Success is not Who We Are

Beth VogtAuthors, Beth K. Vogt, challenges, confidence, dreams, failure, goals, In Others' Words, Life, lifequotes, perseverance, perspective, Reality, success, Writing 5 Comments

Know Your Values to Succeed by @bethvogt   Success is serious business to a lot of people – to just about everyone. People spend a lot of time defining success. Redefining it. Pursuing it. Achieving it. Set your sights on any sort of goal – academic, athletic, creative – and the question pops up in some form or another: Are …

Uprooting Racism from Our Family Tree

Beth Vogtacceptance, Beth K. Vogt, challenges, change, choices, family, freedom, hope, Identity, In Others' Words, Life, Love, perspective, Quotes, Relationships, story 18 Comments

Choosing to Love Someone for Who They Are by @bethvogt Last October, my son Josh remarried. His wife is a beautiful young woman named Meagan. I remember months earlier when my husband and I talked with Josh about his relationship with Meagan – about how we knew he was falling in love with her and yes, her three children. We …

Who Do You Think You Are?

Beth Vogtacceptance, Beth K. Vogt, bravery, challenges, change, childhood, choices, confidence, courage, dreams, family, Identity, In Others' Words, Life, lifequotes, perspective, Quotes, sports, strength, success 8 Comments

Learning to Value Ourselves More by @bethvogt   I didn’t participate in school sports. Oh, sure, I played the required PE activities where you wait to get picked for a team, hoping you’re not last. And I remember the games of kickball and dodgeball during recess in elementary school – back when schools allowed kids to play dodgeball. Kicking a …

Who’s to Blame for Bullying?

Beth Vogtbullying, challenges, change, choices, family, forgiveness, freedom, hope, In Others' Words, Life, perspective, Quotes, Relationships, suffering 6 Comments

Reality, Forgiveness, and an Apology by @bethvogt Bullying is a hot topic these days. It gets talked about in schools and covered in the media. Experts discuss both cause and prevention – admitting that solutions to bullying are not simple.  About 1 in 3 U.S. students experience bullying. Yeah, that statistic bothers me … but I grieved when my daughter …

The Fallacy of Doing Our Best

Beth Vogtchallenges, confidence, expectations, goals, In Others' Words, Life, lifequotes, perseverance, perspective, Quotes, Reality, success 9 Comments

KLowering the Bar to Achieve More by @bethvogt Success, my friends, isn’t always about giving our best effort. Sometimes success is doing a little bit less. Can I get an “amen!”? Over the years, my family has learned to ask, “What’s the wise choice?” And sometimes the best, wisest choice is to stop trying so hard. There are times when …

Identifying Unclaimed Emotional Baggage

Beth Vogtchange, choices, courage, freedom, Identity, Life, perspective 18 Comments

Being Brave Enough to Deal with Our Stuff by @bethvogt Last weekend one of my closest friends texted me this question: When does all the baggage stop bubbling to the surface? Her question is a bit of a mixed metaphor, yes, but still it brought to mind a vivid image: a murky lake filled with suitcases bobbing to the the …

How Real Life Redefines Bravery

Beth Vogtbravery, courage, crisis, Life, perseverance 20 Comments

What Happens After a Crisis by @BethVogt “Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up.” ~Brené Brown, American research professor Can I just be honest and say life went off the rails last week? The past seven days have been all about trying to find some sense of calmness in the midst of recovering …

My Favorite Christmassy Things Giveaway

Beth VogtChristmas, Giveaway, Life 57 Comments

  One of the fun holiday traditions I’ve enjoyed in recent years is taking part in giveaways with author-friends. And so … welcome to the My Favorite Christmassy Things Giveaway, which was organized by my dear friend and fellow author Cathy West, who lives in Bermuda. My husband and I visited her family several years ago and it was one …

In Others’ Words: Learning to Live with Brokenness

Beth Vogtbrokenness, In Others' Words, Life, Quotes 10 Comments

Brokenness fascinates me. It seems the theme of brokenness intrigues a lot of people — a lot of writers, to be specific. Elisa Morgan wrote about it in her book The Beauty of Broken. Then there’s Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Henry T. Blackaby’s Brokenness: The Heart God Revives; Finding God’s Blessings in Brokenness  by Charles Stanley; and of course Ann Voskamp’s best-selling …