Confronting Our Doubts @BethVogt We all chase after dreams. During our childhood, the simplest of questions may spark a dream: What do you want to be when you grow up? Pause for a moment and let’s remember that oh-so-much-younger us. The one who didn’t hesitate to believe we could become a ballerina. Or an astronaut. Or a dolphin trainer. …
In Others’ Words: A Work in Progress
As I moved the graphic over into this blog post, two words stood out to me in the quote: in progress. “In progress” means motion. Forward motion. We’re moving toward something — a goal. A dream. There’s action happening. When I was deciding on the graphic to use for the quote, I skimmed through lots of photos of staircases and …
In Others’ Word: Don’t Jump — to Conclusions, That Is!
We all have different goals. Different dreams. Different opportunities. But no matter what we’re aiming for, we all hope to succeed. I’ve attended lots of writers conferences in years past. (Not lately. It’s been more about my daughter’s volleyball tournaments — and I’m okay with that.) When I’m with writers, we talk about the books we’re writing. The books we …
In Others’ Words: Seeing the Invisible
Growing up can limit our vision. When we’re young, we imagine just about anything is possible. And what is imagination but seeing with our mind’s eye? We see the faraway lands in fairy tales … we envision all sorts of creatures and quests … and yes, we even see how our lives would be different, given the chance. But then …
In Others’ Words: Time Requirement
Each of us is striving toward a different goal, but whatever we want to accomplish requires the same thing: skill, and effort, and time. Sometimes, more than anything else, the time required to reach our goals trips us up. We feel good about ourselves when we’re learning a skill. We feel good about effort of any kind. Pursuing a …
In Others’ Words: Someone to Inspire You
To be honest, I tripped over the first few words of this quote by Emerson before I embraced the rest of the truth. While I agree with him that we all want to be inspired to be who we can be, I’m not so certain that’s our “chief want.” I want a lot of things. I need a lot of …
In Others’ Words: Contented with Little
I’ve come across the same Scripture verse again and again in recent days: “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin …” Zephaniah 4:10 NLT As a matter of fact, I ran into the words so many times, I made a graphic of it: I pay attention when God repeats Himself. I’m in …
In Others’ Words: Diamonds in the Rough
Sometimes we overlook things of value. We may hold the roughest of diamonds in our hands and, not seeing its worth, toss it to the ground like pebble. Diamonds in the rough come in all forms. They can be: a person we meet who causes us grief or who we don’t understand or particularly like. an experience that we’re forced …
In Others’ Words: Taking the Time
To everything there is a season, right? But how many of us consider “now” the perfect season? We don’t want to wait. We want what we want right this minute because, of course, “now” is the best time, the right time, to have it. And yet, rushing things often ruins things. Let’s be honest: rushing things often ruins us. Can …
In Others’ Words: Go Ahead, Astound Yourself!
Right before school started for my daughter CJ, we spent the weekend in Breckenridge. It just so happened our time there coincided with the inaugural Colorado Classic bike race. My husband, daughter, and I stood with hundreds of other spectators lining the streets and watched cyclists speed downhill through the town. I was astounded by the display of professional cycling. …