It means voluntary, humble yielding to authority. Submission is a beautiful thing when it’s understood properly in light of God’s word. But it’s NEVER to be used to control, manipulate or dominate anyone. And God does not EVER condone abuse, neglect, or abandonment of any kind. Women are not to “submit” themselves to such treatment because that is not how Jesus treats His Beautiful, Precious Bride, the Church.

A husband should listen to his wife’s innate perception
Men need to listen to their wives as well. Women are innately perceptive and intuitive. Some call it the woman’s instinct. I believe God created women to be especially spiritually sensitive. As the keeper of the home and children, she has to be – the watchman over what God has entrusted to her, to make sure there are no dangers threatening her family’s safety and survival.

Of course, that doesn’t mean she’s infallible – obviously, we learn that lesson from Eve, who was deceived by the serpent in the garden of Eden. But a husband may benefit greatly from listening to what his wife is saying, because sometimes she may sense something that is unexplainable which he doesn’t sense.

Are you an Ice Queen?
Husbands should not be so prideful that they can’t and won’t listen to their wives.The wife should also realize that ultimately the final decision for the family is up to her husband. She shouldn’t resort to control and manipulation tactics, nagging, the ice queen treatment, talking about him to others, etc., to get him to do what she wants. If she believes he is wrong, she can pray about it and trust that God can show him this.

Both partners should walk in faithful obedience to God, loving and respecting each other no matter what, and not think they are right all the time. Humility solves a lot of the problems in marriage.

>What does your husband need? How can you help him?
Are you helping your husband or hindering him? If God convicts you that you are not being a very good helpmeet, ask Him to change your heart and make you the wife that your husband specifically needs. More than anything, a man needs respect and a woman needs love.

Thank your husband today for how he also helps and loves you. You might be surprised- tonight he may even load the dishwasher for you. Ask yourself what you can do for him, too.

Despite the challenges in marriage, two are still better than one, as the news story below attests
Couple who died holding hands

Did you miss last week’s Talkshoe show with award-winning author and speaker Patty Mason? Then you missed such a blessing!

Patty was very transparent in the struggle she had with depression and anger. She realized that the illusion of the American dream, “having it all” – owning the nice house and car and being financially blessed, marriage to her sweetheart, having kids, being on stage and being applauded and awarded for her great accomplishments – left her empty and hurting. Depression overtook her life at what seemed to be the pinnacle of her dreams, and it was only when Jesus touched her, that her life changed to one of joy, peace and true fulfillment and satisfaction.

You can still hear the show by clicking here or listening on the Talkshoe player before. Be sure to check out Patty’s book, Breaking Free: Breaking the Bonds of Depression Without Drugs.

***Want to go deeper into the topic of depression? Check out my ebook on women and spiritual warfare, The Hands Of A Woman: Everyday Women In Everyday Battles. In this ebook, I share several stories of women with severe depression, including part of my own story, how common depression is among women, the causes of depression – and the solution.

• a parent’s and siblings’ alcoholism and drug addiction;
• an abusive former marriage;
• my daughter Heather’s brain surgery (you can read the miracle story in my new ebook; she completely recovered);
• our daughter Leah’s seizures (she’s miraculously healed now; her powerful story is in my ebook Walking With God);
• 3 head-on car accidents;
• 2 divorces;
• a tornado;
• a nephew who had spinal meningitis when he was a baby;
• bankruptcy and foreclosure of our home after my husband lost his full-time income;
• moves across the country;
• a relative suddenly saying he’s an atheist now;
• and many more things throughout my life.

Through everything in my life, God has been there faithfully. He is good and He cares about every aspect of your life. You don’t need to feel afraid. You can trust Him to watch over you, protect you, and love you unconditionally.

>God doesn’t want you bound in fear. Fear is a prison. It can hinder or stop you from your great purpose.

Jesus Christ came to set you free from that prison.

If you struggle with fear, I encourage you to take my upcoming workshop, Fearlessly Forward. It will encourage you and motivate you to push past your fear to fulfill the great plan God has for your life. (Jeremiah 29:11).  That doesn’t mean that we won’t ever feel afraid.

Sometimes we have to do things afraid, like when I had my Facebook party last week. I’d never done one before. I was afraid I’d do something wrong or I’d run out of time to award prizes. But women came and were blessed. They had a lot of fun and so did I. It went great. I did it afraid.

Or maybe you’re wanting to apply for a new job, take a class, write a book, speak publicly, run a marathon, marry that special someone, get a medical procedure done, enroll in a mastermind group, take a leap of faith in your business – and you’re afraid. Whatever your fear is, God is bigger than it.

Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.- Deuteronomy 31:6

You can find out more info about my upcoming virtual workshop by clicking here.

Andrea Sharp

The Busy Mom’s Guide to Balancing All of Life’s Projects

I Don’t Know How She Does It hit theaters recently, as movie goers nationwide flocked to see the A-list cast, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Piirce Brosnan, Kelsey Grammer, Christina Hendricks and more. The film tells a story of a working woman, wife and mother, and how she overcomes both personal and professional dilemmas throughout her hectic daily routine. In today’s economy, the number of working mothers has dramatically increased, and “Supermoms” nationwide are proving day in and day out that they are an unstoppable force.

Speaker, author, and founder of SharpWomen, Andrea Sharp is the real-life Kate Reddy (played by Sarah Jessica Parker), who knows a thing or two about chaos and finding the right balance.

We all have those days where we’ve got the plates spinning in the air, and we’re just waiting for them to drop on our head. Andrea uses humor and an inspirational look at life, Andrea’s mission is to reach women with the message that the most important thing you can do is make time each day for yourself.

Andrea will be my special guest on my Women’s Battles Talkshoe show on November 10 at 2:30 p.m. Central Time (3:30 p.m. EDT).  In this segment, Andrea will provide encouragement to women around the country as they deal with the business of life:

• Real life tools and recommendations you can use to make your life less hectic

• Juggling your to- do list

• The importance of perspective when managing your schedule

You can join us in the chat room here: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=98698&cmd=tc

You can also call into the show with the call-in details below:
Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 98698
PIN:  1# or Your Talkshoe PIN #

We’d love to see you there!

• fear over a troubled marriage
• fears about our children’s safety or health
• fears over our own health
• fears about phobias
• fears we’re not “good enough” or perfect
• fears of rejection
• fears about our finances/the economy
• fears we may make a mistake/do something wrong
• fears our business will fail
• fears even of success.

God doesn’t want us afraid. It is bondage. Jesus came to set us free. Fear hinders or stops us from our great purpose. It paralyzes us and keeps us stuck.

On November 5 at 11 a.m. Central Time (12 noon Eastern Time), I am having a virtual workshop, Fearlessly Forward. This workshop is based on the movie Secretariat, the champion racehorse who won the Triple Crown. God created Secretariat to run – and to run FAST, to WIN. You are a winner, too. God has a great calling for your life.

It’s time to push past your fears and to move faster into your purpose. There is no time to waste. Time is short. We need to be about the Father’s business in our business!

Click on the video below to learn more about the workshop on Saturday, November 5 at 11:00 a.m. Central Time (12 noon Eastern Time). Just click here to learn more about the workshop and to secure your spot in the class.

On the way to Kearney, a small, rural town, we rode in Heather’s new car, a 2011 Kia Optima. Heather has been praying for several years now to get a new car. The Kia is NICE and is fully loaded with features, including a sunroof, back-up camera on the dashboard, smart key with push button start, keyless entry, heated steering wheel and seats, the ability to talk on her cell phone through the car, and GPS on the dashboard. Ok, why does our child have a better car than we do? But I am so happy for her. Just this week I was praying for God to provide another car for her.

When Heather dropped us off at the commuter parking lot where we met her to ride with her, I wanted to take her picture in her car. I thought it was hilarious when Heather waved out of the top of her sunroof. The weather was beautiful this weekend, and it felt great riding down the highway with the sunroof open.

One of the great features about the car is the GPS on the dashboard. Heather thought the automated woman’s voice  on the GPS was annoying and turned the sound off at one point.

Heather is a great woman of God and is obedient to Him (most of the time!). But I thought about how our relationship with God is like Heather not wanting to hear the instructions on the GPS. This morning I was reading in the book of Ezekiel, where the prophet Ezekiel had the vision of the four living creatures and God sent Ezekiel to speak to the rebellious house of Israel:

“…and I heard a voice of One speaking. And He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak to you. Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet, and I heard Him who spoke to me. And He said to me, “Son of Man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me. they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. For they are impudent and stubborn children.

“I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.’ As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse- for they are a rebellious house, yet they will know that a prophet has been among them…You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.

“Now when I looked there was a hand stretched out to me and behold a scroll of a book was in it. Then He spread it before me, and there was writing on the inside and on the outside, and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe. Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find, eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll. “And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.” (Ezekiel 2:1-5, 7-10; 3:1-3)

I’m sure Ezekiel didn’t want to do the job. Who wants to be a prophet? They are notoriously known for being mocked, ridiculed, spit on, imprisoned, and killed. But God had commanded him and he obeyed.

God also told him to eat the scroll. I love that picture. God tells Ezekiel to feed his belly and fill his stomach with the scroll. Every day we fill our stomachs with food, whether healthy foods or junk food. How often do we fill up on the Word of God? It will be like honey in our mouths, just as it was to Ezekiel. The word of God strengthened Ezekiel so he could prophesy the pure, undiluted word of God to the nation of Israel.

God wanted to show mercy to Israel so they would repent and would be restored to a right relationship with Him. God isn’t a harsh judge who just can’t wait to zap people or throw them in hell.  God’s desire is to have an intimate relationship forever with us because He loves us so much.

So often we are like the stubborn, rebellious house of Israel, and like Heather not wanting to hear the GPS instructions because it can be annoying. You know, things like: “Love your enemies,” “Forgive others,” and “Wives, submit to your husbands.”  Things we really don’t want to do, but we know it’s God’s will and that we should obey.

God’s word is like our GPS for life. It is our map that gives us our instructions and directions for life. If we follow it, it will get us to where we need to go. We won’t be lost, confused, or distracted. If we ignore it, “turn down the sound” simply because we don’t like hearing it, we can run into trouble, especially if we don’t know where we’re going.

“Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart.” Job 22:22

***Would you like to learn more about intimacy with God? Click here for my ebook, Walking With God.

Heather taking Leah's pic

This weekend Ray, Leah and I went with our oldest daughter Heather to take Leah’s senior pictures. I can hardly believe I am writing this – her SENIOR PICS?

Anyway, we wanted her pictures to have a pretty nature background so we drove to the Dunn Cider Mill, the Loch Lloyd scenic, multi-million-dollar-home community, and other pretty areas.

I desperately wanted to find a red maple tree for Leah to stand in front of, but Ray said we couldn’t just barge up to someone’s home and borrow their tree for our picture’s backgrounds because we could be charged with trespassing. (Would they really care?! He said yes, especially in a gated community. We had to get a visitor’s pass just to take pics there!)

At the cider mill, Ray went inside the mill store to buy some cider doughnuts. He came out with one for each of us.

I wanted to take a picture of the doughnuts (I take pics of everything!), and as I opened the bag to get a closer view, he accidentally dropped the bag and all of the doughnuts fell on the ground.

I’m sure the birds appreciated those cider doughnuts.

Ray with hot apple cider

So off Ray went, frustrated, to stand in another long line to order more cider doughnuts. Apparently everyone else had gotten the same idea.

They were worth the wait. The hot apple cider Ray bought was delicious, too.

Heather took Leah’s pictures for me, which saves us hundreds of dollars because photographers are expensive.  When she finishes editing them, I will post them here and on Facebook.

After that we  visited our middle daughter Eden and her 3 1/2-year-old son Jacob. For lunch we went to Gino’s, an Italian diner. Lunch was great. Whenever Ray and I go out to eat somewhere, it’s common for Ray to ask me if I want to order a certain dish that he recommends to me and I say no; then when he orders it himself and it arrives, I want to have a bite of his (or a couple of bites – one time when we dated, I ate almost his entire salad while he was gone to the restroom. He’s more careful now when he offers me a bite of his food.).

This time Ray ordered Chicken Spedini, a lightly breaded, broiled chicken topped with a mogu sauce (lemon, oil, garlic, and oregano). After I tasted his, I said, “That is  really good! I should have ordered the spedini!” Ray’s reply was, “I told you so.”

Jacob sticking out his tongue, lol. (Dalton, Jacob, Eden)

But I did enjoy the sampler tray that Heather and I shared: lasagne, chicken alfredo, penne marinara, and fettucini. I gave Ray and Eden the Italian sausage. Leah tried the pasta con broccoli, Eden ordered a Caesar’s Salad with chicken, and Eden’s boyfriend Dalton ordered pizza.

Jacob wanted spaghetti with a meatball, and then he only ate the tomatoes from Eden’s salad, refusing to eat his spaghetti. It was almost Jacob’s naptime so he was tired and whiny – but he is absolutely adorable with his brown spiked hair and brown eyes. Ray enjoys having at least one boy child in the family so far. For years he and our son-in-law Kyle have felt surrounded with all the females in the family, especially at certain times of the month.

I loved Gino’s. The owner walked around the restaurant, singing loudly and asking everyone if they were enjoying their meals. Italian music played in the background. It made me long to go to Italy again. Ray and I traveled to Europe for ten days for our 10th wedding anniversary: primarily Switzerland, but also Italy, France, Germany, and Lichtenstein.

We loved it. We ate delicious food that was unbelievably cheap, walked and drove on cobblestone streets, enjoyed museums and admired the breathtaking cathedrals and architecture of other buildings, bought tons of Swiss chocolate for souvenirs for family, stayed in a ski lodge in the Alps, went up Eiffel Tower at night, bought chestnuts from a street vendor in Paris, bargained for a French beret for Heather at a sidewalk marketplace, saw an incredible castle in Lichtenstein, and saw the most beautiful blue-green waterfall in Italy that I’ve ever seen, next to Niagara Falls. I think it’s time for another trip!

Ok, back to this life….After lunch, we went to see Eden’s workplace, a bakery where she makes delicious cupcakes from scratch each morning. Their popular one right now is pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing, drizzled with melted caramel. I ordered vanilla with chocolate icing, of course!  Ray chose key lime, Leah mint chocolate, and Heather chocolate and peanut butter. Jacob refused to eat his cupcake and instead ate a Snicker’s bar. Then he wildly ran around the bakery as the sugar rush started kicking in, and Ray told Eden we should go so she could still keep her job.

It was nice going somewhere new and trying a new restaurant. Take time out occasionally to go someplace where you’ve never been to get a different perspective and to de-stress. Meet new people, eat new types of food, window shop. Take a break from your usual routine, even if it’s just to drive to the next town or go for a walk in your neighborhood.

This “trying new things” applies to your personal life, and to writing, speaking, coaching, or whatever your business or ministry is. Today I rolled down my car windows, feeling the wind and sunshine on my face, and enjoyed the sight of fall leaves floating through the air as they fell from the trees. Such a simple thing, but it made me feel happy!

“Everyone has a “risk muscle.” You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don’t, it atrophies. Make a point of using it at least once a day.” – Roger Von Oech, author of creative thinking classics, inventor, and speaker

Leah, Ray & Heather at cider mill

Sometimes you have to walk a unique path.

You are walking to the beat of a different drummer.

Not the status quo. Not what others say or think or do.

You’ve heard Jesus’ voice clearly, His Word on matters.

It’s a holy calling.

Some people don’t understand, even other believers in Christ. They may judge and criticize you. Flaming arrows aimed at your back, because you have become the enemy’s target.

You’re in good company: people faithful to God throughout history, the prophets, the disciples, and Jesus were laughed at, ridiculed, slandered. And worse.

It can be lonely. You may sometimes feel all alone.

Only you aren’t. God is there with you. And He’s proud of you.

Keep looking up, being faithful and obeying God, and you will be blessed by Him: “Well-done, good and faithful servant.”

You answer to Him alone – One Judge. As will they.

You aren’t alone. Walk the path and purpose and great calling God has for your life.

“For zeal for Your house has consumed me.” Psalm 69:9, NASB

He said one day the leaves are changing beautiful colors and the next day it’s 40 degrees with a forecast of snow. That made me laugh and I have laughed every time I think of Ray saying that: “Missouri has just 3 days of fall.” He despises cold weather, especially snow – mostly because he’s the one who has to work out in the freezing snow and ice on car accident scenes as a paramedic, while Leah and I get to enjoy looking out the window at the pretty snow, enjoying a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows in the toasty warmth of our home.

Sometimes it seems like the seasons of our life are SO long. We become impatient and wonder if those big dreams in our heart will ever come to pass. Other seasons in our lives feel like “just 3 days of fall,” and  pass so quickly, like our children growing up and all too soon we have an empty nest. Whatever season you’re in right now, God has a great plan for your life. (Jeremiah 29:11) You are in the right season as long as you are trusting and obeying God!

Tonight I read in Ephesians 1:1-14. I want to share some excerpts from it:

“How blessed is God! And what a blessing He is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long ago before he laid down earth’s foundation, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!)”

“Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people – free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free. He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, let us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.”

“It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.”

Isn’t that beautiful? Let’s recap this:

• You have high places of blessings in Him.
• You are the focus of His love, made whole and holy by His love.
• You are free.
• You are not just free, but abundantly free!
• Whatever season you’re in right now, God has a long-range plan for your life – and it’s going to be good!

In this week’s post I shared how God is preparing you for great things. It’s in Christ that you find out who you are and what you are living for.  Seek Him.

She would prepare meals each day and wash the hundreds of plates, cups, and silverware. Andrea was embarrassed and humbled, and questioned God why she was having to wash disgusting dishes each day. But tremendous growth occurred in a place of humbleness. She began to enjoy the freedom she had with her position that she wouldn’t have had as a counselor, and met an amazing group of people that she worked with on the kitchen staff and on campus.

 She wrote: “Now looking back over that summer, I realize that God grew me in astounding ways.  It’s not the position that matters, but the heart behind it. No matter what job we may hold, whether it be a homemaker or a working woman, God desires that we embrace this opportunity and share joy in our sphere of influence.”

Maybe you’re not yet in the “position” you desire or have what you want yet. You’re now in a waiting room, being readied and refined by God for what’s ahead. Be patient during this humbling season of preparation. God is preparing you for exciting, great things to come. God also has you in a sphere of influence right now that is His desire for you today – a sphere unlike anyone else’s, an incredible opportunity that He has entrusted to you alone.

You may be a stay at home mom, helping your husband with his needs and homeschooling her children. Right now that is your realm of influence and it is not a light thing – but a great opportunity to minister to your husband and to sow into children’s souls and to raise disciples for Christ. You may be a website designer who does graphic design. That is your sphere of influence – your anointing and creativity coming from The Designer of the Universe.

You may be a writer, speaker, or life coach with just a handful of clients, wanting to grow your business to an international, membership-based organization. For now your five to 10 clients are where God has you, your very own “mission field,” using your spiritual gifts, talents, and skills to practically help, pray for, encourage and motivate others to become all God desires.

You’re not just washing dishes or working in a cubicle. You are in the right place at the right time right now – and you’re being prepared for great things to come!

“In the same way, the last will be first, and the first will be last, because many are called, but few are chosen.” – Matthew 20:16, ISV

Image Resource: Image: vegadsl / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I was able to spend some time praying, and enjoy absolute quietness, which is rare (I have a very noisy family). I didn’t want to lose the peace from my time of solitude with God by going full-force into Monday with all its to-do’s. So I deliberately set aside time this morning to read the Bible (Joshua 1) and to journal to quiet my soul before I started the day.

Journaling can be a calming part of your spiritual disciplines each day. You don’t have to spend a lot of money or time to do it. You don’t have to buy an expensive journal or pen. My favorite pen in the whole world to write with is an ultra-fine, black Sharpie.®  I should have stock in them. Two Sharpie pens are $1.99 at the local Walmart. You can also get Sharpies® in different, fun colors like purple, green, red, blue, etc. They write effortlessly across a crisp, white, fresh page.

You can buy an inexpensive  journal at Border’s or your local book store, Walmart, or the dollar store. I don’t buy expensive journals, but I do enjoy picking one out that is colorful. My journals’ covers have had ladybugs, spring flowers,  zebra stripes, polka dots, etc. The one I have now is purple faux leather with wide lines on the pages, because I love the color purple and like to have lots of room to write. Choose one that you enjoy looking at, because you’re going to spend some time in it.

Sometimes I read the Bible before I journal, and record the scripture I’m reading, then journal about that passage. For example, today I read Joshua 1, which my friend LaTara Ham Ying had encouraged our Challenge Circle to read this week. It spoke volumes to me and was in perfect alignment where I’m at right now with a workshop that I”m planning for November 2011, Fearlessly Forward. (If you’re not on my mailing list, sign up so you’ll be sure to hear the details first!) God amazes me how He confirms His word!

The Scriptures can be a springboard to write. For example, today I copied Joshua 1: 1-2 in my journal, reflecting on how God wants us to have courage and not be afraid – and to know that He is always with us. I also wrote down ideas for the November workshop.

In your journal, you can also just record your own thoughts, write a song, do copywork from a poem or a book you’re reading and love, draw, press flowers or trace beautiful, colored fall leaves, or whatever you want in your journal. Let your creativity flow. It’s yours.

I encourage you to date your journal entry. Later you can look back and fill in dates of when and how God has answered prayers or worked in that specific situation. It can serve as a memorial like the stone altars the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob built to God to worship Him to remember His promises and His miracles.

“Christians through the centuries have written spiritual autobiographies, personal diaries and journals. Some are available to us, while the contents of others are known to God alone. Some were written to be read. Others were so personal and confidential that they were ordered burned at the authors’ death. Some classic autobiographies are: Augustine’s Confessions; Teresa of Avila’s Life; George Fox’s Journal; Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain, Dag Hammarskjold’s Markings; and Henri Nouwen’s Genesee Diary and The Road to Daybreak. The personal reflections of some of the great missionaries can also be accessed and read. It is worthwhile to mention here that we are not in competition with others. Our journal is ours.”

(http://www.upwardcallministries.org/Journaling_as_a_Spiritual_Discipline.pdf)

You don’t need to worry about proper spelling or grammar for your journal. Lay the internal editor to rest, and just write, your thoughts unstopped. Let your journal be your sounding board to God.  Pour out your true feelings.

“Rise during the night and cry out. Pour out your hearts like water to the Lord.” ~ Lamentations 2:19

I believe the Psalms may have first been portions of David’s journaling. When he was angry or depressed, he shared this openly with God.

Ask God questions and listen for His answers, guidance, direction, Wisdom. Journaling is a path of discovery. You are inviting God into your writing and your life.  It will take you deeper in faith with Him.

You can journal in your bedroom, on a bus or a train, at the park after your nature walk. You can have worship or praise or some type of soothing music in the background, and a cup of hot coffee or a cold drink on the table as you’re writing. This is your time to reflect, ponder, ask the hard questions, dream.

If you have problems with insomnia like me, you can write in the middle of the night, recording your prayers, things that are weighing on your heart, or ideas for a book, your next event, conference, webinar, or telecall.

“The goal is to allow the Holy Spirit to use the time of journaling to bring together in a redemptive and revelatory way His love and your need articulated from the depths of your heart.”

(http://www.upwardcallministries.org/Journaling_as_a_Spiritual_Discipline.pdf)

Begin journaling and see where it takes you.

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you. Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, going-to-work and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.” ~ Romans 12:1

Image source: Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Don’t you love parties? One of the best parties to attend is a Facebook party. If you’ve never attended a Facebook party, they are a blast! You make new friends, network, and you can win GREAT prizes just for coming!

I’m planning my first Facebook party EVER on Tuesday, October 25 at 11 a.m. Central Time (12 noon EDT). It will be on my Facebook business page at this link: https://www.facebook.com/BethJones.net

The theme of this party and my November online workshop is Fearlessly Forward. It’s based on Secretariat, the first U.S. Triple Crown winner champion racehorse in 25 years. Secretariat was created by God to RUN FAST – he had no fear in running! The movie Secretariat with Diane Lane is awesome!

Like Secretariat, we need to keep pushing through all fear and intimidation to RUN the race well, to fufill our great purpose from God and pursue our passion!

All you do to attend the Facebook party is sign into your Facebook account, come to the page a few minutes early, and wait for the party to begin. You refresh every few seconds to see the questions and everyone’s answers – and if you won one of the prizes!  It’s a great way to make new meet new people, network, and share your website and about your business. You will love it!

I hope to see you there on Tuesday, October 25, at 11 am CST!

Video of Secretariat

One of the things on my lists this year was to start coaching. I took a leap of faith this year in my business and started coaching. I was encouraged to do this by several wise, successful people. I offer personal one-on-one coaching by phone (you can purchase  a one-hour session at My Estore) and group coaching in webinars, telecalls, and online classes.

I love encouraging women to use their gifts and pursue their passion, becoming all that God created them to be.

It energizes me to see a woman who has been holding back for years in fear and intimidation to start using her spiritual gifts, talents, and skills, and to start walking in her God-given purpose! My coaching helps propel women forward in their great destiny.

On one Google top-ranking life coaching website, I read about why people seek life coaches in the first place:

• They desire increased self-awareness and self-discovery
• They want to achieve better goal setting
• They want to live a more-balanced life
• They would like to lower their stress levels
• They need to acquire the skills for better decision making
• They want to obtain significantly increased confidence
• They seek to improve the overall quality of their life
• They would like to gain enhanced communication skills
• They like the idea of accountability for increased project completion
• They must improve their health or fitness level
• They have to have a better relationship with co-workers
• They crave healthy and deeper family relationships
• They want to look at life more from a Biblical worldview

I can help you with this. I just completed my first coaching group/book study online class that was for five weeks. It was a great class and a success. God’s presence was with us. From the first class, women were open and transparent, sharing their hearts. There was an atmosphere of trust and confidentiality. The women were encouraged and motivated to use their gifts for God. Here is what one of the students, Nancy Lewis, said about it:

“Coaching class with Beth Jones has been an encouragement and challenged me to do a lot of thinking. Reminding me to seek God first, not to let fear and stress control me, and to be totally submissive to God. It has been a great time of learning, sharing and making new friends. Beth is being used by God in teaching a coaching class.” -Nancy Lewis, http://nancy-lewis.com

My dear friend Kimberly Ehlers wrote a “Getting To Know You Tuesdays” post at her site, after one of our coaching classes, and said this on Facebook to me: “Thank you, Beth! You were the push I needed to write this post.”

Maybe you need that loving but motivating push to help move you forward in your relationships, your gifts, your business.

I am now planning a spring 2012 coaching group/book study class. If you’re not on my personal mailing list, be sure to sign up today so you will be first to hear the details about it. I am SOOO excited about it! I’m braindumping today and tomorrow about the topic for the class and will share more details with you later.

I am also planning a Facebook party in a couple of weeks and a workshop in November, and will be sharing about the coaching class at these events. If you haven’t attended a Facebook party before, they are SO fun! You make new friends, network, and you can win great prizes! I’d love for you to come to meet new friends!

“He fed his spirit with the bread of books.”  ~Edwin Markham

I’ve always been addicted to loved books and considered them friends. I usually have a big stack of books to read. When I run out, I order more on sale from Amazon.

Yes, I’m a book junkie. But I wait for months after a new book has come out and everyone is screaming about it, “You HAVE to read Crush It!” or “Did you hear  about Seth Godin’s new book Poke the Box?”  (Actually, I think I got that book free from Seth’s site.)

After the hooplah has died down, Amazon offers used best-seller books on sale as low as $2.99 – I love it!  (Some Kindle books are even cheaper.) By now, Ray and Leah know that any packages the UPS man drops off on our front porch are for me.

Leah no longer asks, “What is it?” She just hands me the scissors and she waits as I rip it open impatiently to see the title: Run Your Butt Off. (Just kidding; I haven’t ordered that one yet…though I should! Or maybe I should just run, instead of reading about running.)

For Ray’s birthday this year, I bought him a Kindle, but I love actually physically holding a book in my hands. When the local Borders went out of business, I was upset. Where were all those lovely books going? What would happen to them? With the Kindle and Nook, I fear the worst fate for books.  Give me  a good book, some comfy pj’s, a soft blanket, and  a cold drink or cup of coffee, and you won’t see me for awhile. Heavenly.

Right now these are the stacks of books that I have by my bed, on my desk, and in my dresser:

• I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou -a book  recently recommended to me by a friend)
• Maya Angelou – A Glorious Celebration (same friend)
• Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God (Francis Chan – on passionate faith)
• Life’s Healing Choices (John Baker, Foreward by Rick Warren – my coaching class/Bible study curriculum)
• Food and Loathing – A Lament (Betsy Lerner – on thinness being the key to success, or so we think)
• Now Discover Your Strengths (Mark Buckingham, recommended by my coach)
• Find Your Strengths : What The Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently (Mark Buckingham, recommended by a friend)
• What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business (Mark Beckwith)
• The Trouble With Islam: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith (Irshad Manji)
• Saving Money and Time Without Losing Your Mind (8 authors on frugality and time management)
• Living Simply (Joanne Heim – love her writing!)
• Misplacing God (Joanne Heim)

Plus, all the downloaded pdf’s of various topics from home management and healthy recipes to marketing that I’ve saved on my laptop “to read later.”

Obviously, I can’t read these all at once. I just have to read them in bite-sizes each day, usually at night before I go to bed. I could wake up earlier in the morning, but I often have problems with insomnia (my friend Diane calls this “entrepreneurial ADD”), and I love to sleep.  I’m not a morning person. In fact, extremely cheerful morning people tend to really annoy me. (I’m sorry if you are one!) Ray knows NOT to say “Good morning” happily to me when we first awake or he’s in trouble. Since I have insomnia, I probably should read all my books then, in the middle of the night….but then that might make my insomnia worse.

What are your favorite books? What are you reading now?

Do you prefer physical books, or do you like reading yours on the Kindle, Nook or other device?

What do you think will happen in the years to come with books? Will they become a thing of the past, like dinosaurs?

I hope there will always be physical books.

Share your comments below.

I was able to get to know each of these precious ladies a little better, and they know me better now, too – my goofy sense of humor, my experimentation still with all things tech (would everyone get knocked off the  phone conference line if I push that button?), and that I don’t want them to just be done with me now that the class is over.  (Thanks for the reassurance today, ladies!)

Right now I’m taking some time to spend with God to ask Him what is the next thing for me to do. I want to clearly hear His still, small voice for the rest of this year and for 2012.

I can tell you that good things are ahead!  I am chomping at the bit now (a hint!) — I’m planning a one-hour workshop in November and another coaching group/book study class in spring 2012, so get ready! I can’t wait to share more about these with you!

If you aren’t on my personal mailing list yet, be sure to sign up today so you’ll be first to hear those dates! Just sign in with your email address at the top of the page on the right hand side. Later I will have the page up for you, telling you all the “yummy details,” as Robin Tramble likes to say.

I’m also toying with an idea. My anointed author/speaker friend Sherri, my husband Ray, and my youngest daughter Leah now are encouraging me to try my hand at writing fiction. When I was a child and in junior high school, I used to write short stories. My sister Maria used to sneak into my bedroom, find them in the drawer of the round mirrored antique dresser where I’d hidden them, and read them.

When I caught her, we’d argue loudly, I’d throw her Barbie doll and tell her to stay out of my stuff, and she would yell back that she was going to tell me she LIKED my stories, but NOT NOW! Today she lets me know she did love them, and that’s why she kept coming back for more.

I haven’t written any fiction since then, I’ve never studied fiction, and I don’t know how to write it. I know nothing about plots, characters, suspense – other than it is a suspense to me (a mystery) how just 3 people living in our house dirty so many dishes and so much laundry. Do they think I”m a maid? (Please, I don’t want any haters from this remark – I’m sorry if you’re a maid!)

Ray loves reading fiction (sci-fi) and thinks I should just start writing. I think there is more to it than that. And aren’t the only successful fiction books out there about vampires, which I refuse to write about?

I asked him, “What on earth would I write about?” He said dryly, “Maybe about a woman who dislikes cooking or doing laundry and wants to travel all over the world instead.” I just looked at him. What was that supposed to mean? He said I might enjoy writing about fake places and people fiction —- me, the queen of self-help, faith,  motivational, and business/success books?!!

Why would I want to write about things that aren’t real?

He said people like to escape what’s real. Not me. I like real. I love chic flics, dramas, anything to do with real-life – the sadder and more real-life-drama it is, the better I like it.  Ray said I am unique. I told him it’s because I can relate to it. And movies that make women cry are SOOO good. Ask any woman.

He doesn’t understand this. He doesn’t enjoy crying like women do. He just likes movies where buildings and people explode. He goes on about me possibly writing fiction. He said people like stories. He said I could teach while telling stories in my writing – like Jesus did.

I just can’t picture Jesus sitting down eagerly at his desk to write about 27-year old, red-headed, one-shoe-in-her-hand April, running madly through JFK airport to catch her flight, missing it by one minute, then getting a cup of  coffee and sharing her testimony with Nadine, sitting alone in Starbucks, having recently lost her husband of 59 years to liver failure. Really? Really?

Yes, Ray said. Just try it. Well, okay, he didn’t say yes to writing about April running through JFK airport and getting a Starbucks, because I thought of that scene just now as I was typing this. Maybe because I love Starbucks and I wish I was running right now through JKF to catch a plane to travel. But he did say try fiction writing and that I might love it – like I do chic flics and dramas.

You never know…my next thing to do might be my newest released fiction book…

What about you? Have you ever tried your hand at writing fiction? Haiku? Writing a how-to-paint-still-lifes book? Riding in a hot air balloon or going down rapids? Snowboarding? Public speaking? Creating a video and putting it on YouTube and your website?

Are you willing to take a big step and do something new, scary, something you’ve never done before…before this year is up?

What’s holding you back from trying something new? It just might be fun.

From the moment, I began reading it, I was absorbed in the story. Set in Gulf Resort, Florida, in the late 1800′s post-Civil War, the story had an immediate feel of my favorite book (other than the Bible), Gone With The Wind.

But I believe the main character, Lydia, has greater depth of character than Scarlett O’Hara (as much as I love Scarlett!). Lydia was a woman I connected with right away – she wants more in life. She loves God, her family, nature, horses, the beach, writing – and dancing.

She is not satisfied with traditions’ expectations of her to be just a wife and to have babies (as wonderful as that was!). She wants to go to Paris, France, eat the rich French food, see the infamous paintings and statues.  She wants to travel all over the world and do something exciting with her life, to change the world.

In the story we watch Lydia grow in maturity for several years until she reaches 21 years old. While she loves her parents and family deeply and she enjoys learning from her governess, Miss Kathryn (especially hearing about her travels), Lydia feels restricted and bored at home. Miss Kathryn encourages Lydia to pray for God to show her what He wants Lydia to do with her life.

One day, upset over Hamilton being too physically expressive of his growing love for her, she runs home and overhears an argument her father has with Mr. O’Sullivan, who is blackmailing him about his debts that he owes and is forcing him to make Lydia marry his son Frank as part of the “deal.” Lydia is in despair that her dreams of traveling will never come true and that her father is arranging for her to marry someone she doesn’t love.

Lydia is a dreamer and full of passion – she loves cooling her bare feet in the pond’s cold water, fishing, and riding her black horse Gabriel. The last thing she wants is to be enslaved in marriage forever to a man who she hasn’t given her heart to, living a dull life. She knows she has a higher purpose.

It’s amusing to see Lydia’s teenage hormones and emotions fluctuating as she dances with Hamilton, her brother’s friend and someone she grew up playing with, and then later as she meets another potential “suitor,” Bradley, who she meets while visiting her uncle and aunt in Pensacola. The story is romantic, but not in a ridiculous, Harlequin Romance way. I laughed reading lines like “His chiseled jaw is so manly” and “One thing about the evening she would never forget, however, the way she felt when she danced with a gentleman…All throughout the night, dancing filled her dreams.”

But I related to lines like, “I know there is a world of possibilities out there for me beyond courtship. There are so many things I’d like to do with my life.”

Lydia’s struggle and fear is with losing control…and being bored with life! She needs adventure!  She doesn’t know if her childhood-turned-suitor friend Hamilton will wait for her hand until she is 20, the age her father requires her to be before courting. When she meets the dark-eyed Bradley in Pensacola and thinks he may be her future husband, she isn’t sure if he will be willing to travel to visit her and talk to her stern father about courting her.

Then there is the arranged marriage that haunts her days and nights….will her father really carry through with this? It’s a secret she can tell no one. She has been under her father’s thumb and it looks like she’ll be under her future husband’s thumb, too.  Her future looks dark and uncertain – like a prison. Can she trust God with her future, with His plans for her?

Throughout the years and trials, Lydia’s love for dancing never ceases. When Bradley plays music on the piano for her, she begins to dance. The music sparks a fire in her that she has never known and she can’t bear to stand still - she must dance! She also begins writing, writing of the beauty around her, her home, the land where she grew up.

“”I will find love in the words that I pen. After all, they speak the truth about me and about what I really want in life. They will make me happy.’ Lydia felt a loneliness that she knew no man could fill and no amount of writing or traveling could heal, but did not know who or what could.”

Yet even when tragedy strikes from yellow fever, she has faith in God and believes that her dreams would come true. After she has an accident on her beloved horse, Gabriel, she comes to a realization that she has been living selfishly for years – and she repents to God and her parents for her selfishness, unforgiveness, and the bitterness that has grown in her heart because of her father’s deal and being “trapped” in the future marriage, over which she has no say.

She consents to the arranged marriage. The book’s ending, while not a complete surprise, is still pleasant and leaves you satisfied and happy for Lydia, whose character often made me laugh and I grew to love.

The searching Lydia does as she is growing up, the loneliness and at times the longing she has, is what all of us do in our lives. We are searching for true love, for the One who will dance with us – Jesus. We all are seeking God. Only He can fill us; only He can satisfy our hearts’ deepest desires.

I recommend this great book. You can find it here at Amazon and visit Sherri Wilson Johnson’s website. You will love her!

And please watch this video below – to the very end! It’s so beautiful – it just makes me cry watching it!

Video of “Dance With Me – Lover of My Soul”

God’s timing sometimes seems slow or delayed. The Bible tells us that His ways are higher than ours. (Isaiah 55:9) So we just need to learn to trust in Him.

Stay tuned and I will let you know the new date for the webinar asap. I’ve got some more exciting things coming up soon, too!

Fireproof is one of my favorite movies, so I was a little skeptical going into the theatre that another movie made by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, GA, could even come close to Fireproof. But this movie made me laugh and cry. The movie also inspired me. Even Ray liked it – who is a hardcore sci-fi or action movie guy (you know, blood, gore, guns, knives, machine guns, racing cars, exploding buildings, exploding people, etc.).

Not everyone grows up in a home with a godly, or good, father. Statistics show that 85% of all youths in prison come from fatherless homes, 90% of homeless and runaways come from fatherless homes, and 63% of youth suicides come from fatherless homes. “Children with involved, loving fathers are significantly more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, exhibit empathy and pro-social behavior, and avoid high-risk behaviors such as drug use, truancy, and criminal activity compared to children who have uninvolved fathers.” (source: http://thefatherlessgeneration.wordpress.com/statistics/)

This just means that we all need a godly, loving, strong father. Children need a good daddy!

If you didn’t have that, as so many people haven’t, then you can have a good Father through God. The Bible says God is a Father to the fatherless and a protector of widows. (Psalm 68:5) Come to God today, and let Him be the Father to you that you might not have ever had – and need.

Video of Courageous

I am so excited to be doing this webinar with Rochelle. She’s a great woman of God, an anointed speaker and writer, and you will love her contagious enthusiasm, sense of humor, and passion for God.

Our webinar is planned for Friday, October 14, at 7:00 p.m. Central Time to 9:30 p.m. Central Time (8:00 p.m. EDT to 10:30 p.m. EDT). Best of all, it is at no cost to you!

I love the scriptures on the Potter and the clay, and have always been fascinated by a potter working on a pottery wheel with clay. God our Potter works with us, His creation the clay, so patiently each day, so that we can become the vessel He intended for His glory!

Maybe you feel unworthy of doing anything great for God because of something wrong you’ve done in your past (or even your present). No matter how “marred” you may be, God can take you and reshape you into His Beautiful Masterpiece. God has wonderful things planned for you. He can restore and reform you into His image!

We’d love for you to join us for this exciting webinar. You will receive a recording replay, as well as bonuses for attending. Be sure to bring a friend!

To find out more about our webinar and to reserve your spot today, just click here.

Video of potter working with clay on pottery wheel

You can see in the picture (right) that beautiful Hadassah is really growing, and her hair is much longer now.  Her older sister Megan loves to dress up her little “doll” in dresses, brushing her hair. Hadassah has 3 older siblings who love her dearly and are so happy to have this gift from God in their family!

I told Hadassah at the park as she was swinging that she had to say my name before I left, and she said it right away: “Beth.” Of course, that made my day! I smiled big at her and said, ‘That’s right! I helped to pray you in!”

Hadassah finished the physical therapy on her hand, and uses it well now – an answered prayer! Some of the fingers have straightened some as a result of the physical therapy, which gives her more ability with it. She’s healthy and happy.  She has a good appetite and loves asking Pat for part of whatever he’s eating on his plate, too.   As I sat next to her at lunch, she wanted more ketchup on her sandwich and french fries – she loves ketchup. One of her favorite foods is rice.

She calls herself “Dassah,” and when Pat teases her and says, “Are you Dassah Doo?”, she says, “No, I am Dassah! Not Dassah Doo!” LOL.

The Webers’ kids are so beautiful and precious. I really miss all of them. Below is a picture of them outside the restaurant. Caleb is the oldest (and about 6 feet tall like his dad Pat!), then Nathaniel, Megan, and little Hadassah. Caleb took a mission trip to Trinidad this year with his church. All their kids are so smart, spiritually gifted, polite, and have a great sense of humor. They love laughing and to make you laugh.

Recently Pat had some work to do in Atlanta, GA, and Virginia, and since Kim homeschools all of them, they rented a van and drove to both states, visiting science museums, Patrick Henry’s home, and other educational sites.

Kim, for me, epitomizes the Proverbs 31 woman as no other woman whom I’ve met. She truly inspires me. She fiercely loves her husband and her children; she’s an excellent homeschool teacher, a great cook (Pat told me this weekend he LOVES her baking!), and she sews; and she has a giving, loving heart, ministering to all who come across her path. Pat and the kids adore her – and vice versa!

Cherish your friends. Let them know how much you love them – call them, email, write them, text them, visit them, pray for them…don’t put it off until tomorrow. Today is the sacred space we have to love others.

“A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.” ~ Donna Roberts

Today you will notice a new opt-in form at the top of the website on the right hand side by Mail Chimp. You have no idea how much WORK it has taken to get there. Hopefully it is STILL working! :O  It’s not the company’s fault that I had trouble. I should have contacted customer support at the start.

See, WordPress sites and Mail Chimp have cat fights sometimes (some type of conflict), so it wasn’t on my end, either (amazing!). Sweet Jessi with Mail Chimp’s customer support told me about a WordPress plug-in that would fix that and that I should have no more problems.

Don’t quit!

Plug-ins are great. There’s a few plug-ins for Mail Chimp available, and after I installed the second kind of plug-in, I was finally able to get the Mail Chimp opt-in form to work. I wanted to give up, but I don’t like being a quitter and can be determined (to my own detriment sometimes!).  But I pushed through the obstacles and did it! (Lesson: talk to Jessi or someone in customer support FIRST!)

If you’re not already on my mailing list, you can sign up today and get a complimentary audio mp3 download, You’re Exactly What God Meant – plus two bonus gifts.

I am testing Mail Chimp to use for my ezines instead of Aweber. We’ve all heard that Aweber, Constant Contact, and 1Shopping Cart are the best. I’ve been using Aweber for almost a year now and it’s reasonably-priced.  Aweber is great!  But every little bit of money adds up when you’re running a business, and there is no cost to use Mail Chimp. My friends LaTara Ham-Ying, Arika Lewis, and Rochelle Valasek told me about Mail Chimp. They love it.

Who knew? I could be a model!

Segue: What I love is the cute little monkey that is their logo. He wears a mailman’s hat and a blue messenger bag for his mail. When you log into the site with your email and password, he’s there to “greet” you with funny jokes. One of the ones he said today was, “You could be a part-time model, Beth.”

I took a screenshot of it and saved it in my Paint.Net program in a file for the days that aren’t going well and I”m thinking of career options (just kidding).  I think I DO like Mail Chimp after all!  Rochelle, or Shelley as I call her, told me about the monkey’s jokes and said it always makes her laugh. But she laughs a lot anyway and she makes me laugh.

The PANIC Button

After today’s stress with the opt-in form, I need the laugh! Shelley and I have texted throughout the day. Mostly me.  This morning after something unexpected happened after I imported my Aweber list into Mail Chimp and I told her what was going on and to HELP, she texted me, “DON’T PANIC!”  This immediately made me wonder if I SHOULD panic. Did she know something I didn’t?!!!  Today her browser’s been crashing and I’ve been battling the tech gremlins. I wish she lived closer so we could go out tonight to eat Mexican and we could both just laugh over today!

Which one is your favorite?

I have not made up my mind yet about switching over to Mail Chimp and have not deleted my Aweber account YET (just this morning someone told me they were severely disappointed with Mail Chimp and are not going to use it).  I am still testing the waters. I’d love to hear YOUR thoughts and experiences.Which ezine/newsletter/autoresponder service do you use and why do you like it?

I love the variety of templates Mail Chimp offers for ezines (your newsletter). Already I’ve gotten compliments on the one I sent out yesterday to my list. I have been wanting a change with my ezine’s template for awhile now.  I’m very much a visual learner and love anything visually appealing. Mail Chimp has some pretty ones, that you can design just for your niche and their needs. Aweber seems to have limited templates for ezines/newsletters. (I do believe that Aweber is one of the most dependable and reputable services out there – one of the best.)

A banana split sounds good!

I know that sounds like a random thought. The editor on the templates for you to write your emails on in Mail Chimp is extremely user-friendly – more so than Aweber, I think. Mail Chimp offers a variety of tools like A/B split testing (not that I know what that really is – but their picture had a banana split on it underneath it so that is why I noticed it, lol).

They also have Google Analytics integration, an Iphone app, social media sharing, and syncing with your shopping cart. These features help you to assess how effective your “campaigns” are (your emails that you send  to your list).

Do you have good open rates?

There’s a lot of factors for people opening – and not opening – ezines: compelling headlines, day of week and time, information overload, too few or too many sent over a period of time, solid content, visual appeal, etc.  You want to make sure your tribe is READING your ezines (good open rates), is CLICKING on your links in the ezine,  and is wanting more – hopefully resulting in building a strong, trusting relationship with them and ultimately leading to your products’ and events’ sales. 

If you are a writer, speaker, life coach, website designer, or someone who has your own business and need a service for sending out ezines/newsletters and/or an autoresponder, you might consider Mail Chimp.  You need a way to stay constantly in touch with your readers/listeners…they need to hear your important message and as Robin Tramble so often says on her anointed telecalls, the “yummy things” you have to offer – the encouragement and help they need.

Weigh the pros and cons.  Test it first. Be sure to contact customer support FIRST for questions/trouble-shooting, and if you have a WordPress site, upload one of Mail Chimp’s plug-ins in your WordPress dashboard for your opt-in form. Encourage feedback from your readers about it.

And don’t forget to read the jokes by the monkey when you sign in. They are cute.

***

Sign up today for Beth’s personal mailing list at www.bethjones.net. and receive your complimentary audio mp3 download, You’re Exactly What God Meant, plus two bonus gifts.

If you missed my Talkshoe show with award-winning author and speaker Patty Mason of http://www.LibertyinChrist.net, you missed a treat!

Patty is a wife, mother, Bible teacher, award-winning author, women’s ministry leader, and the founder of Liberty in Christ Ministries. She has been teaching, mentoring and inspiring women of all ages for many years through her writings and talks. Patty is a member of Women in Christian Media and Recycled Women, and has reached audiences all over the world through Sisters on Assignment, Christian TV, Sermon.net, Salem Communication’s Light Source, and WLGT Blog Radio Live.

Patty knows the pain and devastation of depression, but she is no longer in that dark place! Her passion and deep-seated conviction to help others learn the truth and break the cycle, compelled Patty to extend hope by earnestly sharing her story in her book Finally Free, Breaking the Bonds of Depression without Drugs.

You can listen to the replay at Talkshoe here, or listen on the Talkshoe player below:

First, I am LOVIN’ this cooler, beautiful fall weather. Fall is one of my favorite times of year. This week was the official first day of fall. What do you love about fall? Some things I love are:

• Beginning a new homeschool year with Leah
• Cooler weather
• The leaves changing beautiful colors – red, gold, orange, yellow; God is an incredible artist!
• Starbucks coffee – I am going to try the Pumpkin Spice Latte’ with the Starbucks gift card that my sweet sis Maria bought me for my recent birthday – yum!
• Hot chocolate with marshmallows in cute mugs
• Pumpkin scented and spiced apple scented candles
• Fall crafts – door wreaths, centerpieces, knick knacks for side tables
• Walks outdoors, the sun shining on your face, the cool breeze blowing, and the leaves crunching underneath your feet
• Beautiful fall fashions – right now Kohls has some gorgeous sweaters
• The hope of new good things in life with a new season.

Second, I am enjoying my new phone – but still getting used to it and learning how to use it.  I laughed at my friend Susan Evan’s blog posts How Technology Rules Us Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 because initially she didn’t want a cell phone but she loves hers now, especially the video feature.  Like me, she doesn’t always hear it ring.

My family has gotten annoyed with me for not hearing it ring as I’m doing chores here or working on something, and especially frustrated with me for leaving my old phone here at the house when I run to Walmart, the post office or to buy groceries. “What is the point of having one?” they’ve asked me. I am doing better now with the new phone.

Today, our daughter Leah’s cell phone arrived in the mail. It makes my whole day to hear the UPS man knock on the door, although I don’t actually know what he looks like because he knocks and then I think RUNS to his truck, speeding off. I know when the UPS man comes, we have a present in the mail – a good book (I recently ordered I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou), a check from a family member for a birthday or Christmas, or a new tech gadget.

Leah’s phone is Sprint’s Samsung Replenish, which came with a promo offer. I wanted her to have a cell phone in the event of a disaster, to quickly get ahold of Ray and me if we’re not here (which is not that often. I am here most of the time, but I feel better now with her having a phone in the event of an earthquake or tornado!). It has the qwerty board for texting and wi-fi for email and Facebook.  She is charging it now and can’t wait to use it. Four out of five teens in the U.S. carry a cell phone, viewing it as the key to their social life. What do you think about this as a parent? For that matter, has texting/cell phones helped your social life? I personally love the convenience of texting.

Third, I wanted to share the video below with you. I love the song. Our daughter Heather just went to a huge women’s conference in Springfield, MO, where they played it. I lift my hands to God for all He’s done! I pray it encourages you today.

I have changed since I married Ray and one of those ways is in the gifts I want Ray to buy me for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, my birthday, St. Patrick’s Day, Groundhog day, Talk Like a Pirate Day….just kidding. Now instead of requesting a cute stuffed bear or a marquise diamond ring, I ask for geeky gadgets: a purple Ipod, a laptop, or as I did for today’s birthday, an upgrade to my cell phone. Of course, if Ray comes home bearing gifts like the chocolate peanut M & M’s that he brought in the other night, I’m NOT going to turn up my nose!

For my birthday (which is today – leave happy birthday comments below, lol), Ray got me the Evo 4G smart phone. I wanted an Iphone because my friends have RAVED about how great it is.  In order to get an Iphone, we would’ve had to switch carriers, get a 2-year contract, put down deposits, and had to pay $199 each for our Iphones. Uh…no!

Ray gets a discount with Sprint through his employer. We were able to upgrade both our phones for much less than it would’ve cost to buy us two Iphones with AT&T.  PLUS, the Evo has 4G wireless connectivity, downloading up to 10 times faster than a 3G – which the Iphone doesn’t have now.  It’s fast – I love fast!

I’m still learning HOW it works.  Thank you God for my teen child Leah. This generation seems to just GET technology.

Yesterday Ray and I weren’t able to transfer the data on my old phone to the new one, but Ray showed me how to sync my laptop and phone. For all non-teens, sync means same…I transferred what’s on my laptop to my phone, including Microsoft Contacts.  I didn’t have to peck away all day on the phone’s keyboard every family member’s, friend’s, or business associate’s name, phone number, email address, etc. The syncing was done within 10 minutes through a USB cable.

The “sync” process made me think of our relationship with God.  Are we in sync with God, with His word? The definition of sync is: to synchronize, to happen at the same time, to make happen at the same time and speed.

In other words, harmony and agreement. Walking and talking with Him, as Enoch did until he was no more. (Genesis 5: 24) Not running ahead of Him and His timing, or lagging behind and missing His will.

Are you in agreement with God? Or do you just want Him to be in agreement with you and your plans?

Sync with God.

***

Want to learn more about walking with God each day? Just click here.

From their website, Stop Child Trafficking Now is an organization “that addresses the demand side of child sex trafficking by targeting buyers/predators for prosecution and conviction. While over 260 organizations are currently focused on rescuing children, until the demand side is addressed, the supply will always exist. Few people know that virtually no convictions have occurred in the U.S. in the last 10 years, thus this heinous crime grows. SCTNow has launched a national campaign to raise money for retired military operatives targeting the demand side of trafficking. These Special Operative Teams gather information on child predators both in the U.S. and abroad, information that will be used to convict child sex buyers.”

Everyone getting ready for the 5K

One of the speakers at this event is a woman who was a victim of child trafficking. From an early age, she was targeted and led onto the streets of Kansas City, MO,  into a lifestyle of prostitution, drug addiction, and alcoholism.  The average age of children who are targeted and are trafficked are 12 years old. Many children get lured into it through the internet. (Be alert to what your child is doing online!)

This woman was beaten and arrested many times. She said some children and women don’t make it out alive from the streets. God delivered this woman from her lifestyle of prostituting and addiction, and she now rescues and helps child victims in her organization in Kansas City. She is a Christian and boldly declared her faith in God at this 5K – it was awesome!

With every step I took in this 5K, I was taking a step of faith and victory for the children who are victims of child trafficking. I was also able to raise $50 for this worthy cause on my personal SCTN page.  You can still donate to my personal page here, by check or donating online.

Remember that whatever goals you have, you can accomplish them, step by step! Just keep going; you can do it. A pasted clipping on my vision board says, “You have to get over the hurdles and keep running.”

Me, red-faced but happy, after I finished 5K

Recently Sheryl shared on my Women’s Battles Talkshoe show.  One of the responses in the chat room today was, “Shery, you have a great testimony!”

If you missed the show today, you can listen to the replay here or on the player below.

This was an anointed show with Sheryl sharing on being a child of divorce, her own abusive former marriage and divorce, abortion, anxiety attacks and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It is a story that you will probably relate to and one of redemption and hope through Christ.

Sheryl has such a sweet spirit and you will love her. She’s leaving this Saturday morning for a trip to Israel, so please keep her, her friend who’s going with her and the church team in prayer for protection and traveling mercies.

She’ll be returning home on October 7, and I hope to have her back on the show to share about Israel and other topics she speaks on.

Please leave your comments below.

For writers, one of the best ways to begin writing is journaling. You don’t have to buy an expensive, leather-bound journal to write in a diary or journal. You can purchase inexpensive, spiral-bound, cute polka-dot or colorful little notebooks at Walmart, Target, or other stores. Just start writing down your thoughts, your feelings, your prayers. Don’t worry so much about grammar or spelling as pouring out your heart. Slay the internal, critical editor. This is for you and your writing, not a spelling test. It’s to get your thoughts out with pen and paper.

Here’s a few great quotes on writing with ink and paper:

“There is something magical in seeing what you can do, what texture and tone and colour you can produce merely with a pen point and a bottle of ink.” – Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

“To hold a pen is to be at war.” – Voltaire

Author, speaker, coach Jo Ann Fore writes in 7 Steps To Writing Great Stuff, “I inhaled the richness of fresh ink on the crisp pages—all while dreaming of the day I would see my name in print. The good news? You don’t have to be a scholar or a genius to be published. I bear witness. My words have been featured in national and international magazines, even graced the covers of a few. They have been used as content for radio and television ads. Won awards, too. Plus I’ve written a couple books. And I am not even degreed. I am simply a Christian woman who writes from the heart.”

That’s it – write from the heart.

A great way to start writing is articles. You can write articles to include on your blog, for Ezine articles, for NACWE if you’re a NACWE member, for other bloggers, and various article directories. With writing practice, your writing becomes better, tighter, stronger.

Eventually, you can begin writing books and ebooks. The topic and the length is up to you. As Sarah Mae says in her ebook, How To Market and Sell Your Ebook, “I don’t think there is an average or a right length. The main goal of your eBook is to communicate your ideas – this may take 10 pages or 210.”

You can find support for writing and speaking at my other blog here.

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write. – Pearl S. Buck

While I was waiting for our order, I heard a woman next to me order potatoes, and noted a deep southern accent. I turned to her and asked politely, “Excuse me, are you from here?”

She smiled and said, “No, I’m from the south. Arkansas.”

I replied, “I thought so. I heard the southern accent. I was raised in Georgia.”

She then amusedly said in that southern twang, “Well then” (pronounced like, “Waaaale thaaaan”), “we’re neighbors.”

Her name was Maxine, she wore a big happy smile, and I noticed she had a bright gold crown on one of her front teeth. She then told me how she used to live in Arkansas with her husband, who was a pilot with an airline and she worked for the airline, too.

I asked if she was a flight attendant, and she said, no, she cleaned the planes. After she cleaned the plane and got off work, she and her husband would travel all over the place together. (Employees of some airlines receive free flight benefits.)

“We didn’t ever have any chil’un (children),” she said wistfully. “But you know, you cain’t (can’t) have chil’un when you have a job travelin’ like tha-yut (that).”

She was a senior citizen. I asked if her husband was still a pilot, if he was still living. “No’m,” she said. “He passed away. I stayed in Arkansas awhile, went out with my friends to the park to go out sometimes. It was a nice park. Then ‘ventually (eventually), I moved here. But he and I really enjoyed traveling together. We had fun.”

She smiled and her smile was as bright and as big as the sun. She then said something that just struck me. “I’ve had a good life. It’s been a GOOD life.” She looked content, satisfied, as if she had no regrets…just a happy, fun life, traveling together with her husband.

We parted and I told her how nice it was to meet her. I enjoyed talking to her and wished I could have talked longer to her about her travels, her husband, her job. I left her presence a little lighter-hearted for the day, feeling as if God had just dropped a word from heaven into my spirit: Enjoy the trip.  Have fun.

What about you? Have you had a good life? Are you living a good life now?

If not, why not? What’s holding you back from it? When will you begin to have a good life and “enjoy your “flight”?

***
Would you like to get unstuck from what’s holding you back from enjoying your life? Join my new fall online “Helping Hands” coaching class/book study, beginning September 13. Learn more info by clicking here.

You know how when something good happens, you feel high as a mountain, so happy and energized? Well, I feel that way because my first coaching group class/book study has launched. Helping Hands online coaching group/book study is based on my latest ebook The Hands Of A Woman: Everyday Women In Everyday Battles. I’ve never done anything like this online class before, and I’m so excited that three women have joined me!

It’s not easy to find a group where you can be real with each other, even among Christians. You know, sometimes even in the church we’re hesitant to share how things are really going in our lives, afraid of being judged by other people, criticized, and condemned. Yeah, that that does happen sometimes.

Both my husband Ray and I have experienced incredible hurt from other Christians. As Ray says, we are the only army in the world who shoots our own wounded. Dear friend, this is not God’s desire for His Church, His Bride.

He wants us to encourage, strengthen, and build up each other. He wants us to be able to confess our sins and struggles to each other so we can be healed. (James 5:16)

Having a safe place to share our hearts is a rare and priceless gem, and that is why I’m so excited. Our first class went well, with women being open and transparent with each other.

It was important for me to immediately establish that the atmosphere of this class would be one of confidentiality and trust, so that the women would have a safe haven to be real and authentic and open up with each other. One of the reasons I limited the seating in this class is because with a smaller group, it is easier to develop deeper intimacy and trust. It was the right decision.

My desire for this class is that foremost Jesus Christ would be glorified and that we would all begin to see some changes in our lives, being transformed by God’s power and Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross.

Whatever our needs are, big or small, we acknowledge that we can’t accomplish these changes ourselves, but we desperately need God’s help each day…and will humbly ask Him for it.

God will give you that help, too, as you come to Him in prayer. You can fulfill your great purpose through God’s help! He has put dynamite potential inside of you for His glory! You’ve only seen the beginning of what God is wanting to do in your life…He has SO much more in store for you!

Our online group will be meeting each Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. Central Time, covering each of the 10 chapters of the ebook, going over handouts and worksheets, journaling throughout the week, and we now have our own private Facebook group forum for support, goal-setting, prayer requests, and friendship.

The winner of our contest for the Kohl’s $30 gift card is Heather Peterson – congratulations, Heather!

If you missed signing up for the class, there is still time! I am allowing 2 more days for women to to join us, and then I will close all registration for the class. After the 2nd class, you will NOT be able to get in!

Email me at elizabethdjones@gmail.comfor details for late registration. If you don’t have time to attend the live class, you can still receive mp3 recordings of the sessions, plus handouts, worksheets, and weekly encouragement.

Or you can just buy the ebook at this link. Everyone who has read this ebook has said how powerful the stories in it are…women going through some of their toughest battles, but they obtained victory through them through faith in Christ.

I am planning another group coaching class/book study in the spring 2012. To be first to know about that class, be sure to sign up on my personal mailing list at the top of the page on the right hand side.

You receive a free audio, special report, and transcription of the audio when you sign up, and will receive a bi-monthly ezine with an article, helpful tips, videos, and other complimentary gifts.

If you missed my Talkshoe preview call about this coaching group/book study class, you can still listen to the replay here. Just click on the Talkshoe player below or click here. On this call, I share more about the class and also share 10 Tips For a Fufilled Life.

“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!” (Psalm 126:5, ESV)

First, a confession. I’ve been eating WAY too many Baby Ruth chocolate candy bars lately. This is doing NOTHING for my weight loss goal or to prepare me for the 5K that I’m walking on September 17 to raise funds for awareness of child trafficking….but they sure taste good.  I get the Baby Ruths at the dollar store in town because they’re a lot cheaper than the convenience store/gas station and I’m at least going to be frugal about it.

I crave chocolate at certain times of the month and relate to that expression, “There’s more to life than chocolate, but not right now.” (Anonymous) Life really is better sometimes with chocolate. Have some chocolate.

Second, my younger sister Maria, who lives in Georgia,  is in her last semester of college, majoring in psychology to get a B.A. degree to become a psychologist or a researcher (continuing with the master’s program after graduation). She has been working full time as a bookkeeper for a CPA, is a single mom of 3 kids, and attends college full-time…and has been consistently making dean’s list. I am SO proud of her.

With God’s help you really CAN do all things through Christ  and achieve your goals – Maria is living proof! I am praying for God to provide the money for me to fly to Georgia to be at her college graduation in December this year.  A round trip flight usually costs around $450, unless Orbitz has a deal (usually on a red-eye flight!). I can’t wait to visit her, my two nephews Nicholas and Brandon and my niece Katie!  I haven’t visited my family there in a couple of years now, so it’s time for a visit!

Third, Ray and I are looking at upgrading our cell phones. When he was in Haiti last year, his cell phone didn’t work most of the time while he was gone for 40 days, which was quite frustrating for me. I needed to know if he was in the middle of another earthquake aftershock and was still alive, if he was starving (their food supply was quite low at times), and very important things like how to get my printer paper unjammed.

So he needs a new phone and he suggested that I upgrade mine while he’s at it. My friends rave about the Iphone and that is what I really want. But we’d have to switch carriers from Sprint to ATT, get a new 2-year contract, and pay a lot more money to get Iphones. So Ray is looking instead at our carrier Sprint’s Evo, which has 4G (meaning the internet is faster on it than the 3G). He thinks the Evo is actually a better phone than the Iphone. Some of his friends at work have the Evo 4G and he loved it.

Do you have an Iphone or an Evo or another type of cell phone? Why do you like it? Which do you think is the best? Leave your comments below. Ray gets his Sprint upgrade free because his phone isn’t working right, and if I got an Evo upgrade, it wouldn’t cost that much. My family says that no matter what phone I upgrade to, I will still forget my phone at home when I run errands or else not answer it so what’s the use?

At any rate, I’m looking forward to a new phone, because although I love my red cell phone (my website’s header purposely shows a red phone; I had it designed that way since I have a red phone IRL), it’s not real user-friendly. The keys on the qwerty board are SO tiny and hard to type on and read. When I text someone, it looks like this: “Going to the srore noq; cakk me larer.” (Going to the store now; call me later.)

I tested the Evo phone at a Sprint store this weekend and it looks easier to use. I’m very excited about getting a new phone. It will be my birthday present this month. My friend Jane and I laugh because now instead of wanting flowers or jewelry for our birthdays and holidays, we want geeky tech gadgets instead. In fact, women prefer cell phones to designer shoes.

Fourth, last year Leah and I took some extra days off school so we went quite a bit into the summer with her homeschooling. That pushed back the beginning of this year back, too, since I gave her a month off in August and part of September for summer “vacation.”  We will start homeschooling again next week. I can’t believe it’s her senior year of high school! Where did the years go?  I plan to start blogging more consistently on my homeschool blog here, so if you’re a homeschooler, subscribe to the posts or check in each week (and subscribe to this one, if you’re not already – the little orange button at the top on the right side).

I’m praying to get away for a whole day before next week to just pray about the year and to do some intense planning. I want this last year to be our funnest, most memorable year yet with lots of field trips and hands-on activities.

Recently I asked my friend Sherri if she felt empty or lost since her youngest child just graduated from homeschool and she’s not homeschooling any more. She said no, she was loving it – she can now focus on her writing and speaking.

Another friend of mine does feel lost. Her kids grew up, went to college, and moved out. Much of her identity has been wrapped up in being a homeschooling mom. Recently when she called me, she asked, “Beth, what am I supposed to do with my life now?” My heart ached for her.

I think it’s important that we know our purpose and what God has created us to be and to do. When your season of homeschooling is over, God has other things in store for you – good things! (Jeremiah 29:11) God will never leave you or forsake you!  Pray and ask God what this new chapter of your life holds. I encourage you to take my fall coaching class/book study if you want to get unstuck and need more direction.

Finally, I’m planning to get mine and Leah’s haircuts this week. This year I’ve had some problems at the salon. My recent highlight was not what I’d hoped, so maybe trimming some of it will help (the top is brassy). I’m looking for ideas for a cute new cut. Got any?

That’s my blog post for today.   Hope you’ve enjoyed it. Leave your comments below or just say “hi.” I’d love to hear from you!

Did you have a good weekend? I did! For a couple of months now I’ve been planning our oldest daughter Heather’s surprise birthday party. We had it yesterday and she was surprised – mission accomplished!  Speaking of surprises, this Wednesday, September 7, at 12 noon Central Time (1:00 p.m. EDT), I’m having a preview call on Talkshoe about my upcoming, online group coaching class/book study and will be offering a brand-new bonus if you sign up for the coaching group/book study within 24 hours of the preview call.

When you sign up, you’ll also be entered into a contest for a free gift card, too. On this call I will share 10 Tips For A Fulfilled Life.

The call will last about 40 minutes with time afterward for Q & A if you have any questions about my upcoming coaching group/book study. To find out more info, just join us in the chat room at Talkshoe here.

You can also call into the show by cell phone or Skype with the call-in details below:
Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 98698
PIN: 1# or Your Talkshoe PIN

I’d love to see you there!

For the last couple of months, I’ve been planning Heather’s surprise party (driving my family nutts planning, preparing, praying her friends would show up and that we could all keep it a secret!). It has been REALLY hard to keep quiet about it, especially when Heather thought nobody was doing anything to celebrate her birthday – Kyle her husband, us her parents, or her friends. She should KNOW better, since I have always made a big deal out of our kid’s birthdays (just ask Ray, who’s had to pay for them, ha!). I believe everyone’s birthday should be honored in a special way to let them know how much God and others love them.

I was not able to give Heather the party on her actual birthday, since the party was being hosted at someone else’s house and Saturday night wouldn’t work. But Heather wanted to make sure her milestone birthday was great; she loves her friends and loves any excuse to get together with them, so she went ahead and began planning her OWN party. This made it even more difficult to plan mine for her – some people couldn’t come to BOTH events. She invited all her friends out on Friday, September 2, to a Japanese steakhouse. She said they could all wear pretty dresses, their best jewelry, high heels, and have a blast.

And they did. Twelve of them showed up at the steakhouse decked out in elegant dresses and cute new shoes. Heather had her hair cut and straightened, got a gel nail manicure and a spray tan, and wore her new beautiful birthday dress, jewelry, and purple VERY high heels. She looked STUNNING! (But then she always looks gorgeous, and I’m not saying that just because I’m her mom!)

I didn’t want Heather to think we were doing nothing to celebrate her special birthday, so we took her out for dinner last night (Saturday, Sept. 3, her birthday) to Chili’s. It was delicious and she had fun. She thought since we took her out, that was it! But she was planning to go out to lunch today after church with her friend Tiffany, while Kyle took his and Heather’s kids, Annabelle and Violet, “home so Heather could go have fun with Tiffany for her birthday.” (Heather wanted to make sure she got every bit of fun out of this birthday weekend!)

What Heather didn’t know was that I’d previously arranged all this for Heather’s surprise party…after Kyle got the kids, he headed straight over to the party hostess Christen’s house. Tiffany took Heather to Olive Garden for lunch, and Christen called Tiffany while they were there, casually asking what they were doing and asking if they wanted to drop by her house afterward because another friend, Melissa, was there. Of course Melissa was at Christen’s house for the surprise party!

For the last week, I’ve been working on a power point of Heather’s life from babyhood to now, scanning pics from photo albums we have and downloading her pics from Facebook. How do you compress 30 years into one slide show? It was hard choosing the pics – so many great ones of her growing up and of now to pick from for the slideshow.

I also chose a song that I found on You Tube (“Amazing” by Bruno Mars), which I felt perfectly describes Heather ~ amazing and beautiful. She is beautiful inside and out; she doesn’t know just how beautiful and amazing she is. I am SO proud of her! Here are some of its lyrics:

“Oh her eyes her eyes
Make the stars look like they’re not shining
Her hair her hair
Falls perfectly without her trying
She’s so beautiful
And I tell her every day

Yeah, I know I know
When I compliment her she won’t believe me
And it’s so it’s so
Sad to think that she don’t see what I see
But every time she asks me do I look ok
I say

When I see your face
There’s not a thing that I would change
‘Cause you’re amazing
Just the way you are
And when you smile
The whole world stops and stares for a while
‘Cause girl you’re amazing
Just the way you are.”

So right on about Heather!

We had a couple of “false alarms” about Heather getting to Christen’s, thinking she was there. We’d all get quiet, say “Shhh!” to all the little kids, and then realize Heather wasn’t there yet, lol. The anticipation was building. Tiffany and Christen were texting back and forth so Tiffany could make sure everyone was there before bringing Heather.

She went to a couple of stores to shop after lunch to burn time to give everyone a chance to get to the party and be ready. Finally when Heather got there, Christen, her sister Amber, and Melissa were outside, “enjoying the sunshine.” It was a beautiful day today! As soon as Heather opened the door, we all yelled “Surprise! Happy birthday!” And she was – mission accomplished!

Below is the video of all of us waiting for Heather to come through the front door of Christen’s house. They stood outside talking awhile, so we were all getting antsy, LOL. Tiffany’s daughter Anastacia – who she’d dropped off at Christen’s before lunch – was jumping on the couch and hit her head right before Heather walked in so you hear her crying a minute – but she was okay. Listen to us as we’re telling the little kids “Shhh!” so they wouldn’t give the surprise away before Heather walked in. We had the blinds down so she wouldn’t see us all in the den and our cars were parked down the street.

Did you know that God wants to give you sweet surprises? He loves you so much, just as all of us love Heather and wanted to surprise her and show her how much we love her.

“But me he caught—reached all the way from sky to sea; he pulled me out of that ocean of hate, that enemy chaos, the void in which I was drowning. The enemy hit me when I was down, but God stuck by me. He stood me up on a wide-open field; I stood there saved—surprised to be loved!” (2 Samuel 22: 16-18, The Message)

Video – Heather’s surprise birthday party

There is a lot of spiritual meat in this teaching on “Will The Real Woman of God  Please Stand Up?” based on the woman with the spirit of infirmity bent over, whom Jesus healed, in Luke 13: 11-17. God wants to use us women in a powerful way for His kingdom, but our pain (infirmity, weakness, issue) can keep us from fulfilling our great purpose and destiny!

I would not do it justice trying to explain everything Tony shared, so I just encourage you to go straight the source! You can listen on the Talkshoe player below or just click here. I’d love to hear what you think, so please leave your comments below.

I’m so thankful to God for divine connections like Tony in my life! This session was such a blessing to me, and it will minister to your heart.

Some of them I have encountered on Facebook, some on Twitter, some in online events like webinars and teleseminars or workshops of some type. I am so thankful for each and every one of these women of God.

One of these women is Tonia Harrison. Tonia was a special guest on my Talkshoe show earlier this year. (Episode 8, 6/23/11)  Tonia is a wife, mother, speaker, author of Designed With Your Purpose In Mind, and life coach.

Today an article I wrote, Strength In The Storms, is on Tonia’s website. You can read it here.

While there, be sure to check out Tonia’s blog and her products and services, especially her 8-week Life’s Healing Choices Coaching Group.You receive the book Life’s Healing Choices by John Baker, weekly 30-minute DVD lessons by Pastor Rick Warren , weekly 60-minute coaching sessions by phone or your computer. The classes will be every Thursday, 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. CDT, for eight weeks, beginning September 15.

The deadline is September 1, so hurry to sign up today. Just click here. I know it’s going to be awesome!

Hurricane Irene

I’m praying for everyone on the East Coast affected by Hurricane Irene – millions without power and the families who lost loved ones in this storm. My sister and my family live in Georgia and Florida, and my friend Kim and her family live in Florida, so I was especially praying for them, speaking “Peace, be still!” to the storm as Jesus did when He was in the boat with His disciples. God hears our prayers!

There is still danger of areas flooding and much clean up work to do, so let’s keep everyone in prayer! I truly believe that God responded to the fervent prayers of His people, and because of those prayers, the severity of the hurricane and its damage was lessened.

The hurricane made me think of the “spiritual storms” in our lives, and this was confirmed when I listened to a radio show this weekend with Pastor Rebecca Simmons. She said the reason that we as Christians face intense “spiritual storms” in our lives is because of the anointing of God on our lives, our destination, and our purpose in Christ. Satan does all he can to steal, kill, and destroy in our lives. We are a threat to him and his kingdom, so he attacks us to hinder us from our purpose – 0r to completely stop it!

The good news is that you and I have victory through our faith in Christ. You can know that no matter what fiery darts Satan tries to throw at you, God is in control, is your help, and is a sure refuge in the storm. You don’t have to be afraid, but can turn to and trust in Him.

***

Do you want to learn how to have a victorious, fulfilled life of faith? Join us for my free  Talkshoe preview call on September 7 at 12:00 noon CDT, about my upcoming online group coaching/book study for 5 weeks, that will cover each chapter of my new ebook on women and spiritual warfare.

Are you lost? Depressed, discouraged or afraid?  Empty and searching? Frustrated? Dissatisfied? Wanting more out of life? This call will answer your questions about my new fall program, and will give you “10 Tips For a Fulfilled Life.”  Join us here in the chat room at Talkshoe or you can call in with the details below:

Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 98698
PIN: 1# or Your PIN #

Giving, Terri said, is so underrated, even among Christians ~ yet throughout the Bible, we see what an incredible weapon this can be against the enemy. God is our greatest example of being a generous Giver, since He gave us His only Son to die for us for our salvation. (John 3:16), and we are to imitate Him.

Giving also gets results in our lives and cause a miraculous multiplication, like the little boy’s fish and loaves that Jesus multiplied to feed the large, hungry crowd. When we become a generous giver with a sincere motive and a cheerful heart, we experience God’s blessings in our lives. (2 Corinthians 9:6-7, Malachi 3:10-2, 2 Corinthians 8:1-2).

Are you struggling in your finances? Give!

This is especially true if we are experiencing financial struggles in our lives. It seems like the best thing to do would be to hold on tighter to your money in those times, but the opposite law at work is what is true – in famine, sow! God will then open the windows of heaven.

Build giving into your lifestyle

Terri encouraged us  that we should always give, as led by God, building giving in our lifestyle and seeking God’s wisdom and direction. He will show us how to give, who to give to, and how much to give. You can give not only your money through the tithe and offerings, but also your time, your talents, your spiritual gifts, and your love.

Another powerful thing Terri shared about was on the Rhema word of God – God gives us the right word at the right time as we seek His face. Satan, who always counterfeits God, also has the right word at the right time to promote death – which are his fiery darts. This is why we need to keep on the armor of God and to stay in a continual posture of prayer.

This show was powerful and if you weren’t there in the chat room with us, you missed such a blessing! You can still listen to the replay here at Talkshoe. It is the first show under “Past Episodes.”

Be sure to check out Terri’s site at www.SupportingGodlyWomen.com. I don’t think that is the last show I”ll be doing with Terri. I just love her – she’s an anointed teacher and just a lot of fun to work with!

Stay tuned for more radio shows coming up, and be sure to join us in the chat room when Tony Robinson shares on September 1 at 2:30 p.m. CDT – an anointed woman of God!

Tony is founder of Well Watered Woman, a global ministry dedicated to encouraging, enriching and empowering women in their walks with the Lord. Being radically changed by Gods amazing grace and love, she is passionate about seeing women walk in all that God has destined for them. Tony is wife of 20 years to the love of her life, Reggie, and mom to their four beautiful and gifted children, each walking out God’s purpose for their lives. She is a minister, devotional writer and Godmom to some pretty amazing kids.

Tony has also formed ministries and groups to encourage and support women in their roles of Godly wives, mothers and home educators. As a speaker Tony is a woman of vision and purpose who delivers the word of God with passion, transparency, humor and authority. Through her walk of transparency and availability she connects with people and draws them to the Father. Her mission is to leave an indelible mark for Christ everywhere she teaches and speaks.

Her passions include her family, reading, traveling, Lay’s potato chips and an occasional ice cold Pepsi.

You definitely do not want to miss this anointed, prophetic show! We would love for you to join us in the chat room. Just click here. You can also listen by cell phone, or Skype. Here are the call-in details below:

Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 98698
PIN: 1 #

Mark your calendar today. We hope to see you there!

Beth's new fall online coaching class/book study!

“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Alice in Alice of Wonderland. Are you curious about my new fall group coaching class/book study, but aren’t sure yet about investing the $99 in it yet?

To find out more about this new online class which begins September 13, I invite you to attend my free Talkshoe preview call on September 7, at 12 noon Central Time (1 p.m. EDT). You can join us in the chat room here or call in with your cell phone or by Skype at:

Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 98698
PIN: 1# or Your PIN #

Do you want to live a fulfilled life? Do you want to know the secret to achieving it? Or do you want to stay stuck in your pain where you are now, unhappy, confused, and frustrated? You can join my free preview call, “10 Tips For How To Have a Fulfilled Life.”

On this call, I’ll share 10 practical tips to help you live a fulfilled, victorious, joyful life. You will also learn more about my new upcoming group coaching class/book study which starts September 13. Find out more at www.bethjones.net/articles/groupcoaching.

Beth Jones and Uganda missionary Alma Jones, at Aglow

Sometimes God gives us unexpected blessings.

That was a “sound bite” message that Women’s Aglow of South Kansas City, MO President Kay Roe shared today, and that I realized to be true when I saw my Uganda, Africa missionary friend Alma Jones and friend Lynn Erwin in the audience when I spoke today at Aglow. It meant so much to have my friends there for support!

Today I shared the message, “It’s not too late!” from the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. It’s not too late if you have a prodigal son, daughter, or spouse. It’s not too late for your marriage that is on the verge of destruction. It is not too late for your business to succeed. It’s not too late
for you or your loved one to be healed of that sickness or defect. It’s not too late for that big, impossible dream in your heart to come true.

God has a great plan for your life and your loved ones’ life! (Jeremiah 29:11) He will bring the dream or His promise to pass because He is the one who put it there in your heart.

Kay Roe, President of Women's Aglow, South Kansas City

Speaking of hearts, I love Kay, the President of Aglow, and Rhonda Skivers, who is a powerhouse for God, is also on Aglow’s board, and who invited me to speak there. They both have an enormous heart of God’s love and compassion.

Today’s meeting was opened with a beautiful song by a woman, ‘My Life Is Not My Own,” and the worship leader led us in some sweet worship and praise. God’s presence is so good!

I was blessed to be able to share God’s word and minister today, and meet some new friends.

After I spoke, I was honored to pray for some of the women’s needs. I also gave away a copy of my book Walking With God, a copy of my new ebook The Hands Of A Woman: Everyday Women In Everyday Battles, and my 7-audio Quiet Time devotional set to winners, who were selected randomly in the contest today.

It was so cool how the woman Colleen who won Walking With God (my book on prayer) said, “I love prayer and I love books!” and the woman Myrna who won the gift bag with my new ebook, lotions, candle, herbal tea, and chocolate, squealed, “I love chocolate!”  Isn’t it amazing how God orchestrates even the tiniest details like this out of His love for us?

Friend Lynn Erwin and me, at Women's Aglow

After Aglow, I went with my friend Lynn Erwin to Applebee’s for lunch for some much needed, fun “girls time.”  We had a great time catching up with each other, laughing, and munching!

Yes, today had unexpected blessings. God is good. Begin to look for those unexpected blessings in your life today, and thank Him.

***

Would you like to join Beth and 5 other women for her new fall coaching group class/book study, which will cover Beth’s new ebook? You can live a fulfilled, victorious, joyful life. Learn more by clicking here.

The meeting starts at 9:30 a.m. Central Time with worship and praise, followed by the Bible teaching time, usually until lunch. Aglow is located at Grandview Assembly, 12400 Grandview Road, Grandview, MO 64030.

You will be blessed and encouraged at Aglow. Aglow International is a trans-denominational organization established in 172 nations on six continents. Men and women meet together through local Aglow fellowships. They reach out to those in prisons, in senior homes, inner city neighborhoods, and mental institutions; single moms; working men and women, all beginning with the next-door neighbor.

I hope to see you there!

Enjoy! Leave your comments below.

Video – Someone Worth Dying For (Mikeschair)

Invigorated. Stretched. Pushed. Encouraged. Exhausted! All these and more feelings describe how I feel tonight after taking Diane Cunningham‘s Inspired Business Day class all day today with Desirae Shawn, a professional organizer and founder of Ecclesiastes Three Six.

We identified who our ideal client is (and is not), took a business reality check, established our product lines, set goals for launching products and services within the next 30 days, 6 months, 1 year, and 3-5 years, and gave ourselves permission to succeed. It felt great to write down concrete goals to carry out the vision God has put in our hearts, so that we can run with it!

What about you? Do you have a firm plan in place for where you want to be tomorrow, next week, next year?

Are you setting specific goals for the vision God has given you? Learning new things each day through reading good books, getting more training or education, and being mentored? Identifying obstacles to your success, such as limiting self-beliefs, fears, doubts, perfectionism, procrastination, lack of self-care, distractions?

What is one action step you can take today to get you faster to your #1 priority goal? Take a step of faith right now. You can do it with God’s and others’ help.

***
Want to learn more about living a victorious life, becoming all that God has created you to be and achieving your goals? Sign up today for my new fall coaching group class/book study and receive a bonus ebook, Prayer, Purpose, and Passion. Click here for more details. www.bethjones.net/articles/groupcoaching.

Join me and my special guest Terri Porta on Friday, August 26, at 4:30 p.m. Central Time (5:30 p.m. EDT) for Terri’s anointed class, “A Believer’s Powerful Secret Weapon.” This class is Biblically-based and custom-designed to sharpen every area of your walk with one simple key. You can join us in the Talkshoe chat room here or call in on your phone or by Skype with the call-in details below:

Talkshoe Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 98698
PIN: 1# or Your Talkshoe PIN

Check out Terri’s “group” at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/supportinggodlywomen for up-to-date information about Terri’s latest classes, free handouts and more.

Also check out Terri’s blog at www.SupportingGodlyWomen.com for more about the ministry and Terri Porta. We will see you in the chat room!

Join me and my special guest Terri Porta on Friday, August 26, at 4:30 p.m. Central Time (5:30 p.m. EDT) for Terri’s anointed class, “A Believer’s Powerful Secret Weapon.” This class is Biblically-based and custom-designed to sharpen every area of your walk with one simple key. You can join us in the Talkshoe chat room here or call in on your phone or by Skype with the call-in details below:

Talkshoe Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 98698
PIN: 1# or Your Talkshoe PIN

Check out Terri’s “group” at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/supportinggodlywomen for up-to-date information about Terri’s latest classes, free handouts and more.

Also check out Terri’s blog at www.SupportingGodlyWomen.com for more about the ministry and Terri Porta. We will see you in the chat room!

We want to be people of power and of influence to further God’s Kingdom.  John Maxwell says that to positively change your life and others depends on your degree of influence. Without influence – and the most important quality, integrity – success is impossible, he says.

You don’t have to be famous like Justin Bieber or Oprah to be able to influence others in a positive and great way. Everyone is an influencer, Maxwell says. Spouses make a difference in each others’ lives. Parents influence their children. Friends affect each other. Teachers influence their students. You can influence your professional peers. We all have some sphere of influence in our lives, whether large or small.

You’re not “just a mom” or “just a policeman.” My husband Ray is a full-time paramedic, yet he’s often a “preacher of the night,” ministering to his patients just through caring and giving them encouragement in the back of an ambulance. In my mind and many others’, Ray is a hero for what he does. Where would our society be without paramedics, firefighters, police, or our U.S. military?

You have no idea how much impact you are making for all of eternity, even if you’re not “in the limelight.”  Billy Graham has led thousands upon thousands to Jesus.  Yet what about the person who led Billy Graham to God?

The dictionary defines influence as “the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others.”

To be a greater influencer, you listen to others and you respond to them and their needs. You give them value and impart good things into their lives. You offer and teach others what you know. You are mentored, then you mentor.

You share your personal story, your pain, your tragedies, your vulnerable places – and your lessons learned. You give them the comfort God has given you. (2 Corinthians 1:4)

Don’t underestimate the impact of your influence. Your children’s little eyes are watching you, as well as your spouse, your friends, your peers. You want to encourage others to be all that God created them to be, to call them up higher.

Your words have weight. Your story heals. Your gifts help. Your life is an instrument God is using in the life of others.

If you don’t step up into your calling, it can negatively affect other people who God is bringing purposely into your life for you to help and to influence. They need what you have to offer. You have answers and solutions for them. Share them – today.

You are a person of influence.

You will discover how to get past your pain to live a joyful, victorious, blessed life of God’s purpose.

This class has limited seating. Class size is limited to only 5 participants, and will be held for 5 weeks beginning September 13 at 11 a.m. Central Time, covering each of the 10 chapters in the ebook. We will start and end each class session with prayer, and you will receive mp3 recordings of each class along with any handouts or worksheets.We’re going to learn a lot from each other and have fun!

If you register within one week of today, you will also receive my ebook Prayer, Purpose, and Passion as a bonus. To learn more about this class, just click on this link: www.bethjones.net/articles/groupcoaching.

If you have any questions, email me at elizabethdjones@gmail.com.

Video of donated clothes, shoes and school supplies to children at one of the elementary schools we helped:

Video of some team members installing blinds at the elementary school, now relocated (original school destroyed)

Video of more team members putting up blinds and some cool painted signs on the wall at school

Video of “Teamwork” sign at one of the schools we worked at

Video of one of the schools where we worked this weekend

Me with the librarian at one of schools where we worked

A destroyed school in Joplin, MO

It’s horrible. Those are the only words I can use to describe Joplin, and it’s just not an adequate description. You look around at the houses that are now a pile of a sticks, bricks, and mangled mess and the only thing that goes through your mind is, “WHY?”

There’s no answer. But the Joplin residents have painted amazing signs of hope in different places by the rubble like, “God saved us,” “Pray for Joplin,” “We will rebuild,” and “Volunteers, we love you.”

On Friday, August 13, and Saturday, August 14, a team of 23 men and women mostly from the Kansas City, MO area traveled to Joplin, MO, for a quick missions trip to assist Joplin tornado victims. The majority of the team members were from EchoChurch.tv. Our daughter Heather and I were with the team. Some of the work the team did this weekend included:

• Hauling debris from a demolished house to the curb for Joplin’s debris clean-up crew to pick up;
• Unloading a truckful of books for Irving elementary school, which relocated to another building after the original school building was devastated from the tornado;
• Hanging blinds for large windows at Irving elementary school at the new location;
• Assisting teachers with a variety of chores to get their rooms ready at Cecil Floyd elementary school, that is preparing to open this Tuesday (this school’s roof was severely damaged from the tornado);
• Assembling bookshelves for teachers at Cecil Floyd elementary;
• Replacing siding on a house that was badly damaged from the tornado.

Echo Church’s staff has been to Joplin twice since the tornado to do manual labor, working with a church there. On this trip we had planned to do manual labor, too, when we arrived yesterday, including roofing and hauling debris. But we found out when we got there that we wouldn’t be doing the roofing job. We were able to haul debris at one house for Joplin’s debris clean-up crew to pick up.

I was extremely impressed with how Echo Church’s staff took fast, decisive action right away and quickly found another relief aid organization for the team to work with, since the majority of the team members were giving their own time and expense to make this trip. The relief aid organization put us to work right away at the schools and at the house needing the new siding. The principle of Irving Elementary and the teachers at Cecil Floyd Elementary were extremely thankful and expressed great appreciation for our help.

I was also very impressed with the unity of our team, and how there was a unified spirit of love for God and fellow man, as well as the joy of the Lord – we laughed a lot as a team as we did the work. Even though we were not doing the job(s) we originally thought we would be (like the roofing), we were making a difference in Joplin. This spoke to my heart that no job is “little” or “unimportant” in God’s sight. “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones.” ~ Luke 16:10, NLT

One of the things which impacted me the most, other than the horror of it all, was seeing children’s toys in the huge piles of debris. It was a poignant reminder of how satan wants to kill, steal, and destroy our children and their lives. I found a blue plastic Lego™ and a couple of other toys buried in the debris at the first house where we hauled debris, and saved one – it was a little toy ambulance buried in the mound of dirt, wood, and metal. It also reminded me how important it is to hold and love our precious children every day.

We were able to relax at the end of yesterday with a dinner at Chicken Annie’s. We had put in a long day and were all tired and really hungry – it tasted so delicious! Then we all crashed to sleep and woke up this morning to do some more work.

When we traveled back home today, we remembered that the victims had no home to go to, many are hungry, and many are living in temporary shelters – a majority of those homes were under insured from the disaster. Lives have been lost, hundreds were injured, and so many homes, property, and businesses were totally destroyed.

Me & Heather, Joplin

You really have to see Joplin first-hand to get how devastating it is. What is so crazy is that there are some homes still standing right next door to a house that was totally destroyed, and the same with businesses.

Please continue to pray for the residents of Joplin and for God to restore the city. I am so thankful to God that I had this opportunity to serve Him and that we are all safely back home.

Thank you so much for praying for us. Below is a video showing some of the damage in Joplin, including the hospital. I will try to post more videos tomorrow or Monday.

Video, Joplin tornado damage

Me & our daughter Heather

This year the residents of Joplin, MO weren’t prepared when the deadliest tornado in more than half a century came through, killing at least 116 people, injuring hundreds, and flattening the city. Tomorrow our oldest daughter Heather and I are going with a team of about 24 people from her church, EchoChurch.tv, to Joplin to assist the tornado victims.

There is still plenty of work to do in Joplin. “The tornado, which struck around dinner time, crushed nearly a third of the city. It pounded about 2,000 buildings, knocked out power and cellphone service for many, and damaged water treatment and sewage plants. The tangled remains of cars and trucks were overturned and thrown against buildings and trees. Some blocks were jagged mounds of debris, while others were stripped to utter emptiness: just foundations of homes and tree trunks — no leaves, no branches, no bark,”  the New York Times reported.

The church team from EchoChurch.tv will be doing manual labor outside hauling debris and working inside a school. We will work tomorrow (Friday, August 11) and Saturday, August 12, returning late Saturday night. EchoChurch.tv sent a team to Joplin after the tornado first hit.

Here are my specific prayer requests: