“Standing on Truth” Needs Your Help!

As I celebrated one year of “Standing on Truth” at the beginning of this year, I started to think about the goals I had when I started out.  As a writer, I wanted to be “held accountable” to not only write frequently, but also for the quality of work I published.  I wanted this to be a witness to the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that others who may not know Him, or know Him well, might find this blog to be loving, refreshing, encouraging, and different, so they would be drawn to the Savior.  I also wanted to express in words the things that I am passionate about and have those words connect with people.  As another year has begun for “Standing on Truth,” I want to ask for your advice.  There is a part of me that is wondering whether I’ve spread myself too thin over too many topics–all topics I am full of things to say about, but maybe topics that are not resonating with readers as much as others.

So I need your help.  As faithful readers of this blog, would you help me to know whether I need to narrow my focus by voting in this poll below?  And would you ask friends that frequent this blog or other blogs to vote as well.  And as always, feel free to email me your thoughts.  Thank  you for your support!

Great Online Finds

If you are looking for a great birthday, Easter, or Mother’s Day gift for someone, or just that extra special design touch for your home or office, I urge you to check out a new artist whose talent is inspiring and product is unique.  Chutney Blake Designs produces original, hand-painted ceramic gifts including frames, coasters, and flower pots, which can be purchased as shown or custom ordered to suit your special tastes and needs.  Here are just a few of the items Chutney Blakes Designs offers:

  

Chutney Blake Designs is undoubtedly a great online find!  Visit them today at http://www.etsy.com/shop/chutneyblakedesigns.

Another website I’ve come across recently is Bookschristian.com.

 

So you want to search for a book or CD, but you want to know that the results are limited to Christian books and music that you can trust.  Bookschristian.com boasts of low prices and a huge selection, and they even have a “Best Price Guarantee” for new books that you might compare to other online retailer competitors. 

Check out some of these bestselling Christian titles:

If you are a book lover and collector like me, take a stroll through Bookschristian.com today!

I Created a Bucket List

The Urban Dictionary defines “bucket list” as “a list of things to do before you die; comes from the term ‘kicked the bucket’.”  A movie by the same name came out in 2007 starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.  I never saw it, but the idea has intrigued me.

I just made my bucket list.

My list is still being formed, but to date, I have 65 things that I’d like to do before I die. . .Among them:

Take a cross-country road trip and journal it all

Read all 100 books on my Reading List (which actually turned out to be 160 books once I got to writing it)

Get a book published

Start a non-profit ministry

Live by the ocean

Learn to play the piano

Swim with dolphins

Learn to watercolor

I also made a separate list of “100 Bible Verses to Memorize” and included that on my bucket list.  Some of my favorites, for those looking for encouragement today, are:

“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3)

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:23,24).

“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast” (Hebrews 6:19).

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:18-21).

A website that I found very helpful in forming my list was http://www.squidoo.com/100things.  It really helps by covering a wide range of topics to get you thinking about the adventures, goals, and accomplishments you might want to add to your list. 

And if reading is a passion of yours too, well then this website will help you to formulate a must-read list as well. 

http://www.listsofbests.com/list/11632

And if Christian classics are important to you, check out these lists:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/april24/5.92.html

http://unashamedworkman.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/100-recommended-reads/

No matter what your age or your interests, I encourage you write a bucket list in some form.  I found it to motivate me, encourage me, focus me, and embolden me.  I hope it does the same for you.

Fellow Writers, Can You Relate?

You paralyze my hand at its fingertips.

You flood my mind with thoughts

of wandering far.

You tell me to reject the expressiveness

and creativity that knocks on my door.

You pull the paper from me

causing ink to leave its laughter

in a dwindling dose of intensity.

You compose your mockery

from my lack of composition

and torment me through

to the very core that craves your death.

Be far from me, for you are

poison to my pen

and a parasite in my mind!

Oh, Writer’s Block.

You Know You’re on Vacation When. . .

1.  You wake up to this every morning. . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. You get sunburned from a 30-minute ride in a convertible!

3.  You try to use your cell phone by the ocean and it says “Out of area.”

4.  You keep asking yourself, as Jesus’ disciples did, “Who is this man?  Even the winds and waves obey him!” (Matthew 8:27)

5.  The sand from your hair sprinkles in your refreshing iced tea. . .and you don’t care!

6.  “O Lord, what a variety of things you have made!  In wisdom you have made them all.  The earth is full of your creatures.  Here is the ocean, vast and wide, teeming with life of every kind, both large and small” (Psalm 104:24-25).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.  You’ll stand in line for an hour at Disneyland to be submerged in a submarine with other vacationers (much like sardines in a can) only to see a recreation of the “Finding Nemo” movie, watched more comfortably from the couch!

8.  Your son gets a kick out of making footprints on the sidewalk from the morning dew. . .and you find so much joy watching him.

And You Know This Vacation is in California When. . .

9.  Liberal bumper stickers, serious bikers, and sun-bleached blonde surfers surround you.

10.  The toilets and light bulbs are eco-friendly and you pass war protesters on the walk to the beach.

Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Spring Break!