Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Ann Wilkinson

“I’m happy to give you a little life lesson the value of learning a craft.  Because it’s not all about the craft.  It’s about the love that goes with it.  You see, here’s the real secret.” 

As a kid I imagined myself as the crafty type, the arty type.  Nothing could have been further from the truth.  My mom tried to teach me to knit, and I just got grumpy and created a schizoid series of knots before I gave up.  Even winding a ball of yarn was an exercise in frustration.  So when, as an established adult, I announced that I wanted to learn to knit, everyone in my family was very surprised. Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Blake Cothron

This time of year is seen as a time for new beginnings, a fresh start.  It’s seen often as a time to wipe clean the slate of last year’s stuff and start anew.  Personally, I don’t get wrapped up in any festivities or making New Year’s resolutions.  I think they’re mostly short-lived and overly hyped. 

How often have any of us really kept any resolution in the long-term?  Instead, let’s embrace change in our lives, letting go of the realities that aren’t in harmony.

Go Beyond the Hype

I know it’s happened to most of us.  The New Year comes along and we join in the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions.  It’s commercialized by … Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Stefanie Johnson

Imagine this:  Your New Year’s resolution is to lose a substantial amount of weight.  Every day for six months, you doggedly push yourself out of bed two frosty hours before sunrise, don a jogging suit and run miles to the gym, where you spend an hour on a treadmill and lift weights until your muscles and joints scream in agony. You run home again, shower, and then head off to work, fresh as a daisy, whistling a jaunty little tune.

It’s a beautiful dream but here’s the reality:  You try your intense pre-dawn exercise regimen for a couple of days. You lose steam when you don’t get the immediate results you were hoping for, and feel utterly exhausted from all your hard work.  During one of your sessions, you push too hard and up injuring yourself. Then you give up.  You tell yourself it “hurts too much,” “it’s no fun,” and “it’s not worth it.”  You say “some people just aren’t meant to be fit.”  You get depressed at your inability to follow through with your goals, and end up gaining even more weight.

This is a vicious, self-destructive cycle, and its time to break free from it! Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Blake Cothron

The Western world is now beginning to embrace the concept of “going green” and becoming more environmentally aware and responsible.  With 2009 upon us, we can do something new for the Earth and help reduce our own footprints on the Earth’s resources and ecosystems.  We can make this a New Green Year.

It can seem like there’s so much to catch up on.  Organic food, holistic medicine, natural fibers, hybrid vehicles; there’s so much to learn about it can seem like too much.  As with most major trends it’s easy to get swept up in the current of hype and lose touch with the essence of the movement (see footnote for more information).

What I will say first is a common theme in much of my advice - avoid the hype.  As businesses realize there’s money to be saved by “going green,” they also realize there’s as much or more money to be made by selling the green movement. Read More »

Article by Dr. Les Hollon, Pastor, St. Matthews Baptist Church

These relationships form the inner core of our lives. We hunger to love and be loved, but how do we live in right relationship with each other?  By listening and connecting…

LISTENING:

God’s love, which transforms our lives inside out, is the source for us to live in right relationship with family, friends & acquaintances. How?  Christ shows us by His love for us and by our first-hand experience we can love each other with Christ-likeness.  With love we listen, and when we really listen to God’s love …

Our Minds are changed when we think about others being a person of worth—not an object, a means to an end;

Our Hearts are changed when what we value becomes motivated by a passion for God’s best;

Our Bodies are changed when our mind, spirit, & heart can be centered in the body as a temple created by God and not just seen as a mass of muscle, tissue, blood, bones, chemical reactions;

Our Spirits are changed when the spark of our identity, which is created in God’s image, knows salvation and ripples out to every area of our life.

CONNECTING:

God’s love enables us to:

1. Relate in love, “Perfect love casts out fear.”

2. Work Together to bring about God’s best.

3. Focus through love to work out differences and not be distracted by grudges, envy, jealousy, pridefulness, blaming, and “my way or no way” attitude

3. Speak respectfully while working through differences among ourselves.

4. Responsibly deal with our “own issues” so we can be helpful and not a hindrance.

5. Seek to understand each other by connecting with each other spiritually, emotionally, and mentally.

6. Trust each other and seek forgiveness when trust is bruised.

7. Lead with integrity by being trustworthy.

8. Model cohesiveness as sisters & brothers in Christ.

9. Stimulate each other to grow personally and as family & friends.

10. Enjoy each other with smiles & hugs to pass on the peace.

Let’s live out our salvation by how we love one another.

Pastor Les Hollon

“Sometimes it seems like God is difficult to find and impossibly far away.  We get so caught up in our small daily duties and irritations that they become the only things that we can focus on. What we forget is that God’s love and beauty are all around us, every day, if only we would take the time to look up and see them.”

-Matthias

This article was written by Les Hollon, Pastor of St. Matthews Baptist Church.  For more information about forming right relationships with family, friends and acquaintances, St. Matthews Baptist Church, or to contact Dr. Hollon, click over to St. Matthews Baptist Church.

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