In Others’ Words: My One Word for 2018

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, One Word, Scripture 13 Comments

  Let’s talk about choosing One Word for the coming year.    2018 is just over a month away, but if you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, then you know that I gave up New Year’s resolutions over a decade ago. Why? All those good intentions — the “I wills” and the “I won’ts” — faded so quickly, and …

In Others’ Words: Love or Understanding

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, Love, Quotes 7 Comments

If I’m reading George Orwell’s words correctly, he seemed to believe that love and understanding are exclusive of one another.  And yet, I find that the people who love me the best are also the very ones who take the time to understand me … the real me. Or is it that the ones who understand me the best are  …

In Others’ Words: How Stories Conquer Fear

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, Quotes, story 4 Comments

So … the robot. I came upon him while walking with my husband and youngest daughter during a a foggy day in Carlsbad, California last summer. Some ingenious artist painted him on the side of a building. And yes, this painting told a story. You can come upon stories in the most unlikely places. We expect them within the covers …

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 …

In Others’ Words: Looking for the Good Stuff

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, perspective, Quotes 7 Comments

What are you looking for today? Me? I’m looking for the good stuff. The good people. The good actions. The good interactions. Kindness. Patience. Smiles. Acts of grace. Laughter.   That kind of good stuff. And then I’m going to praise that goodness. I’m going to say “thank you” out loud. I’m going to smile back. I’m going to hug …

In Others’ Words: The Power of Kind Words

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, Quotes, Relationships 6 Comments

  These days, my thoughts turn more and more to the need for kindness. Kind actions. Kind words.  It is all too easy these days to judge another person harshly — to judge an entire group of people harshly. (And no, this is not a political post. Not going there.) I blogged a month ago about how I don’t want …

In Others’ Words: The Everything of Family

Beth Vogtfamily, In Others' Words, Quotes 4 Comments

There’s nothing quite like family rallying together in a crisis. Yesterday, my family rallied round my almost 99-year-old mother-in-law after she fell in her bathroom and ended up being taken to the emergency room via ambulance — she said the trip wasn’t bad — and then spent the day getting x-rayed and scanned. But they also rallied around one another …

In Others’ Words: The Essence of Love

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, Love, Quotes 15 Comments

Kindness is such a beautiful expression of love. A kind word. A kind action. Kindness negates self-centeredness because we’re considering someone else’s needs before our own.  Sometimes it’s easier to be kind to a stranger than it is to be kind to a family member or friend. We let someone go ahead of us in the grocery line. Or we …

In Others’ Words: The Anger Remedy

Beth Vogtchoices, In Others' Words, Quotes 15 Comments

  The other night I decided to enter into a controversial debate . . . a conversation on Facebook, something I just don’t do. I wrote out my comment, editing it here and there, and then read it out loud to my husband Rob and my sixteen-year-old daughter, CJ. Here’s how the conversation went afterward: CJ: Can I say something? …

In Others’ Words: Surrounded by Story

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, Quotes, story 20 Comments

More and more, I have come to love story.  My life story — and other people’s life stories, too. To be honest, there are times I see someone and, at first, I’m closed to their story. Maybe they seem a little too different from me … and I’m put off. But I’ve learned to say to myself, “This person is …