Being The Best At What You Are

By Pat

During a recent morning devotion, I was instructed to read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. After I read it, I realized with glee that through the years I have indeed done some spiritual growing! I no longer strive to be the "head," nor do I fret when I realize I may always be a toe or a finger. I have stopped trying to be something I am not. I am content to be whatever part of Christ's body God created me to be, and I am not intimidated by or envious of those the world might consider more important in the Kingdom. If God wants me to be a toe, I am going to be the best toe I can be! And if at some point God decides to make me a hand, or a mouth, I will strive to bring Him glory and to be the very best I can. I have learned that in trying to be something I'm not, I can't function properly and do God's work competently. And I thank God for this!

Pat is a good friend who is passionate about her faith and her family. She works from home supporting a family business, and loves to read, write and garden when she can, and spends every spare moment with her grandkids.

YOB: #8. Go To Ireland (Part 1)

By Lara

After consulting my list, I see that I only have two more completed items from the Year of the Birthday list to write about. This is a big one, though. Ireland. Prepare yourself for a "too be continued" situation. Seriously. This is a long story.

Beth and I were supposed to go on a tour of the whole country of Ireland last summer. Due to lack of participation, the tour was cancelled. We decided to make our own plans to stay in Dublin over the Thanksgiving long weekend. We spent a lot of time researching the least expensive means of getting to and staying in Dublin. We made reservations.

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One Word At A Time: Emptiness

By MAD21

This time of year brings mixed emotions for me. I love the warmer weather and as I wrote about on Friday, all the fresh fruits and veggies. I love all the time I get to have with my kids and family and the fun things we get to do together. But underneath the joy I feel this time of year, there is also an emptiness. A deep sadness that lingers like the residue in a cool glass of tea. It's not bad enough to ruin the day, but you know it's there.

My dad and I were fairly close all my life. Like my oldest is my "mini-me," I was my dad's. We had a lot in common. We both loved cars, traveling, people watching and a good hard days work. I looked just like him and his family. In fact, if you compare my baby pictures to my aunt's (his sister), you can barely tell any difference. Aside from the age of the picture itself giving it away, you would think it was the same child.

Growing up, summer time always meant a trip to visit my dad's family. They lived in a town a long five hours away from us. But it was worth the drive because I loved my aunt and her family. We had a bond that miles couldn't break. I have so many memories as a child going camping with my parents and my aunt and uncle. Going fishing on my uncle's boat and being the only one that ever caught anything. My aunt wearing jeans, sneakers, and my uncle's shirts and cooking something over the fire (and telling my dad what to do!).

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The Pros of Social Networking as a Ministry Tool (Part 2)

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

As I mentioned in my last article I would like to use this opportunity to explore the positive aspects of using various social mediums as a ministry tool. As I discussed before there are quite a few of us Compassion advocates that use Facebook and Twitter in our ministry. Child packets are posted on sites that are available for sponsorship. Prayer requests are "twittered, posted and shared." It is really amazing how fast things can go viral on the web with social networking. Compassion itself has a blog, a twitter account. and a Facebook account. Things get posted and shared constantly. The question exists though, just how successful is using these mediums as a ministry tool?  Since this is a fairly new area I think it will be a few years until we can really determine the answer. I know that on a local level it has proven to be beneficial. My wife took a child packet and ran it for several days on her Facebook feed. One of our friends from out west saw the packet and told a friend in San Diego. Within a week that child was sponsored by someone we never would have connected with except through social networking. Many advocates have done the same with great success.

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Life Is Funny: Plight Of The Mommies

By MAD21

I hope everyone is enjoying Memorial Day weekend. My friend Sarah sent this video to me last week and I nearly fell off my chair laughing. I have seen several videos of people making up their own words to this song, but never this one. I nearly fell off of my chair I was laughing so hard. I thought I would share it with you. Thanks Sarah for sending it to me! It made my week.

Mommy Rhapsody from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

 My friend and fellow blogger Wendy at Weight..What? has a fun carnival at her blog called "Life is Funny." Every Monday we talk about something in life that we find funny. Be sure to go visit her blog to read her post along with links to other blogs who are participating.