Mar
20
2011
Jan
01
2011
A great Hawaiian saying is “Imua!” which means to move forward with confidence and courage. It’s a great word for the upcoming new year as we explore new opportunities and perhaps face fears.
This week, I put into practice “imua” by facing my fear of ziplining. Yes, I stepped off a wooden platform to soar across 1800 feet of the world’s fifth largest caldera located in Kauai. Encouraged by my teenage daughters, I faced my fear of not being in control of my destiny and took a leap of faith.
The excellent guides, Mitch and Chris of Outfitters Kauai prepared us well for our ultimate “black diamond” zipline adventure. We did several practice runs on what I thought were “big ziplines” but little did I know what was really awaiting. The guides constantly reminded us that the most important lesson we all needed to learn to be safe was to “trust our gear.”
True wisdom that I needed to hear. For too long in life, I have “held on tightly” when what I should have done was to “let go and let God.” He provides “the gear” that we need to sustain us through the difficult moments of life as we soar across jungles.
So I guess my advice would be this: “Face your fear and trust God’s gear.” IMUA!!
What fear do you need to face this year? What have you been holding on too tightly? What does “imua” mean to you?
Margaret McSweeney is the founder of Pearl Girls (www.pearlgirls.info), the host of Kitchen Chat (http://margaretmcsweeney.com/kitchen-chat/), and an author. Her book, Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace, was published in 2009. Margaret is fast at work on a fiction manuscript (or three) and can be found blogging at From Finance to Fiction (http://fromfinancetofiction.blogspot.com).
Dec
25
2010
Welcome to the 12 Pearls of Christmas! Enjoy these
Christmas “Pearls of Wisdom”! Please follow along through Christmas day as each post
shares heartfelt stories of how God has touched a life during this most wonderful time
of the year. AND BEST OF ALL … there’s also a giveaway!!!! Fill out the
quick form at the link located at the bottom of this post to be entered to win a PEARL
NECKLACE, BRACELET AND EARRINGS! Pearls – a tangible reminder of
God’s grace to us all.
~~~
Love
by Lauraine Snelling
When asked to write a Christmas message, one of my first thoughts was Do I climb up on
my soapbox regarding changing the words in Christmas songs, using only holiday, etc. I
thought about it and decided no. After all, they’re only words and what difference does a
word make—really make after all?
Then I kept on thinking. If they’re only words… But we as writers know the power of
words, as do readers. When the wrong word is used, it jars, while the right word can be
most powerful. Take one highly overused and under practiced word—Love. Four letters
is all. We toss it around so glibly, saying love ya and luv and love. But think about the
power in I love you. Three of the most precious words in our language when put together.
Those of us who write romances or books with romance in them, understand the power
when one of our characters tells another, I love you. As humans we can never hear that
enough or too much.
Christmas is about love. The greatest love story ever told, that of God for us humans,
and it never changes. Customs change, politics change, the years change but God’s love
never, ever does. At Christmas we are invited to share that love, to give it away, to pass
it around. To find wonder again and joy in simple acts of love. We make contact with
people we might never see or talk with through the year. That says I love you. We buy
and make gifts to give, we reach out to strangers in need, we try to make sure everyone
has a special dinner and every child a present. By giving, we receive.
So, let’s use the power words, but more so, put feet on those words and pass the love
around. Let’s look for and find the wonder, the joy and the peace, maybe in small bits
and pieces and perhaps in an avalanche of blessings. Make your days brighter with the
simple gift of a smile, a kind word, a touch, for every single one that you give away, will
come back to you multiplied. As you give, so shall you receive. Merry Christmas my
friends. May we all recognize our blessings—-and let an attitude of gratitude permeate
this holiday and every day. With love and joy on this day, Lauraine!
~~~
About Lauraine: Lauraine Snelling is the award-winning author of more
than sixty books, with sales of over 2 million copies. She also writes for a wide range
of magazines, and helps others reach their writing dreams by teaching at writer’s
conferences across the country. Lauraine and her husband, Wayne, have two grown sons,
and live in the Tehachapi Mountains with a cockatiel named Bidley, and a watchdog
Basset named Chewy.
For more information please visit Lauraine’s website: www.laurainesnelling.com.
~~~
A three strand pearl necklace will be given away on New Year’s Day. All you need to do
to have a chance of winning is {FILL OUT THIS QUICK ENTRY FORM}. One entry per
person, per day. The winner will be announced on the Pearl Girls Blog (http://margaretmcsweeney.blogspot.com) on
New Years Day!
12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more
information, please visit www.pearlgirls.info
Welcome to the 12 Pearls of Christmas! Enjoy these Christmas “Pearls of Wisdom”! Please follow along through Christmas day as each post shares heartfelt stories of how God has touched a life during this most wonderful time of the year. AND BEST OF ALL … there’s also a giveaway!!!! Fill out the quick form at
the link located at the bottom of this post to be entered to win a PEARL NECKLACE, BRACELET AND EARRINGS! Pearls – a tangible reminder of God’s grace to us all.
~~~
An Unforgettable Gift
by Karen O’Connor
On Christmas morning, 1912, in Paducah, Kentucky, fourteen-year-old Charlie Flowers and his three brothers and two sisters huddled in their beds, fully dressed, trying to keep warm as the wind howled outside their small frame house.
It was a desperate time for the family. Earlier that year the children’s father had died. And their mother had not found work. The coal had run out and there was little money––none for gifts. Their scrawny tree with decorations made from scraps of colored paper had been given to them the night before by a local merchant.
“Can’t sell this one,” the man said with a nod of his head before handing it over to the eager children.
To pass the time, the siblings joked and shouted stories from their bedrooms across the hallway from one another. Then suddenly a racket from the alley at the rear of the house broke into their games.
“Charlie,” his mother called, “would you see what’s going on out there?”
Charlie pulled on his shoes, grabbed a thick overcoat from the hook by the door, and ran out back.
There stood a man in a wagon bent over a load of coal, shoveling it into the shed as fast as he could.
“Hey Mister, we didn’t order any coal,” Charlie shouted. “You’re delivering it to the wrong house.”
“Your name’s Flowers, isn’t it?” the man asked, still shoveling.
Charlie nodded yes.
“Well then, there’s no mistake. I’ve been asked to deliver this to your family on Christmas morning.” He looked the awe-struck boy square in the eye. “And I’m under strict orders not to tell who sent it,” he teased.
Charlie ran into the house, his coattail flapping in the cold morning wind. He could hardly wait to tell his mother and brothers and sisters. God had provided––just as he had on that first Christmas morning so long ago when He sent his only son to a needy world.
Charlie Flowers died in 1994 at age 96. And right up to the last year of his life, not a Christmas went by that he didn’t tell the story of that sub-zero Christmas morning of his boyhood when two men gave his family an unforgettable gift.
It wasn’t the coal that was remembered or cherished, Charlie often said––welcome as it was––but rather what two men brought to his desperate family. One, for his gift of recognizing their great need and taking the time to do something about it. And the other, for being willing to give up part of his own Christmas morning to deliver it.
That gift of so long ago has continued to warm the Flowers family from one generation to another, as Charlie’s son––my husband, Charles––calls to mind these two unknown men each Christmas morning and whispers a prayer of thanks.
~~~
About Karen: Karen O’Connor is an award-winning author and writing mentor living in Watsonville, California with her husband, Charles Flowers. Karen’s latest book is 365 Reasons Why Gettin’ Old Ain’t So Bad (Harvest House 2010).
For more information, please visit Karen on the web at www.karenoconnor.com.
~~~
A three strand pearl necklace will be given away on New Year’s Day. All you need to do
to have a chance of winning is {FILL OUT THIS QUICK ENTRY FORM}. One entry per
person, per day. The winner will be announced on the Pearl Girls Blog (http://margaretmcsweeney.blogspot.com) on
New Years Day!
12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more
information, please visit www.pearlgirls.info
Welcome to the 12 Pearls of Christmas! Enjoy these Christmas “Pearls of Wisdom”! Please follow along through Christmas day as each post shares heartfelt stories of how God has touched a life during this most wonderful time of the year. AND BEST OF ALL … there’s also a giveaway!!!! Fill out the quick form at
the link located at the bottom of this post to be entered to win a PEARL NECKLACE, BRACELET AND EARRINGS! Pearls – a tangible reminder of God’s grace to us all.
~~~
All I Want for Christmas…
Is to be able to have Christmas this Year by Melissa Mashburn
This is a simple request, isn’t it? In the previous years, we had great big bountiful Christmases with our family. Gifts, goodies and general Christmas cheer but this year it was different. The year before has been chock full of disappointments, failing businesses and severe cutbacks for our family.
Sitting with my husband one night we hammered out the bare minimum that we could spend that year for Christmas and even still the total was four hundred dollars. It does not sound like a whole lot compared to what we’ve spent on Christmas before, but this year it could have been four thousand dollars because we just did not have it.
We prayed, I cried, we prayed some more and decided that we would cut back anything else that we could that year so we could have Christmas for our kids. We did not know how we would make this happen, but we knew that we needed to step forward in faith that it would happen.
Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don’t these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God. Galatians 3:5 the Message
Not even two days later, we hear a knock on our front door. We open the door to see some friends of ours from church. With tears in their eyes, they handed us an envelope and said that the felt they needed to give us this. We opened the envelope and inside there was four hundred dollars cash.
Shocked, stunned and with tears flowing down our face we just sat there in a state of crying and laughing at what God had done. We never shared with anyone that year what we needed, how bad it was, what was going on or what that number was for us to have Christmas for the kids, but God knew.
“And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.” 2 Corinthians 9:8 NLT
He took a willing servant, led them to our front door and changed Christmas for us that year. After many years of being in full time ministry we knew that God would provide, but when He shows up just at the right moment, you know that it was all a part of His plan to show how much He loves, provides and cares for His people.
Father God, thank you that after all the years of serving and loving you in ministry that you continue to teach, guide, love, shepherd and care for us. You, Father, are abundantly gracious and kind, thank you for showing up for us at just the right moment every time, forgive us when we forget that. In Jesus name, Amen.
~~~
About Melissa: Melissa is the founder of the blog Mel’s World Ministry, co-founder
of the Praise and Coffee Nights Ministry with Sue Cramer, Kids Ministry Director at her
church. Just last year she launched a new weekly series called Godly Gals ~ Real
Women, Real Life, Real Faith where we meet new women each week who are “Taking
their everyday, ordinary lives and placing it as their offering to God.” Romans 12:1 the
Message. You can find her on twitter and at her blog. She loves encouraging women to live with an authentic faith by being transparent,
renewed and transformed. ~ Romans 12:2.
~~~
A three strand pearl necklace will be given away on New Year’s Day. All you need to do
to have a chance of winning is {FILL OUT THIS QUICK ENTRY FORM}. One entry per
person, per day. The winner will be announced on the Pearl Girls Blog (http://margaretmcsweeney.blogspot.com) on
New Years Day!
12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more
information, please visit www.pearlgirls.info
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