Every Monday, I’ll post about discovering genuine hope and authentic answers for living a healthy life. — The waves kept coming. And coming. It if weren’t for the rocky shore, I couldn’t have sat where I was. The water would have come much further. The waves would have calmly died out. Slowed down. Quietly. And then the next waves would have arrived, continuing the pattern. But, there were rocks. There was the shore. The barricade. It’s where the water churned. The waves collided. The ocean roared. These rocks are immovable, but I know they’re smaller than they used to be. The powerful water has acted as sandpaper and the barricade is smaller as a result. Some water gets through. While recently watching and … [Read more...]
Letting Go to Steward Better
April 15, 2013 by · Leave a Comment
Every Monday, I’ll post about discovering genuine hope and authentic answers for living a healthy life. — Joey came to my home to cut off the dead limb from a tree in my front yard. I noticed it dying this winter as bark occasionally fell off. I wanted the limb cut off mostly so it wouldn’t break off in one of our frequent wind and thunderstorms. Of course, it was a bit ugly, too, as compared to the rest of the tree. I was concerned a disease might have caused the limb to die. I was relieved to learn that wasn’t the case. (Apparently when fruitless mulberry trees reach a certain age, limbs often begin to die.) Joey told me cutting the limb off was wise because the tree was still expending energy to that limb. By getting … [Read more...]
Explaining Our Smarts Part 6 – Nature Smart
April 3, 2013 by · 2 Comments
Every Wednesday, I’ll post about multiple intelligences so we can better understand children and why they do what they do. — “It sure is ugly outside today.” “What do you mean?” “You know. It’s so cloudy and foggy. It’s dark and the air just looks heavy today.” “It’s just another kind of beauty.” “What?” “It’s just another kind of beauty.” A friend and I had this conversation. I’m the one asking “What?” with disbelief in my voice and a perplexed expression on my face. My friend is so nature smart that she sees beauty in it all. Because of her, I’m more nature smart then I used to, but I’m still not as nature smart as she is. Nature-smart children would rather be outside than inside. … [Read more...]
Explaining Our Smarts Part 4 – Music Smart
March 13, 2013 by · 1 Comment
Every Wednesday, I’ll post about multiple intelligences so we can better understand children and why they do what they do. — We determine how strong people’s intelligences are by looking at both how much interest they have and how much ability they demonstrate. Both are essential for an intelligence to be strong. Interest in music is high in our culture. Just look at the number of iPods in use, the number of people who have downloaded music to their phones, and the number of iTunes accounts accessed regularly. But, not all the people listening to music have music smart as a strength. Are they interested in a variety of musical styles, are they open to discovering new styles and musicians, and do they remember music … [Read more...]
Secure, Content, Healthy
March 11, 2013 by · Leave a Comment
Every Monday, I’ll post about discovering genuine hope and authentic answers for living a healthy life. — “He actually called me ‘Fresh Meat’.” I leaned forward and asked, “Seriously? He said that!?” “I know! Can you believe it? So many guys today don’t even hide their intentions. They know I’m newly divorced and they make terrible assumptions.” I asked, “What are you going to do?” Without hesitation, my friend explained why she thought men like this were “so sad.” While sharing, it’s almost as if she had my book, Finding Authentic Hope and Wholeness: Five Questions That Could Change Your Life, in front of her. She confidently declared, “I’m not that kind of woman. I never was. I … [Read more...]
Parents Appreciate Learning About Their Children – Pick Up “No More Perfect Moms”
February 6, 2013 by · Leave a Comment
Parents appreciate learning about how their children are smart for several reasons. One I’ve seen evidenced in many of my audiences is that “imperfect” is redefined as “different.” That’s a powerfully important change! Some children are very word smart so they learn to read and write easily and enjoy both. Others aren’t as word smart and they may struggle to learn and/or they may not enjoy reading in their spare time. That doesn’t make them imperfect. It just makes them different. I’ve seen children damaged by perfectionism. And, I’ve talked with more moms than I can count about the damage they do to themselves when trying to be perfect. Unrealistic expectations they have for themselves and their families are … [Read more...]
“No More Perfect Moms” – Book Launch
February 4, 2013 by · Leave a Comment
Every Monday, I’ll post about discovering genuine hope and authentic answers for living a healthy life. — Monday’s blogs are about how we and our children should and can meet our core needs of security, identity, belonging, purpose, and competence in healthy ways. As I’ve written before this month here, it’s not wise to try meeting our needs by being perfect. Yet, I see people doing this so often. Honestly, before God did a beautiful work in my life, I was perfectionistic. I was very hard on myself when I made mistakes and I know other people were afraid to be wrong when around me. I still have regrets about that period of my life. This is why I was happy to join the launch team for Jill Savage’s important new book, … [Read more...]
Employing the Power of all 8 Intelligences
January 23, 2013 by · 1 Comment
Every Wednesday, I’ll post about multiple intelligences so we can better understand children and why they do what they do. — One of the best ways to discover the power of our eight intelligences is to think about one topic with all of them. You’ll see how much more complete your understandings become. Using all eight smarts usually increases motivation, too. Back in June, I demonstrated that in this post using a pine cone as the thing to think about. Because more than one example is helpful, here’s a brief look at using all our smarts when learning about volcanoes: Word - write a story or make a speech Logic - list 10 questions and find answers to at least 3 Picture - watch a video Music - write a poem or song … [Read more...]
Have a Right Attitude Toward Personal Weakness
January 14, 2013 by · 1 Comment
Every Monday, I’ll post about discovering genuine hope and authentic answers for living a healthy life. — Right attitudes toward our weaknesses are essential. Without them, we may struggle to meet our five needs in healthy ways. For instance, as I explained to a group of teenagers last week and as I’ve blogged about before, spelling isn’t my strength. Imagine if it was a bigger deal to me than it needs to be. Imagine if I hadn’t found ways to compensate. I might answer the core questions like this: Security: Who can I trust? I can’t trust myself. I can’t even spell well! Identity: Who am I? I’m stupid. Spelling is hard for me. Belonging: Who Wants me? I have friends, but I better not let them know spelling … [Read more...]
I think it’s SMART to be …
December 19, 2012 by · 6 Comments
Rather than posting about being intelligent in different ways, as I normally do on Wednesdays, what if I wrote about just being smart? Yes, I think I will. Imagine how much better off we’d all be if we behaved in smart ways. In light of what’s going on in the world, I haven’t been able to shake this idea. The concept is also relevant to Christmas. God sent His Son so we’d trust Him by faith for our salvation and rely on Him to behave as He wants us to. You might not agree with me, but I actually believe the behaviors I’ve listed here are possible. Yes, they are. What may happen less often in the world if we were smart in these ways? More often? This list was fun to compile. What would you add to it? Are there any you’d … [Read more...]
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