In Others’ Words: Planning and Planting for Shade in Years to Come

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, perspective, Quotes 11 Comments

How often do we think about how our actions today will affect someone else in the future? I can get so caught up in the here and now — crossing off all the things on my To Do list that I accomplished — that the future encompasses only a few days from now, and not much further. Oh, sure, I’m …

In Others’ Words: Crowding Out Trust

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, Quotes, trust 22 Comments

Last week didn’t go exactly as I planned. This week isn’t going exactly as I planned, either. My husband, 17-year-old daughter, Christa, and I traveled to Washington, DC last Friday so Christa could compete in a volleyball tournament with her club team. We started off the trip by showing up at the Denver airport — only to find out that …

In Others’ Words: Still Learning

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, perseverance, Quotes 6 Comments

Attitude changes things, doesn’t it? From our perspective in time, most likely we don’t consider Michelangelo a “learner.”  Being able to look at his works of art, to read about and marvel over his accomplishments, we call the man one of the greatest, most inspired artists of all time.  Michelangelo’s willingness to keep on learning could only help him be …

In Others’ Words: The Power of Doing Good

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, power, Quotes 9 Comments

  Power is often thought of as the ability to act or to do something. Adjust that idea a bit, and power becomes the ability to make others do what you want them to do. Power causes change … both good and bad. Power influences other … for both benevolent and evil people’s purposes. And, let’s be honest here: people …

girl standing on a beach at sunset

In Others’ Words: Where Have You Been?

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, perspective, Quotes 17 Comments

 Where has life taken you? That’s not a rhetorical question. I want to know: where has life taken you? What geographical locations have you seen? Cities. States. Provinces. Countries. What mountains have you climbed or skied? What lakes or oceans have you plunged into? Where have you sat and watched the sun rise or set? What place holds your heart …

In Others’ Words: Decide What It’s About

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, perspective, Quotes 9 Comments

  Perspective changes everything. As my husband and I wandered through a local park early one morning before my daughter’s day-long volleyball tournament, I paused in front of this wire bench. The surrounding trellises were mostly bare. What few leaves remained were brittle and brown. The landscape was awash in grays and browns. And it had its own certain beauty. …

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 …

In Others’ Words: Choosing to Live Inside Hope

Beth Vogthope, In Others' Words, Quotes 6 Comments

Do you know what you hope for? We talked about life themes on Tuesday and I think what we hope for is linked to our life theme. If, as I said in the post two days ago, my life theme is relationships, than I hope for healthy relationships. Loving relationships. Life-giving relationships. Obviously I’m talking about the capital “H”, capital …

In Others’ Words: Finding Your Theme

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, Life, perspective 6 Comments

  Mention “theme,” and most people are transported back to English class, when the teacher asked, “What is the theme of this book?” Some of us had fun with this question about the central idea in a novel or short story or poem or play, and some of us started counting the days until summer vacation. And then some of …

In Others’ Words: What’s Your Main Thing?

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, perspective, Quotes 5 Comments

I’ve attended hundreds of volleyball games since my youngest daughter started playing back in fifth grade. And I’ve also taken thousands of photographs.Yes, of my daughter, but of her teammates, too. The setters. The outside hitters. The liberos. The defensive specialists. The middle blockers. The right sides. One of my favorite photos? When the team huddles up. The girls do …