by | Life Application
Don’t punch me in the face, but I’m about to admit something to you. Until this season, I’ve NEVER watched The Voice. I think I caught part of an episode at a friend’s house once, but beyond that, nope. Never.
Are you done judging me yet? Good.. now let’s get to the good stuff.
I had no intentions of watching it this season either, until my friend Marcie mentioned how funny Kelly Clarkson was. So I fired up Hulu and thought I’d give it a shot. Call me hooked.
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by | Life Application
I didn’t get to watch the Golden Globes, but when I got off work and was perusing through Facebook before I drifted off to dream land, I saw my newsfeed exploding with kudos to Oprah for her speech during her acceptance of the Cecil B. de Mille Award.
Oprah’s one of those women who doesn’t just throw her words around. She doesn’t simply use her fame to grow her platform and become richer. She uses her platform to share truth, injustice, victories, and more.
I don’t always agree with the views Oprah shares, but I still admire her strength, courage, vulnerability, and tenacity. I want to be like her when I grow up.
This speech. This speech. This speech.
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by | Life Application
Each year since 2011 I’ve chosen one word to live by – one word I want to define my year. I’ve lived out trust, radical faith, productivity, choosing to say no more, walking with more intention, truth, and rest.
But this past year – this 2017 – I have struggled. My word was rest, and though I was obedient in that for a minute, I kinda started sucking at it.
I struggled hard this past year and the thought of choosing a word for 2018 didn’t appeal to me whatsoever. I just didn’t want to do it. Because I just didn’t.
But if we always make decisions based off the way we feel in that moment, we’ll never get anywhere.
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by | Life Application
Remember being at the beginning of 2017 and so excited about the new year? It’s a fresh start. You can hear the excitement in your voice. You’re gonna rock this year!
And then….
Life hits you by February… March… June… August… November…
And you ask yourself, Where did my excitement go? I thought I was gonna rock this year!
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by | Life Application
In 2001, I packed my bags and moved 400 miles to the city I’d dreamed about for years. Since I was a little girl in the small town of Belle, Mo., I knew someday I’d either live in Hollywood and be an actress or move to Nashville and write songs so I could hear other people sing them on the radio. At 18 years old, I chose Nashville.
“I want to be a songwriter,” I told my family. They all thought I was crazy, but I went anyway. I pulled into “Music City” with my pickup truck and a suitcase full of dreams.
I wanted to be a songwriter but I didn’t have the first clue what I was doing. When people would ask me what I was doing there, as I waited tables at Shoney’s, I’d say, “I want to write songs.” I didn’t want to be a singer. I didn’t want to be in a band. I just wanted to write. Looking back on that time I realize there was a very important piece of the puzzle missing.
Jeff Goins writes in his new book, Real Artists Don’t Starve,
Eventually, you have to decide who you are. You have to choose your role and own that identity. We don’t fake it till we make it. We believe it till we become it.
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by | Life Application
Others are often surprised to learn I’m not a fan of confrontation. Because I serve in different areas of leadership, it comes with an automatic assumption that calling people out, holding others accountable, and dealing with confrontation comes easy for me.
I can promise you that it doesn’t.
Confrontation is never easy for me, but I know it’s necessary. It’s necessary in all of our lives. Yours, mine, and the guy next door.
There usually isn’t a day that goes by I don’t have to muster up the courage to confront an issue, whether that’s talking through a hard topic with our Freedom Finders at Esther’s House, talking through something with a friend, etc.
Confronting hard situations takes courage.
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