The world needs more kindness. The live-action Cinderella movie had the inspiring theme, “Have Courage and Be Kind”. That message struck me as profoundly important, and I pondered for a long while about what it meant to be kind. The first question I asked myself was if there was a difference between being nice and being kind. I believe that there is absolutely a difference between the two. An easy way to understand what it means to be kind is to think of the kindest person yo

Do you struggle to find hope in the world around you? Take a moment and ask yourself these next few questions: What is your reason for getting out of bed each day? Why do you go to work? What are you working toward? Where would you like to see yourself in 5-10 years? If you struggled to answer any of these questions, then you could probably use some help strengthening your belief. We go to work so we can pay our bills and or provide for our families, but why? Maybe we're look

“You are here to do something important.” This whisper has gone through our minds and hearts, teasing us amidst the doldrums of work, life, and the busy days and nights we often face. The whisper may come while reading about others, in quiet moments of reflection, or at random or unexpected times. Yet, no matter how many times we let the thought pass without further action, it seems to come back, weaving its whisper into varied thoughts and feelings we experience.   We believ

Did you know there are 273,000 headwords in the Oxford Dictionary; 171,476 of them being in current use, 47,156 being obsolete words, and around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries? This brings to question, what words are we using? Is there power in words? Let’s explore this thought. As a child, I remember hearing, “If you can’t say something nice then don’t say anything at all.” The other one I grew up with was, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will

Becky was given an opportunity to go with a youth group to hike and camp for several days. She was not excited about it and had early on decided she was not going to go. Many of her family members and friends encouraged her to go; expressing their love, support, and even their need for her to be there. She was grateful to hear that people liked her and wanted her to come, but she expressed that nothing was going to change her mind.   As the day of the trip drew closer, her de