In Others’ Words: Life Anchors

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, perspective, Quotes 6 Comments

  “You have to be careful what you anchor your emotions to.” I was talking to a friend  a few weeks ago when those words came out of my mouth. She looked at me and said, “That’s a blog post!” And I’ve been mulling what I said ever since then — about how I need to be careful what I …

In Others’ Words: The Power of Sister Relationships (and GIVEAWAY)

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, Quotes, sisters 53 Comments

  There’s so much I could say … so much I want to say in today’s blog post. And yet I weigh my words. Mindful of my word count. Mindful of so much more. My debut women’s fiction novel, Things I Never Told You, releases today. It’s a Little Women gone wrong story about the Thatcher sisters: Johanna, Jillian, and …

In Others’ Words: Don’t Change the World

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, perspective, Quotes 8 Comments

  We’re told to dream big. To push harder. Aim higher. Reach for the stars. To be somebody  . . . oh, sure, be you … but make certain you are this a-ma-zing, people-are-gonna-stand-up-and-notice-you version of you. Change the world. Or don’t. Or maybe it’s a matter of redefining the word “world.” There’s a great big world out there — …

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: Making Changes

Beth Vogtchange, In Others' Words, Quotes 9 Comments

  Some quotes you just can’t argue with.  I could leave it at that and this would be a very short blog post, wouldn’t it? Yep. Feeling a bit sassy today. Expounding on the whole “making changes” theme: People in my life can influence me so that I see the need to change. People can inspire me by the changes …

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: 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 …