Being Intentional About Your Influence

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We are all influential.  Maybe in our homes, at our work, with our friends, etc.  If you’re like me, you probably think you don’t really have any influence.  I’ve always tried to do my best and do the right thing, but I’ve never really stopped to think about the ways that I influence others.

But the reality is, we are all influential. 

Like I said, I had never really thought about this until I had a few people over the last year tell me that I was pretty influential.  My immediate reaction was “No way!  You are crazy!  I’m not influential at all!  I’m just silly Stephanie!”  But after I heard this comment from multiple people, it started bothering me and got me thinking. 

If I really do have even a little influence on people, how am I going to use that for good…for God?  How do I become really intentional about this?  How am I going to do my best to influence others for good?  How am I going to lead others to Christ through my actions and words?  How am I going to lead my children to Christ through my influence?  What am I going to do about all the ways I’m influential that I don’t even know about?

I went from never even thinking that I had influence at all to feeling really responsible for the influence that I do truly have.  I’m thankful for the people who opened my eyes to the influence that I do have so I can do my best to use it for good!

 

Vacation-ish Day

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Lately, I’ve been feeling like I needed to take a day to myself to de-stress.  I checked my calendar constantly for weeks looking for a free day to take, but I had something scheduled on my calendar at work every day.  I finally had a free day with nothing on my calendar yesterday, so I took advantage of the free day!

When thinking about what I wanted to do with my day, there were two themes that came up: do absolutely nothing and get as much stuff done as possible.

There are one or two times a year where I get absolutely disgusted with the state of my house and can’t take it anymore.  This was one of those times.

I quickly realized that I was not ever going to be able to completely relax if I knew I had things that I really needed to get done, so I decided to get as much stuff done as possible to where I can possibly take another day off in the near future to just relax.

I started making my list of things I wanted to get done.  My lists are always unreasonable.  I think that I can get more done that is physically possible.  Chris knows this about me, so the night before, he coached me that I needed to pick two things that I really wanted to get done.  I picked three.

I spent the morning working around the house and then decided mid-morning that I needed to have a little fun too.  So I called my mom and planned to have lunch with her and my Grandmother.  

I wound up getting two of my three things done and then having an awesome lunch!

Then I got to pick Caleb up from school and make crafts all evening long.  

While I would rather use a vacation day to do something fun, I’m happy with my day and the fact that I had the time to do something to make myself feel better.

Brave, Warrior Friends

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I was blessed beyond measure to have lunch with a dear friend today who has served churches immensely.

We had been casual acquaintances for a good while until one special day.  That morning, I had been really feeling like I needed to talk to someone about something I was dealing with, but I just couldn’t bring myself to actually talk about it.  But I kept feeling this nagging sensation that I really needed to share it with someone.  I had a meeting to attend, and when I got there, this lady was already there.  We struck up a conversation, and I asked her a simple question…to which she bravely told me about where she was in life and what she was struggling with.  And it was along the lines of the thing I was needing to talk about!  So, I got to spill my guts too!  

Ever since then, this lady is like one of my soul sisters.  She is on my heart, and I know I am on her heart.  I still find it amazing how God orchestrated that conversation, and I am so glad that she was brave enough to answer my simple question truthfully.  It sure was a big help to me!

I love that I have friends who know my junk, and I know their junk, and we love each other through our junk!  Life is full of junk, and I’m thankful for brave, strong friends who with me on this journey.  Who encourage me, remind me that I am a warrior princess, and help me fight the good fight!

Mandles – For that special man in your life

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Awhile back, a friend showed me the following video:

Funny stuff, right!

This weekend, I was looking through the Yankee Candle fundraiser brochure for Caleb’s school.  When I got to the back page, I saw this:

Mandles

No way!  There are really Man Candles out there!  The scents here are “Movie Night”, “Mmm, Bacon”, “First Down”, and “Man Town”.  And if you get the car jar air fresheners, you can also get the scent “Riding Lawn Mower.”

I have been laughing about this little discovery all weekend!

So, if this sounds like the perfect gift for your man for this holiday season, let me know!  I can hook you up! 🙂

When in times of small talk…

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I’ve said before that I’m no good at small talk. I was in a situation yesterday where small talk was necessary, and I learned something about myself.

I’m no good about talking about myself. I find it really awkward to have to talk about myself when put on the spot. Now, if something pops up in the conversation where I can chime in about something from my life, I’m good to do that. But if you just point blank ask me a question about me, my family, my job, etc., there’s a really good chance that I’m going to come across as awkward.

But I’m really good about asking other people about their lives.

That’s fair, right?!

Quote

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I saw this quote on Twitter this morning.

“Architecture and design should be such that people don’t need an invitation to step inside.”

This really makes me think…

In thinking about church communications and publications, how can we create things with content to where it is an obvious invitation and people felt drawn to the community of people?

If we were going to build a church, how would we design it to be an inviting place?  Where they already feel invited and welcome?

How do I design/change my life to where people don’t need an invitation to enter into my presence or into the nitty gritty of my life?

So much to think about!

Sundays

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After I’ve gotten the kids up, fed, dressed, got them to church barely on time, sat through the worship service with them, got them home, fed them lunch, changed diapers and clothes and put them down for nap time…I’m done!  I’m ready to veg out and take a nap myself.  I am pretty much worthless on Sunday afternoons, and I never, ever get anything productive done.  It’s just the way it is.  And I’m good with it!  So good that it’s not changing any time soon! 🙂

This week after my glorious nap and laying in bed all afternoon (thank you, Chris!), I finally got myself up, threw on some jeans and headed out to LIFE Group which was ladies night at Starbucks and had a blast!

While I was getting ready to leave (pretty much just throwing jeans on), I thought about how thankful I am that I have friends who love and accept me the way I am.  I felt completely comfortable going to meet my friends without having to get all gussied up.  Don’t  get me wrong, sometimes I love dressing up (shoot, I did it Friday night and my mom was shocked that I was wearing glitzy Claire’s jewelry), but there are other times where I am perfectly happy to just be comfortable.  And I’m thankful that I have great friends who let me be me and take me as I am!

The Power of “I Don’t Know”

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I saw this article on cnn.com this morning, and it reminded me just how much I love these three words: I Don’t Know!

I grew up thinking I had to know everything.  I had to have an answer for everything.  We were taught in church to have an answer for anything people could ask you about God and your faith.  And it was very important to have all the right answers.  In school, we had to have all the answers too.  You had to be right, and there wasn’t much room for creativity or even searching for the answers.

When I was interviewing for a job years ago, my very wise husband gave me some great advice.  He told me that I would probably be asked some questions in my interview that I didn’t know the answer to.  And instead of making something up, I should say “I don’t know, but I can find out!”  I remember sitting in that interview and using those words, and I was so glad that he had given me those words to say.  

As an adult, I have fully embraced the words I Don’t Know.  It has become freeing to be able to admit that I don’t know everything.  But it’s also fun to have the chance to say but I can try to find out!  I have learned so many things that I might not have had the chance to learn if I hadn’t admitted that I didn’t know something.  I absolutely love learning new things, so it is extremely exciting to me to find something new that I get to learn.  

Recently I went to an event where I was talking to a girl that I knew a long time ago.  At one point, she asked me a question that I didn’t know the answer to, so I readily admitted that I didn’t know.  This threw her off completely.  In her mind, because I am who I am, I should have known the answer to that question.  She was really flustered and told me that she thought differently of me and was disappointed that I didn’t have an answer to all of her questions.  I just kind of laughed to myself and told her “Well, I’m sorry, but there’s a whole lot that I don’t know!”  And it didn’t bother me one bit that I didn’t have an answer to give her.  If anything, I hope it taught this girl that it’s OK to not know everything.  That it’s really pretty darn freeing to be able to say those words.

The older I get and the more I learn, I realize that there is so much in the world that I don’t know about.  And that’s OK!  I’m happy to admit when I don’t know something, but I’m also thrilled when I get to say that and then get started on learning something new!

Funny Caleb Sayings

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Yesterday morning when we were walking out the door to take Caleb to school, he asked “Momma, am I grounded from Cap’n Crunch?”  “No,” I replied.  To which he said, “Hmm, I must have dreamed that!”

And I posted this one on Facebook earlier this week: Caleb just now after I asked him a bunch of questions about school: “Come on Momma, it’s the 10th day of school! I don’t know much!”

That kid cracks me up!

Conversation Peace

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I attended our church’s Ladies Bible Class this morning, and I’m excited about this study and the chance to connect with RE women!  Our study for this semester is:

Image

The verse that stuck out to me today was James 3:1-6:

“Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”

Today’s lessons was very powerful and convicting!  I can think of way too many times that a small careless word uttered from my mouth has created a fire instead of a calming presence.  Especially words spoken to family members.

God, help me to control my tongue, and help my words to be in alignment with you!

Like I said, I’m looking forward to this study and the things I learn from it!