Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “hope”
@bethvogt Sometimes we just don’t know. That’s my takeaway from all the news swirling around Simone Biles. Sometimes we just don’t know the entire story and we need to be okay with that. Simon Biles is an American Olympic gymnast. The GOAT — the Greatest Of All Time. People love her. Love her story. She’s a gymnastics powerhouse and when …
@bethvogt My friend Scoti called me after I’d posted my blog “Don’t Believe Everything You Think” last week. The one where I confessed to losing a wrestling match with my thoughts for 48 hours. And how connecting with a friend and focusing on the Truth helped me win the victory. Scoti: Are you okay? I’m worried about you. Me …
@bethvogt I mulled over this blog post for quite a while. Started one topic. Erased it. I wanted to think of something funny. Something light. Put a spin on things so my words were encouraging from the get-go. But it was a bit of a fractured start to the week, one where I fought to find a good rhythm …
A week ago, I exchanged my usual daily outfit of leggings and a Life is Good T-shirt for a casual-nice outfit accessorized with jewelry and a touch of makeup. The occasion? A girls’ night out with four of my favorite people: my daughters, Katie Beth, Amy, Christa, and my daughter-in-love Meagan. We’d reserved a table several weeks in advance …
@bethvogt My friend Jeanne and I have May birthdays. We’ve developed a funny tradition around our birthdays: we never celebrate them with each other during our birthday month. Don’t get me wrong – we’ve tried many, many times to celebrate during May. We make plans to meet for breakfast or lunch or dinner. Inevitably, our plans get pushed back again …
I wake up several times each night. I know I’m not alone in this repeated I’m-asleep-now-I’m-awake middle of the night routine. The first thing I do when I wake up is glance at the alarm clock on my bedside table. It’s an illuminated model with oversize red digital numbers I purchased several years ago for my mother-in-law who battled …
@bethvogt Listening, truly listening to another person, is both simple and hard work. I’ve focused on listening to others for the past 18 months, ever since choosing “Listen” as my One Word in 2020 and then again in 2021. The one lesson I’m going to remember when 2022 arrives and I move onto a new One Word is that …
@bethvogt I’ve been in an ongoing tug-of-war with stress … and right now stress is winning. I stared at that sentence and considered deleting it, one letter at a time. Choosing another topic for today’s blog. But I’ll go with the reality that, despite my best efforts to “Go placidly amid the noise and haste” … well, I’m not. I’m …
@bethvogt My youngest daughter Christa is having ankle surgery today. Surgery and rehabbing her ankle were not part of her original plan for the summer. I talked about how her Plan A fell apart in my blog post “Why Can We Be Hopeful When Our Plans Fall Apart?” Christa got through the last weeks of her spring semester at Bethel …
@bethvogt It’s time to take down our Christmas tree. I know, I know, some of you are thinking, “It’s long past time to take that tree down, Beth!” After Christmas, my husband Rob decided we needed light in our lives. Keeping our Christmas tree up was a perfect way to accomplish that. We also left our Christmas star up outside …
