Just before our first anniversary, Mark and I bought our first house. We were on a very tight budget for the housing market, so we bought a small fixer-upper that we fell in love with. Our little 800 square foot house didn’t even have a dishwasher or adequate heat. It did have an old fireplace and a winter’s supply of wood. That first winter I got very good at keeping the fire going so my cottage would stay toasty warm.

For those of you with fireplaces, you know the mess that spreads quickly from ashes and soot. I was new at homemaking and anxious to keep everything clean and neat. One day I drug my vaccuum out to conquer my pile of soot that had accumulated around and in the fireplace.

When I was about half way done with my small task, the vaccuum inhaled a coal that was still smoldering. I saw it go in, but didn’t realize it was still hot enough to cause a problem. All of a sudden, my vaccuum started pouring smoke as the bag inside lit on fire and the dirt ignited with it. I rushed around squealing and eventually threw the vaccuum outside and hoped that the rain keep my stupidity at bay. Try explaining that you lit your vaccuum on fire to your new husband…

I’m telling you that story because I think that we all need a smoldering ember in our bellies. We need to inhale the dreams of God for our lives and let them ignite us with passion and enthusiasm. We need to step out in faith until we don’t know what else to do except to rush around squealing.

I’m dreaming. I’m praying. I’m asking God to blow His sweet breath on the hot coals once again. And I encourage you to do the same. Even if that means you’ll have a whole lot of explaining to do when other people find out. Life is a fun adventure. Be such an amazing fire that others stop to watch you burn!

Our Superintendent of our Ministry Network, Les Welk, recently twittered, “If there is evidence of persistent conflict and problems that arise and surround a particular person, consider the common denominator.”

I think this is a valuable lesson for our lives. If you are constantly mad at people and have unresolved conflict often in your life, the problem might actually be…YOU! The Bible says in Romans 12:18 – If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

That’s our goal as Christians. Drama, conflict, and unforgiveness is inevitable, but needs to be dealt with quickly with the agenda of irradicating it out of our lives. It’s the hardest thing to do, but sometimes you just have to “anty up” and have the difficult conversations as quickly as you can. Otherwise you can look around and all of a sudden have a heart full of unresolved JUNK!

If that’s you…it’s time to clean house. Deal with your issues and when you put your head on the pillow at night, you’ll be able to rest in the peace of God. Good luck!

I’m a broken record, but I just gotta say it…Sunday was great!

Here’s my highlights:

Mike was teaching the Great Adventure today and the computer shut down. One of the students, Adam, got up and taught the class the memory verse. He knew it because he was in the first service and learned it there. What a great kid and leader! Way to go!

My in-laws are back! They were gone for three Sundays and I missed them being at church.

Our church drank 124 cups of drip coffee today. Not to mention lattes and other drinks that people bought. Amazing how many coffee addicts you get when you call your church the Coffee Church.

I talked to a teenager today who wants to be a writer when he grows up, but he flunked english…ironically, that probably means he’ll be a great writer…

We had our first missions meeting tonight. What a monumental moment that was for me! I am very excited for our church as a whole to get behind impacting the world in this way. I know that there are many great adventures ahead for the people of North Creek.

Mark’s sermon was awesome! We’re in a parenting series and I think it’s going to be really good for a lot of people in our church and beyond. It’s a big task and we all need to be in this together.

Don’t tell anybody, but Mark and my heart is stirring for the next step for North Creek. We are praying, dreaming, scheming, and will set into motion a new season for our church. Why sit on your laurels? There are great things for those who step out in faith.

I was getting ready this morning and heard signing downstairs. A sweet 5 year old voice belted out in a worship song, “Beautiful one, I love…Beautiful one, I adore…” It was one of those moments that stops me in my tracks and makes me so thankful for having Jesus at the center of our home.

There is no such thing as the perfect family or perfect parents, and our family is no exception. That being said, what we are trying to do more than anything for our girls is to model for them worship, reading the Bible, faithfully going to church, serving others, and allowing them, even at this young age, to make our faith their own.

Challenges in their lives will come and we won’t be able to stop most of them. However, if we can give them the foundation and the tools to jump those hurdles, we will have succeeded. Loving the Word of God and having a heart of worship are the two most important resources we can pass along to their young hearts.

The next several weeks at North Creek we’ll be taking some time to talk about Parenting. It’s going to be pivotal for some families. I encourage you to be a part of this series, even if you don’t have kids yet or yours are all grown. Many hands go into molding our kids and we all need to be trained in shaping the heart of the next generation.

This is an article written by Jon Gordon, a life strategist. I enjoyed it because I think my generation is guilty of thinking that we can get everything handed to us. The reality is that hard work is still the predecessor to greatness. I hope that you enjoy this interview/article!

Jon Gordon interviewed Jamie Eckle for Computer World about the benefits of Hard Work.

The Benefits of Hard Work

Q&A: with Jon Gordon

The author of Training Camp: What the Best Do Better Than Everyone Else says the secret to success might be as simple as hard work.

Q: I’ve read a lot of prescriptions for success, but these days you don’t hear much about hard work. It’s certainly a factor, but is it really the preeminent qualification for success?

A:I really believe it is. Innovation doesn’t happen without hard work. Producing a great product or service doesn’t happen without hard work. Real leadership happens in the trenches, not on the golf course. Software doesn’t get produced without thousands of hours of hard work. Of course, you have to be smart, you have to have the right strategy, you have to have a great culture. But hard work is what translates vision and ideas into results. Study the best of the best and you’ll find that they really do work harder than everyone else.

Q: A lot of people think hard work goes unnoticed, and that it just makes you a drudge. How do you make sure your boss sees the extra stuff you do?

A: I have found that when you work hard, people notice. Maybe not right away, but eventually people notice, and rewards happen without you pushing for them. They naturally come your way.

The key is to do your best every day and strive for excellence in all that you do. If you are working hard and looking for the reward, this usually creates a neediness that stops others from rewarding you. Rewards come to those who are humble and hungry — humble in that you are striving to learn, grow and improve every day, and hungry with a passion to be your best and bring out the best in others.

When you make excellence your focus, success and rewards are just a nice byproduct. The reward is in the work, not in the outcome.

Q: What about the advice to work smarter, not harder?

A: You definitely need to work smarter, too. But work smarter and harder. They go together. It’s true that by working smarter and being more productive with your time, you may not have to work as hard to enjoy your current level of success. But if you want to be more successful or rise to the top of your field, then “smarter, not harder” won’t do. Those who adopt the motto of working smarter, not harder, will eventually be left in the dust by the competition. The best are always striving to get better. They are always pushing themselves beyond their comfort zone. They are always innovating and improving.